DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS
Sports is an excellent example of why coaching is effective. You cannot win a golf game by continuing to select only three or four clubs in your bag. You must be able to use them all with relative ease. The secret to the game is ability, focus, clarity of decision-making, and self-knowledge. You must know how and when to use each club but also know yourself and the environment in which you are in.
The same is true in business. You may hit the longest drive but what about your finesse around the green? In business terms you may land the big account but do you have the follow-up skills to ensure a satisfied customer? Or, you may have wonderful ideas but do you have the interpersonal skills to gain the support of your people? As in any sport, so many things come into play – your knowledge and skills, your attitude and behaviors. At any given time each of these can have far reaching effects.
The most effective executive coaches recognize common pitfalls, know proper techniques and will focus on an individual's strengths while addressing and working with their shortcomings. Best of all, they inspire their clients to keep improving to reach their potential. Coaches know first-hand the value of personalized training and it is an investment they are willing to make.
In executive coaching the focus is on personal and leadership development and the coach provides the necessary guidance to enhance performance. Purposeful dialogue is at the heart of the coaching process and open-ended questions are used to pull information from clients in order to find out what is interfering with accomplishing their goals.
Eighty percent of Fortune 500 companies now offer executive coaching. The reason is clear - they know that coaching is the best way to help employees create their own Personalized Development Plan - something that is very much needed in constantly evolving business environment.
FORTUNE magazine quoted one client as saying, "I went into the executive coaching experience kicking and screaming, at the insistence of my then-boss. And what an eye-opener it turned out to be! I won't even go into the grim details of bad management habits I had unknowingly developed in my 14-year career up to that point. But, I will say that since my 12 weeks of intense coaching, I've been promoted three times."
When you improve, the entire team benefits. Don't delay. For more information, call 202-495-0604 or e-mail. We'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.
What coaching is and isn't...
One of the questions we are asked most frequently is "What is the difference between coaching and therapy?" The chart below does a good job of laying out the differences as well as the similarities.
Coaching Coaching & Therapy Therapy Focuses on the future Paid to ask the right questions Focuses on the past Fosters individual performance in a business context Tackles difficult issues at work and home Diagnoses and treats dysfunctionality Helps executives discover their own path Focuses on individual behavioral change Based on medical ethics
Coaching and mentoring – What 's the difference?
There is also a lot of confusion about coaching and mentoring, often with the two terms being used interchangeably. This is not surprising as both involve an experienced hand helping a learner to become more effective. The international coaching accrediting body the International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as, " an ongoing partnership that helps [people] produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives and…deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life".
Mentoring involves skills transfer from a more experienced to a less experienced person. It is a "strategic approach to developing an employee by pairing that employee with someone who is more experienced who will teach, counsel and encourage the mentee" (Management Mentors, 2002). Mentoring focuses on the skills development of the person and is often more about knowledge transfer.
In short - a mentor is someone to learn from and a coach is someone to learn with.
