Welcome to Distinctions Executive Coaching – an accredited UK corporate coaching practice

To support you in minimising self doubt, building your confidence as a leader and aid in achieving your personal development goals, and provide guidance to move from good to great, by reflecting any blind spots back for observation and correction – often when we are too ‘in it’ we are unable to see the relationship between our habits and behaviours that don’t serve us and how they impact an organisation. A career coach will gently reflect these growth points back to you, to update outdated habits and beliefs and offer relevant insight and coaching support to encourage high performance culture within your organisation.

The role of an integral executive coach is to support senior leaders in moving from good to great, in a confidential, adult learning space, acting as a sounding board, guiding leaders to self observe and self correct any behavioural blind spots, releasing old habits and beliefs that are no longer sustainable, and building up an internal behavioural muscle, experientially over time, that supports sustainable behaviour change and ultimately leads to success.

You want to find a coach who has been where you want to go, possibly with previous corporate experience. Also, research an ICF (International Coach Federation) highly qualified coach, with years of experience, both in the corporate world, as well as in their executive coaching practice

Life coaching differs from executive coaching, in that career coaching focuses on leadership development behaviour and career trajectory development, potentially after a career change or to enhance their current management processes, whilst simultaneously focusing on the life of the human being behind the leader, therefore improving their overall performance.

Absolutely. Executive coaches who consistently retain and refine their global professional coaching qualifications; via the ICF, the global regulatory body for coaching; know how to contract with you and your business for an effective coaching intervention, are in regular supervision sessions, and hold themselves highly accountable to tailor making an effective coaching intervention for their clients

Some coaches charge by the hour, while others charge by the engagement – the latter approach is preferred. Business coaching fees vary depending on the experience and qualification of the coach, their approach to coaching, and the results they achieve on behalf of their clients. I would link the pricing of the coaching to both the company requirements for coaching, as well as to the accreditation level and experience of the coach. For example, an MCC Master level accredited coach will have over 2500 hours of coaching experience.

Leading articles within the industry have highlighted calculations to simplify the process of measuring a Return On Investment (ROI) for these specific forms of engagement. Alternative measurement methods include ways to gauge the relationship between your coaching results and the objective set at the beginning of the coaching process; this is assessed via information from your Return On Expectation (ROE).

Business coaching works optimally when it is the right time for the coachee for their personal and professional development, as the mentoring process requires focus, discipline in the application of the self observation and practice, and repetition experientially in order to shift any unwanted leadership behaviours, evolvement into a great leader for the organisation. The buy in and commitment to the coaching journey thus needs to ultimately come from the coachee, rather than from line managers or HR.

An executive coaching approach can assist you in developing strategic thinking to improve your leadership skills & presence; moving from manager to leader; growing EQ emotional intelligence, impact and influence; having feedback and difficult conversations with ease; growing self awareness; a confidential sounding board for C-Suite, Exco or Board level coaching; and a space to explore Purpose, Meaning and a spiritual approach, as required.

If you are looking for a safe space to explore where you are currently in your career, where you’d like to get to in 3 to 5 years in your career trajectory, and what specific leadership behaviour tools or ‘muscles’ you need to develop experientially, over time, in order to get there, then career coaching sessions will be of benefit to you.

Career coaching is not another action item for you ‘to do list, nor is it a ‘tick box exercise’. To prepare for an executive coaching intervention, be prepared to be dislodged from your comfort zone, generally as adults, we only ever shift behaviours at the edge of our comfort zone and even the best business leaders can benefit for leaving their comfort zone and work on building relationships within their teams with a fresh perspective from a great coach.

It is important that you choose a coach who you feel you have trust and rapport with, and a coach that will both support and challenge you along the journey. It is common for a coachee to interview up to 3 coaches in coaching chemistry chats, prior to selecting the executive coach that is a right fit for you and your development journey.

Typically, a coaching engagement is 6 x 2 hour sessions, across 6-8 months. These sessions can be held face to face or virtually, and if virtually, can also be broken down into 1 hour sessions. A personality assessment tool, such as the Enneagram, as well as 360 Feedback tools, are often introduced into the program, if they are useful, as a coaching program is completely tailored to the coachee. Initially and at the end, a 3 way Line Manager, coach and coachee conversation takes place to engage the external stakeholder in the coaching, where we review the Coaching Outcomes program together.