How to Get the Most Out of an Executive Coach

Executive coaching has always been important for startup founders and CEOs. As a coach myself, it’s natural for me to think that. But I also know from experience that coaching is helpful, especially for first-time founders who are navigating uncharted waters.

Yet, good coaching doesn’t always prevent a founder and their startup from failing. Why isn’t the wisdom shared by coaches enough? It’s because too many executive coaches assume that fixing everything that’s wrong with the CEO will automatically fix the company.

Unfortunately, that’s not how coaching works. Founders and CEOs are notoriously busy and overwhelmed during the early stages of their startup journey - even into the midstage as well. Therefore, they don’t have the bandwidth to translate everything they’ve learned from their coach to the rest of the company.

While a coach might offer great advice, the CEO still needs to find a way to share that advice with their team and apply in practical terms to what the startup is doing. Startup leaders don’t always know the best way to do this. Even if they did, time constraints can prevent them from fully implementing things they’ve learned from an executive coach.

So how does a CEO get the most out of an executive coach? The answer is to involve the entire leadership team in quarterly planning sessions. This will allow the executive coach to speak to key leaders throughout the company, not just the CEO. If there are weaknesses or blindspots within the company the coach can help uncover, everyone will know about them, not just the CEO.

With any luck, everyone will come out of the quarterly workshop with new insights and new ideas. It won’t be up to the CEO to translate their learnings to everyone else in the company. Instead, the leadership team will learn the same lessons the CEO is learning, staying several steps ahead of the curve.

Of course, one-on-one coaching is still important. There is a great deal founders can learn from executive coaches about their own habits and actions that ultimately have a meaningful impact on the business. However, one-on-one coaching cannot be the only thing founders rely on to change their startup and maximize the potential of their company.