You're striving for work-life balance and career growth. How can you make executive coaching work for you?

Leadership is both inner and outer game. Look inward, know thyself, speak to self, challange your current thinking go beyond . Forward externally once you have won the inner games by displaying apprehensions and critically thinking about future plans. Everything is part of life be it personal or professional. When both inseparable and inter-dependent parts of life - where is the worry for work life balance?

What does a good work life balance look for me? What does it mean to have that balance? What are the emotions attached to it? - are some of the questions one needs to ask oneself. The coach can only lead you to the strategy or solution so knowing what the goal is will be the key so knowing what success looks like in this regard is of paramount importance.

Striving for work-life balance while pursuing career growth is a challenging yet achievable goal. Executive coaching can be your catalyst for success. Start by setting clear boundaries and prioritizing what's most important in both your personal and professional life. Coaching helps you develop strategies to manage time effectively, delegate tasks, and stay focused on your goals. It also provides the tools to navigate stress and prevent burnout. By aligning your career aspirations with your personal values, executive coaching empowers you to create a sustainable balance that fuels both your success and well-being.

A good coach can help you clear away the clouds, providing clarity on what’s critically important right now and what can be deferred. Often, challenges in work-life balance stem from a lack of focus, ineffective delegation, and difficulty in saying no, or at least not now. Whatever the root causes, we all could use an extra lift in our careers!

A few to leverage executive coaching to amplify your career growth and yet maintain work-life balance 1.Constantly refining and reviewing goals:-This helps to craft your strategy based on the external and internal factors aligned to your goals. 2.Planning and Prioritization:An executive coach will help.you bring clarity on your top most priorities and your current time wasters.You could reclaim lost time once you identify these distractions to focus on your purpose and goals effectively.Your prioritization strategy should include your personal goals as well

There are seven common mistakes an executive leader will want to avoid when contracting coaching services. Here are five of them: 1. Neglecting Clear Objectives 2. Unfamiliarity with Coaching Benefits 3. Lacking Measurement Metrics 4. Inadequate Follow-Up and Support 5. Neglecting Cultural Alignment In a free short e-book I present all of them in detail.

What's critical is to understand that all coaches are really permission slips for a shift in your awareness. What will shift your experience / results isn't the coach or coaching or the advice - it's the shift that goes on in you. Choosing a coach based on them helping you make a meaningful and valuable shift PRIOR to you choosing them is one way to determine who is right for you. Relevant expertise is helpful but only to a degree - working with a coach who works contextually and recognises this is YOUR journey and not a copy of someone else's is critical. Choosing a coach who is happy to share accountability for your results / ROI is also helpful because if not, you're wise to ask them why not?

I've seen a lot of coaches be purely focused on performance and corporate goals, with little or no thought about the whole person, life balance or wider purposes beyond profit. Be prepared to walk away if you feel your values don't align.

Communicating Openly with a wise coach will help resolve most of the issues. The issue might be an official task, a conflict with team, a feeling that your voice is not being heard, you’re being sidelined. A small episode or regular such episodes can overthrow your work like balance as you’d often carry your office to home. Learning to leave office behind is what everyone should practice. Create personal space and happily embrace that space. Companies should actually help the employees with psychologists or with therapy sessions to make them more productive. A happy employee is always company’s asset.

A valuable addition is "Leveraging Support Networks." While the focus is on the coachee-coach relationship, involving broader networks—like colleagues, mentors, and family—can be crucial. Engaging these groups provides additional perspectives, encouragement, and resources. For example, sharing career goals with trusted colleagues or mentors can lead to collaboration and feedback, while involving family creates a supportive home environment. By fostering these relationships, you enhance the effectiveness of coaching and create a more holistic approach to achieving work-life balance and career growth. How can you involve your support network to enhance both your work-life balance and career growth?

Communication should also be based on mutual respect and absolute honesty. If certain tough or unpleasant information is not shared, the coaching relationship cannot solidify.

To maximize the benefits of executive coaching, consider bringing your vulnerabilities into the conversation. Sharing not only your successes but also your fears and uncertainties can lead to deeper insights and breakthroughs. This level of openness fosters a more authentic connection with your coach, enabling them to offer more nuanced support. Embrace the discomfort of discussing what’s not working, as it often uncovers the most significant areas for growth, turning challenges into opportunities for real development.

I have coached entry level leaders up to Exco Leaders and the one key thing that brings success is “Transparency” when you’re communicating … Not just with your coach but with your staff ….I’ve observed that staff tend to work harder and want to help the leader and team succeed if this is the case

The real value of coaching is in applying what you learn. Your coach can help you improve discipline, manage your time better, and set clear boundaries. If you often overcommit, they can guide you to prioritize what truly moves you forward. Growth happens between sessions, so focus on follow-through. Coaching gives you the tools, but it’s your effort that creates lasting progress. Stay consistent, and you’ll see real results.

We become what we repeatedly do and repeatedly think. Work with your coach on your mindset as work life balance can get caught up in the semantics of things like permission and boundaries. Easy to say, harder to do. Digging into what lies behind this thinking will open up a whole new world. If you have an aptitude for saying yes too much then work with your coach to understand the impact and options.

Though magic can happen within a session, the real magic and growth happens between sessions while new information and experiences integrate into the client's consciousness. This is also the time where experiments and observations are done which in turn creates success stories and challenges to pick up with in the next session. To get maximum benefit from coaching, you must be willing to experiment with new behaviors, thoughts and strategies. I played an instrument as a kid and I sometimes went to my lessons without practicing. I definitely grew my mastery faster when I practiced ;-)

In my journey working with executive coaches, I've learned that it all begins with a comprehensive assessment of where your client currently is. Without this crucial initial assessment, strategies can often fall into a trial-and-error cycle, prolonging the path to achieving goals. By establishing a solid foundation of effective strategies, not only does your client’s overall wellbeing improve, but their focus on career growth becomes much more attainable. This approach also helps mitigate the fear that a higher position might negatively impact their work-life balance. Having a robust set of well-being strategies in place before pursuing career advancement ensures that they can maintain momentum and achieve their professional aspirations.

Micro-Habits for Personal Growth Instead of overhauling the client's life with significant, dramatic changes, I focus on co-strategizing small, consistent habits. Micro-habits, like reading a page a day or doing two minutes of stretching, may seem insignificant. Still, they are powerful because they’re easy to maintain and gradually lead to transformation. Consistency helps embed behaviours into your daily routine, making success feel less overwhelming. Over time, these tiny habits compound and result in significant growth, whether improving your health, boosting productivity, or enhancing a skill.

A good Coach will support you in setting realistic priorities, ensuring that you are making time for what truly matters-both at work and in life. You can develop resilience and adaptive strategies to handle stress and avoid burnout, fostering a more sustainable career trajectory. Whether you’re leading teams or managing projects, executive coaching refines your leadership skills, helping you grow in your career without sacrificing personal well-being. If you’re aiming for both balance and growth, executive coaching can be tailored to your needs, enabling you to thrive in both areas! #WithAWillLegacies

Buy a notebook and get in the habit of writing or drawing or tabling how things are. Date your entry and locate one area to improve. If you’re not making progress or need accountability, get a coach who can witness you, clap for you and with you and be there when you’re needing non-judgemental, compassionate human presence. We all need to be seen, heard and understood. Some of us are super lucky to find that with friends, but most of us will need to hire a professional. But we must learn to listen to the voice inside.

Working with a coach gives you the container to identify what success looks like in this particular season of your career and life. We help with identifying your values that can inform your big priories, which then helps you solidify your unique definition of success. The balance part of the equation is working with a coach to be intentional in looking at your whole life, identifying what areas in life feel satisfactory and what doesn’t and then building a plan of micro actions and milestones to be more in balance. A critical aspect of this is understanding the ebb and flow of balance and being more accepting of that.

Again, the coach should actively help you on this. Every client of mine receives a 'reflection form' after every session, which helps them to gain more value from each conversation and me to understand what is helping and what could work better. This should not be all down to you.

Regular reflection with an executive coach is not just a practice; it's a powerful tool for balancing work and life and pursuing career growth. The benefits of this practice are significant. It's not just about reflecting on progress; it's about reflecting on what strategy works, what emotions are triggered when implementing the plan, what's in the way, what values are honored, the trade-offs, and one's limiting beliefs. When you allow your executive coach to hold a mirror to see what you avoid seeing or your blind spots, you will progress with awareness and commitment.

Work-life balance is about finding the right mix between work and personal life. An executive coach helps you understand what balance means for you, identifies areas that need more attention, and determines if any changes are needed. Together, you'll create a plan to reach your goals. As you start hitting small, measurable milestones, you'll likely feel happier, healthier, and less stressed. Over time, this process can lead to a more fulfilling lifestyle that supports both your career and personal satisfaction. Executive coaching can help you see things from a new perspective and explore better ways to achieve work-life balance, making it a continuous journey toward well-being.

I recently coached a remote marketing consultant who was overwhelmed by managing multiple clients while feeling isolated. We worked on strategies to streamline her client communications and build a more structured daily routine. This included setting specific times for deep work and regular virtual check-ins with her network to combat isolation. The result? She not only became more efficient in her work, leading to higher client satisfaction and more referrals, but she also regained a sense of community and balance in her life. This demonstrates how coaching can empower remote professionals to thrive both professionally and personally.

I fully agree "work-life harmony is not a one-time accomplishment but a dynamic equilibrium that requires continuous attention and adjustment." The lure of accomplishment, rewards, and future satisfaction is strong for high-achievers. The possibility of ambition to leave a trail of debris on the way to the goal is high. One way I have seen high-achievers create balance is to create non-negotiables in their personal lives. Examples: - Dinner with the family. - Physical exercise commitments. - Phone call commitments to loved ones. - Community engagements. - Spiritual renewal practices. - Every day rituals and habits. For me, I now make calendar entries for my 'life commitments" and only then add my "work commitments".