Is Business Experience a Must When Hiring Executive Coaches?

When hiring an Executive Coach what should you be looking for and is business experience a must?

The coaching profession has matured over the past decade but, unfortunately, there are still plenty of examples of sub-par coaches operating in the marketplace which you should make every effort to avoid.

First off, before you even consider bringing an Executive Coach into your organisation, check that they’re fully accredited and partake in formal coaching supervision. Once you’re confident about that, then you can consider whether their specific skill sets are a good match for your organisation and their potential coaching clients.

At this stage, if you’re wondering whether business experience, or senior organisational experience, is a must for your Executive Coaches, the honest answer is: It depends!

In fact, there are three things which you should consider before deciding:

1. The Executive

One size doesn’t always fit all, so it’s important to take into account the executives being coached, their experiences and the level they’re operating at.

For example, if the executive is a Board or C-suite member of a major organisation, they’re more likely to benefit from a Coach who is able to understand, push back and challenge, in context, the pressures that they’re facing in that world. Also, at that strategic business level, it would be reasonable to expect your Coach to be able to provide a mix of coaching and mentoring. A highly skilled coach with senior level business experience will easily strike this balance but a Coach with no business experience will struggle to convey sufficient credibility to win the confidence of their clients.

But, if the coaching is for junior-mid level members of your organisation, or the coaching is being offered as part of a wider management development programme, business experience may not be quite as important to you, and a simple understanding of the organisation and the sector you’re working in may be enough.

2. The Objectives

The specific objectives of the coaching assignments may determine whether it’s necessary for your Executive Coaches to have business experience.

If the coaching objectives are about commercial performance, business performance or strategy, then it would be difficult for a Coach with no senior business or organisational expertise to add huge value.

However, business experience may be of less importance if the coaching objectives are focused around one or two specific skill sets, for example, improving presentation skills, building resilience, coping with stress, managing work-life balance, e.t.c. In these instances, it may be much more valuable for you to choose Executive Coaches with expertise around these particular skills rather than having specific business experience.

3. The Expectations

Your company’s expectations play a big part in what type of Coaches the organisation uses.

Even the most experienced and well-vetted Coaches sometimes have to jump through extra hoops to demonstrate what they’re capable of, and only those who can meet that criteria can go on to work in the organisation.

If there is specific criteria that your organisation expects your Coaches to fulfil, you can add these steps into your hiring process to ensure that, if business experience is top of your agenda, the Coaches can give you plenty of evidence of their ability to fulfil this criteria.

On balance, it’s a huge advantage if you choose Coaches with senior business or organisational experience but only if they also have the other critical skills you require. By itself senior leadership skills and the knowledge and understanding of having ‘been there, seen it and done it’ themselves isn’t a replacement for outstanding Executive Coaching expertise. What’s even more important is that you choose the right Coaches for the right organisation and the right clients.

At Notion, all of our Coaches go through a rigorous selection process before we invite them to work with any of our clients.

We take a hard pragmatic view that coaching needs to deliver to the organisation as well as to the individual, so all of our Coaches, as well as being highly qualified and very experienced Coaches, are also senior organisational and Business Mentors who have worked as MDs, at Board Level or in very senior roles in organisations of different sizes from global companies to fast growth businesses across a wide range of sectors.

All our Coaches have been practising full-time accredited Coaches for at least 5 years (our minimum requirement) although most of the team have been full time for 10-15+ years and have a raft of qualifications and extensive knowledge of the challenges Senior Executives face.

Between us we have mentored and coached over 5,200 Senior Executives and Business Owners on a 1-to-1 basis, and worked with over 112,000 individuals, so we really do have worldwide experience in every sector, every discipline and every management level and we know we have the right Executive Coaching Team for you.

So if you’re unsure about what you should be looking for when looking for Executive Coaches or you want to easily select coaches with first-class experience without lifting a finger, then let us lighten your load and help you deliver incredible ROI from your Executive Coaching programmes.

"Notion’s knowledge and level of professionalism is outstanding. They design and deliver products to an exceptionally high standard. The emphasis they place on ROI means they have provided solutions that are effective, business focused and measurable. They have been fantastic to work with." L&D Manager, Royal Mail

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