Executive Coaching in Japan

Your company can only grow as fast as the leader.

Business professionals such as c-suite executives, VPs, and other senior-level employees might need assistance from executive coaches at certain challenging points in their careers. During that time, they may consider hiring an executive coach to help them find clarity in where to take the organization, solve complicated internal political challenges, and understand how they might be actively causing problems. Executive coaching in Japan or in any other country helps senior-level employees and leaders make the leaps to advance their careers. 

By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a person being employed as a leader or senior manager in your organization. You can better project the performance of the organization. 

This article is designed to provide you with a better understanding of executive coaching in Japan. Read this article to make yourself familiar with executive coaching in Japan and everything associated with it. 

What is executive coaching? How is it useful for people?

An Executive Coach in Japan is hired with the purpose of exploring and clarifying developmental objectives, gaining self-awareness, executing their role fully, and discovering hidden potential so that senior managers or boards can act in an effective manner. Coaches are helpful in broader aspects rather than providing actual business advice or solutions to problems, which is something a consultant or advisor would be more suited to. A coach will challenge their client to achieve success in all matters that they are confronting. 

Executive coaches are not necessarily consultants or therapists but might have a background in these subjects. Different from their relationship with advisors or other internal staff, an executive or senior leader can open up and share their doubts, insecurities, and challenges in an open and safe manner without having to worry about internal politics, etc.

Why do high profile employees need executive coaching in Japan in their careers? 

Many executive coaches are hired with the purpose of helping underperforming executives. However, in more recent years, more and more companies understand the investment of providing coaches for their top executives to maximize their effectiveness and potentials. With executive coaching, hidden capabilities are found and used to the maximum in favor of the company. For some organizations, hiring executive coaching is a symbol of status.

Employees facing challenges and obstacles in their performance or in Japan’s work life might need executive coaching in Japan. Some companies may rely on coaches to deal with internal interpersonal conflicts and behavioral problems. All negative aspects associated with the performance are discussed with an executive coach and employees are being challenged to prevent it in the future. It enhances leadership skills and boosts business performance. 

Highly skilled and experienced executive coaching is dedicated to develop leaders to the highest possible standards to upskill your team and ensure your business excels. Executive Coaching in Japan or in any country is dedicated to the progress of a business.

Executive coaching in Japan will help an individual to cope with all barriers confronting him to maintain successful business relationships. Executive coaching in Japan is specifically designed for busy executives and employees who need to learn the key elements of doing business with Japanese. Some areas include establishing effective communication with Japanese colleagues, and to help dealing with the protocol and business etiquette of Japanese people. For example, if you are appointed as a senior manager and you are going to manage Japanese staff, executive coaching in Japan will help you a lot.

What is the executive coaching process in Japan? 

Executive coaching aids in providing sound boards to the company executives by way of asking them questions, challenging assumptions, achieving clarity, and providing resources or even sometimes providing guidance and advice. There is no single procedure for providing executive coaching in Japan. In general, coaches use a series of steps to provide coaching.

1. Awareness: The first step of coaching starts with a meeting between the coach and executive members, such as a senior executive and a representative from Human Resources. The coach tries to understand the client’s background, objectives and outcomes by holding discussions with them. One-on-one interaction is being conducted by the coach to gather as much as information from the client. This step includes in-depth interviews to better understand the strength, weaknesses and various other factors such as motivation and career prospects.
2. Analysis: In analysis, coaches undertake a few assessments. They even interview other stakeholders and meetings take place between the coach and the client to discuss competencies and to set expectations. After having meetings with clients and other stakeholders, a development plan is prepared and shared with other stakeholders. 
3. Action: After analysis, an action plan is created which focuses on the development plan and involves communication between client and coach on a continuous basis. Under this step, the client undergoes training programs and attempts new skills and behaviors and reports it to the coach. The coach always keeps in touch with the client so that if the client is confronting any problems, he can contact the coach.
4. Achievement: Stakeholders are asked to provide feedback on the client’s performance, improvement and progress. This feedback is further discussed with the client and if needed, measures are taken. if the client and stakeholders agree that they have met the expectations, the coach begins a phase-down period where the client is required to do more and more of the target behavior on his own. By this, the dependency on the coach is reduced. When the client is performing on his own, the coach conducts a session to obtain feedback, acknowledge accomplishments and present a final report on the coaching.

To understand this process in more detail you can visit the site. The 4 Stages of an Executive Coaching Intervention – John Mattone

Which questions can be asked to an executive coach before hiring one? 

You need to be commended if you are going to hire an executive coaching in Japan. Coaches often come from vastly different backgrounds with different skills, experiences and expertise. You should prepare yourself to ask these below five questions to the coach you consider hiring.  

1. What is the experience of the coach and who is his/her reference? 
2. Which executive coaching methodology is adopted by the coach?
3. How does he/she define and measure success in a coaching context? 
4. Which types of certifications do they have? And any relevant experience?
5. Which types of activities clients need to perform during client coach meet-ups? 

It is well known that there is no single correct coaching methodology. But the response to the second question will let you know about the approach that they intend to use for coaching. Why they want to use a particular approach, how they use it and what types of results they will get after using that approach. They should also be willing to show you a record of results their methodology of choice delivers.

Next, coaches and clients need to be on the same page about how they define and measure success. If the coach and client are going in different ways, the process will not be impactful. Both parties should discuss the results that they are going to achieve with the executive coaching. Again, it is important to check the credentials of a coach before hiring them. They must have both the experience and qualifications to proceed further. It will provide the client a belief that the coach has undergone training and has fulfilled the requirements.

A great experience will give you assurance that effective outcomes will be generated. The knowledge about the activities that clients need to perform during meet-ups will be helpful for clients. Though in the beginning client and coach will meet and conduct some assessment, interviews, and gather information to create an action plan. Afterwards, it is expected from the client to progress by himself, and if needed ask for help from the coach. But all these things need to be clarified beforehand.

What are the common credentials for an executive coach?

Coaching is a self-regulated industry and the professionals working in this industry are diverse. Knowing your coach before hiring brings the reassurance to gain the most from coaching. Although a coach with previous experience can provide valuable coaching without any certification and training, they might not be able to help the client effectively. Therefore, certifications and qualifications are necessary

Basic certification, qualifications, continued professional development, and membership in a professional body are the gold standards in coaching. Apart from this, always look for coaches who are members of either the International Coaching Federation or the European Mentoring and coaching council. Coaches belonging to these bodies will work to the highest professional standards and always keep them updated with the latest research. Moreover, MCC (Master Certified Coach), is the highest credential offered by the International Coach Federation. This credential involves at least 2500 hours of coaching experience. ICF (International Coaching Federation) is an organization for trained professional coaches with its six family organizations to better serve the journey of coaching. ICF credentials are considered as the gold standard of professional coaching, ICf credential provides instant credibility and visibility to clients. It offers three credentials as

• Associate certified coach (ACC): 60 hours of coach-specific education and 100 hours of client coaching experience.
• Professional certified coach (PCC): completed 125 hours of coach-specific education and 500 hours of client coaching experience.
• Master certified coach (MCC): completed 200 hours of coach-specific education and 2500 hours of client coaching experience.

Mention about ICF – how many hours for associate coach + normal coach, also mention about the training process > how long it normally takes to get certified.

Where can I find a good coach?

Locating coaches is not difficult, but finding an ideal coach is all you need to succeed. Always make sure that you interview the coach before hiring them. There are multiple ways to find a good coach as you might not be aware of it but your company may hire coaches before, word of mouth referrals from other executives, or you can hire through a placement agency, or you can go online and search about it, and various useful resources such as international coach federation and the coaches training institutes can be approached to gather a list of good coaches.

Specifically, in Japan, coaches can be found through various websites such as 

• Asia & Pacific Coaches – The Forton Group
• EXECUTIVE COACHING IN TOKYO JAPAN
• Coaching – Japan Intercultural Consulting
• Scaling Your Company – Coaching services from myself

I also provide coaching to middle managers – executive leaders. Common issues are on communication, leadership, and organizing a team and organization. I ran HR at my company One Coin English and later ran our subsidiary Japan Switch, so I am well-versed in sales, marketing, operations, and HR and can serve as a traditional coach or advisor depending on your needs. You can book a free 45 minute consultation with me to see if we are a potential fit and here are my services.

What are the major executive coaching organizations in Japan?

There are two or three major coaching institutes which are providing executive coaching in Japan. If your business is based in Japan and you are actively looking for executive coaches for your employees then you may refer to these companies.

1. Japan Intercultural Consulting: Has credentialed and qualified coaches who are both foreign and Japanese. What is unique about them is that they are also cross-cultural communication experts. In addition to management skills and other topics typically covered by coaches, they help clients with the challenges inherent in managing culturally diverse teams, and in working with (as suppliers) or within Japanese organizations. In addition to working with many non-Japanese executives in Japan, Japan Intercultural Consulting also works with many Japanese executives. The Japanese executives are ones who are working in foreign firms, and need to be effective working with their parent companies, or are working in Japanese firms but managing global operations and/or multicultural teams.
2. Dale Carnegie Tokyo: This is one of the places for executive coaching in Japan where you can find an ideal executive coach in Japan for you. They provide coaching to front-line supervisors, high-profile employees to very senior people in the workplace. This company works with complete dedication. After receiving the inquiry for coaching, they always make sure that they only accept it if they can make a big difference to the client. Otherwise, they don’t proceed with it. If they proceed, they arrange a coaching session to check the chemistry between the coach and the client. If the chemistry is there, sessions are organized according to the needs of the client and followed by a review. This company can be approached through this site Dale Carnegie Tokyo
3. Japan consulting office: This place is specifically designed for executives who need to learn key elements of doing business with Japanese in a short period. Its team is well diverse and has a leader for each region such as the United States of America, Belgium, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Japan, Hungary and Singapore. Each leader has a minimum of 15 years experience. This company is particularly designed for providing an expertise executive coaching in Japan. Specifically to non Japanese companies operating in Japan has a mission to improve business relationships among Japanese and non Japanese through increased knowledge. It aims to provide complete satisfaction to clients by catering their services according to the needs of clients. You can refer to the site Japan Consulting Office
4. Executive coaching connections: This is another best place for hiring executive coaching in Japan. ECC team is serving in 27 countries and in 32 languages. This company has 200+ coaches who are dedicated to building great leaders, teams and organizations. All coaches have relevant experience in this field. They have been recognized as experienced business leaders and coaches to generate valuable outcomes for the clients. With its expert support client can capitalize on the transformation and maximize his/her potential. You can find about this place online as Anthony Clucas, PCC – Executive Coaching Connections 

What is executive coaching for a startup founder?

Creating a startup in Japan or anywhere else in the world is an extremely tough task. After receiving investment from venture capitalists, you are expected to find product market fit (PMF) and if you are a part of the lucky few who accomplish that, you move to the growth stage where you are expected to double headcount year after year. A startup coach is similar to an executive coach but has experienced rapid startup 2x / 3x annual growth and can help founders with dealing with the pressures of having to manage senior level employees who have more expertise than you, investors and board members expecting you to guide their investments, and push you towards creating the right team for startup level growth.

Often 50% of your employees who were promoted to managers cannot keep up with the rapid growth and need to be replaced, demoted, or have their job roles reduced when transitioning to the growth strange. Startup founders will need guidance on how to coach employees and how to deal employees and even co-founders who can’t scale fast enough to make it to the next funding round. A startup coach like myself can help startup founders with this.

How much do coaches charge for their services? 

Usually, the charge rate depends upon the company coaches belong to. In general, you can expect an executive coach to charge between $150- $650 per hour according to the expertise and worth of a coach and company they belong to. If you are hiring a coach with great experience and high rate of success and he/she is from a renowned place, you are expected to pay higher for the services. Therefore, the charges solely depend upon the experience level and success rate of a coach.

My coaching rate goes at 22,000 yen an hour. In addition as serving as an HR director, where my coaching experience comes from, I have managed 3 layers of staff (individual contributer > manager > director > myself) and understand most aspects of the business to a high level (sales, marketing, and operations) . You can learn more about me here.

When not to hire or provide executive coaching in japan?

• You want a coach to lift up an unmotivated staff member > coaches can serve as a guide, but the person needs to want to go through that door.
• Your manager is showing resistance to change and believes that he/she doesn’t need feedback or that others are always the source of the issue.
• This is my personal thought, but the manager is not willing to pay 50% of the fees for the coaching – it is not a golden rule, but it can help filter who is really serious and has a strong mindset for growth.

If someone in your organization at the top level holds a willingness to perform better but requires assistance, executive coaching is a great step to proceed to cope with this situation. Executive coaching in Japan is proven to be a great option for executives. In general, all executives follow a similar pattern of process to provide coaching. But some coaches bring modifications according to the needs of executives. 

Final thoughts 

Coaches must be hired after considering their experience, credentials or certifications. It is quite essential to ask some questions to the coach before hiring the coach to establish chemistry with the coach. It is best to hire those with whom you can communicate without any hesitation to have effective results. In order to get satisfactory results from executive coaching, research must be conducted before. 

If you are new in Japan and about to start a business in Japan. You must make yourself familiar with its culture by reading various other Japanese articles as Top Japan Podcast and Foreigner’s guide to Japan market entry or you can head to our website scaling your company where you can book a 45-minute consultation session with Tyson Batino and can discuss about your business’s growth.