Potential Pitfalls of Executive Coaching
The coaching relationship is a co-created, designed alliance that ensures a collaborative coaching process between the coach and coachee. The coach uses their training and experience to know when to use, and which to use, of their skills, techniques and talents for the maximum benefit of their clients. During the coaching relationship it is important for the coach to be fully aware of the traps that can appear to disrupt the flow of the process and tips to counteract the energy and imbalance that can result.
Signs of Client Dependency
There are four distinct signs that a coachee is becoming dependent on the coach. A coachee may begin to seek advice, rather that wanting support to gain insights, and ask the coach what they should do.
1. No thoughts - The coachee nearly always asks for the answers rather than working through a problem and coming up with a solution themselves.
2. No confidence - The coachee has a tendency to ask the coach to do things for them, rather than making decisions and taking concerted action.
3. No foresight - The coachee misses insights and opportunities through a lack of foresight or an inability to see the whole picture.
4. No initiative - The coachee tries to rely on the coach to get things going rather than risk making mistakes and failing in the task themselves.
Tackling Executive Dependency
At any sign of dependency, the coach needs to highlight what they are seeing and coach around the underlying issues. Maybe the client is not ready and there is an issue that needs to be referred to another professional. It could be that the client is not committed to the coaching process at this time, or that they need to have a break from the regular coaching sessions to tie up loose ends at work or home before they can truly commit to coaching. Maybe, just being their coach and naming what you see will give them all the insight they need to re-calibrate and clarify the next steps they need to take in the coaching process. You are the professional coach - so you will know how best to 'hold' the interests of your client.
