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What is Executive Coaching and How does it Build Confidence?

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“Executive coaches can help to prepare you so that you are confident, authoritative and make the best impact”

What is Executive Coaching and How does it Build Confidence?

Executive coaching offers high-level training for individuals in leadership positions or who aspire to leadership in their future career. It offers goal-oriented and specific training which helps to equip executives with advanced communication skills, building confidence and improving their presence and authority as a leader.

Who can benefit from Executive Coaching?

Targeted executive coaching can benefit leaders and executives at any stage of their career.

Leaders who have been in their role for some time can benefit from discussing goals with an experienced executive coach, who will be able to offer objective advice about areas for growth and improvement.

This is particularly useful for leaders who have had very successful careers so far and would like to know in which areas they could improve further – something which can be difficult to identify when things are going well.

This type of coaching is also beneficial if you are preparing for an important meeting, or presentation. Skilled coaches can support you in crafting your message so that it is engaging and persuasive. If you need to present in front of a larger crowd than you have done previously, executive coaches can help to prepare you so that you are confident, authoritative and make the best impact.

If you have a one-off event that you need to prepare for, such as a conference or an important bid preparation, executive coaching can help you to structure your ideas so that they are clear and compelling, with targeted action points.

Executive coaching is also useful for employees who show great leadership potential and wish to hone their executive skills in order to accelerate their career.

One-to-one coaching can help to increase confidence and identify goals to help you achieve your career potential.

What does Executive Coaching involve?

This type of coaching usually involves a number of personalised 1-2-1 sessions, which will give you an opportunity to discuss your goals with your trainer. While the number of sessions will vary depending on the individual, most people opt for 2-4 coaching sessions.

If you are looking for specific advice for a one-off event, you may only need one coaching session.

During each session, your coach will provide you with the opportunity to discuss your aims and goals in confidence, including any challenges you may face.

They will then work with you on specific areas to help you to increase your confidence and competence. This may include:

Helping you develop your executive presence

Executive presence is a catch-all term used to describe characteristics which effective leaders possess. Leading with strong presence will allow you to develop productive, loyal teams and have deeper and more meaningful conversations.

Improving your executive presence will help you to better engage audiences, including overcoming challenges and objections to gain positive results.

Your coach will work with you to develop this much sought-after skill by helping you to establish your credibility, increase your ability to inspire a team, remain calm and composed in stressful situations and empower others to succeed.

Storytelling and persuasive writing

Having good storytelling skills will help you in your role as a leader. You’ll be able to make data and information come to life in ways that are engaging and impactful. Furthermore, you’ll be able to tailor the right story for the right audience, which will give you much better results.

By improving your storytelling skills, you can learn how to create persuasive narratives for any situation, which will help to increase your influence both internally in the workplace and externally with clients, customers or stakeholders.

Working with an executive coach on storytelling can also help you to give you more clarity about the purpose of your speeches, meetings or presentations and to identify focused action points, which will make your interactions more successful.

Objection handling

As a leader, you will be expected to manage difficult situations in the workplace. There are a number of clear benefits to being able to do this well: it stops situations from escalating, it improves wellbeing within the workplace and it encourages better conversations, as well as improves your own managerial reputation.

An executive communication coach can work with you to teach you effective objection handling theories and techniques and practise these with you in role-play scenarios based on situations that you identify as being tricky or difficult. This will give you confidence and the ability to handle even the trickiest of situations.

Taking to the stage

Anyone presenting on a big stage needs to exude authority and gravitas to make people listen to them and act upon their messages.

Working with a communication coach, you can learn the key skills of body language which will not only help you appear more confident when speaking in front of a large audience, but you will also be taught mindset techniques that can help to calm any nerves or that inner voice which is casting doubt upon your ability.

A coach can also give you tailored advice on slide design, so that you can be sure that your presentations are engaging, audience-focussed and easy to follow.

How does Executive Coaching Build confidence?

Most people will suffer from a lack of confidence at some point in their career. Common situations in which people often feel nervous or anxious include speaking on stage, giving presentations and leading important meetings and discussions.

There are many ways to overcome a lack of confidence and to really allow yourself to thrive and perform at your best. A communication coach can work with you to help you gain a better sense of self-awareness through evaluating your strengths and weaknesses and identifying clear goals.

Working together, you will be able to self reflect in a more objective manner, which will help you realise your real strengths, giving you a confidence boost that can help you achieve your goals.

Also, a communication coach can give you tips and tricks such as presentation structuring, body language coaching and objection handling which will give you more control during your meetings, which will also help you to feel more confident. You can also learn ways to be more assertive when you are communicating.

Can executive coaching support other areas of business?

The skills which you will hone through executive coaching can benefit you in other areas of life outside of the workplace.

People who have gone through executive coaching typically have better social skills through improved listening ability and empathy. Improved self-confidence will benefit all areas of your life, whilst increased motivation can help you to take on any goals that you set for yourself in your personal life.

Get in touch

If you’d like to find out more about how you or members of your team can benefit from Executive Coaching sessions, tailored specifically to your needs, get in touch with us today.