Some people refer to me as an executive performance coach. I have also been called a fractional operating executive. Other people call me an operational excellence coach. Regardless of what my clients call me; they all expect me to work with their local leadership teams at a predetermined site to achieve a specific performance outcome. To achieve their outcomes requires functional and relational process transformations that impact the methods and outcomes they expect. The targets are always set by the executive sponsors.
The scope includes everything that a leader might do. Whatever the reason, my clients recognize they need assistance, and they assign the tasks to me. I span multiple levels of the organization, but it is always pointed at the strategic imperatives established by the executive sponsor. From COO to Director of Operational Excellence, from a Plant Manager or any other role that needs guidance, my clients know they can rely on me to fill the gap while they are seeking to reach the performance they are expecting.
Executive Performance Coach
Developing New Capability
If an executive wants to implement a new process or business approach and a critical skill set is missing, there is greater risk to success. It may be a missing leadership skill or a new product for which the market is clamoring. Bringing an executive performance coach on board to expedite that transformation is a great benefit in the absence of the necessary experience or skill.
Uncovering Additional Capacity
Occasionally, an executive needs a trusted partner to step in when time is not available. You need someone in your corner with deep expertise and an alignment to your values and abilities. An executive performance coach with the ability to step in quickly and appropriately is a secret weapon no executive should be without.
A Coach in Your Corner
Sometimes, you need an outlet; a place to explore your thinking and a sounding board with no internal conflicts or positional competition. Someone you can send into the organization to assess and influence your team in your absence. Someone with a leadership presence that reflects your own. Again, an executive performance coach is just the resource you have been looking for.
Get It All
An executive performance coach worth his or her salt will offer you all of this and more. Do you need to address a problem in the organization? Need to explore a new strategy or vision? Does your team need to address a leadership gap? Need a coach to vent or think with? Your executive performance coach should offer you all of this, no matter what you need. If you’re not getting this, you need to find a new partner.
I’ve heard about this executive coaching stuff. Take me back.
