This article is part of The Ascender, the Highrise platform for articles and resources.
Article
#EXECUTIVE COACHING

Virtual Executive Coaching: The Future Of Leadership Development

BY
Andrew Langat
November 28, 2022
An executive attending a online leadership coaching session on her laptop.
Newsletter
Read our case studies document and learn how Highrise helped other individuals to improve their professionnal skills and careers.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

The world is changing in ways we could not imagine a generation or two away; how we communicate, work, date, and learn has increasingly taken a virtual approach. Marc Andreessen famously argued that the software is eating the world, and coaching, whose foundation was laid on a person-to-person approach, has not been left away.

Virtual coaching sessions are increasingly becoming the norm. Covid-19 raised it to new levels. For companies and individuals looking for leadership development programs, online executive coaching delivers the same results as traditional leadership development programs.

Moreover, this has facilitated more leaders to enjoy the benefits of executive coaching irrespective of location.

What is Virtual Executive Coaching?

As the name implies, virtual executive coaching uses technology to allow the coach and the coachee to interact remotely through various tools such as video conferencing, email, phone calls, or other specialized software.

Executive coaching has traditionally been a time-consuming and expensive affair. Online coaching has helped organizations break free from the requirement of having their executives attend sessions in person.

Who Uses Virtual Coaching?

Primarily, virtual executive coaching programs are meant for business executives, managers, team leaders, and C-level executives looking to improve their leadership acumen.

Companies can use it as an addition to the contribution of coaching & mentoring in boosting performance.

That said, by hiring a leadership coach online in a virtual coaching platform or contacting them directly, one can learn skills that will enrich their professional and personal life.

What are the Goals of Executive Coaching?

Some of the goals of executive coaching include:

  • Build confidence for a stronger leadership presence
  • Improve performance in the workplace
  • Learning new skills that can be leveraged in a hybrid workplace
  • How to better resolve conflicts
  • Teach different leadership skills such as Influential leadership, servant leadership, etc.
  • See yourself and others more clearly.

What are the Benefits of Virtual Coaching?

Compared to traditional leadership coaching, virtual coaching services have the following distinct advantages:

  • It eliminates the need for traveling for both parties. This is not only a cost-saving measure but also reduces the environmental impact.
  • It democratizes access to a wider audience. Anyone looking for coaching opportunities to enhance their leadership skills or leadership development gets access to top coaches irrespective of geographical location.
  • It makes the coach and coachee quickly focus on the agenda of the sessions as there are fewer distractions compared to in-person coaching.
  • Sessions can be recorded for future reference. This is particularly important for coaches who might want to revisit learned insights. Recording a session is quick and efficient as many teleconferencing platforms have input features to make it seamless.
  • The rise of virtual coaching platforms has made it easy to find the right coach for particular leadership skills based on their unique strengths.

What are the Disadvantages of Virtual Coaching?

Compared to in-person coaching programs, virtual coaching has the following drawbacks:

  • Technology challenges. For a coaching program to work effectively, both parties must understand how to use the applied technology effectively. This can be challenging if one party has difficulties and potentially throw the exercise in disarray.
  • Challenges associated with online fatigue: this occurs when there is repeated use of online sessions. Over time, it brings anxiety due to exhaustion. For example, seeing yourself constantly in real-time induces fatigue. This can diminish the coach-client relationship leading to poor learning outcomes.
  • Technology utilization eliminates the personal touch that makes the coaching experience powerful. This can be diminished for coaches who want to understand the whole person and impart vital skills such as self-awareness.
An executive attending a online leadership coaching session.

Try Highrise Virtual/Online Executive Coaching Process

The Highrise online executive coaching program has the following package to help in leadership development.

Interactive Sessions: Live coaching sessions every two weeks for 75-90 minutes with your group and coach - unlimited texts/emails with your coach in between sessions.

Highrise Coach: A certified coach with decades of experience is ready to help you with whatever problems arise.

Coaching Journal: A dedicated space to record your progress, learnings, and interactions with you and your group.

Curated Exercises: Your coach will create exercises tailored to your group's experience in between sessions. You'll continue learning and developing even when you're not meeting.

Strengths & Opportunities: After taking Highrise's proprietary workstyle assessment, you'll receive a formal Strengths & Opportunities assessment to help you advance your professional career.

Personal Development Plan: You'll work with your coach to craft a custom Personal Development Plan that you and your coach can edit and track in real time.

Highrise Online Coaching Session Process

The Highrise coaching program is divided into eight sessions as follows:

Session 1: Onboarding and Discovery

Your success manager at Highrise will reach out to schedule an introductory call - we're looking forward to speaking with you and learning more about your objectives.

Session 2: Introduction

Meet your coach and group. Set initial goals and set plans/cadence for moving forward. In between your next session, you'll take Highrise's proprietary strengths and weaknesses assessment.

Session 3: Strengths & Opportunities, PDP review:

We'll review your assessment results and the first draft of your development plan ("PDP"). We'll have a group exercise where we analyze the results of your work style assessment and how it impacts your work. You'll have an interactive exercise to apply your learnings in between sessions.

Session 4:Building relationship plans

We'll review the results of your interactive exercise and practice our new learnings/understandings from our strengths/weaknesses assessment with others. We will update our PDP to encapsulate our new learnings. We'll practice building our relationship plans in between sessions and prepare for the next phase.

Session 5: Introduction of values phase

We'll begin our values discussion and introduce The Saboteur Assessment to better understand a) what makes us tick? b) what are the inner saboteurs that hold us back daily? You'll complete The Saboteur Assessment before our next session.

Session 6: Values and saboteur assessment review

We'll review our priorities and goals. We'll also review the everyday triggers that introduce our inner saboteurs. We'll workshop what we can do to change our perspective to eliminate our inner saboteurs. In between sessions, a journaling exercise will track our inner saboteurs.

Session 7: Continuation of values exploration and saboteur reflection:

We'll continue to unpack The Saboteur Assessment framework and use individual experiences to unpack what may be holding us back. In between sessions, we'll make another update to our PDPs and prepare to finalize them.

Session 8: Finalize personal development plan

Finalize and commit to a personal development plan amongst the group. Make plans for the next phase of growth/development with Highrise.

Want to read more from us? Subscribe to our newsletter to read our latest resources

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Highrise Virtual Executive Coaching FAQs

1. How long does the virtual executive coaching last?

 The initial commitment is for six months. Members meet with a Highrise coach 12 times bi-weekly for 75-90 minute coaching sessions with your Highrise section.

Additional features include peer accountability in small groups, fieldwork, DiSC profile assessment, saboteur assessment, and behaviors profile.

2. When do cohorts meet?

For each session, each cohort will meet at the same time. The exact time depends on the availability of the group. When new members enroll, we adjust meeting times to their availability.

3. How often do you take new cohorts?

Cohorts begin on a rolling basis. New cohorts are required to commit for a minimum of six months. For accountability reasons, they are encouraged to prioritize communication on availability.

4. How is Highrise different from other companies' in-house coaching programs?

At Highrise, we believe that any form of coaching is beneficial. That said, our program is tailor-made to prioritize direct relationship building. We only work with individuals to avoid the bias often found in in-house programs.

Moreover, you can interact with personalities from different backgrounds in group settings. This offers a chance to learn from different perspectives.

5. Why should I enroll at Highrise?

If your goal is to realize your full potential and improve performance, then Highrise is your ideal partner.

Our coaching experts will assist you in understanding what holds you back and how to maximize your strengths and authentic leadership.

You will then leverage this for better negotiations, managing up, giving and receiving feedback, listening, influencing, and achieving work-life balance.

6. Who are the coaches?

Highrise has recruited professional coaches with certification from reputable institutions such as the International coaching federation(ICF). These coaches have at least 20 years of experience and 2000 hours of coaching experience with experience coaching fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies.

Our contracted coaches are not full-time employees, making building relationships with their clients easier.

You have a chance to stay with your coach until the program runs its course. However, if differences arise along the way, such as poor fit, we shall work for a solution to ensure that you complete your sessions smoothly. This also applies if you find challenges working with your designated group.

7. What results do I expect?

Results vary depending on circumstances, trajectory and expectations. Past clients have reported increased self-confidence and improved skills such as negotiation, growth mindset, communication, work-life balance, team management, and relationship building.

8. What is the cost?

Pricing is divided into Highrise, Highriseplus, and Highrise Premium.

  • Highrise has all the tools you need to accelerate your career. Priced at $2495 or 4 installments of $695
  • Highrise plus, everything from Highrise plus individual coaching. Priced at $2995 or 4 installments of $850
  • Highrise premium, everything from Highrise plus with an additional leader 360 assessment. Priced at $3195 or 4 installments of $900

After the initial six months, you will access further opportunities to personalize your learning journey for each offering.

Inspiring, isn’t it ? Want to learn more about connecting self-awareness to professional development? Get in touch today.
SCHEDULE A COMPLIMENTARY DISCOVERY CALL

Ready for the Onboarding Process?

Once the initial call is done and the application submitted, we shall let you know about your eligibility. Once accepted into the program, a subsequent meet-up will entail a deeper dive into your professional experience and what you want Highrise to help with.

This will assist in matching you with the right cohort. At this time, logistic information, such as your availability, shall be gathered.

Schedule a call now to get started.

Thank you! Your Downloads is here:
Download
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
AUTHOR
Andrew Langat
Facebook logoTwitter logo
Andrew Langat is an experienced content specialist in Leadership, Productivity, Education, Fintech, and Research. He is an avid reader and loves swimming as a hobby. He believes that quality content should be actionable and helpful.