Business Coaching: 7 Reasons Why

The complexity of the marketplace demands agile enterprises and executives. More companies are flattening their organizational charts, reengineering and outsourcing business processes, working closely with their supply chains, erasing job boundaries, implementing functional and cross-functional work teams, hiring knowledgeable outside contractors and using virtual employees. To cope with this rapid rate of change, many executives are seeking coaching and counseling support.

So what is a coach?

Unlike mentoring (a process where a highly visible and experienced company executive advises a rising star), you don't normally see coaches…but they are ever present. Coaches are frequently drawn from the outside and provide individual executive support and consultation on both personal and business matters. Some executives have called their weekly coaching sessions "just-in-time" career management seminars.

Who pays for coaching?

The employer usually pays for coaches...but sometimes the employee pays the coaching fee. It is estimated that there are up to 10,000 personal coaches practicing today and charging between $200 and $1,000 a month for telephone coaching. When coaching is desired on site, the cost runs much higher. Many business executives trade budgeted dollars normally used for out-of-town training conferences for a year's worth of one-on-one business coaching. Business coaching can earn an excellent payback for both the executive and the employer organization.

Here are seven reasons why it pays to coach key employees in critical job assignments:

1. The higher up you go in management; the value of your technical skill declines while the value of your interpersonal skill increases.

To effectively manage within your functional area requires a good understanding of the invisible networks of key employees. These knowledgeable workers can choose to give, influence or hoard information depending upon their personal relationship with you, the requestor.

Many knowledgeable workers will not want to share their knowledge…simply because they want to always be the "go to guy". The personal approach that you use to acquire needed information from them could be important for moving a critical program forward. Your coach can help you sort out these organizational relationships, determine how work is actually accomplished, better understand your personality's affect on other people and work with you to establish for yourself the right relationship links.

One client was a long-time employee who was never asked for information, so he never offered any. He thought it was great that no one was bothering him or challenging his suggestions. With coaching, he began to find out how much his silence was costing the company. He learned how to offer frequent suggestions in a manner that others would not challenge him. The results have been rewarding to him and his employer. Now he gets involved when needed, offers the insight of past practical experiences and is open to creating a new way of conducting business matters.

 2. Growing organizations need emotionally mature employees:

a. A motivated management team...not a bunch of lone rangers.

b. Executives who are proactive...not reactive.

c. Effective communicators who know how to listen & learn.

d. Leaders who will share the glory & wealth (while also being compassionate).

Meeting customers' needs both internally and externally requires a corporate culture of committed people. While management may espouse that "employees are our #1 priority", common sense is not always common practice. When executives use a coach, they quickly find out when they are not leading by example... but...only pretending to do so.

When selecting a business coach, make sure that the coach is not assessing values or making decisions that require people to "change." For example, expecting a highly competitive and assertive person to be a highly effective team player may not be reasonable. However, it is reasonable to expect that coaching & training of this person will improve his/her "people skills". As a result, the executive will work more effectively with co-workers to successfully complete projects.

 3. Personal growth and development can seem like a painstaking process, especially when you approach it alone.

People want to be led, not managed. Organizational leadership is an art that must be learned, then earned. As a leader, you have a unique need for objective insight into what you think and why you think it. A coach can help you to gain the insight that leads to clarity for making clear, thoughtful and confident decisions that keep you on your chosen career path. Without this information, your decisions could be costly, even disastrous.

We had a client that really wanted to change her career, however, she wasn't financially able to sell her business and move on. She kept procrastinating until the opportunities seemed no longer viable. With the insight gained from her coach, she was able to stay focused on the types of work activities that increase revenues and is now in the process of selling her business to pursue her heart's desire.

4. Excessive employee turnover can rob a company of its base of knowledge.

Developing key employees within the organization is a less expensive task than recruiting and hiring from the outside. A coach will help you keep talented people productive and happy by getting to the root causes of employee turnover. The coach will teach you how to find, hire and retain talent by pointing you in a direction that your company may need to take from a human resource perspective: compensation, rewards, recognition, benefit programs, training & development seminars, etc.

5. Work life can seem like a hockey game at times…full of naturally flowing chaos while you try to control the game with just a hockey stick.

One of Wallace Stegner's to-the-point quotes is, "Chaos is the law of nature. Order is the dream of man." As an executive, it is easy to fluctuate from confusion to frustration to completely stressed-out states while trying to keep things in order, as you attempt to balance home and work life. An ongoing interaction with a personal coach makes it easier to cope with the chaos by learning key business strategies only known beyond the walls of your workplace. Executives also find it invaluable to have an extra set of eyes and ears that are not "ingrained" in the way things are done internally.

Here is an example of how a manufacturing executive client turned around an unexpected workplace situation. A key employee threatened to quit and many other employees could follow him. What did the executive do? He called his coach to brainstorm ideas. Then he had a conversation with the key employee to find out why he wished to leave. The executive then determined what changes could be made to benefit the key employee, as well as the company. He presented the proposed solution to the key employee who decided to stay onboard.

6. Each of us has our unique set of personal core values and interests that must be compatible with our work environment.

A good coach knows that you cannot coach, train or motivate anyone to be other than who they are. However, it's easy to think that we can change people. The truth of the matter is that we can't. We've each had a long time to perfect who we are. What a coach will provide you with is the insight to make things work for you in a way that supports your core behavioral characteristics and those of the corporate culture.

Your coach may suggest a brief assessment process that will gage your motivation, interests and personality, as well as 360-degree feedback systems. This will provide you with an understanding of how your personal strengths can easily become weaknesses. The value is being aware of how you approach situations and opportunities before moving forward. A coach will help you to see opportunities within the business problem that you face and how best to interact with your work environment, business situation, management team, etc.

7. Seamless integration of all life's activities should be your overall goal.

Weighing the possibilities with your personal coach is a very good way of working toward achieving this seemingly elusive challenge.

Are you enjoying the ride? Happiness is not only the result of success, but also part of the process of getting there. We all need balance. Life is very short. If you keep doing what you've always been doing, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten. You may believe, "that's the way it is." However, truly successful executives have learned how to achieve balance, how to delegate, and how to accomplish unprecedented results with ease. While getting the job done, a coached Chief Operations Officer recently said, "I can't believe I'm having so much fun!"