View An Executive Coach As an Aide, Not an Enemy
By JOANN S. LUBLIN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Your employer hires an executive coach to polish your prowess. Should you celebrate ? or worry that you?re considered damaged goods?
Executive coaches often are brought in to help a star player navigate a new role or advance faster inside a company. Other businesses, however, hire a coach to fix a manager?s flaws, such as poor interpersonal skills.
Be smart and maximize the career benefits of having a coach. Outright resistance is a bad idea. ?It definitely could affect your career,? warns William C. Byham, chairman and CEO of human-resources consultants Development Dimensions International in Pittsburgh. ?Coaches cost a lot of money.?
For starters, ask your supervisor why you should work with a coach and what results are expected. Get a written agreement listing those objectives. You want to know ?how urgent is this [desired] transformation,? says Melvin J. Scales, an outplacement consultant in Winston-Salem, N.C. The answer will indicate whether the company views you as a proven asset with growth potential.
A 20-year veteran at a big food maker was perplexed by his boss?s suggestion that he use a coach last spring. ?When you?re performing well, you say, ?What do I need that for?? ? the 42-year-old California executive recalls. ?You think, ?They are coming after me to move me out of the organization.? ?
The executive says his fears disappeared when his supervisor described the proposed coaching as an opportunity ?to get some outside points of view on what we do.?
Next, request a voice in choosing your coach. Many managers let staffers shop from a roster of approved coaching firms. Pick a firm with the strongest track record and most relevant approach. Arrange half-hour initial consultations with several potential coaches to make sure there?s good personal chemistry, too.
Three years ago, a New York vice president of a global financial-services institution was ordered to use an executive coach because lower-level employees felt steamrolled by her aggressive leadership style.
The woman had to select a coach from a firm previously used by her employer. She disliked the first two coaches she screened. One invaded her privacy, she says, by inquiring whether a health problem would hurt her childbearing ability.
The vice president felt more at ease with the third coach she met. Still, it wasn?t a perfect fit and she felt alienated from the whole process. After six months, ?I didn?t really change that much,? remembers the woman, now 34 and employed elsewhere. ?I came away with $5,000 worth of frustration and annoyance.?
The only real value, she feels, was a placebo effect; her boss said she had improved.
Because your employer is footing the bill, you should figure out exactly how much confidentiality you can expect from your coach. ?It?s highly subjective as to what they will keep confidential,? says Dee Soder, a managing partner of CEO Perspective Group, a New York executive-advisory firm. Dr. Soder informs a client?s employer only if the individual divulges an illegal act.
Constance Dierickx, a business psychologist at executive-coaching firm RHR International in Wood Dale, Ill., promises clients anxious about confidentiality that they won?t encounter any surprises. ?I will say things to them before I share them? with their superiors, she says.
A vice president at another financial-services concern thought she could trust her company-provided coach. She told the coach her boss was a micromanager who mistrusted creative people like her. The coach tattled, creating an ugly rift between the woman and her supervisor.
You can avoid workplace gossip by scheduling sessions with your coach away from your office. One senior executive further concealed the arrangement by marking ?haircut? in his office calendar every time he left work to meet with his coach.
Peers and subordinates, however, may be asked by a coach to participate in a ?360-degree? performance feedback about you. Alert those co-workers in advance that the exercise will enhance your leadership development. ?Try to frame [the coaching] as positively as possible,? suggests Ben Dattner, an industrial psychologist and founder of Dattner Consulting in New York. ?Even if other people think you are being punished, don?t frame it that way.?
Make sure any self-improvement plan you prepare with your executive coach can be achieved during the projected timetable.
Here?s a good insurance policy: Line up an internal mentor to support you throughout and after the coaching process. Find someone other than your boss or a human-resources official to play this role. The mentor should monitor your behavior for signs of improvement.
?This person is your advocate throughout the organization,? explains Mr. Scales, the outplacement consultant. Your mentor should be able to boast to your colleagues: ?Have you noticed that things about Jane are different??
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