Last week I was presenting at a Careers Fair and the group of 15 year olds asked me - what does an Executive Coach actually do? I found that the easiest way to help the group connect with the job was to use an analogy based on Wimbledon that starts today. They all knew that coaching is common to sports performance and most could name Andy Murray's coach! This gave me a point of reference to then work with! Andy Murray would not only have someone helping him with the technical and physical elements of his preparation for today, but he will also have a coach working with him on his mental preparation. The mental fitness coach will be working with him on his motivation and decision making on all aspects of the tournament, building his resilience and performance for the next fortnight. It's not too dissimilar to working with someone in business who needs support for a decision or they may be working on a performance gap or they may have a big event coming up and need to be at their best. Coaching in the business field "is about helping individuals optimize their performance, the coach supports to enhance skills, resources and creativity that the individual already has" (adapted from the International Coaching Federation Website) and therefore its just working with another element of human beings and their complex brains!