NOTE: As of 2022 the Center for Executive Coaching is now accredited with the ICF as a Level 2 Coach Training Organization. The ICF has changed their language and replaced ACTP with Level 2. We were among the first group of coach training programs to receive this accreditation, after a rigorous review by the ICF.

Executive Coaching Tool: Overstatement and Understatement

Sometimes the executive coach can help the client achieve insights by intentionally overstating or understating what they hear.

For instance, today I worked with a client who was frustrated with an employee and didn’t know what to do. So I took the situation too far and said, “Maybe it is time to fire this person."

The client responded by disagreeing — and then offering her own more moderate and thoughtful solution to the problem.

On the other hand, last week I worked with a client who seemed unwilling to make a decision and take action about an issue. So I said, “This problem must not be a serious one for you, since you aren’t willing to make a commitment. We have all the information we are going to get, but you won’t take action, so I can only conclude that this is not a pressing issue. Let’s move on to something else."

The client responded by choosing a sound course of action and committing to next steps.

If you feel that this approach is inauthentic, you can make it more open and honest by prefacing your remarks, as follows: “I’m going to be provocative here and play a role…"

Aflac

Amazon

Ancestry

Army Corp of Engineers

Ascension Health

AT&T

Bank of America

Bechtel

Best Buy

Booz Allen

Bose

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Brown University

Capital One

Caterpillar

Charles Schwab & Co.

Children’s Hospital Colorado

Cisco

Citrix

Coca-Cola

Deloitte

Dropbox

Duke Energy

Galveston Independent School District

General Atomics

General Electric

Google

Harvard Business School

Home Depot

Inland Steel

International Red Cross

Johnson and Johnson

Kaiser-Permanente

KPMG

Laser Spine Institute

Lexis Nexis

Liberty Mututal

L’Oreal

Macy’s

Mckinsey Consulting

Merck

Microsoft

MIT

NASA

National Basketball Association (NBA)

Nike

Nissan

Nvidia

Partners Healthcare

Philips

Procter & Gamble

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)

Ralph Lauren

Regeneron

Rice University

Ross Stores

Russell Reynolds Associates

Schneider Electric

Shell Oil

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Stryker

The Ohio State University

Tom’s Shoes

United Nations

University of Florida

Unum

UPS

US Air Force

US Army

US Army Medical Corps

US Marines

US Navy

USAID

Valassis

VMWare

Xerox

Zappos

Our featured articles