February 6-12, 2011 is International Coaching Week, a global celebration of the coaching profession sponsored by the International Coach Federation (ICF). Personal and professional coaching is still a relatively new industry within the past twenty years. It is just now starting to become mainstream, especially for business and as it relates to individuals and teams reaching peak performance.
The concept of coaching has been familiar to most of us in the context of athletic or sports coaching. Just as a sports coach works with teams or individual athletes to improve performance and achieve athletic goals, a business success coach works with individuals or teams to develop clarity, create an action plan, and follow through on that plan to achieve their desired outcomes.
Organizations and the individuals in them are under continued pressure to perform more with less – time, money and resources, in the coming years this pressure will continue, and will be further fueled by the predicted labor and talent shortages.
Businesses need to be proactively planning and investing now to support both current and future leadership. They need to be well prepared to handle increased pressures and demands, and to achieve positive results through the people they lead.
Leadership, succession planning and employee development efforts need to be addressed as part of a larger strategic business plan. Organizations that identify and include these issues in their long-term strategies will have a decided advantage over their competitors.
Because people are the very heart of an organization, their strengths and developmental needs must be addressed in order for the entire organizational “machine” to function at peak. A coach can help to assess these strengths and developmental needs, uncover obstacles, give objective feedback and address fears that are keeping an individual or team from reaching their full potential.
Corporate coaching is appropriate to support performance in a number of circumstances: following a 360 degree assessment, preparing a “high potential” for promotion, accelerating productivity of recently hired or promoted individuals, following a significant change event, an executive hire or relocation, or recovering performance to avoid re-assignment or termination.
Working with a coach is a serious investment of time and money, but the return on investment can be significant in terms of a higher level of performance with greater effectiveness and productivity. To ensure a successful outcome, an organization, and the individual or team to be coached needs to be prepared to do the following:
- Be clear that the time is right to engage in the coaching process
- Be prepared and available for scheduled calls and appointments.
- Be fully willing to do the work involved and let the coach do the coaching.
- Be true to the process, follow through, and not self-sabotage.
- Be willing to trust the coach and try new concepts or ways of doing things.
- Be truthful to one’s self, manager, teammates and the coach.
- Be willing to eliminate or modify self-defeating behaviors which impede success.
- Be willing to fully commit to the process and its outcomes.
If your organization has needs for enhancing leadership performance for current or next generation leaders, initiate a dialogue with a qualified coach to help assess their readiness. A competent and ethical coach will give honest feedback about readiness, and will not accept an assignment where there is not a high probability for success.
