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| July 30, 2006 | |||||||||||||
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| This Month A friend recently asked whether I could recommend a 'Good Coach' to him. The answer to this depends very much like the response of the cat in 'Alice in Wonderland', "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to". It depends very much on what you want from a coach. Executive coaching has grown by leaps and bounds. Ram Charan, Marshall Goldsmith, Timothy Gallwey have proven how effective coaching can enable people to achieve their true potential. This article will help you review coaching as a tool for personal or professional development, to figure out how you would know if it works for you or even whether it is what you need. Happy reading! Warm regards, Deepa (www.jigyasaconsulting.com) |
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| Executive Coaching:
Different Strokes for Different People It is estimated that the annual spending on Executive Coaching in the United States is about USD 1 billion. In my research on this subject, I found figures hard to come by. This particular number was available on the Harvard Business online site, yet there are no studies to verify this statement. Yet, the number of certified coaches is growing and anecdotal evidence suggests increasing use of coaching as a tool for professional development in organizations. Coaching has been brought to the world of business from sports. One of the early corporate coaches who made a huge impact in the corporate world was Timothy Gallwey, who himself was a tennis coach. People reading his first book 'The Inner Game of Tennis', published in the seventies, realized the application of his principles and methods in the world of Business. What is coaching and how it differs from mentoring? Coaching is a process that enables the person being coached to reach his or her full potential (personal or professional). A coach is the person who makes it happen largely through making a person look within, working on self limiting habits, behaviour or beliefs. A coach does not have to be an expert in the field of the learner. On the other hand mentoring requires a higher level of experience and expertise in the field. Mentor's experience and knowledge are the factors that enable the person being mentored to overcome or avoid making the same mistakes. Why Executive Coaching? Today companies are appointing executive coaches to enable their key employees to fulfil their full potential. There are several reasons why 'coaching' as a tool should be essential for senior management. As Peter Block is his introduction to Timothy Gallwey's book, 'The Inner Game of Work' put it, "We do not need to learn more from a boss or an expert: we need to change the way we apply what already exists within us." Selecting a Coach
To conclude, in the world of business, having a coach enables you to hit the pause button and reflect. It can bring about a heightened awareness of how you work and your approach to work; it can enable you to get a wider perspective. If a coach can enable you to do that in your hectic, target and results oriented workplace; this could be a noble goal by itself. As Alan Kay, American computer scientist, researcher and visionary put it, "Perspective is worth 80 IQ points". From an organization's point of view, having coaches for key employees not only brings about change through regular self-reflection but also a culture of learning. The organization gains the competitive edge by more effective employees. |
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