How does executive coaching help MBA students achieve their potential? Hetty Brand-Boswijk, Director of Coaching and Lead Coach at Rotterdam School of Management, discusses the importance of introspection and how the Executive MBA incorporates key lessons from the practice.
Executive coaching is a relatively young profession that helps leaders maximize their potential. Rather than teaching hard business skills such as accounting or project management, it focuses on identifying who you are, where you want to be, and how to get there. In practice, leaders assess their strengths and weaknesses, focus on their values, and challenge themselves to improve.
It contains a range of different specialist branches, such as executive function coaching, that help clients change their behavior related to work. It focuses on professional aspects such as prioritization, time management, focus, and self-assessment. Business schools such as Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) are quickly becoming aware that executive function skills are crucial to achieving your potential, whatever stage of your career you find yourself at.
In short, the role of an executive coach is to guide clients in their professional development through regular one-to-one sessions. Rather than advising on decision-making, they help executives or high-potential employees gain self-understanding, identify goals, and remove barriers to their success.
Although an executive coach does not necessarily require qualifications, Hetty explains how her institution, the Erasmus Center for Women and Organizations (ECWO) maintains its high standards: “At ECWO, we use only coaches who are certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).” (03:05)
An ICF Credential is a leading global qualification for executive coaching and its rigorous process is a guarantee of professionalism, experience, and standards to clients.
It is very common for professional coaches to have a solid background in organizations before transitioning into coaching. This gives them a good perspective and understanding of how their clients see their position in life and in their careers. As we’ll explore in the next section, some coaches use their experience and industry research to specialize in specific areas, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The Erasmus Center for Women and Organisations (ECWO) is a center of expertise based at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. It comprises a group of executive coaches who specialize in the role of women in companies, specifically in developing their leadership skills.
It is no secret that there is still a stark imbalance of women across all kinds of organizations with just 36.9% of women filling leadership roles in 2022. Hetty explains the initiatives that ECWO runs to redress the balance: “ECWO does research…about how different governments and organizations are working to improve the possibilities, the opportunities for women in leadership. But we also run…tailor-made in-company programs focused on women in leadership, gender balance within organizations, and we have some open programs.” (00:48)
These efforts are all underpinned by ECWO’s commitment to empowering women as they build their own path in business, instead of conforming to what is expected of them. The result is that women improve their self-belief, reduce their self-doubt, and realize that they matter, which in turn improves their career trajectory.
The Personal Leadership Development (PLD) program is one of the courses in the RSM Executive MBA and sees coaches guide students on their own personal and professional trajectories.
As Hetty explains, the coaching process is quite new to a lot of students. “One of the assignments actually for PLD is to write your life journey and you’d be surprised how difficult this is,” she reveals. “We’re not encouraged to look at who we are and who we’ve been in the past and the impact that certain situations in our life have had on us and who we are right now.” (08:50)
The coaching focuses on many different styles of leadership that are all equally valid, rather than the societal expectation of a leader. This way, Executive MBA students can become aware of professional pathways that suit them as a person, rather than turning away from who they are and attempting to appease the expectations of others.
For most of us, we are never taught how to truly ask ourselves the questions needed to understand ourselves. Most of what we learn comes from external sources, and we adapt our behavior to match those standards.
However, as Hetty tells us, we can achieve real change when we make the effort. “When you start to open up and look at the deeper meaning of the learning, you realize what it means to you personally. And this is where the transformation comes in,” she says. (11:45)
Going into more detail, individual coaching work pushes you to understand your personal values. With those clear in your head, you start to notice what causes you stress or anxiety in your environment and apply what you’ve learned to your life. Through leadership coaching, you can recognize what you would like to avoid and work on finding something that better aligns with your values.
If you’d like to hear more about the Executive MBA and the Personal Leadership Development program, you can get in touch with Rotterdam School of Management students directly. Head to the MBAGRADSCHOOLS Ambassadors Page and send them a message through our contact form.
