Executive Coaching

What's In It For You?^*

We all want to perform better. In the beginning improving performance is relatively easy. Learning some new skills, applying new technologies and just plain experience seem to do the trick. As high performers move up the ladder of success, however, squeezing out that extra ounce of performance becomes increasingly difficult. For many, coaching is the answer.

For decades, athletes, public speakers and performing artists facing a similar dilemma have turned to coaches to help them perform better. Often, these individuals have already reached the top of their profession. The coach's role therefore, is not as a teacher, but as a partner who introduces the high performer to new challenges, options and behaviors.

Now, this approach has taken hold in the business world, where top performers are turning to executive coaches to help them reach their business and personal best.

According to Fortune's survey of leading companies, those coached in business "may be anyone from a $60,000 middle manager up to the CEO, although more commonly that person will be a leading contender for the CEO's job." These coaching candidates are valued people who are motivated to perform even better.

Because executive coaching targets high performers, the focus is less on teaching new techniques than on helping the executives become their best. Those who coach are typically skilled outside consultants who collaborate with executives on a regular basis. These relationships may last a few months to several years, during which time a coach provides the constructive feedback and wise counsel an executive needs.

Feedback - the coach's stock in trade - ranges from active listening to formal reports about an executive's behavior and blind spots. Executives (like all of us!) are often unaware of the impact of their actions on others. Feedback gives the executive a snapshot of these important tendencies and helps change behavior as a result.

Executive coaching goes far beyond collecting raw data, however. For example, to be "successful" at leading a booming business (or to "fail" at turning around a chaotic operation) may tell the executive nothing. Most useful learning lies in examining how a situation was managed, what available resources were used and how things might have been done differently. By asking tough questions the coach and the executive learn lessons from experience and practical insights to prepare for future leadership roles.

This personal learning process is the essence of executive coaching. Because executive coaching is so personal, no two situations are alike. But the following scenarios serve to better illustrate the coach's role.

When it's lonely at the top
Leading a business or a major business function can he a lonely activity. Issues such as the executive's own growth and development, working relationships with the executive team, or specific business challenges can be highly confidential. But these matters are also important enough to merit the rare opportunity to discuss them, think out loud, and receive constructive feedback.

As an objective outsider and "talking partner" a coach is free to question and engage the executive on major issues, an option less open to corporate insiders. Often, a coach also helps the executive to obtain valid data to address specific issues or concerns.

When it's lonely at the top, coaching leads to:

Better decisions.
Experienced coaches offer insight and perspective on an executive's ideas. Talking through actions before they are implemented tends to improve the chances for sound decisions.

More ideas and options.
A coaching environment encourages creative suggestions from both the executive and the coach.

An exchange occurs without risk. One creative idea often sparks another.

Better support for the executive's agenda.
Coaching sessions start with the executive's agenda. Coaches are free to offer suggestions but the coaching format ensures that executives address the issues and concerns that matter most to them.

When there's pressure to improve

Today's turbulent environment demands tnore from executives. As goals, roles and business conditions change, executives must learn new skills and hone their old ones. The reasons for performance coaching can range from stretching "seasoned hands" to sharpen their current skills, to capitalizing on "stars" by keeping them challenged, to correcting the behavior of poor performers. In any case, the executive coach acts as a "performance coach."

Specifically, the coach helps the executive to assess his performance, to obtain confidential feedback on individual strengths and weaknesses, and to learn new skills and behaviors. These coaching sessions typically focus on performance in the present job, although improvement may well lead to future positions. When there's pressure to improve, coaching leads to:

Clearer performance goals and roles.
Coaching helps the executive step back from daily operations to size up the situation and determine the difference between goals and reality--the distance between where the individual is and where he or she wants to be.

Greater self awareness.
Coaching helps the executive discover individual strengths, weaknesses and possible behavior problems. Better self awareness develops quickly through being coached. The feedback data and coaching sessions reveal priority areas for improvement and motivates executives to take action.

Better learning for performance improvement.
Coaching is just-in-time learning, with little loss of time from the job. Coaches recommend learning resources that are tailored to immediate needs. Executives apply their new skills and behaviors promptly and learn effectively on the job.

When gifted people are groomed to advance

Developing people to fill key positions is one of the most challenging and critical tasks facing business today. Typically, what's lacking among candidates for the executive suite is not technical skill but the ability to lead and get along with others. Coaching for these candidates tends to focus more on strengthening their leadership and managerial effectiveness than on sharpening technical skills. In these situations the coach acts as a "development coach" by helping executives to discover their potential to advance and to address their long term developmental needs--often over several years or a career.

When promising people are groomed for the top, coaching leads to:

Clearer career and development goals.Coaching helps executives and their organizations to clarify the skills and competencies for success in a leadership role.

Better discovery of developmental needs. Coaching helps an executive discover strengths and weaknesses, determine where growth is needed and how to fill the gaps. In the process, executives discover their developmental needs for future jobs.

Better learning for career development. Coaching helps an executive prepare for advancement. Coaching also provides an opportunity for an executive to reflect on life experiences, clarify future goals and plan for continuous development.

Getting started with coaching

Coaching helps executives solve their own problems and grow to new levels of performance and maturity. Coaching also keeps key people motivated and involved. Unless careful thought goes into choosing a coach, however, many of these benefits may never materialize. Choosing a coach should start with one's needs. Does the executive need a confidant?

To learn a new skill? To perform better in the present job? To prepare for a future leadership role? Often these needs and the coaching "fit" can be clarified in an initial exploratory meeting. Some coaches, for instance, often specialize in one kind of service.

Beyond matching skills and needs, however, personal chemistry is an integral part of any coaching relationship. Executive coaching will fail if communication is not open and clear. A coach who misunderstands basic business issues or makes impractical suggestions will not be able to gain the trust and build rapport with a business executive. For coaching to really succeed, the executive must feel confident that the coach is a valuable resource, assisting the individual to reach important goals. Helping executives to achieve their goals is what executive coaching is all about.

A good coach helps create an environment where the executive learns how to learn, is motivated and involved and receives the support he or she needs to succeed. Thus coaching goes beyond most training and instruction. A partnership between executive and coach fosters personalized development that encourages business executives to make the most of their unique abilities.

Indeed, our concept of coaching is about bringing out the best in people. The very first use of the word "coach" in English occurred in the 1500's to refer to a particular kind of carriage. (It still does.) Hence the root meaning of the verb "to coach" is to convey a valued person from where he or she was to where he or she wants to be. That's still a good meaning for coaching executives today.

Organizational affiliations:

American Psychological Association

APA Certified Addiction Psychologist

Connecticut Psychological Association

Psychologists in Independent Practice

UConn Family Business Program Consultant and Member of Advisory Board

Connecticut Family Business Study Group

Charter Principal of The Global Consulting Partnership (TGCP)

Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce