The Top 5 Ways to Avoid Common Executive Coaching Pitfalls

For anyone that is not familiar with executive coaching, it is a newly mainstream training method for today’s executive business leaders. If skilled, knowledgeable, and successful executive coaches are used, they can help to take any single employee or employee group to the next level. The problem, however, is that many executive coaches fall into common pitfalls that ultimately end up harming the work performance of the person that they are supposed to be mentoring. Coaches that fall into these pitfalls can leave employees feeling alienated, undervalued, and incompetent. Avoiding the mistakes below is crucial in order to make the coaching experience an overall success.

Broken Promises – One of the major mistakes that most executive coaches make is breaking promises. For example, a poor coach will start their mentoring program by promising promotions to employees that improve their performance. If these promotions are not delivered, then this broken promise often destroys the employees’ motivation. Coaches should always keep their promises.

Losing Your Cool – An executive coach should never lose their cool while mentoring an employee. This common mistake can cause a mentored employee to grow resentful or spiteful towards the coach, thus completely derailing any chance for professional growth. A coach should be patient and level headed at all times.

Getting Personal – An executive coach should always be very aware of how they are interacting with an employee. The line that should never be crossed is the one in which the person being mentored takes a dent to their self-esteem. Competent coaches should be able to communicate in a way that never attacks someone on a personal level.

Not Following Up – A coach that promises to check in on the progress of an employee and then fails to deliver on that promise makes the employee feel undervalued. If the coach doesn’t even have the free time to make a quick follow up as promised, then how can the mentored employee trust that the feedback they received initially was even valid? Coaches should always follow up.

Being Judgemental – A coach should never portray a judgemental or condescending attitude towards anyone. While mentors are typically more knowledgable and experienced than the people that they are coaching, they should never attempt to hammer this point home in a judgemental or condescending way. Coaches should be humble and kind to everyone.

Originally published at educatorexecutivecoaching.org on September 3, 2019.