Debra Benton - Benton Management Resources, Inc.




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Frequently Asked Questions About Executive Coaching:

Q: Why is personal coaching such a hot subject in corporate circles and such a growing business?

A: Career ambitious people get to avail themselves of anything that will help the grow and improve. Some choose face-lifts, some choose “style” lifts. A coach works on the latter. Good bosses get to help their people do better.

Being more objective than the individual, they can point out developmental needs (that’s what the proliferation of performance appraisals is all about). Once needs are pointed out, some companies choose to follow-up by providing an expert who can help. This commonly occurs when an individual is promoted from a “doer” job to a “manager/leader” job.

Coaching is a growing business because companies have experienced the success of sending an employee to a good teacher to fix a specialized area. It’s a lot cheaper for the company to help “fix” a current employee than fire him or her (risk a law suit), find a replacement, recruit the new person (generally at a cost of 33 percent of their salary), bring the person on-board, and get used to a new employee. Bottom-line it saves the company money!

Q: When in a career should someone be coached?

A: The best time for a person to receive coaching advice is after some setback or leapfrog event. The setback could be passed over for a promotion, lost an account, or suffered a loss of confidence due to something on the job. The leapfrog event could be receiving a promotion, gaining a new (significant) account, or the opportunity to improve confidence and competence – to leapfrog ahead of the competition. Also, it could be as simple as turning 40 or 50, a divorce, a death in the family, an eye-opening event that causes a person to re-evaluate, reflect, and decide to recharge their career.

Q: What happens in coaching sessions?

A: The coach and the client agree on an objective, agenda, and timetable. The client lays out personal and professional background, career history and status, purpose for seeking out coaching, hoped-for results and life goals. Several hours of discussion result in a professional assessment from the coach with specific feedback provided to meet the targets client and coach have agreed upon.

The advice may range from appearance to decision-making ability to conflict management. It will almost certainly include attitude management, physical comportment, and interpersonal communication.

An effective coach good advice and delivers in a manner the client can accept, integrate and still feel he or she is being genuine. It’s important that the client feels he can still be himself, but a new, improved version. A day-long session wraps up with a “laundry list” of actions and activities to implement the next day, week, month, and forward.

That session is followed-up with a de-briefing for the client’s manager along with a written action plan from the client. The client’s plan helps ensure the coach and client are always speaking the same language. Every two weeks the client and coach talk to update each other, strategize, or report on progress. Six months later a subsequent session repeats the process and prepares the client for the new levels of challenges and opportunities.

Q: Does the executive coach have to live in the client’s city?

A: It makes no difference where the coach or client live. What is important, is having a qualified and experienced coach. After the first meeting between coach and client, the rest of the contact is over the telephone and geography doesn’t matter.

A good coach is available when needed. For example, when you’re at the airport headed home from a job interview, or at a restaurant just before you have dinner with your boss and his wife, or when you are sitting in your office after hearing the advance news on your performance appraisal.

In other words, a coach needs to be accessible via the phone when the client is on the firing line. You need ten minutes of advice at 9:00 a.m. and again at 2:00 p.m. You need it via email at 3:00 a.m. You don’t have the time or opportunity to drive to your coach’s office, you need to be able to pick up your phone and get the answers and opinions you seek right now!

Over 95% of my clients are from different parts of the country. We meet in Denver (or a mutually convenient site) for the first meeting and the rest is over the telephone or email.

Do you have a specific coaching question? To find out more email Debra directly at debra@debrabenton.com

Contact Mary Reed, International Sales & Marketing - inquiries@debrabenton.com

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