Executive Coach: Nonsense or Dollars and Cents?

Would you like someone to help in your life and your career? A coach, of sorts? Someone trained, skilled and objective?

To be sure, each of us can be most anything, but we cannot be objective about ourselves and we will never be free from hardship. If we just had someone to be honest and completely objective with us. Someone to give us unbiased feedback and wise advice and support. Someone to identify what is holding us back.

Well, what a beautiful world in which we live. You can have that someone.

Introduction to Coaching

Coaching, historically the exclusive domain of athletes and sports teams, somehow mutated in the later part of the 20th century and began availing its unique offering to business persons. Some people argue that this new “coaching” is simply a new name for “professional development consulting”, but nobody disputes that executive education and ‘management competency training’ has undergone radical change in recent years and is enjoying explosive growth.

Coaching, in the business world, has many definitions. Susanne Biro defines coaching as “… helping people get out of their own way to get what they most want: achievement, fulfillment, and peace of mind.”  Another describes coaching as “someone who has no expertise in the area the client is working, but who is committed to listening and asking the tough questions that will move the client forward.

Dr. Jay Kent-Ferraro explains that the therapy, psychology and counseling disciplines traditionally look into the past for insights into what has caused difficulty and how to gain relief. Coaching, by way of contrast, focuses more on the client’s vision for the future and on setting a strategy for goal attainment. Coaching, then, is not so much about understanding issues as it is about devising a plan for positive outcomes in the future.

The Harvard Business Journal explains that coaches, at their most basic level, serve as outsourced suppliers of candor, providing leaders with the objective feedback needed to nourish their growth. The data often comes from 360 degree surveys of the people who work closely with the individual.

Phil Glenn, founder and chairman of an executive education and coaching organization, CEO College, explains that the popular definition of a coach is a person who helps an individual or group close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. They do this by helping their client identify and clarify their goals, developing a plan, and then providing the support, focus and accountability needed to achieve them.

“Coaches, in the pure sense, are trained to listen, to give feedback and to discern blind spots or issues that may be creating barriers to success. Coaches don’t have to have all the answers; their job is to ask the right questions to help their clients find their own answers. They stand on the sidelines, help you develop your game plan and cheer you on as you make the plays. A coach helps you learn from your mistakes and celebrate your victories.”

Generally, there are three types of coaching:

• Personal or Life Coach
• Executive or Professional Coach
• Group Coach

Personal or Life Coach

The personal or “life” coach focuses on assisting an individual in broad areas such as finding one’s calling, finding happiness, and developing everyday skills for coping with and succeeding in life or business. The personal or life coach certainly will address work-related issues as that is such an important part of most anyone’s life and often the source of struggle as well as joy.

Executive or Professional Coach

The executive or professional coach is more narrowly focused on one of the following:

Career advancement and achievement of the client – when the coach is hired by the person being coached (“client”)

Success and effectiveness of the client for the benefit of the company for which he or she works – when the coach is hired by the company for the benefit of the company.

Phil Glenn explains that an executive coach can also be hired by the owner of a small business to help him solve particular challenges and grow his company.  He cites an example of a small business owner displeased by stagnant sales. The owner hired a marketing consultant to work with his sales team and find out why they weren’t performing. After an extensive assessment, the marketing coach told the CEO that his problem wasn’t the sales team, but himself (the owner). She suggested the owner hire an executive coach to work with him on improving management and communication skills and to learn how to hold people accountable for their performance. The CEO proved to be truly committed to securing “different results” and followed the suggestions. The executive coach also met with the owner’s top management. A year later the company made a huge profit for the first time in several years, and it is on track to do even better this year.

“The difference was the shift in the attitude of the CEO. He was willing to listen, to learn and had the courage to walk through the discomfort of doing things differently. That’s how a coach can help.”

Mr. Glenn says that the big difference between an executive coach and a consultant is that you hire the consultant to come into your business, find out what’s wrong and tell you what to do or to fix the problem for you. An executive coach, on the other hand, helps you make the changes within yourself and your organization that will lead to greater effectiveness in the areas you have identified. The coach is responsible for the “process”. You are responsible for your own results.

Group Coaching

Group coaching can be defined as coaching that takes place with two or more people simultaneously. The beneficiary is the organization. The group can be the entire organization, the executive committee, two individuals, the board of directors, etc.

Dr. Jay Kent-Ferraro, who expanded into coaching as a highly regarded psychologist and counselor, conducts a considerable amount of group coaching. He explains that “The use of a coach who assists in defining what’s wanted and why, assists in design of the plan for getting there, works with the members of the team individually and as a group, and provides accountability until achievement, can often make the critical difference between success and failure.”

Business Owner or Manager as Coach

Great managers are actually great coaches. They do what coaches do – proactively molding and encouraging the development and success of each and every team member. They enable team success by coaxing exceptional performance out of each role player. Business managers who want to improve their effectiveness – their ability to lead a team to perform at high levels – might study coaching as a means for acquiring the necessary skills.

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And so in all of coaching’s various forms and applications, it certainly seems to have hit the mainstream. Leta Beam, who refers to herself as a “Certified Business Coach”, points to compelling data:

• Fast Company magazine recently estimated that 40% of Fortune 500 companies hire coaches to improve the performance of their executives.
• A 2001 study by Manchester Review found that executives substantially raised “output” through coaching.
• A Fortune magazine poll of executives and upper managers found that 77% reported improved working relationships with direct reports, 71% reported the same with supervisors, and 63% the same with peers. A full 61% reported an increase in job satisfaction.
• Harvard Business Journal reported in November of last year that “many of the world’s most admired corporations, from GE to Goldman Sachs, invest in coaching. Annual spending on coaching in the United States is estimated at roughly $1 billion.”
• Motorola invests 7% of payroll in coaching and has received a 20% productivity improvement. For every dollar spent on coaching, Motorola gets a return of $29 in incremental revenues.

In summary, the private business owner has a new professional development tool in their toolbox. Whether you think this new adaptation to coaching is sense or nonsense, our hunch is that it is here to stay and that it will serve a vital need for many executives and business persons. So for those who want to learn more, future issues of The Business Owner will cover coaching topics as follows:

• July/August 2005 issue: Getting the Most for Your Coaching Dollar
• September/October 2005 issue: Selecting a Coach that is Right for You
• November/December 2005 issue: Group Coaching
• January/February 2006 issue: Business Owner as Coach

The following professionals contributed their expertise to this article:

Dr. Jay Kent-Ferraro, Empowerment Technologies.
Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jay@DrJayFerraro.com

Leta Beam, Vantage International, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Leta@Vantage-inter.com

Phil Glenn, Chairman of the CEO College, an executive education and coaching organization. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Philtpf@cox.net.

Jean Kelley, Tulsa, Oklahoma.  JKelley@jeankelley.com