Executive coaching carves a thinking space to help you do bigger things at an accelerated rate. It also opens a door to feeling creative and resourceful, to figuring out your blindspots and growing as a leader (or defining what leadership means to you all together). 

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Great athletes have coaches and trainers - they are their accountability partners but also their change catalysts. Their relationship is results-driven, they set goals and work together toward them. Your relationship with an executive coach is just that - a partnership, and in this case, a thinking partnership.

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When I was just promoted to vice president in my prior role, I didn't know what a coach was. She was assigned to me one day and asked me a great number of questions I had no answers for (which took me by surprise, as I always praised myself for being the kind of manager and executive with answers to everything!). She taught me the value of having questions actually, not answers, and most importantly, curiosity. For example, what were my values, and how did they co-exist with those of the company? Or, was I giving more weight to nurturing relationships at work or to being productive? DId I like to work in teams or by myself? Through our journey together, I realized I had lost control of my work life, that I wasn't happy in a career I thought I loved. So we designed a different one.

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My coach was a gift and, 15 years later, still one of the most rewarding, eye-opening experiences I've ever had.