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January 2008
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Managing Yourself: Are You Ready for a Coach?
he world of work is changing, and fast. Having a successful career means continually learning and adapting to rapidly evolving environments.
You can't do it alone. Coaching yourself is like the blind leading the blind: You can't know what you don't know.
The age of customization has brought us the personal trainer, personal shopper and personal computer. Now, there's a proliferation of personal development services available to help you reap more from your career: the executive coach.
Coaching occurs all the time within an organization as a management or leadership style. But what we are referring to here is coaching from an executive coach who is professionally trained and hired externally, and whose sole job is to provide development opportunities.
The trend to engage personal development coaching services has grown steadily for more than a decade. While there is no definitive count of the number of coaches practicing in the United States and abroad, their ranks have swelled.
While coaches were originally assigned to those experiencing difficulties or in danger of derailment, there is now wider acceptance of hiring coaches for even the most successful managers. Organizations recognize that people can grow and change. Having a coach assigned to you often signals career advancement.
Who Needs a Coach?
A coach can be most useful at particular career points:
- You are transitioning into a new career stage. You are being promoted to a management or leadership position that requires new skills.
- You lack fulfillment in your present position and are considering a career change, within the same company or externally.
- You are experiencing stress and sense you may be on the road to burnout.
- You want to improve your ability to manage and influence others by understanding how to navigate office politics.
- Your relationship and networking skills have become more pertinent as you increase career responsibilities and want to learn better "people skills."
- You want to improve your emotional intelligence and learn to better manage your inner experiences so you can manage others more effectively.
- You are dealing with global issues: long-distance responsibilities or actual relocation.
- You are experiencing diversity challenges that you'd like to handle better.
- The strengths and talents you brought to your job are not the ones that will guarantee future career success.
Are You Ready for Coaching?
Some people are more aware than others of their limitations. The best way to fortify genuine self-worth and self-esteem is to work with a trained professional and examine self-beliefs.
Unfortunately, some who desire a coach are unprepared or unwilling to do the work. Coaching requires tremendous courage to face what other people may be saying about you, as well as the ability to treat their perceptions as valuable feedback. A coach can help you overcome inherent defense mechanisms that keep you in denial about your shortcomings.
How to Pick Your Coach
Hiring your own coach creates some challenges: You will have to research the best one for your specific needs. Be aware that in selecting a coach based on your personal feelings, you may not pick someone who best fits your needs. In other words, you run the risk of choosing someone you like, rather than someone you need.
You may contact the local chapter of a national professional association, such as the American Society for Training and Development, International Coach Federation, or other coach and mentor groups. Be sure to specify that you want a business or executive coach, rather than a personal or life coach. You want someone with experience in organizations and with executives.
Having a coach assigned to you by your company poses a few problems. You probably won't get to choose your coach, and you will have to deal with confidentiality issues. Because the organization—not you—is the client, it can set the ground rules. You can—and should—require a confidentiality agreement in such cases. Ask for an upfront agreement about what your coach will tell your employer.
If you don't feel you can confide in your coach about the real issues that concern you, you would be better off hiring your own coach.
How Does Coaching Take Place?
All coaching includes a process of assessment, setting goals for change, a plan for achieving these goals, accountability and a timeline for working together (anywhere from 3 months to a year or more).
Before retaining a coach, ask about methods used, the steps you will be required to complete, how much time is involved, whether coaching will take place in person or by phone, whether outside contact with peers will occur and the limits of confidentiality. Set review periods to evaluate progress and determine if coaching will continue (and for how long).
By virtue of the learning experience gained from coaching, you acquire skills to continue learning in the real world without a coach. Some studies suggest coaching programs have high returns on investments-as much as 500 to 800 percent. It makes good business sense to invest in your leadership development.
What is your next step?
Are you ready to discover how you can create a more balanced, more purposeful life-and become more of who you already are-on purpose? If you are, let's talk about how I can help you. Let's get to know each other a bit, talk about your personal and professional goals, and explore how I can help you create and live the life you envision through the individual coaching process. I'll tell you a bit about how the process works, you can get to know my coaching style and see if we make a "connection," and then we'll go from there. Call me at 704-827-4474 or e-mail me at chip@scholzandassociates.com.
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The Scholz Report is produced by Scholz Leadership Development.
Business owners, CEOs and municipal governments rely on us for
help in improving their ability to lead and manage, assessing
and developing talent and improving their human capital.
Our clients tell us that the methods we use work to improve productivity
and enhance performance. For more information about us,
please go to www.scholzandassociates.com.
Copyright
© 2005 Scholz and Associates, Inc.
P.O. Box 611 Cornelius, NC 28031
Phone: 704.987.0195 Fax: 704.987.0341
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