Life Coaching vs Executive Coaching

Are you an executive or senior leader in an organisation and you want to get to the next level or simply lead and manage more effectively where you are right now?

Coaching can definitely help you.

But what kind of coaching would be best for you, Life Coaching or Executive Coaching?

The answer depends on your ability to be honest with yourself and self diagnose, ironically something a coach is supposed to be able to help you with.

If you are looking for a sounding board to help improve your decision making and implementation skills, strategic thinking and planning skills or your time management skills etc, a good Executive Coach will definitely help.

A quick internet search of the top leaderships skills will reveal:

Communication Skills
Motivation. …
Delegating. …
Interpersonal Skills
Conflict Management Skills
Positivity. …
Trustworthiness. …
Feedback. …
Responsibility.
If you have gotten feedback from your boss or colleagues on any of the above as an area of development for you, then a Life Coach might be more suitable.

How to choose the right coach for you?

The most common root of all the top leadership skills identified above is Psychological patterns and unless you are able to identify and change these, it is almost impossible to improve on these leadership skills to the extent that it is noticeable by your staff and the organisation and there is change in behaviour.

When I started my Life Coaching business and up to today over 90% of my clients are senior executives and managers. Whether it was a relationship challenge, health challenge, career challenge or just plain ‘I am stuck’ issue, we know that is it all based on psychological patterns. When I was able to help them to identify their psychological patterns and related behaviors and re-program new psychological patterns and behaviors, they reported drastic changes in how people responded to them at work and how they dealt with people!

Therefore to really get a marked and desirable improvement in leadership behavior, one needs to get to the psychological level.

Here in lies the problem. It is almost taboo to speak about Psychological issues in Executive Coaching and it is compounded by the fact that most Executive Coaches have no background in psychology. They do not need to have a degree in psychology but at least have a deep understanding of neuroscience, sources of self esteem issues, effects of childhood trauma on adult behavior, self saboteurs, limiting beliefs etc.

Actually a psychologist or someone who have studied psychology may not be the best coach as there is a big difference between therapy and coaching and the results could be bad if the two are not clearly delineated.

Even with respect to company EAP programs, forwarding thinking companies are using coaches instead of therapists and are getting better results.

Depending on your leadership or managerial challenge a Life Coach might be more useful than an Executive Coach, unless you can find an Executive Coach with knowledge and practical experience in psychological patterns.

Shane Ram is the CEO of STEP HR Consulting, Founder of Scientific Happiness, Property Investor, Founder of Don’t Settle for 7 – Go For 10, executive coach, author and a sought after global keynote speaker. Shane works with CEOs, corporations, 6-7 Figure business owners and entrepreneurs to increase revenue, grow their businesses and live more fulfilling lives.

Shane works with CEOs, executives, corporations and entrepreneurs to grow their business and their lives. His strikingly effective coaching process shows individuals and corporate teams how to create the personal lives they want while becoming a megastar at work. To book a time to speak with Shane go to https://meetme.so/shaneram. To book Shane for events and seminars go to www.shaneram.com or www.stepadvisors.net, call 1-868-351-5000 or email at [email protected]