Executive Coaching for Peak Performance AND Peak Wellbeing

Successful Leader who Benefits from Executive Coaching for Performance and Wellbeing

You engage your executive coach to help you achieve ‘peak performance’ right? 
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Yes, but nowadays, alongside seeking executive coaching for ‘performance’, my clients are seeking executive coaching for ‘wellbeing’.  As a result, I’m coaching ALL my clients for peak performance AND peak wellbeing. 

To do otherwise I feel, would be negligent considering the working world of 2022 – and might put my clients’ long term career success and happiness at risk.

​​Perhaps this shift of wellbeing up the coaching agenda, doesn’t feel such a surprising development considering how professional and managerial work has changed in the last ten years.  Change is now the only constant due to new technologies, globalisation, political issues like Brexit and most recently Covid and the widespread adoption of working from home and hybrid working.  Executives are continually dealing with high levels of volatility, uncertainty, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) aspects to their projects. As a result, senior executives may gradually slide into ways of working that are unhealthy, damaging to mental health and ultimately unsustainable.

​Executive Wellbeing is More than Avoiding Burnout

​At its simplest I describe executive wellbeing coaching as helping people to avoid burnout – something which is increasingly common among executives. UK government data¹ shows a 65% increase in the last five years of work-related stress, depression and anxiety.  

Executive in Need of Stress Management Coaching

However, poor wellbeing manifests in many ways long before burnout. I’m talking about clients who frequently sleep badly or who have poor sleep habits, feel anxiety about their workload, or overwhelm and stress about the pressure their under. Others share feelings of isolation due to home-working or conflict in key relationships with bosses and subordinates. Under the wellbeing banner, I would also include feelings of lack of meaning and purpose.

Isn’t executive wellbeing part of the ‘corporate wellbeing’ agenda? Something that employers are attending to? Well yes and no. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)2 research shows that wellbeing is high on business agendas these days, but there is a significant ‘implementation gap’. It seems that while boards are wrestling with the corporate wellbeing issue and perhaps piloting programmes, staff wellbeing and executive wellbeing which is my particular focus, continue to deteriorate.

​Executive Wellbeing is a No-Brainer

Coachees are realising the importance of managing their wellbeing and are prepared to invest to improve it. For many it’s a no-brainer. “If I stay fit and well then, I will have a long, lucrative and fulfilling career ahead of me. By contrast If I burnout, I may end up taking a lot of time out and my card might be marked”. (Yes, stigma around mental health still exists.)

​For me executive wellbeing coaching helps with so much more than ‘preventing burnout’. Like any executive coaching it is an opportunity for you to gain greater self-awareness, increase your self-knowledge, gain insights and replace outdated beliefs with beliefs that are more helpful to your life now. Executive wellbeing coaching can help you actually break patterns of self-destructive behaviour. E.g. You know you need to leave your desk, get out and take some fresh air, but still, you feel chained to your desk. Often, it’s not enough to cognitively be aware of the benefits of taking a walk, you may also need to understand and deal with the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that might be keeping you at your desk; behaviours that perhaps might be driven by low self-esteem, perfectionism or fear of failure to mention but a few reasons.

CEOs Don't Intend for Staff to Burnout

​I don’t believe that any CEO intends for their senior staff to burnout or suffer large amounts of work-related stress, depression and anxiety. However, the reality is that more senior staff do suffer from these problems than ever before.  

Some of this may be attributable to the fact that nowadays it can be hard for line managers to identify wellbeing issues. For instance, in matrix organisations a line manager may not have clear sight of their report’s total responsibilities as he or she may be collaborating on projects across the organisation and reporting to different leaders on some of them. A boss may only see a report on Zoom, and infrequently at that, making it harder to spot signs of poor wellbeing.

​Senior Executives Need to Take Responsibility for Their Wellbeing

In 2022 senior managers and leaders need to know about and take responsibility for their executive wellbeing. If their organisation offers effective support in this area – that’s a bonus but many cannot take it for granted.  

Senior managers and leaders need to plan for their wellbeing before they develop unhealthy work routines. ​

Senior Executives Need to Take Responsibility for Their Wellbeing

This is where your executive coach can help. Executive coaches can also help you to take remedial action when your wellbeing might have gone awry.

​Executive Wellbeing Audits Can Help

Executive coaching for peak wellbeing ideally explores what wellbeing looks like for the individual. This might include an audit of current issues, health status and self-care practices. Such an audit can identify latent mental health issues and pave the way to plan for better wellbeing and to access relevant resources.

Following the audit an executive wellbeing coach might help you to:-

• Develop better routines that support good nutrition, regular exercise and sleep
• Identify problems around work/life boundaries and balance
• Identify your drivers of stress in all aspects of your work and help you develop coping strategies. This might include coaching and training in even better prioritisation, delegation, assertiveness, confidence building, relationships skills and influencing skills.
• Get in touch with what is meaningful to you so that you can plan your career trajectory to include more of what is important to you and fewer of the things that aren’t.

I suggest that managing your wellbeing should be a ‘key result area’ for senior leaders and managers. If the culture of your organisation is not supporting you to keep it prioritised, consider how an executive coach might keep you on track with achieving ‘peak performance and peak wellbeing’.
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​ ¹ HSE Data Dec 2021. Work-Related Stress , Anxiety or Depression Statistics in Great Britain.
  2 CIPD June 2016. Growing the Health and Wellbeing Agenda
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