I can feel myself getting excited about an upcoming meeting with my group of peer HR executives this Friday. For the last month or so we have been co-creating a list of powerful questions to explore together around executive coaching. See below what we have come up with and add your own (before Friday)! I am intrigued to see which ones we actually pursue as a group – no way we can cover them all:

Coaching Trends

1. What questions are we not asking that could make a difference for coaching in the future? What do we need more clarity about? What might coaching look like in ten years?

2. How is coaching currently used in your organization? What’s changed. What’s ahead?
What is the difference between mentoring, sponsoring, coaching and consulting

3. What’s working well for you? What are the key organizational challenges you run into around coaching?

4. How successful is coaching in organizations? How do we demonstrate that the investment is worthwhile? How much attention are decision makers paying to measurements of success? How important are subjective (feel good) and objective measures of impact and ROI of coaching? What is the current discussion around sustainability (how “sticky” is the learning)?

5. Are the types of assignments you bring in coaches for changing? Are logistics changing? For example face-to-face vs tele-coaching, frequency of meetings, engagement of sponsor/superior, fees?

6. What’s the upside/downside of individual versus group coaching? When does what approach work best?

7. What impact can coaching have on the leadership culture of a company?

8. How can coaching accelerate the progress of leadership development programs? How can it hinder it?

9. What are the most fundamental issues you see in executives that get in the way of their effectiveness?

10. What trends do you see in leadership characteristics and developmental needs as the X and Y gens start moving into the seats of power?

11. How can we – HR executives and coaches – support each other better?

The HR Executive Perspective
1. What are your individual challenges around coaching as a senior HR executive?

2. How do you feel about your effectiveness in influencing the C-Suite around coaching in your company? With other key players? What’s working? Not working? Why might it be that coaching is/is not a viable and integral part of the fabric in your organization?

3. Do coaching proficiencies allow you to be more effective as an HR executive? What coaching proficiencies are particularly useful? Where do you/your HR staff fall short as internal coaches? How can you bridge the gap? Tradeoffs internal/external coaches?

4. How can HR facilitate a positive experience where the coached employee feels truly supported? What structures/environments can you put in place to maximize successful outcomes?

5. What are you doing to ensure that internal and external coaches are a good fit and have the qualifications required for success in your organization? How can you best manage your coaches and an effective process?

6. What does an ideal external coach look like? When have you been most satisfied?

7. Does your organization’s culture foster and environment of “coaching leadership” and “asking powerful questions?” How do you know?

The Coach Perspective

1. How is coaching as a profession changing? What’s taking shape?

2. What draws you to coaching?

3. What does an ideal client look like?

4. What are the possibilities that group coaching is opening up for organizations? Upsides/downsides?

5. How are external coaches integrating with the organization? For example cultural fit, pre-existing tools and initiatives in the organization, coach orientations?

Other powerful questions for the good of us all?