8. MYTH: Executive Coaching is only for use when executives are failing
FACT: Not so! Coaching used to be viewed as a remedial activity to “fix” a problem person in the organization. Executive coaching can also be used to provide assistance to executives who admit to having challenges, but only they will benefit once they take responsibility for their change and own the issues that they are faced with. Executive coaching has a diverse range of applications for executives including improving their effectiveness and performance, advancing their communication skills, collaborating with them to create a compelling vision, provide assistance in applying their time to strategic issues and so on. Executive coaching is now being offered to top executives as a perk that improves retention within the organization and assist with their output.
9. MYTH: Executive coaching is the same as therapy and counseling
FACT: Definitely not! The words therapy and counseling may have many meanings for an individual. Coaching is not therapy. There are many reasons why executive coaching is not therapy. Here are just a few: in therapy the therapist is considered the expert, coaching views the coach and client as co-experts in the relationship. As such the plan for coaching is designed as an alliance by the coach and coach. In therapy,  the therapist plans the treatment. Therapy is problem-oriented and involves spending many hours examining the problem, whereas coaching is solution-oriented with a much smaller amount of time spent examining the problem. Therapy tends to focus on people with major mental or emotional issues. Coaching is about working with a functioning individual with the goal of working to the executives’ strengths. Having presented these facts, it is only fair to point out that there is some overlap with coaching and therapy. Both the coach and therapist have many skills in common, such as listening and helping the clients find insights. Both the coach and therapist utilize the clients past experience in helping them to make sense and to then move forward taking action while utilizing new knowledge. Also the coach and therapist work with emotional material that their client brings as a means to facilitating their growth.
10. MYTH: A successful executive coach needs to have similar experience to the executive being coached
FACT: This is not necessarily so. It may be of some help to the executive to know the coach has been through what they are facing, in which case a program of mentoring may be of value to the executive. However, an executive coach will bring a whole new set of skills that the executive may be unlikely to possess. The executive coaching relationship works best when both the executive and the coach are engaged in the learning process. So the balance of the executive’s knowledge coupled with the coach’s skill at being able to provide learning strategies to assist them create a powerful alliance.