6 Best Executive Coaching Tools to Try in 2024

Executive coaching is rooted in your expertise, strategies, and commitment to your client’s growth. So, how do you achieve such outstanding results? While experience and a tailored approach are important, it’s equally key not to underestimate the role of executive coaching tools.

Whether it’s for time management, client assessment, or smoother communication, using the right tools can help you build your business and offer more value to your clients. Having the right tools can be the difference between a truly impactful coaching session and one that just goes through the motions.

If you’re searching for the best executive coaching tools and techniques to explore, this detailed list is the perfect guide. With these resources, you can guide clients to uncover their potential, assess strengths and weaknesses, manage goals efficiently, and drive real change. While no tool can replace your personal touch, using them smartly can help you focus more on what truly matters—guiding leaders to unlock their full potential. Sit back, relax, and enjoy diving into these valuable resources!

Top Executive Coaching Tools to Have in Your Toolkit

Why are these tools so important? Simply put, they elevate your coaching practice. With the right executive coaching tools, you can offer more value to your clients, ensuring they leave each session feeling empowered and ready to tackle the next big challenge. Whether you’re helping a client boost productivity, assess their strengths and weaknesses, or set achievable goals, having the right tools makes the process more effective and enjoyable. 

We’ve compiled here the list of different executive coaching tools that you can try.

Productivity tools

Growing an executive coaching business comes with the challenge of managing multiple clients while maintaining productivity. Balancing client needs can quickly become overwhelming, especially as your business expands. This is where adopting the right tools can make a major difference in reducing time spent on administrative tasks, allowing you to focus on what matters most: coaching.

Productivity tools can drastically improve time management, allowing you to focus on your priorities. By breaking tasks into manageable chunks, these tools help you to prioritize your work, keep track of deadlines, and improve overall efficiency.

Top productivity tools are:

• Scheduling/calendaring – Efficient scheduling tools help you streamline appointments, prevent overlaps, and ensure you never miss an important session or deadline, giving you more time to focus on your clients.
• Digital note-taking tools – Tools that enable organized note-taking allow you to capture insights from coaching sessions, track client progress, and keep all important documents accessible, ensuring you stay prepared and organized.
• Client management systems – A robust client management system helps you track client goals, manage communications, and monitor progress, allowing you to handle multiple clients with ease and stay on top of each coaching engagement.
• Accounting Software – Reliable accounting tools streamline invoicing, track payments, and manage expenses, allowing you to focus more on coaching and less on administrative tasks.
• Simply.Coach – Instead of juggling multiple tools, coaching platforms like Simply.Coach provide all of the tools mentioned above and more in an all-in-one solution. By centralizing your tasks, from managing clients to tracking progress, you can save time and reduce the mental load of switching between apps. This streamlining enhances productivity and helps prevent burnout while ensuring you maintain a high level of service.

These productivity tools help you improve your workflow, manage your time better, and scale your coaching business without compromising the quality of your services or risking burnout.

Ready to take your coaching to the next level? Book a personalized demo with us and see how Simply.Coach can streamline your executive coaching practice from day one, helping you save 30% of the time spent on administrative tasks so you can focus more on your clients.

Assessment tools

Early in a coaching engagement, it’s essential to assess your client’s current strengths, weaknesses, and priorities. Assessment tools streamline this process, helping you quickly identify what’s needed to set your client on the path to success.

Personality tests

Here are the effective personality tests you can use:

• CliftonStrengths Assessment: Curious about your client’s unique talents? This assessment identifies their top strengths from a pool of 34, helping you focus on what sets them apart and how to utilize those strengths effectively.
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): This well-established tool divides personalities into 16 types, providing insights into communication styles, decision-making tendencies, and how clients recharge. It’s like having a detailed guide to your client’s personality.
• DiSC Assessment: For a straightforward approach, DiSC categorizes personalities into four main styles—Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. It offers a quick understanding of how your client handles tasks, relationships, and challenges.
• Tilt 365: This effective service offers personality strengths assessments designed to foster an agile culture. It reveals four specific agilities that drive behavior shifts, making your clients idea-driven, results-oriented, data-informed, and people-focused.
• 16Personalities Test: A popular choice for a detailed personality breakdown, this test provides a nuanced view of personality types, similar to the MBTI but with additional depth. It helps clients understand their traits, behaviors, and interactions with their surroundings.

These tests not only provide you with valuable insights into your client but also enhance their self-awareness. It’s a win for both you and them!

360-degree feedback

Ever wondered what 360-degree feedback is all about? Imagine it as a supercharged performance review. Instead of just hearing your insights as a coach, your client gets well-rounded feedback from peers, subordinates, and even higher-ups. It’s like having a panoramic view of their professional landscape.

Here’s why it’s so effective:

• Comprehensive insight: Rather than relying solely on your viewpoint, 360-degree feedback offers a full-circle view of your client’s strengths, blind spots, and growth areas. It’s like getting feedback from every angle, and creating a detailed picture.
• Unbiased assessment: The feedback comes directly from the people your client interacts with daily, providing honest, objective information.
• Personalized development: With this thorough feedback, you can tailor your coaching strategies to address specific areas. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution; it’s a custom roadmap for their development journey.

It’s like having a backstage pass to your client’s work life. The real, unfiltered feedback makes growth opportunities crystal clear.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) tests

Emotional intelligence tests go beyond traditional IQ measures. They get into the emotional side, helping you understand how your clients manage stress, navigate relationships, and make decisions influenced by their emotions. Think of these tests as a supercharged mirror that reveals strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

Here are three great EI tests to choose from:

• Emotional Intelligence Appraisal: Created by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, this test breaks down EI into four key skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. It’s user-friendly and impactful.
• Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT): Developed by the pioneers of emotional intelligence, this test explores how individuals perceive, understand, manage, and utilize emotions.
• Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment (SEI): Offering a holistic approach, the SEI covers eight essential EI competencies, helping pinpoint specific areas for growth and development.

Imagine having an all-access pass to your client’s professional world. With direct, unvarnished feedback, you can dig out the hidden growth opportunities that might otherwise remain out of sight.

Cognitive ability tests

Consider these tests as a way to get a clear picture of your client’s cognitive skills. They help you see how well they solve problems, make decisions, and think critically. Unlike other tools, these tests give you straightforward, unbiased insights into their mental strengths and weaknesses. With this information, you can fine-tune your coaching to better fit their unique needs, making your support more effective and personalized.

Try one of these cognitive ability tests to see their effectiveness:

• Wonderlic Personnel Test: A time-tested classic for assessing general cognitive ability. It provides a glimpse into your client’s capacity to learn, adapt, and tackle challenges.
• Raven’s Progressive Matrices: Ideal for evaluating abstract reasoning and non-verbal problem-solving skills. Think of it as a way to solve puzzles with real-world applications.
• Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal: Perfect for sharpening critical thinking skills. It helps you assess how well your client analyzes situations, interprets data, and makes well-reasoned decisions.

Not every tool has to be digital or complex, but having a variety at your disposal ensures you can effectively guide new clients, no matter their goals or fields.

Then, there are a slew of tools you can use throughout a coaching engagement to improve client experience and coaching outcomes – from impact assessment forms to leadership growth reviews, mid-engagement reviews, self-reflections, and so on.

Simply.Coach’s Digital Tools helps you run all these and more. Instead of juggling multiple platforms for surveys, assessments, and feedback forms, you can create custom forms, send them directly to your clients and stakeholders, track responses, and generate insightful reports—all in one place. From 360º assessments to feedback surveys, streamline your process and focus on what truly matters: driving results for your clients.

Ready to experience it? Sign up for a FREE trial today with Simply.Coach.

Goal-setting and action planning tools

Goal-setting is the cornerstone of effective coaching and building trust with your client is the key to setting and achieving big goals. Once you’ve solidified that trust, work together to create a clear plan with milestones. This way, you can show your clients exactly how each step will help them reach their goals. Without clear, actionable goals, it’s impossible to track progress or measure success. 

Plus, you can use a range of free executive coaching tools to help your clients set goals that are specific, achievable, and relevant. Give them a try and see how they can enhance your coaching process.

Top tools for goal-setting:

• SMART Goals Criteria – A tried-and-true method, SMART criteria ensure goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
• Goalscape – This visual goal-setting tool helps you map out your clients’ goals in a clear, concise format, making it easier to prioritize and track progress.
• Toggl Plan and Todoist – These task management tools help you break down large goals into daily or weekly tasks, ensuring steady progress.

Guiding your clients through one of the most complex parts of the coaching journey just got easier, thanks to the flexible Reflective Goal Setting tool—a powerful way to help your clients discover and set meaningful, life-changing goals. This tool helps your clients uncover and set truly meaningful goals, laying the foundation for life-changing outcomes. It’s the perfect way to start strong and gain valuable insights for long-term progress.

Communication Tools

Effective communication is at the heart of successful leadership. As a coach, it’s important to equip yourself with the right communication tools to ensure clear, open lines of dialogue with your clients.

Primary tools for communication:

• Slack – A popular tool for team communication, Slack allows you to send quick messages, share files, and create specific channels for different projects.
• Google Hangouts – For video calls and quick meetings, Google Hangouts provides a reliable and simple solution.
• Calendly and Doodle – These scheduling tools eliminate the hassle of back-and-forth emails when trying to book meetings.
• Otter and Rev – For transcription, Otter and Rev convert voice conversations into written text, allowing for easy record-keeping and review of important discussions.

Accountability and impact assessment tools

Keeping clients accountable to their growth journeys is one of the trickier parts of being a coach. Leadership coaching tools that track progress and maintain motivation are crucial to ensuring that your clients stay on course with their goals.

Tools for accountability and impact:

• Daily Questions by Marshall Goldsmith – Use this tool to encourage your clients to self-evaluate each day. It prompts them to ask themselves key questions that keep them focused on their personal growth and development.
• Mid-Way and End Engagement Assessments – These assessments help both you and the client to evaluate the impact of the coaching relationship, identifying areas of success and opportunities for further growth.
• Nudges & reminders by Simply.Coach: This feature allows you to send friendly automated reminders that keep clients accountable and engaged by prompting them to check in between sessions, prepare for upcoming meetings, reflect on their progress, and build awareness of new behaviors, ensuring they stay focused on their goals and fostering long-term growth.

Coaching exercises and tools

Coaching exercises and tools are essential for driving self-reflection, generating insights, and facilitating transformative conversations with your clients. They play a vital role in helping clients explore their thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors, ultimately leading to meaningful changes in both their personal and professional lives. Focus on the executive coaching exercises that address your clients’ main challenges. Here are a few options to consider:

• GROW Model for effective decision-making

When decision-making becomes a bottleneck, use the GROW model to guide your client through setting goals, evaluating their current situation, exploring options, and planning a way forward. The SWOT analysis can also help them assess their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to make more informed decisions.

• Creative thinking with fun exercises

To break free from rigid thought patterns, introduce creative exercises like combining unrelated items (e.g., an elephant and a train) to stimulate new ideas. Another fun approach is the “Worst Idea Ever” challenge, where clients brainstorm intentionally bad ideas to spark creative solutions.

• Stress resilience with “Stress Diary Dive” exercise

Build stress resilience by encouraging mindfulness practices. Have clients take moments throughout the day to focus on the present. Additionally, the “Stress Diary Dive” exercise, where clients record stressful situations and their reactions, can help identify stress triggers and develop effective coping strategies.

Incorporating these tools and exercises into your coaching practice will not only improve the overall experience for your clients but also empower them to achieve significant, lasting growth.

Conclusion

Having a diverse set of leadership coaching tools can truly elevate your coaching practice. These tools simplify the process, helping you and your clients pinpoint strengths, set clear goals, communicate effectively, and track progress.

As an executive coach, integrating these tools into your sessions will enhance your ability to guide your clients towards their leadership potential. It also allows you to deliver more structured, impactful, and results-oriented coaching. Dive into these tools and experiment with them to create a coaching approach that’s tailored to each executive’s unique needs.

Keep in mind: with your expertise and proven strategies, you are the guide steering each executive coaching session toward meaningful change.