If you feel you have a knack for bringing out the best in people, have you ever considered helping others pursue their goals professionally? It sounds like a bit of a dream job, but when others put their lives and their personal and business fortunes in your hands, it’s actually a big responsibility. Your friends coming to you for advice from time to time are one thing. CEOs of major corporations and newly-minted managers at small companies, coming to you to help hone their leadership skills are quite another thing.
Being a native English speaker doesn’t, on its own, qualify you to teach English abroad. Similarly, being a naturally helpful person does not, on its own, qualify you to be an executive coach. The people that come to you for executive coaching are not looking for the kind of advice they could get from anyone. What they seek is pointed, useful advice that will help them become the kind of leader they want to be. They want their company to have the best possible leadership, but don’t always know how to lead.
Know Your Role
That’s where you come in. Your executive coach certification demonstrates that you have taken it upon yourself to be more than just an amateur offering advice. This, by the way, is true even if you have years of executive experience under your belt. Again, having experience doing something doesn’t necessarily qualify you to teach others how to become that same thing. If the opposite were the case, then executive coaching wouldn’t even be necessary. In the real world, however, even good leaders need help becoming great.
Know Your Stuff
Getting your executive coach certification shows that you have a commitment to learning the ins and outs of executive coaching. Being an executive coach will require you to dig deep into a leader’s business practices and personal habits. They are not looking for a “Yes man” or “Yes woman,” but someone who will speak truth. If they couldn’t take criticism, they wouldn’t be in the position they are in, that of a leader who admits that he or she needs help. Sometimes, you will need to be brutally honest.
That is what they are looking for. They are looking for someone who will coach them and their “team” to victory. They want to be motivated and inspired, but also educated.
By the way, sharing your own experience is something you can do as an executive coach, but anyone can claim that he or she has been in a similar position. Anyone can be a glorified cheerleader. What a CEO, manager or small business owner wants from you is advice they can apply which will help not only their growth, but also their company’s. Your executive coach certification can help you get that, and be taken seriously when you share that advice.
