📚 6 signs you might need an executive coach — and 2 signs you don’t

IT leaders are more integral to a company’s business success than ever and that brings pressure to expand their roles, better understand and collaborate with the business, and launch major initiatives. To master the various aspects of leadership, it’s often helpful to get professional help.

That’s where executive coaching comes into play.

As technical people move up the ranks, going from coders and admins to managers to CIOs, they need to learn how to do a lot more than build great software, connect backend systems, or build firewalls. Suddenly they’re in jobs that demand they be able to clearly and confidently speak to colleagues who run the company’s finances or business strategy, as well as those who sit on the company’s board. They’re also managing people who used to be peers, and they need to organize and motivate their team members to take on major new projects.

It can mean developing a lot of new skills and handling a lot of added stress all at once. Looking for help just makes sense and most companies encourage it, especially for people taking on big, new roles.

“A coach helps a person do things, rather than doing things for them,” says Susan Cramm, a leadership coach for the past 25 years out of San Clemente, Calif. “A great coach believes their clients have the answers within them. It’s not really about simply accomplishing short-term goals, but developing new capabilities to strengthen and propel one’s career.”

Here are six common signs that an IT leader could benefit from working with an executive coach.

1. You’ve hit a wall in fulfilling a big promotion

A lot of people who sign up for executive coaching do it because they’ve been promoted into a new position. Maybe they leveled up because their technical skills were excellent and they did a great job in their last role. The challenge, though, is that those who come up through a technical background might not have managed people in the past and suddenly they have to be the boss, often of dozens or even hundreds of people. Soon, there’s a realization that there’s far more to this new job than just giving people assignments.

“I usually get a call when somebody has a new job,” says Cramm. “Maybe they’re hitting walls and their bag of tricks is empty. They’re smart enough to know there have to be different ways of doing things. They just don’t know how to do it, and they’re not making progress.”

When it comes to being an IT manager or a CIO, understanding technology is just a cornerstone. You must also understand how the business runs, how to speak to business executives, how to manage people, and how to build relationships and handle office politics. (See more “signs” below for additional information on some of these issues.)

“How do I motivate people? How do I keep them engaged? How do I dole out increases?” notes S. Yvonne Scott, CEO and founder of CIO Concierge, an executive coaching consultancy based in Scottsdale, Ariz. “These are different conversations that many people have never had before. Technical people often become really uncomfortable when they realize how much they don’t know. It’s all about learning to navigate becoming a manager.”

People who suddenly find themselves in a new position will face a lot of changes. They can negotiate this new road more easily with a coach’s help.

2. Your communications with the business team could use fine-tuning

A big part of taking on a new role is communicating with colleagues on the business side of the company. If technical leaders can’t understand and talk about business and financial needs, they can’t make the personal connections that will help them ensure technical work is aligned with business strategy.

If CIOs, for instance, aren’t talking clearly to key sponsors or stakeholders, how can IT help the business side understand why they should fund major migrations or other technical investments? If CIOs can’t communicate without “geek speak,” how do they contribute to their company’s value proposition? That’s not an easy thing to learn.

“A big challenge in IT is how do you help the business see the value that IT brings, so they look at IT less as a cost center and more as a value,” says Robby McDonald, CIO and VP of information systems at McIlhenny, maker and distributor of Tabasco. “An executive coach will play devil’s advocate and ask you questions they’ve been asked before but you haven’t. So when you show up to do your presentation or speak with a business partner, you have those questions answered ahead of time.”

McDonald, who has received professional coaching and has coached 13 people himself, says he has standing meetings with his coach but asks for additional time whenever he has a large presentation coming up. “I always use my coach to help me think through the process,” he says. “Having someone you can bounce ideas off of helps you get perspective.”

3. You’re preparing the organization for major changes

Before setting a migration or department reorganization into motion, it’s critical to have members of the team on board. They need to understand the work they’re about to do and the changes coming at them. But it also really helps if they get behind these changes. That means making it clear to the whole team why the change will bring new efficiencies and maybe why it also might ease workers’ cognitive loads and free up some of their time.

Getting all of this done is not an easy job, especially for someone who’s never led this kind of change before.

“Most IT leaders only focus on tech but if you change that without changing the people and the process, you’ll have a train wreck,” says Larry Bonfante, executive coach and founder of CIO Bench Coach. “When people are going through change in an organization, you need to get them to a different place. You need to help them think differently and work differently. People and process change requires you to see the benefits of change and to motivate people to do it. It’s about shaping people’s minds and hearts.”

4. You’re having trouble retaining team members

If members of an executive’s department are stressed, bored, or otherwise unhappy, they’re not going to stick around. Instead, they’ll leave for jobs where they can do more interesting work, use more cutting-edge technology, or simply make more money. And that leaves managers with the headache and time suck of interviewing a long list of candidates to replace them, as well as the expense of onboarding them. That’s not even counting the work slowdown that comes along with losing and replacing workers.

“You have to learn how to create an environment that retains top talent,” says Tracy Podell, an executive coach and partner with Evolution, a Los Angeles-based international executive coaching business that specializes in startups and high-growth tech companies. “In IT, there can be a lot of stress and a monotonous nature to the work. How do you make sure employees are engaged? Do they know why [their work] is important? Do they feel valued and cared about? Are they able to grow in their job? Do executives know how to look for signs that someone is burned out?”

Laina Fredieu, director of information technology at McIlhenny, noted that coaches can help directors with the actual process of bringing on new people and getting them onboarded. “They can help with a shift in mindset of what we can do with people on the team,” she says. “Maybe we can fill positions with people we already have. Maybe we can broaden the role, shift gears, and look for someone outside of who we’d normally look for.”

5. You’re struggling to motivate your team

One of the problems that can lead to employee retention issues is when a manager fails to motivate their team. Sometimes the problem derives from people not feeling respected. It also can stem from people not being in the right roles or if they’re overburdened and stressed.

Whatever is causing the team’s lack of motivation, it’s up to the manager or the department leader to fix it. And that’s generally not an easy task.

“You need to get people motivated and inspired to collaborate,” Bonfante says. “Making that happen uses a whole different set of muscles for a lot of people. It can be tremendously uncomfortable. It’s about communication, influence, collaboration, and political savvy. Those are areas that a lot of IT people might not have had to practice yet.”

McDonald also noted that leaders need to learn how to work with and inspire high-performing employees and middle-of-the-road employees as much as they do with people who aren’t performing well. It takes a different set of skills to motivate all these types of workers to be more productive and efficient. “You have to learn how to deal with all different kinds of people,” he says. “You have to learn how to best treat everyone.”

6. Work stress has become a problem

Everyone’s job gets stressful now and then. That’s generally not a big reason for concern.

But when someone starts losing sleep, is worrying about work when they should be off enjoying friends and family, or is becoming irritable, those are warning signs that the stress has gotten out of control. When it’s that bad, it can start to impact people’s home life and relationships — inside and outside of work. It could even impact their health.

“A coach can help when there are work stresses and outside factors that are adding to someone’s stress,” says Fredieu. “It’s not just about whatever is going on at work. Issues at home can affect how someone is feeling at work. And leaving work at work, and home at home, isn’t always realistic. We’re all human.”

An executive coach can talk with the exec about their anxieties — which parts of their jobs are overwhelming, how work is affecting homelife — and then create a plan to work through those issues.

When coaching might not be needed

Not every situation a manager faces calls for a coach. Sometimes they can find a mentor or someone else who has been in their position before or has faced a similar challenge. Relationships like those are worth nourishing.

“If someone is a mid-manager or below, they should look for advisors internally because they know the company and probably the work,” advises Cramm. “Drain every last ounce of what you can learn from the people around you. Volunteer for things. Raise your hand and try new experiences. And if someone doesn’t work for a company where those advisors exist, they probably aren’t at the right company.”

Coaches and executives alike noted that anyone unwilling to put in the work or humble enough to admit they have something to learn isn’t a good candidate for coaching.

“In coaching, just saying, ‘No, no, no, not possible,’ isn’t an option. You can’t solve problems if you say every approach won’t work,” Scott says. “You have to try things, maybe in small doses and with patience. You can’t quit because something isn’t 100% better. Set expectations and realize when things are getting better.”