The importance of Coaching for C-Level, with Hervé Essa

Hervé Essa defines his mission in life as "bringing more humanity into the corporate world". Helping people discover who they are and what kind of leader they want to become through coaching is one of the ways to achieve this. 

As Hervé reminds us, coaching is “a partnership with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential, a process which often unlocks previously untapped sources of creativity, productivity, and leadership.”

Coaching is also about building a space where the coachee feels safe to explore themselves in a confidential and safe environment. It’s all about trust, making the coachee aware of unexpected resources, and giving them the ability to use them. It’s also a process of creating a better version of ourselves.

Hervé believes that coaching is a must for everyone. For people, especially women, it is so easy to forget being “me,” he says. Where to start going back to being authentic? How to overcome the fears of not being seen as the person that we are? Coaching helps answer these questions in a journey through our innermost selves.

A successful coaching session is about your willingness to open up, share your story and accept changes with a coach you trust.

One thought exercise proposed by Hervé was this: By yourself or with a person you trust, ask one single question: What is at risk for me to be myself? What is at risk for me as a leader? Have a friend ask that question to you five times and write down your answers. This might help give you the answer to what you need to work on, potentially with the help of coaching.

Many thanks to Hervé for sharing these precious insights during our fireside chat!