Executive coaching is an investment for you and your business and you need to understand what returns you will get. How exactly will you benefit from it?

On a practical level, much executive coaching nowadays is carried out by phone, so there is no time wasted in travelling to meetings. A phone call can simply be diaried in for the home or office to fit around your other commitments. E-mails are then used to correspond between phone calls as necessary.

The relationship between coach and client is one of total confidentiality, so you can speak completely openly without worrying about office politics or watching your back. This alone can be an enormous relief from the competitive world of modern business.

You decide what our objectives will be and the coach works with you to ensure you achieve them. Examples might be gaining promotion or getting a job in another company or industry, improving relationships with colleagues and/or customers, improving sales and profits or finding new clients.

You look carefully at your goals before setting them, to make sure they are really what you want. How will their achievement impact on your home life and friends? Is the goal achievable? You will also agree on ways of judging your success ? sometimes it may be obvious, such as being offered the job, other times less so.

In talking to your coach and answering their questions, you will begin to learn more about yourself and how you habitually respond to certain situations. You will also begin to understand others better and why they behave as they do.

You become clearer about situations which have been problems in the past and see alternative responses. With the support of your coach you have the confidence to try out different responses, to find out which works best.

You will find that with the one-to-one support of coaching, your development is rapid and sustained. Attending a training or personal development workshop can be inspiring at the time, but the effect quickly wears off once you return to your daily routine. Executive coaching makes positive change much more likely to be permanent.

You find that getting results and becoming more productive is easier and less effortful.

And finally, you are learning valuable resources which you can continue to use once the coaching is over. You will be able to coach yourself!

Andy Britnell is an executive coach who works with businesspeople in both the private and public sectors who wish to achieve better results. More information can be seen at http://executive-coaching-for-business-growth.com/ and http://executive-coaching-for-business-growth.com/business-growth.html