Executive Coaching is a process through which executives are helped to improve their performance and personal effectiveness while reducing stress, based on their own commitment to discover the self-knowledge which forms the foundation for continued growth. Summit Advisors program offers the rare opportunity to stand back and to take a fresh unbiased look at the experiences and assumptions of a lifetime. Summit Advisors Executive Coaching services:

¨      Facilitates the identification of inner resources

¨      Targets growth areas

¨      Promotes a healthy balance between career and personal life which sustains the vitality necessary for effective leadership

¨      Reveals the need to learn specific behaviors aimed at enhancing short-term or long-term performance

¨      Challenges underlying beliefs and values and invites more fundamental changes

The Coach

The executive coach has no internal links with the company and therefore can be freely confided in. They can have the roles of supporter, co-creator, political confidant and scrutinizer. Within each role, they will bring certain skills:

Advantages of using an executive coach include: 

¨      Independence

¨      Impartiality

¨      Objectivity

¨      Wide knowledge and experience

¨      Different viewpoint

¨      Experience of weighing opportunities, risks and rewards

The Process 

The executive coaching process can take a number of forms depending on who the individual is and who is asking for the coaching. 

¨     There will normally be a briefing meeting where the situation is discussed and a decision is made as to whether coaching is the best approach to achieve the objectives.

¨     A meeting between the executive and the coach is held at which the two become acquainted and matters of confidentiality are decided.  From here, the style of the program will depend on what has been negotiated and the outcomes that have been agreed.

¨     The coach questions the executive in depth and may give them questionnaires to complete.  They may watch the client at work and in certain circumstances will interview bosses, peers and subordinates.

¨     Both executive and coach review and then identify key strengths and weaknesses as well as developmental needs and put together a plan.  They work together on the agreed objectives and this process generally ebbs once the executive is established in a steady attitude towards continuous improvement of leadership abilities and has developed an organizational support mechanism for ongoing growth.