Dr. Earl R. Smith II

It had been some time since our last meeting. An e-mail showed up indicating that she was ready to sit down and talk. When we began the engagement neither of us was sure where things were going or where they might end up. Our last meeting – some weeks back – had started with some tension in the air. My coaching client had made a successful career as an entrepreneur. She sold her companies and made a lot of money. After a brief ‘vacation’ from business, she began to cast around for her ‘next life’. After some reflection she had decided to become an angel investor.

I recently sat in on a gab fest of entrepreneurs and wannabee entrepreneurs. The subject of investors and how best to approach them came up and I was taken aback by what I heard.

“So what are we going to talk about this time?” The question had a bit of an edge. I could tell that she was apprehensive about the focus of the next hour. Our last session, a week past, had highlighted a basic problem in her approach to investing.

It was one thing to reach an agreement on the focus and goals of the coaching engagement but another to actually kick the process in gear. I could tell by her body language that the CEO was nervous about getting into the thick of things.

Towards the end of my session with the CEO, she asked me to propose an engagement focused on fixing the problems which we had been discussing. “Help me drive the ‘of course’ beast off the field,” was the way she put it.

Many of my engagements begin with a phone call from an investor. Most often they are concerned that the company they funded is in real trouble and/or is teetering on the brink.

Many of my coaching engagements begin with a focus on the kinds of questions that a client has been asking themselves. It may seem strange at first to suggest that it is the question rather than the answer which is important; but that is the case more often than not. The seminal indicator that this is the case is the ‘why’ question.

The last decade has seen a major shift in attitude towards executive coaching. Ten years ago the most likely engagement would have been with a client who was having serious problems. Organizations tended to hire executive coaches when one or more of their people was either having or causing serious problems.

Many of my coaching clients first approach me with a specific need. They want to mitigate a particular behavior, break through a barrier or make a change that has long been needed. We do focus our work on that need and, initially, meeting those needs takes up most of our energy.

Most of my coaching clients come to me with some sort of change in mind. A very few are responding to a general feeling of dissatisfaction. Most want to change something about themselves or their lives.