Broaden their range, boost results.
Most major companies turn
to coaches to help their people become more productive. Executive Coaching
is a developmental process for executives, professionals, and other key contributors,
aimed at maximizing leadership results and/or
resolving performance problems. Executive Coaching is often used to accelerate
leadership development and to retain top talent.
Is Executive Coaching worth it? Studies have shown that the ROI on coaching is about 700%, which explains why it is so popular today.
As popular as it has become, Executive Coaching is still a
mystery to many business owners and executives. Often we are asked "Are
you consultants?" When we answer, "No, we're Executive Coaches," the
inevitable next question is, "What's the difference?"
Consulting is usually the process of being paid to use one's talent and time
toward creating valid observations, conclusions, and recommendations (called
a deliverable) upon which the client has a choice to act.
Generally, a consultant
is brought in to fill a skill or knowledge gap in an organization, or to augment
the organic staff for a short period of time. The consultant is generally an
expert in some discipline or industry. When the consultant
leaves, most often the skills and knowledge that he or she came into the organization
with go out
the door.
The Executive Coach is an expert in helping individuals obtain
peak performance from themselves and their peers and subordinates.
He
or she need not be an industry expert.
The five phases usually involved in an Executive Coaching
and/or leadership development process are:
1. Setting expectations.
2. Performing an assessment/audit
3. Developing an action/implementation plan, clarified and
agreed to
by all parties.
4. Implementing the plan, focusing on progress at milestones
during which reviews are often participated in
by the client, the sponsor, and the coach.
5. Evaluation and follow-up
The Executive Coach develops the skills and knowledge in the
people being coached, and those improved skills are then used to solve
critical problems.
The Executive Coach becomes, and remains, a trusted advisor who can be called
upon later to help support decision making and problem solving by the people he or
she has coached.
Benefits usually include:
• The retention and development of highly valued employees who are sometimes
called "top-
talent."
• Strengthened communications.
• More synergy within the organization that allows more to get done with less effort.
• Increased problem solving/learning effectiveness.
• When the coach leaves, many of the skills and knowledge that came with him or
her remain in the organization.
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