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Article from ST Recruit, 04 Oct 2005
Doing better than ever
Executive coaches can help to bring out the best in you and your team
WHAT improvements would you like to see in your career? Are you clueless when it comes to handling difficult people at work, devising strategic plans and meeting department targets?
If you say yes to any of the above, you might want to consider engaging the services of an executive coach.
While executive coaching is commonly used as a leadership development tool in the West for well over a decade now, it is only in recent years that local organisations have caught up with the idea.
What is executive coaching, and how is it different from conventional training?
In executive coaching, you are encouraged to play an active role by setting your own targets and communicating them to the coach.
The coach also sits down together with you to discuss in detail, ways to achieve these targets that are aimed at giving a lift to your career.
On the other hand, in a conventional training setting, more often than not, the trainer does the planning and talking, while the trainee sits down and takes notes. Hence, what the trainer wants might not be what the trainee needs.
Executive coaching — which typically involves people holding managerial or leadership positions in an organisation — works on the premise that people have potential that they might not be aware of.
The role of a coach is to identify and unleash this potential, which hopefully, will have a positive impact on the way the client does his job in future.
In addition, when you have a coach, you become more efficient and productive, because you learn ways to decrease behaviours that hinder your progress.
Here are more benefits executive coaching can bring to individuals, teams and organisations:
Accelerated growth and learning
By walking you through a journey of self-discovery, a coach can identify your strengths, weaknesses, inclinations and value systems that you might not be aware of.
Having self-awareness enables you to grow and learn at a faster rate than if you were doing it alone.
Performance enhancement
Increased knowledge and skills will allow you to play a more effective role in the organisation — whether through job scope expansion, or a more effective and efficient way of performing the same role.
In today’s fast-changing economy, versatility and the ability to value-add to your role in the organisation are ways to make your bosses sit up. They can also enhance your employability in the long run.
Heightened personal fulfilment
Performing at a more superior level can result in you having a greater sense of job satisfaction and better management of work-related stress.
Everyone wants to be useful and feel useful. Knowing that you have done a good day’s work gives you a greater sense of achievement and this, in turn, gives you the confidence to manage job-related stress better.
Lastly, team coaching can transform a team in several ways. For instance, each team member is made more aware of his strengths and limitations. This will help the team tap on positive energy stemming from cultural and individual diversities.
Enhanced teamwork increases team synergy through better focus — leading eventually to a rise in team performance standards and overall business performance, through a shift in culture from “compliance” to “commitment”.
Therefore, as chief executive officers and human resource directors work closely to attract and retain talent, they should also be looking closely on how they can fully tap the potential of each and every one of their employees. Executive coaching is the way to go.
Article by Paul Heng, managing director of NeXT Corporate Coaching Services, which specialises in executive coaching and career management services for organisations. Website: www.nextcareer.net This article first appeared in ST Recruit on October 04, 2005.
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