Many are fantastic sales people that spin a great story about their corporate coaching and executive coaching skills and have well versed lines of influence to the unguarded employer. While many are worth their salt there are equally as many that have little experience and know how to guide an organization or leader to their preferred results.

So how do we know how to discern the good from the bad and could there be some guidelines or values that can help an employer make the right decision when choosing their corporate coaching and executive coaching people?

The first point for consideration is what I call the “values fit". Does this person share the same or similar values to that of the organization in his corporate coaching approach? Are his/her executive coaching methodologies aligned and congruent to the expected behavioural norms of the company?

The second aspect is the degree of understanding of the issues at hand and the corporate coaching experience in working with that type of challenge. It is all very well to have a logical appreciation and grasp of the issues but that is very different from knowing the right path that will lead to a successful outcome. The corporate coaching expert can see a clear path forward and knows experientially what will and won’t work.

The third component is the personal dynamic or connection between the corporate coaching expert and the participant. This is particularly important when it comes to one on one executive coaching. A good rapport is vital in facilitating open and honest discussion. Corporate coaching is not prescriptive and therefore communication flow is mainly from participant to coach and not the other way around. For this to occur, a safe comfortable environment needs to be present. This will not be possible without the right dynamic and connection between the parties.

The forth factor in evaluating a corporate coaching specialist is in his/her corporate coaching structure and process. Take a look at how the process is structured. How many sessions are there per stage and do they differ from one stage of the corporate coaching process to the other. A well structured corporate coaching process divides the sessions into logical stages incorporating all aspects of the challenge at hand. For example; skills and capability requirements, behavioural components and sustainability factors. Each of these stages requires different time lines and hence a variation in the number of sessions.

It is also recommended that a reporting agreement be included to provide a full update of how the corporate coaching or executive coaching process is progressing.

These four qualities of the corporate coaching or executive coaching expert is certainly non exhaustive however they can be a good indicator of the success factors that can enable your corporate coaching requirements to be met or even exceeded.