So how come coaches aren't as prevalent or as prominent in the world of business?
- It's not because business in not competitive – some would say business is even more competitive than sports
- Most would agree the stakes are higher in business – which would argue for even more coaching
- Maybe it's the lack of play-by-play scrutiny that athletes and performers are subjected to that most executives can more easily avoid. Or more easily explain away.
Notwithstanding the fact that most executives are very well trained and credentialed, and have access to lots of advice and mentoring from more senior executives, from their Board members, and from executives in their network of relationships – they still have plenty of missteps to their credit, and the rumor mill about the things they do that don't work is rich with stories.
With A Coach You Get What Exactly?
- A partner who will help you see your blind-spots, the areas where you act inconsistently with your commitments and values, so you can correct
- A thinking partner – someone who can help you sort out the nice to haves, the pipe dreams, from what you really, really, really want and are committed to so you can focus your energies and resources
- Someone who can help you discern straight talk from equivocation and obfuscation so at very least you will know when you are not being straight with people – so you can discover how come and correct. If straight talk was part of every meeting and performance review, for example, organizational performance would be significantly increased
- Someone who can help you surface the problems to solve that will have the highest leverage in forwarding the business
- Honest feedback – most C-Suite executives don't get honest feedback from colleagues and staff because most of the people they interact with have an agenda – looking good to the boss for example, or just not rocking the boat.
All of us have areas of unconscious incompetence – the moments before the aha, before the penny drops, before the epiphany – the primary role of a coach is to help the executive he of she is working with accelerate the process of discovering and correcting what stops, blocks and thwarts vision, commitment and execution.
To Succeed With a Coach You Need to Bring What Exactly?
- Your vision, commitments and intentions – and/or a willingness to explore what they are really
- An openness to being contributed to, to being helped – the lack of openness is the single biggest source of failed coaching relationships
- The willingness to establish criteria for success and failure – without failing and correction there is little room for growth and development
- A healthy compassion, for self and others – extraordinary performance in any field is not arrived at without disappointments, upsets, and a whole range of human emotions
- And all your existing business savvy and worldly wisdom.
So What do Successful C-Suite Executives Say About Coaching?
Paul Michelman, writing in the Harvard Business Review Working Knowledge, says that most major companies now make coaching a core part of their executive development programs.
Marshall Goldsmith, a coach to leaders in Fortune 500 companies and author of The Leader of the Future, argues leaders need coaches when “they feel that a change in behavior—either for themselves or their team members—can make a significant difference in the long-term success of the organization.”
Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, who said that his best advice to new CEOs was "have a coach." Schmidt goes on to say "once I realized I could trust him [the coach] and that he/she could help me with perspective, I decided this was a great idea..." Mike Myatt says in his article, The Benefits of a Top CEO Coach.
So What Do You Say?
Share your experience and perspectives.
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