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Many of you express an interest in learning about executive coaching. You are asking about what kind of work coaches actually do. You are asking whether you can benefit from hiring and working with one, and you are asking what exactly it takes to become an executive coach. I know this because you have asked my office, you have asked some of our coaches and many of my colleagues, and you have asked me a lot.

While most questions come from prospective clients, many also come from various employees out there who wonder how they might undertake a career transition from their current roles and become an executive coach. And a good number of questions also come from current executives and management consultants who want to develop coaching skills so they can perform better as a supervisor or manager.

People come to coaching from many different outlets.In my case, executive coaching became a service I added on to management consulting and training work I was doing. It was in response to expanding needs and demands from clients. After years of advising and collaborating with executives and teams on strategy, performance, HR, project management, etc., I just couldnt ignore what I was learning. Senior managers and executives began expressing a real desire to go deeper. They wanted to receive more dedicated, personalized and focused attention to help them achieve strategic, operational, human capital and leadership goals.

Its not that organizational leaders were saying they didnt need or value consulting and training quite the contrary. But it got so that they didnt really want to let go after a consulting project or training workshop had concluded. They wanted to put a coach on the field to more readily address issues with leaders. They needed a coach who would assess organizational, team and individual challenges and then customize action plans, resource and competency development that would result in higher levels of success for both the organization and its executives and managers. So my journey to become a qualified and credentialed coach began, and now Im sharing my success tips with you.

Here are the five things I had to do to achieve success.

In the realm of executive coaching, you can expect to work primarily with C-suite execs, directors and managers from varying public and private entities. Sometimes you will deliver coaching for individuals, and sometimes you will deliver coaching for entire teams and executive committees. But first, do your homework.

Delve deeply to learn about the varying types of coaching which exist.There are all sorts of different coaches from motivational coaches, to executive coaches, to leadership coaches, to career coaches, to personal coaches and so forth.The Institute of Organization Development describes 15 different types of coaching. I suggest you research and study the key differences and similarities before you decide that executive coaching is actually the form you want to deliver. You might determine that another type of coaching is a better fit for you, or you may decide that you had coaching all wrong and now never want to do it at all.

Organizational leaders seek out executive coaching for myriad reasons, but foremost seems to be the desire to receive highly customized and confidential counsel, guidance and support in areas where you as the coach have developed a special expertise and talent. Those you coach will expect you to provide them a safe space to learn and grow while also holding them accountable for goal accomplishment. Before you can do this well, youll need to form a sound coaching philosophy.

An effective executive coaching philosophy should include, at a minimum, these three factors. It should

In a nutshell, my philosophy is that coaching is an experiential and highly personalized process that supports and advances the individual or teams capacity to achieve short and long-term goals. It is guided by mutual trust and respect and is predicated upon the coachs ability to create a process and environment whereby those being coached can and will examine issues more deeply, think differently and then define their own solutions to complicated challenges. It is a partnership that establishes a platform for the executive to receive customized feedback and guidance to maximize organizational, professional and personal performance.

What is your coaching philosophy? If you want to build a successful career as an executive coach, youll have to develop a sound philosophy and be able to articulate it at the ready.

INFOGRAPHIC. Click to download or view larger Image. The Difference Between An Executive Coach And ... [+] An Advisor.

Though you might have a tendency to sometimes exchange the word consulting for the word advising, youd be mistaken to do the same with coaching. The gap between advising and coaching is larger than the gap between advising and consulting.

Executive coaches and executive advisors both add institutional and leadership value for delivering results, but they take different approaches and use different processes to get people there. An executive coachs process is designed to help clients achieve results by creating behavior change and developing the skills, thinking and competencies necessary for success. An advisors process is designed to help clients achieve results first. If theres time to change behavior and develop skills, thinking and competence, they might put effort toward that, but the goal is to deliver expertise, answers and solutions first.

As an executive coach, your job will be to help your clients get where they want to go by pulling from and channeling the best within them. As an advisor, your job will be to help your clients get where they want to go by pulling from the best within themselves and also more regularly imparting your own expertise or answers for success. The distinction is notable, and you really should consider it before investing in becoming an executive coach. You may think that you want a career as executive coach when you actually want to be an advisor or consultant.

Certainly, there is no problem with becoming both an executive coach as well as an advisor; you just need to know the distinctions. You dont want to do all the work to get clients and then disappoint them because you are doing coaching work with them, but they expected someone who would quickly give them answers, develop solutions and maybe even lead the project work.

Do you appreciate the differences? If you want to build a successful career as an executive coach, youll need to be able to explain these differences to prospective clients so that you establish upfront the right expectations for the process. You should also define all your deliverables, outcomes and contracts with this understanding in mind.

Whether you simply desire to add a coaching component to enhance your current supervisory, management or leadership abilities so you can help your staff and teams perform better or you desire a complete career change or career transition into the realm of executive coaching, you really should design a thoughtful coaching methodology and process to ensure success.

I already recommended that you research varying coaching philosophies as you move to define your own, and I make that same recommendation here. Reach out to successful coaches, explore different coaching programs and methods, check out the many coaching certification programs and organizations out there and then decide what coaching methods and processes you might apply to best serve your target audience or client base.

An effective executive coaching methodology and process will contemplate and provide for many different factors, including these.

Again, I added coaching work to an already established management consulting and training portfolio. But as I grew more committed to the value and benefits of executive coaching, I realized Id have more success with a clearly defined executive coaching methodology and framework so I designed one, and its called DREAR a superior coaching model.

DREAR proven to consistently deliver results helps me and my team of coaches engage in a deliberative process to define the purpose, competencies and behaviors that need to be modified and maximized. It guides our method of systematically linking performance goals to organizational strategy. And by integrating the five components of development, resources, education, accountabilities and results, DREAR helps executives, managers and directors maximize leadership contributions and build capabilities to more fully contribute to organizational success.

What is your coaching methodology and process? If you want to build a successful career as an executive coach, youll have to design a clear and understandable method and process that you can easily replicate but also customize and refine when and as necessary to meet the needs of those you coach.

Bad coaches come in all shapes and sizes. Good coaches do too. No one has yet demonstrated conclusively what makes an executive coach qualified or what makes one approach to executive coaching better than another, says Harvard Business Reviews Stratford Sherman and Alyssa Freas. While things may have improved some since 2004 when Sherman and Freas described the Wild West of Executive Coaching, I argue they havent improved enough.

Life-long learning.

Today, there is an abundance of coaching organizations and education and certification programs out there, but good and bad executive coaches still come from all of them. You have to define for yourself what specific education, certification and experiences you believe will make you a great coach, but more importantly you should remain dedicated to life-long learning because what you learned three years ago may not keep you at the forefront of what your prospective clients may need today. Everything is moving faster so make a point to stay current to ensure you can be competitive.

To establish credibility, youll want to have a solid background of accomplishment and success in your own right with hands-on experience, education and certifications (where necessary) to match. Its difficult to narrow the educational and certification paths of the many, many executive coaches out there, but suffice it to say that as you define the specialty areas and parameters for your coaching work (i.e., strategy, operations, change, performance, leadership, conflict management, human resources, etc.), its to your advantage to consider a wide range of courses, certifications and maybe college degrees to elevate your credibility in your chosen specialty area(s).

Confidence and temperament.

Executive coaching is not some kind of remedial service for low or poor performers quite the contrary.Instead, its specifically designed for high performers and those who hold themselves to higher standards of success and desire to operate at their greatest potential. And though there is no one prescribed background that fits best for this kind of work, there is an ideal temperament. Youll need to be very comfortable working with highly accomplished, powerful and sometimes demanding senior-level and C-suite executives. You will need to be comfortable with ambiguity, offer flexibility with scheduling and format and be prepared to customize your methods and processes even the forum or platform as necessary to meet your clients needs.

Executive coaches tend to work mostly with you guessed it executives and an organizations senior directors and leaders, but we also work with mid-level supervisors and managers as well. To be successful, you need to be able to influence high-powered and assertive individuals with confidence.

Finally, it is most important that you are an adept leader yourself and can be direct enough to hold other leaders accountable.Discipline, focus and timeliness are critical as well. You should brush up on your communication and negotiation skills and be very comfortable with conflict and debate while displaying an executive presence.

If you decide you either want to add coaching as a side gig or actually build a successful career as an executive coach, youll need to define a pricing model for your business. Before you ever get your first client, decide on a pricing model and determine what your coaching fees will be.

The Institute of Coaching provides good guidance for how to start pricing your coaching services and describes five different types of pricing models.

A lot of this can be a challenge early on, but youll want to define it well in advance of bringing on your first client. Its important to make sure that you set pricing that makes you competitive but doesnt undersell your talents and abilities. Take this into account as you define your coaching fees; they vary greatly depending on several things including:

When I first started, I used the performance-based pricing model and then moved to the hourly-rate pricing model. Today, my company primarily uses the package-based pricing model and has had great success with it for the past nine years. Clients we work with select coaching packages (i.e., a three-month package, a six-month package, a one-year package and so forth). The most commonly purchased packages are our six-month package and the 18-month package.

I recommend you try using flat-rate, fixed-project fee contracts because they will streamline your processes, create more efficiency and avoid the possibility that your clients start to feel the nickel-and-dime syndrome where they think you are greedily charging them for every single extra thing you do for them.

If you still want to become a coach - and specifically an executive coach - after reading this and following up with additional research, go for it! But if your research leads you to completely scrap the idea or follow a different type of coaching path, thats fine too.

My goal was to share with you the kind of information I wish someone had shared with me in the beginning. Whats important is that you dont let a lack of information cause you to shy away from achieving your career goals. Learn what it takes for any career field that interests you and then make it happen.

More here:
Do These 5 Things If You Want A Career As An Executive Coach - Forbes