Executive Coaching: The Missing Piece

Executive Coaching is on the rise. Senior leaders are realizing the investment in coaching is a rounding error compared to the budgets they are responsible for.   Executive Coaches are there as thought partners who challenge, provide insights, encouragement, and accountability.  The best Executive Coaches are often extremely helpful in getting desired results.

A typical coaching model is some version of this:

• Get feedback
• Set goals
• Commit to one of or two behavior changes that will provide the most impact
• Get results

The problem is this:  We all develop underlying beliefs in our lifetimes, often at young ages. Some of these beliefs do not align with our goals, thereby creating resistance to change. They are often at the subconscious level so we are not aware of them. To compound the problem, research indicates that over 90% of our daily actions come from these subconscious beliefs.  We don’t know why we do what we do!

Consider this example. A respected executive engages an Executive Coach as he is leading a change initiative in the company. The executive is clear about desired outcomes for this change initiative. Early in the coaching engagement, feedback is gathered from key leaders. There is some excellent feedback regarding this executive’s abilities, work ethic and integrity. One of the “improvement” themes is this leader rarely offers praise or recognition. The executive comprehends and appreciates the feedback and sets a goal of doing a better, more consistent job of offering praise and recognition when deserved. It lasts a few months and then loses steam, eventually falling back to the old patterns. As these behavior goals lose steam, so does the change initiative.

What happened? This executive has an underlying belief that motivated, successful people shouldn’t need praise. Too fluffy for his style and feels insincere. (He grew up in a family where hard work was the expectation). The impact is that these leaders don’t feel valued or appreciated and their commitment to change wanes.  With misaligned beliefs, behavior changes often do not stick, resulting in missed opportunities. It is like having one foot on the automobile’s accelerator (goals), and the other foot on the brake, (resistance).

Mark Hinderliter, PhD, CPC has been a senior leader for a billion-dollar global enterprise, and has experienced first-hand difficulty making changes that stick, both personal and professional. Through specialized training called Psych-K, he learned that over 90% of our behaviors are automatic, based on our subconscious beliefs – and that they can be identified and changed.  As an Executive Coach,  Mark works with clients to achieve their goals by working with them at the conscious and subconscious levels – aligning beliefs to goals.

Dr. Mark’s signature process is this:

• Raise self-awareness – Assessment tools and feedback from key people
• Set goals – that will make the biggest impact
• Align beliefs – remove subconscious resistance to goals
• Implement behavior changes – impact performance
• Validate results – follow-up feedback

The missing piece in traditional coaching is aligning beliefs to goals, and is what makes this process unique. It serves to take the foot off the brake while accelerating through change. As misaligned beliefs are uncovered and resolved in the coaching process, resistance decreases and change accelerates.

Mark Hinderliter, PhD, CPC partners with companies to develop their leaders to create companies that have a competitive advantage in attracting, engaging, and retaining people. Mark’s superpower is creating a personalized approach to leader development that works at the conscious and sub-conscious levels to accelerate growth. He is a former Senior Vice President for a billion-dollar global enterprise, holds a PhD in Organization and Management, is a Certified Professional Coach with the College of Executive Coaching, a trained Psych-K Facilitator, and a United States Army Veteran.