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Executive coaches help drive bottom-line results

Ray Williams and William Burns

Coaching is the second-fastest growing profession in the world, rivaled only by IT. Coaching owes its success both to the personal development movement and the huge global economic restructuring of the l980s.

Executive coaching, also called business or corporate coaching, is an outgrowth of leadership development programs. According to the Harvard Business Review, executive and business coaching is worth $1 billion annually in North America.

Although coaching has been gaining widespread acceptance by organizations in the l990’s, it has only been in recent years that it has flourished. Companies today hire professional executive and business coaches because:

• of the increase in executive stress and failure;
• corporate leaders require more complex skills today;
• executives and managers face more frequent performance assessments;
• the old command-and-control style of leadership is out of sync with the younger, inner-directed, and culturally diverse workforce;
• the economic realities of short-term financial success has altered most work organizations.

What exactly is executive coaching?
A coach is a trusted role model, advisor, guide and mentor who helps executives and managers to shape new visions and plans, to tap new energy, and to help generate desired results for both individuals and organizations. A coach is not a therapist, counselor, or management consultant.

Executive coaching can be defined as an experiential, individualized leadership development process that builds a leader’s capacity to achieve individual and organizational goals. Two factors distinguish executive coaching from other kinds of coaching;

1. executive coaching always involves a partnership among the executive, the coach and the organization;
2. the individual goals of the executive coaching engagement must always link back and be integrated into strategic organizational objectives.

What companies should look for in a professional executive coach?
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there calling themselves executive coaches. Buyer beware! Executive coaches need to have knowledge and experience in:

• human dynamics;
• leadership theory and practices with an action-orientation;
• teaching and mentoring;
• organizational development and business practices.

In addition, executive coaches should have received formal coaching training from an International Coach Federation accredited training program.

How can executive coaching benefit your organization?
Executive coaching has been proven to have a positive return on investment on business results, employee relationships and work engagement, according to Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Dell and Bristol Myers. Evidence from studies conducted by such firms as the Manchester Group demonstrate that executive coaching is a sound business investment and can be applied to a wide variety of human resource and organizational issues. While management gurus like Stephen Covey and Tom Peters provide theory about leadership, executive coaching aims to embody that learning and transform it into action.

Executive coaches can help executives and managers in the following areas:

• interpersonal relationships and emotional intelligence;
• improved job performance and enhanced organizational performance;
• leadership skill development;
• teamwork and organizational culture development;
• increased training effectiveness;
• developing an effective human capital management program.

Executive coaching has been clearly shown to be a critical platform for successful executive and organizational change, and can provide organizations of all sizes with a significant competitive edge.

Ray Williams is executive vice-president of PCMG Canada, a Vancouver Board of Trade member company that offers cutting-edge career and executive management services. Williams is also vice-president of the International Coach Federation (Vancouver) and is an experienced, certified international coach and consultant.

William Burns is a professional coach focusing with entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial spirit. William has been in the professional development industry for 10 years in many roles and companies. His present company, Quantum Innovative Dynamics, has been in operation for more than four years and is a member of the Vancouver Board of Trade since 2002.

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