COACHING IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS
Leaders and their organizations hire coaches for a variety of reasons:
- To assist key employees to build their capacity and achieve better results;
- To help emerging leaders reach their potential;
- To support leaders as they take on greater responsibility;
- To help key personnel develop important skill sets, such as the “soft skills” of effective management.
Coaching within an organization has a very different dynamic from coaching a person privately. If the organization is going to pay for the coaching, the organization wants to see results. Good coaching, in an organizational context, cannot be a “black box” which is a mystery to everyone except the person being coached.
The coaching I and my colleagues do within organizations often involves the superior of the person being coached, either his/her immediate boss or someone higher up (usually the person who is paying for the coaching). The person being coached is responsible and accountable to this person, not to the coach, so the superior helps define the goals of the coaching, receives feedback from the person being coached, gives feedback during the process, and evaluates the results. The small amount of time invested by the superior pays big dividends in the effectiveness of the coaching.
Why Bring in a Coach from Outside the Organization?
Bringing in an external coach has a distinct advantage for organizations. There is no confusion between the coaching and managerial roles. Leaders can certainly “coach” their reports, but they lack the independent point of view of an external coach who is outside the hierarchy and does not share the organizational “blind spots” of insiders. External coaches can ask the tough questions without a personal agenda, and are better able to help the people being coached to focus on their own needs and to challenge their assumptions.
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CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
In life, anyone can listen, ask questions and give advice. What set a great personal life coach apart from the rest is Lee Wallace's ability to ask brilliant questions, focus in on "what's the real issue" and give clear advice that can be acted on immediately step-by-step towards a larger and longer-term well-defined goal.
Marc Cappelli, CSTMC
