Tuesday, 7 July 2015

How To Find The Right Executive Coach For You

By Edna Booker


Finding a mentor can be a difficult task if you do not know how to tell apart someone who will be a good mentor from someone who will not make a great mentor. A good mentor will add a lot of value to your life, while a bad mentor will end up wasting your time. To increase your chances of finding the right executive coach, there are some things you should be on the lookout for.

Always investigate the person you are considering to choose as a mentor. Your investigation will reveal various things about their life. Such details are important due to the nature of relationship you will have with the person. For instance, it is more advisable to find someone who is familiar with the line of work you are in and whose philosophy in life is similar to yours.

You must rapport well with the person you select. You can tell this from the initial interview you have with them. If you don't connect, then your relationship may not work out quite well. However, don't go on the other extreme and try to find someone you can be friends for life with. Keep in mind that you want to find a person who you can have a respectable and professional relationship with.

Go for someone who is a good listener. They should give you time to express yourself. Avoid someone who cuts in while you are still speaking or they jump to conclusions too quickly. In addition, they should not try and solve your problems by telling you what to do or try to force their decisions on you. They should keep any information shared between the two of you confidential.

Availability is quite an important aspect. Your mentor should make time to meet with you occasionally. This means that your schedules should complement each other so that you can have time to interact. You can organize for face to face interactions or you can use other methods to communicate, if it is not possible to physically meet. You can be mentored for a few months or you may choose to prolong your relationship to a year or more.

It may be necessary for your mentor to submit a report of how you are fairing on to your boss. This requires that the mentor have a method of evaluating you. There are some tools which they can employ to enable them assess you better. However, the main way they should assess you is through their interaction with you.

A self-assured person who has direction in life will make for a good mentor. They will be able to give you the guidance you need and they will not hesitate to challenge your decisions when they feel that you are not doing your best. An achiever and someone who has done quite well for themselves will inspire you to do your best and achieve more than you possibly thought you could.

A mentor who has some level of mentoring experience is better paced to help you. Find out if they have successfully coached other people before. Also, consider someone who has undertaken some kind of training program in coaching. They will have better coaching skills and will be better placed to help you than someone who has not been trained.




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