Unlike a lot of our business processes that tend to present abstract models and information, executive coaching is all about working with the dynamics of human nature.  An Executive Coach engages with the ‘coachee’ in very customized, personalized, and focused way.  The relationship is based on an extremely high degree of integrity, respect, and confidentiality.  The experience acknowledges and honors individuality, while working towards the purpose of the coaching relationship goal.  When it works, the experience helps the individuals know themselves better so they can go about their daily lives, both professional and personal, in a more conscious manner while contributing in a richer fashion to everything they do.  The changes they make influence and benefit themselves, their teams, and ultimately the bottom line.

Generally individuals and organizations report experiencing the best results from coaching when the following factors are present.  Several of the following were mentioned in a 2005 article in CIO Magazine:

1. The coaching is optional.  You cannot force someone to participate in coaching, or to change.  It has to be a personal decision.  However, with that said, we have experienced situations where the leader’s ability to remain in a position comes down to a choice between coaching and/or changing jobs.  Still, in that situation if the manager decides to accept the coaching, the expectation is that through a process of greater awareness the leader would determine how to change to fit the current business requirements.
   
2. The objectives are behavioral based.  The coach has no impact over the strategies and integrity of the organization.  If the situation the client would like to have addressed deals with ethical violations, or lack of technical training, coaching is not the answer.  The goal and objective of the coaching engagement must be focused on the need for behavioral change in order for the coachee to gain knowledge about what needs to change and why, and then to have control over how to raise awareness and suggest modifications.
   
3. Coaching relationships may be extended.  Although the initial coaching assignment may be short-term, when the leader clicks with the coach, the need to continue working with that coach, or at least periodically checking in with him/her will be strong.  The foundation and trust will have been established, and if the relationship is proving helpful, discontinuing the relationship may not make sense.
   
4. Coaches work for the coachee.  Executive coaching is often referred to as a triangular relationship – the coachee, coach, and client; the client being the one who pays for the coaching services and employs the coachee.  The client may have input on expected outcomes that will benefit the coachee and the client, but the process rests between the coachee and coach.  Success is defined when the benefit to the coachee comes in addition to the client’s anticipated business results.
   
5. Coaching focuses on the soft stuff.  Ongoing brain science research is showing potential for significant implications to coaching practices.  Authors David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz argue that understanding how the brain reacts to change by resisting it, can lead to more effective ways of coaching behavioral transitions.
6. Coaches must produce results.  As discussed in a Gallup Management Journal article, coaching should be guided by business needs, fueled by proven business theory and practices, and grounded in the work that is on the coachee’s desk.  The best engagements are iterative and require contracts that are short-term and measurement-focused.
   
7. Coaches provide tough love.  The most effective coaches don’t aim to make leaders feel good.  Rather, they're blunt, and they focus relentlessly on measurable business performance.  Coachees should be stimulated and exhausted by each session.
   
8. The coachee must be given a fair chance.  We’re all aware that it’s sometimes difficult for managers to find the courage to give honest feedback, especially when performance is not on target.  Coaching should not be used as a guise for gaining the required documentation to prove the organization went the extra mile to try and help the coachee succeed.  And, it should not be offered as an option if the coachee’s boss has already written him off and nothing he can do to change will gain him credibility.
   

When these factors are present, working with an experienced and qualified OD coach can make all the difference in correcting the performance of a manager who appears to be derailing his career, or quickening the pace of a manager who is facing a rapidly changing work environment that she needs to get in front of.  My experience has been that when the observations and feedback are provided by a neutral, external third-party, it’s easier for the executive to accept the need for change and to embrace the process.