CHAPTER
22

Output 2: Your Executive Coaching Practice

THIS CHAPTER SUMMARIZES THE BUSINESS OR PRACTICE ASPECTS OF EXECUTIVE COACHING AND PROMPTS YOU TO CREATE A PLAN TO INCREASE YOUR COACHING WORK. THIS IS THE SECOND OUTPUT OF YOUR PERSONAL MODEL. IT extrapolates from Output 1—your approach to coaching—into your future as a coach. It asks you to reflect on how to integrate coaching with your other professional activities. You may be an internal or external coach with varying interests and opportunities to do coaching. Whichever aspects of the profession you choose, it is essential that you secure real-world application to continue to build your coaching skills, whether your coaching services are fee-free or income-producing.

Since most coaches are also consultants, they usually provide a range of services. This means that your coaching work must be given conscious planning and prominence within the services you offer. Otherwise, coaching risks being overshadowed by the other services (such as consulting or training) that you have traditionally provided. It is never too early to begin considering and planning how you will make the time available to structure, promote, and deliver your coaching services.

Getting Started with an External Practice

There are dozens of books on how to start consulting practices and how to add new services to your list of offerings. There are no universal answers. Because very few coaches make all of their income from coaching, it is usual for coaching to be included with other consulting services (e.g., training, facilitation, HR consulting, recruiting, or career counseling).

Here’s how some external coaches have described building the coaching part of their practices:

I will finish my website so that it is engaging and describes what I do, make sure clients know that I have expanded my practice to include executive coaching, leverage my experience with branded 360-degree tools, and focus on getting development plan coaching assignments. I also plan to create a small group of peer coaches for mutual support and joint business development.

I will reach back to my well-established network of contacts. By making repeated contacts I will make sure they are aware of my ability and interest in taking on coaching cases.

During the next year or two, I would like to have had about ten coaching clients. I will put gaining the experience ahead of getting my full fee. That will give me the flexibility to offer coaching to mid-level managers who have been promoted to larger leadership roles.

I will start as an external coach as soon as I officially retire from my current job. In anticipating that, I need to pay much more attention to building an external network, becoming involved in professional associations, and gaining more exposure through speaking and writing.

Targeting Your Marketing

No coach can market services to every segment. How focused should your practice be? That’s a simple question with a complicated answer. Many coaches try to focus on a niche because it taps into the input side of their Personal Models in terms of interests and experiences. They may also have more contacts in a particular market segment or industry.

Here are a few examples of targeted marketing statements:

I especially hope to coach people in transition, such as newly hired leaders, those newly promoted, leaders going through career transitions, and leaders in organizations where significant change is occurring.

I will target executives focused on improving their leadership skills, and on executives new to an organization, such as assisting foreign nationals on assignment here in the United States and assisting executives who are preparing for retirement.

I have a particular interest in coaching entrepreneurs. These engagements may have a different process than the usual coaching assignment because the client may be the sponsor. Entrepreneurs often are hungry for feedback.

Getting Started with Internal Coaching

Coaches working inside of organizations have to think about how they are going to find coaching opportunities since their job titles may not mention coaching. The issues here include making time, getting support, managing boundaries, and finding ways to promote one’s services internally.

Sample statements from practicing internal coaches may be useful in formulating your own plan:

I will remain an internal coach for the next four years, taking on about one client per quarter to keep in practice. Then I expect to become an external consultant and offer coaching as part of my mix of services.

I am very excited to be putting on my ‘coaching hat’ and using these skills internally. I have a clear understanding of when I can offer my coaching services and how to contract the process, so there should be ample opportunities for me to be a coach. I have strong support from my boss for this work.

As an internal resource, I will work with management on the talent identification process and bring coaching to the high-potential pool. Development plans can be individualized while also having elements that are shared with other high potentials.

Your Practice Plan

If you are committed to growing your coaching practice, there are several important specifics that you’ll want to consider. By thinking through answers to the following questions and discussing them with colleagues and case supervisors, you will be closer to having a plan to build your practice:

How much time do you have or can you make available to both deliver and pursue your coaching interests?

What industry, function, or client type will you specialize in?

What do you need to do to become comfortable in describing your approach to coaching (i.e., Output 1 of your Personal Model)?

What types of coaching services do you want to offer and what coaching examples can you provide to support those offerings?

Where (e.g., your office? client’s office? other locations?) and when in your usual schedule will you deliver coaching?

What forums, groups, or professional associations would be most useful for you to participate in to promote your coaching?

What exposure opportunities do you have to present yourself as a coach? What speaking, writing, or teaching opportunities may there be for you?

If fee-based coaching is not available to you at this time, how might you secure fee-free coaching assignments in order to build your experience?

How might you approach existing or new sponsors/clients to offer them a service that is different from other services you have delivered?

Marketing coaching services often involves networking. There are coaches of many types, so it is not always easy for buyers to differentiate them. This makes it more difficult for prospective sponsors to source, meet, and hire a coach, whether new or experienced. Often, the pivotal difference that allows you to stand out from other coaches is who you know and who they know. This is classic networking, used in many service fields, as well as in finding full-time employment. Networks reflecting your education, career, professional identity, interests, life stage, and others all may be sources of coaching work directly or indirectly. These can now be accessed more easily through various online sites.

Effective networking starts by making lists of contacts and relationships, independent of any immediate prospects for work. To make them pay off, the lists need to be as long as possible.

Here are some questions that may remind you of contacts to build your list:

Who should be informed about your work as a coach?

Who might have contacts that you’d like to reach out to and include in your network?

What can you do to increase the number of names on your list?

How can social media be useful to you (e.g. webinars and podcasts)?

Consider creating your own website or expanding the one you already have.

What can you learn by looking at the websites of other coaches and professionals who are effective at marketing their services?

Regardless of what you do with online marketing, you still need to prepare and keep on hand descriptions of your services in hardcopy form. Sometimes it is simply easier and more immediate to hand a biosketch or brochure to someone you have just met at a professional gathering or conference, or to send a digital copy by e-mail. It should be clear and descriptive of the services you offer. Review the materials of successful executive coaches to get ideas about how to structure these and what to include.

What is most important is that you commit to promoting your coaching services actively in whatever market segments you identify. Some coaches retain advisers or consultants who specialize in marketing professional practices. Whatever methods you choose, gaining coaching experience, even if fee-free, and persisting in the marketplace are essential requirements. Prepare your support documents, online resources, and articulations of your coaching approach and let people know that you are offering coaching services. That direct contact will help you refine your presentation, and hopefully land coaching business.