Executive Coaching
As a CEO, CFO, or senior executive, you're making high-stakes decisions with fewer people around you who will challenge your thinking. Having spent years as a corporate executive myself, I understand that pressure firsthand. Since 2005, I've coached executive leaders around the world — helping them clarify their goals, sharpen their decision-making, and lead with the courage and confidence the role demands.
“I know how it feels to lead in complex organizations...”
As a former corporate executive, I know how it feels to lead in complex organizations. I understand the battle with confidence, the struggle of finding clarity in the mess of organizational culture, the resilience required to stand by your decisions, and navigating the tricky nature of inside politics. These are just a few of the challenges facing leaders, and some of the many reasons why I am passionate about coaching leaders.
About my Practice
My executive coaching offers a tailored approach built around your goals — grounded in emotional intelligence, confidence, and resilience. Working one-on-one, I help you build the attitudes and behaviours that define high-impact leadership.
The clients I work with juggle complex issues, carry real impact in their organizations, and face relentless pressure — internal and external. Few people around them can be fully trusted with their leadership challenges. I am their trusted partner and sounding board.
The types of challenges that my clients bring to their coaching are varied and specific to the individual. Examples include:
maintaining self-confidence
resilience
courage of convictions
holding others accountable
decision making
relationship management
problem solving
navigating organizational politics
negotiation
communication skills
motivating themselves and others
creating a vision
engaging others
conflict management
getting unstuck
organizational savvy
strategic thinking
business acumen
organizational planning
influencing & persuading
change management
coaching & developing others
Who I work with
I work with CEOs, CFOs, C-Suite, and senior executive leaders, including board directors, SVPs, and VPs, across a broad range of industries — with particular depth in mining, technology, consumer packaged goods, distribution, and public sector.
Self-assessments
In my practice, I will encourage you to complete self-assessments that are tailored to your goals and needs including emotional intelligence, values, preferences, and 360 tools feedback. These assessments help increase self-awareness and illuminate personal motivators. While all of the assessments are optional, I encourage all of my leadership clients to invest in the EQ-i ® emotional intelligence assessment as it is a strong tool for self-awareness and development.
What to expect
The coaching process is designed to help you find a pathway to reach your goals, while providing tools that will help you sustain new behaviours and modes of thinking into the future. Expect to meet regularly to work towards your current, mid-term, and long-term goals. Sessions are one-on-one and are always followed by homework (i.e. a reflection for self-awareness, a new approach, or taking an action). to help you move forward quickly.
Sessions occur regularly every one or two weeks by digital connection, usually for 1-hour sessions. Typically, my leadership and business clients work with me for a minimum of 6 months and many continue the coaching for years.
A word from my clients
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“I absolutely LOVED having Elaine as a coach - what an amazing introduction for me to the coaching experience. I still speak about her to this day with friends and colleagues. I will forever be grateful for our sessions together.”
— Kim, Vice President
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“I couldn’t have evolved how I did without Elaine’s support.”
— Christina, Vice President
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“Elaine was instrumental in helping me define who I have become after the firm. Thank you so much for your assistance and continued support.”
— Ken, Partner, Consulting
FAQs
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Coaching is a process that helps you move towards your goals faster; gain clarity about yourself and others; learn new ways to think and respond; harness your strengths and embrace new behaviours; to increase your effectiveness personally and as a leader. Through the coaching process, you will deepen your self-awareness, push through challenges, and act with confidence.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential." The coaching process can help you improve your outlook on work and life, while improving your leadership skills and unlocking your potential.
Coaching is a change process that will move you towards what you want and what’s most important to you. It helps you gain clarity about yourself and others; learn new ways to respond; harness your strengths and embrace new behaviours; to increase your effectiveness personally and as a leader.
Coaching is also an accountability process because the focus is on you and moving you towards achieving your goals. You own your goals and your progress. Many of my clients value the accountability structure of the coaching experience because it focuses on moving forward faster and with intentionality.
The process of personal change occurs over time as you increase self-awareness and deepen your understanding of how your thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, and emotions impact you and your choices. With each action you take towards achieving your goals for change, you become more aware, more courageous, more open to new choices; and more trusting in yourself and your ability to achieve the changes you desire. It helps you get unstuck along the way; holding space for you to stumble, learn, reflect, and grow; and illuminates your strengths, values, talents, and unique capabilities.
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Role of Coach: The role of the coach is to use the coaching process to help their client discover, clarify, and align to what they want to achieve. Through the coaching process, the coach encourages client self-discovery and elicits client-generated solutions and approaches. The coach holds the client responsible and accountable for their own development, decisions, choices, and work.
Role of Client: The client creates their coaching goals; is responsible for their decisions and actions; and is always in choice about what they do. The client uses the coaching process to expand possibilities and consider new perspectives. The client is encouraged to step back and view the broader picture and choose a course of action and apply the tools, models, techniques, concepts, and principles offered by the coach to create forward movement towards their goals.
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The results my clients have experienced include:
getting the promotions they desire
increased leadership presence
improved team development skills
improved self-confidence and resilience
greater self-awareness
clarity around issues specific to them
decision making on complicated issues
better time management and prioritizing
thought and emotion management
improved emotional intelligence
improved business results
untangling complex issues
navigating organizational politics (including boards)
influencing and persuading
handling confrontation and difficult conversations
Negotiation
These are just a fews of the hundreds of challenges my clients have worked through in their coaching with the goal of improving performance, improving skills, or increasing personal satisfaction in their role.
If you want to take advantage of an opportunity or challenge, feel "stuck" on the path to achieving your goals or simply believe there's something more to discover in your personal or professional life, partnering with a professional coach could benefit you.
Coaching clients who responded to the 2017 ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study reported positive coaching impacts including:
Improved communication skills
Increased self-confidence
Increased productivity
Optimized work performance
Improved work/life balance
Increased well-being
Improved business management strategies
Expanded career opportunities
Accelerated on-boarding in a new role
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The time it takes to achieve results depends on the number and complexity of your goals and your ability to dedicate time to complete the homework between sessions. Development and change can come in layers where uncovering one layer might reveal a new layer of challenges that you bring to the coaching. Most clients gain new insights right from the start through the in-take process. Many of my clients work with me for months and years and some come back for coaching after completing because they have new important goals that they want to achieve.
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One-on-one coaching sessions occur regularly every one or two weeks, usually for 1-hour sessions. Typically, clients work with me for a minimum of 6 months and many continue the coaching for years.
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The cost of coaching depends on the length of time of the mandate, most of my clients work with me for 6 - 12 months and often renew; with payment in advance for a program.
When we connect for a consult call we can discuss pricing, billing, and payment processes in the context of the coaching mandate. I accept payment by direct deposit; e-transfer; credit card; and cheque for corporate mandates.
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Yes, I work with individual clients on personal development coaching most often related to job or career satisfaction; entrepreneurial goals such as launching something (business, book, etc); transition goals related to job change (work leaves, retirement, relocations, onboarding to a new role, job change, etc.); and mindset.
The process of coaching is the same for personal coaching and leadership coaching; the difference is the client’s specific goals for change and development.
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Yes, I have facilitated organization, leadership, and team development workshops since 2005 in small group and large group settings. I design all the programs I facilitate using content from leading thinking in the various fields of organizational and leadership development.
Examples of team development facilitation I do include: improving team cohesion, developing high performance team practices.
Examples of leadership skills development programs I facilitate include: coaching skills for leaders, accountability, decision making, conflict skills, organizational savvy, personal leadership vision, emotional intelligence, and leading change.
Let’s Get Started
Contact me to schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation. We’ll discuss what you’re looking for, how my coaching practice can help, and answer your questions. I look forward to hearing from you!