Executive Coaching to Unleash Your Potential
What exactly is executive coaching? According to information from Wikipedia, "Executive Coaching is a one-on-one training and collaborative relationship between a coach and an executive interested in improving him or herself primarily in career or business related skills".
Perhaps the most important question in evaluating executive coaching is does executive coaching truly work?
This question of whether executive coaching is a necessary came to my mind after reading the back pages of the Recuit section, "Coaching Leaders: Part 1 of 2". The article came across as more of an advertorial than a informational writeup especially when the author of the article hails from the executive coaching industry.
I see the importance of executive coaching as that it provides the person with a different perspective of the world. Too often, people's view of the world shrink to all that they are constantly in contact with and consequently fail to appreciate their positioning in the more macro environment. Executive coaches are not unlikely to be specialised in the domain of work. Basically, they are generalists who by virtue of not being overly engaged in the running of niche business functions, have the opportunity to step back and look at things from a different perspective.
Furthermore, it is not uncommon for us to outsource responsibility and let people guide us. When one is already so busy, what harm is there in paying an affordable sum to let someone else do some thinking for us?
Executive coaching is a natural progression from the self help books that line the shelves of the local bookstore. There are tonnes of materials out there on goal formulation, career planning, etc but just like students in school, most of us lack the discipline and will not bother to read the textbooks in detail and actively apply the concepts. We need someone to read for us and tell it to us and to bug, nag and monitor us so that the concepts are put into practice.
The sad truth about executive coaching is that it is still largely dependent on the self-discipline of the individual. There needs to be some level of discipline for coaching to work. For the undisciplined, no amount of executive coaching is going to help. For the very disciplined, why will you consider executive coaching at all when you are able to resolutely obtain the necessary information from diverse sources and have the will to put the resulting information to practice in the most intimate way that best suits your personality and style.
Perhaps the most important question in evaluating executive coaching is does executive coaching truly work?
This question of whether executive coaching is a necessary came to my mind after reading the back pages of the Recuit section, "Coaching Leaders: Part 1 of 2". The article came across as more of an advertorial than a informational writeup especially when the author of the article hails from the executive coaching industry.
I see the importance of executive coaching as that it provides the person with a different perspective of the world. Too often, people's view of the world shrink to all that they are constantly in contact with and consequently fail to appreciate their positioning in the more macro environment. Executive coaches are not unlikely to be specialised in the domain of work. Basically, they are generalists who by virtue of not being overly engaged in the running of niche business functions, have the opportunity to step back and look at things from a different perspective.
Furthermore, it is not uncommon for us to outsource responsibility and let people guide us. When one is already so busy, what harm is there in paying an affordable sum to let someone else do some thinking for us?
Executive coaching is a natural progression from the self help books that line the shelves of the local bookstore. There are tonnes of materials out there on goal formulation, career planning, etc but just like students in school, most of us lack the discipline and will not bother to read the textbooks in detail and actively apply the concepts. We need someone to read for us and tell it to us and to bug, nag and monitor us so that the concepts are put into practice.
The sad truth about executive coaching is that it is still largely dependent on the self-discipline of the individual. There needs to be some level of discipline for coaching to work. For the undisciplined, no amount of executive coaching is going to help. For the very disciplined, why will you consider executive coaching at all when you are able to resolutely obtain the necessary information from diverse sources and have the will to put the resulting information to practice in the most intimate way that best suits your personality and style.
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