When to Seek Help From an Executive Coach, with Julia Hart

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What is executive coaching? How do you know if you are ready for it? Does it really help? What distinguishes a great coach, and how do you find one?

If any of these questions resonate with you or if you are considering coaching for yourself or your team members, don’t look any further.

In this four-part mini-series, fellow executive coach Julia Hart and I try to be as open as we can about what goes on behind the walls of coaching. We share our personal experiences as coaches and coachees, we explain what coaching is, how it works and why it can be so incredibly powerful for those who commit to it.‍

(Scroll down for descriptions of published episodes in this mini-series.)

About Julia Hart

As an executive coach, Julia helps current and next-generation leaders to embrace who they are and increase their impact within the organizations they work for. She graduated as a Professional Executive Coach from Henley Business School in 2015 and is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). In addition to her coaching career, Julia is also an accomplished communications professional with nearly 30 years of experience working in large and complex international companies.

Episode 1: When to Seek Help From an Executive Coach

We kick off this series by exploring when it’s time to seek help from a coach. We talk about the importance of asking for help, why it’s so difficult for most of us and we explore situations in which coaching can be effective and when not.

Episode 2: What is Executive Coaching?

In the second episode, Julia and I explore a counterintuitive truth about coaching: if you are merely seeking advice or someone else’s opinion, you're better off looking elsewhere. We also discuss the foundations of coaching and the difference between a professional coach and a manager with a coaching leadership style.

Episode 3: How Coaching Makes a Difference

In this short episode, we share stories from our own lives to show how coaching can make a difference. Julia talks about how her first coach helped her change her thinking about how she shows up at work and I share how coaching helped me get out of my head.

Episode 4: How to Find a Great Coach

In the final episode of our mini-series, we get a bit more practical. Julia and I discuss how to find a great coach, what to look out for, the value of accreditation and why Google might not be the best place to start.

Links to people, books and resources related to this episode:

• _{Julia's coaching website and LinkedIn profile.}
• _{Her coaching profile on Kademy and New Female Leaders.}
• _{The website of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), where Julia is accredited, and NOBCO and EMCC Global, where I'm certified. Here's the Ethics Code of ICF and here's the one from EMCC, where you can find more information about the foundations of coaching that we discuss in this episode.}
• _{A link to my previous conversation with Michael Bungay Stanier, the author of The Advice Trap.}
• _{My 2019 conversation with Julia 'Creating a Safe Space for Young Professionals to Thrive' (originally released as part of my Meeting Strategist podcast series).}
• _{Warren Berger's book 'A More Beautiful Question', which discusses our cultural focus on giving answers and the lost art of questioning (via Amazon).}

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