Lasting Change blog posts

Executive coaches often face a dilemma – Are they coaching the “right” person and is there just one “right” person to be coached?

Imagine these scenarios:

• A coaching client’s boss complains that the coaching client “isn’t getting it”. Despite what the boss thinks are clear directions, they aren’t seeing the outcomes they have been expecting.
• A coaching client reports that their boss is a micro-manager and seems to believe that the only reason the boss is “micro-managing” must be that the boss prefers to micro-manage
• Two members of a leadership team don’t seem to trust one another and the hostility between them is affecting other members of the team and slowing down decision-making

Traditionally, executive coaching has focused on individual leaders. But what if some issues aren’t one-sided? What if we are applying a one-sided approach to two-person issues?

An executive coach with a systemic, multi-person perspective might ask themselves:

• Has the coaching client’s boss been as clear as they think they have been? When the coaching client didn’t change their behavior in the desired way, did their boss explore this in a way that would be likely to reach a shared understanding of what was happening?
• If the boss prefers not to micro-manage, have they had a discussion with the coaching client to explain that they are paying attention to details more than they would like to because they need to develop additional trust in the coaching client before stepping back?
• Is there a historical issue that caused one or both of the leaders to lose trust that has never been properly communicated / addressed? Or are there systemic issues (e.g., lack of alignment within the organization) that are playing out as conflict between two interested parties?

These are, of course, not the only possible explanations for these scenarios, but if any of these do help to explain what is happening between the client and others in the organization, it’s time to move beyond individual, group or team coaching to something we might call Executive pair coaching.

‍