The most successful executive coaches are experienced in only a few areas, able to help managers with specific challenges. Too diverse an arsenal paints you as a generalist. Executives are looking for specialists. In our work with coaches and consultants we have found that lesser experienced coaches aren’t always sure what they’re best at, and this is evident when they market their services. If you can relate to this, we have some useful tips to help you market your specialty.
Executives generally seek coaches and consultants when they need assistance to overcome specific personal or organizational obstacles. The interesting thing about coaching is that leaders will see a problem, but often fail to accurately trace its origins. This is where your impartial perspective can get to the root of things.
Executives seek help with some of these prevalent issues:
- A lack of employee engagement: People don’t put forth great effort or have much interest in what they do. If you have experience with this, you can train the leader in the principles of engagement, dig into their character, behavior, and leadership style.
- High turnover (employee retention): If this is your specialty, you can discover what the underlying issues are and address them. This may involve leadership style, employee relations practices, or low values.
- Poor communication: If you have a knack for fixing communication problems, you can apply the appropriate training to develop better communication skills and practices.
- Waste and inefficiency. If this is your area of interest, you can help leaders understand how to assess their processes, policies and performances.
Apply your specific interests, skills and experience to market the services best suited for your success. It’s best to market a few services as a specialist, allowing you to attain excellent outcomes, rather than as a generalist who may not be able to provide as much expertise as someone who specializes. Decide what you do well and become the best at it.
Then, publish your solutions to specific leadership challenges in your networking publications (if you need help, you can find topics by keyword search in our Content for Coaches article library, or by clicking the links above). Focus on the executive and address their issues. You’ll be rewarded with loyal clients who trust you to solve their problems.
So, what’s your specialty? Which executive issue(s) does it address? We’d love to hear from you; send us an email.