Executive and Personal Coaching

How Do I Start Working with an Executive Coach?

1.  Review this site to learn more about me. (Gary Wood, Executive Coach) Continue on this page to familiarize yourself with the executive and personal coaching process steps to get us off to a strong start.

• If you are looking for a Christian Executive Coach, look down the left-side Navigation Bar to the "Christian Leaders" section.

2.  Send me a request for a conversation. Outline in brief anything you’d like to share that will give me some background on your request.

3.  We’ll choose a mutually available time to meet, either by phone, or Zoom.

4.  In our meeting you can outline what is happening and what you’d like to achieve. You can ask me any questions you have. This way we'll get to know each other, and have the information we need to determine if we wish to work together.

5.  We’ll discuss logistics, and fees.

6.  If a Sponsor is involved, we will have those conversations to ensure clarity and confidentiality.

7.  I’ll send you a Coaching Agreement. On making a decision to move forward, you sign the agreement and return it to me. Pay your first month retainer.

8.  I send you a link to my calendar and we get started

It is my pleasure to serve you.

Here are some further FAQ's about job burnout.  

 How to Prepare Yourself For Each Coaching Meeting

Connect by Zoom or Phone: During coaching weeks, we will connect either by Zoom or phone. Some people concentrate much better being on phone only, but it’s your choice. Zoom does allow us to periodically view a document or illustration together in real-time.  

Get Where You Can Concentrate: You need to be in a quiet place to eliminate distraction. If you are going to get the most out of your time together, you need to set aside intentional and private time to meet. 

Decide What You Would Like to Work On: Get yourself prepared for our time together. Decide what you would find most helpful to discuss. Sometimes it may be pressing issues as noted below. Other times it may be more reflective. Giving it some thought prior to meeting gets you ready for a profitable coaching experience.  

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Make the Best Use of Your Time During One on One Executive Coaching

When we meet, the choice of where to focus the conversation is entirely yours. 

I’ll always remain aware of your original goal in coming to coaching, and as appropriate will weave that into our conversations. 

You May Wish to Focus on a Real-time (unfolding now) Situation

You’re in the middle of it. It’s of current concern to you right now. Our coaching can help you think it through, gain needed insight, and inform your decision making and next steps. Examples:

• Planning
• Troubleshooting
• Decision-making
• Interpersonal concern

You May Wish to Focus on Making Progress on Things That Take More Time

Some goals might be out 2 to 4 months or even longer depending on the nature of your work. You consider them more medium-term initiatives. Example:

• Regaining you daily productivity and effectiveness
• Changing a possible career limiting behavior
• Fostering a significant idea or project
• Adjusting the way you interact with your spouse or family

You May Wish to Focus on Increasing Your Long-game Capacity and Resilience

Your work in this area might stretch out a year or more. You are preparing or positioning yourself or your organization for something in the future. The work you put in now will pay off later. Example:

• Attaining a higher position within the organization
• Making some significant contribution for the good of society
• Implementing a multi-year, organization-wide change

You may wish to Focus on a "Stretch" Discussion Around Common Challenges

This sort of discussion comes up so often. It’s often precipitated by some situation the leader is aware of. These back-and-forth conversations are rich. Example:

• Avoiding responsibility
• Micromanaging
• People “stuff”
• Poor communication culture

As you can see, whatever it is that is most important to you is perfect for coaching. I am often retained as a sounding board for executives who are are reaching for better and more well thought out responses, solutions and initiatives. 

Here are some answers to other common executive and personal coaching questions.  

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A Typical Monthly Schedule for Executive and Personal Coaching

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Three Weeks of the Month: We coach during the first three full weeks of the month, Monday to Thursday. We can adjust the coaching schedule to accommodate your personal situation within that.

Typically, we schedule three monthly calls, once per week, to ensure we've booked in adequate time to work on your coaching and development goals.

No Coaching in August: I work throughout the year, with the exception of August. All coaching ceases for one month, so that I can refresh.

Average Coaching Engagement: Tracking over the last 26 years of coaching shows that clients typically make use of coaching for an average of 14 months.

Some have been coaching for several years. This is because they continue to want executive and personal coaching as they take on new companies, organizations, promotions, projects, assignments and challenges.

I Coach a Select and Limited Number of Leaders

A Few Leaders at a Time: I accept and work with only 10 - 12 full-schedule leaders at a time. This is quite deliberate. It allows me to be at my best as I serve you.

I also coach several "Momentum" clients, who have been coaching for several years. Now they want to check in once a month or so, to remain sharp and on top of their current work and possibilities. They want to maintain "momentum." 

Individualized Support: Individuals and organizations turn to me and the work I do, because I provide 'when-you-need-it' coaching support that enables them to better move forward important projects, programs, companies and causes.

Coaching That Makes a Difference: This IS NOT about chunking a whole lot of people through. It's about one on one executive coaching that makes a lasting, and significant difference.

Further Preparation for Your Coaching Session

Here's one suggestion to get prepared to meet.

Complete one or more of these statements to help clarify your executive coaching goals AND the benefits achieving them will give you. You may find it helpful to write your responses down before speaking with me.

• I want to adjust ... to prevent ... and enable ...
• I want to improve ... which will allow me to ...
• I want to leverage my ... to be prepared for ...
• I want to add ... to my ... in order to ...
• Or some other similar statement

The point? Take some time to determine how you’d like to best use our time together. Being intentional will allow you to zero in quickly and get us discussing what matters.

And if you feel stuck, no problem, I'll walk you through it and make sure we are focusing on those things that will make the biggest difference moving forward.

Recap

On this Executive and Personal Coaching page you have learned:

• How to start executive coaching together
• How to prepare for each coaching session
• How to make best use of time during our coaching session
• What a typical monthly coaching schedule looks like
• Why I work with the number of leaders that I do
• What else you can do to prepare for coaching