Corporate Coaching – what is it, and how can it help me?

What is corporate coaching?

Corporate coaching is aimed at chief executives or their equivalents. A corporate coaching relationship is a partnership between chief executive and coach, focusing both on the chief executive’s individual needs as well as the organization’s collective needs, goals and best interests.

A corporate coach works with and supports a chief executive to:

• Design a plan of action and strategy
• Identify and solve problems.
• Set and achieve goals.
• Make good decisions.

How does corporate coaching contribute to organizational goals?

Our approach is based on a generic 5 stage change model which is applied both to organizational and individual development, and to strategic and tactical change. The 5 stages are:-

I. The organizational situation. The chief executive’s perspective on the current situation is described and clarified.

II. The chief executive’s interventions. The corporate coaching partnership of the corporate coach and the chief executive turn to the actions taken or contemplated by the chief executive

III. The chief executive’s relationship to the organization and its key players. The partnership focuses on the various interpersonal relationships, internal and external upon which the interventions depend. Options for moving some relationships on are identified and assessed.

IV. The chief executive In the course of assessing the various relationships, it is usual for some aspects of the chief executive’s own posture and behaviour to come into consideration. Here, the quality and completeness of earlier executive coaching work can be a strong determinant of the chief executive’s own room for manoeuvre in these critical relationships.

V. The wider context. The focus here is on the organizational, ethical, social, economic, cultural and contractual context.

How does the partnership support the chief executive in their own development?

The corporate coach ‘stays with’ and supports the chief executive to:-

• Create and implement a personal and organizational plan of action
• Maintain a healthy balance between personal and professional life.
• Develop the skills they need to move their organizations forward.
• Keep themselves "forward focused" to take advantage of opportunities.
• Bring out the chief executive’s personal best and hold their vision for the organization’s future.

Having a skilled corporate coach as a "still point" and confidante to whom a chief executive can regularly turn, during times of transition, is key to enabling them to improve their performance and develop the business in a coherent manner.

What are the outcomes and benefits of corporate coaching?

• greater, more sustainable results in less time:
corporate coaching adds momentum and enables smarter, more effective actions to be taken
• greater clarity: corporate coaching helps the chief executive to see clearly where they are, what the organization is calling for and what they want from their life and work, enabling them to align to their values
• better decisions: corprate coaching helps the chief executive see more of the options available, have new perspectives, think through the impact of decisions, and develop and sustain their commitment to the decisions they make.
• stronger relationships: corporate coaching improves chief executives’ relationships with others through helping them develop their interpersonal skills, discern others’ agendas more clearly and base their relationships on shared values.
• increased self-confidence: corporate coaching extends a strong personal foundation through healthier relationships out into the organization, to take control, gain better and more appropriate alignment and so to accomplish more.

 TCL Sep 2007