Coaching
Are you ready to hire a coach?
Here is a list of questions to help you decide:• Do you have a clear vision of where you want to be?
• Is there a gap between where you are and where you'd like to be?
• Do you have clear professional goals?
• Are you willing to focus on the present?
• Are you interested in developing yourself?
• Are you about to make a critical decision pertaining to your life or career?
• Are you ambitious?
• Are you getting the message from those around you that you need to make some changes?
• Are you willing to work extremely hard?
• Do you have time and resources to invest in your future?
Whereas coaching was once viewed by many as a tool to help correct underperformance, today it is becoming much more widely used in supporting top producers. In fact, in a 2004 survey by Right Management Consultants (Philadelphia), 86 percent of companies said they used coaching to sharpen the skills of individuals who have been identified as future organisational leaders.
In spite of its apparently robust potential, the very act of taking on a coach will not help advance your career. In other words, don't seek coaching just because other fast movers in the firm seem to be benefiting from it.
Coaching is effective for executives who can say, "I want to get over there, but I'm not sure how to do it," says James Hunt, an associate professor of management at Babson College and co-author of The Coaching Manager (Sage Publications, 2002). "Coaching works best when you know what you want to get done." Perhaps, in spite of your outstanding track record, you haven't yet gained the full interpersonal dexterity required of senior managers - for example, you're not yet a black belt in the art of influence, which is so important in the modern networked organisation. Honing such a skill might be an appropriate goal for a coaching assignment.