copyright, October 16,2008 Business Review

The whispers are out there: “He’s got a coach.”

When said in hushed tones, this implies that a leader being coached is flawed in a big way. Most of the time, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Executive coaching is delivered by a trained coach who utilizes a process and a skill set to help leaders reach their greatest potential. Contrary to some opinions, leaders who are already remarkable have the greatest chance of success in working with a coach.

This makes sense when you consider that executive coaching grew out of the sports arena, where top athletes hire one or more coaches to assist them in gaining the edge they need to win. Tiger Woods has a coach — in fact, I’ve heard he has several — and no one would say he isn’t at the top of his game.

The same is true for leaders. Those who are at the top of their game and looking for the edge they need to be more effective are, or soon will be, working with an executive coach.

Executive coaching is gaining in popularity in all business sectors. A recent study published by the American Management Association indicates that coaching has a role in leadership development that can lead to improved organizational profitability. Half of the organizations surveyed currently use executive coaching. Of the rest, 30 percent intend to implement coaching programs in the future.

Additional information in the report indicates that the largest area of impact for executive coaching is in developing leaders — high performers who need the support of an executive coach to unlock the potential that will help them become great leaders.

Coaching has evolved from the early days of the profession, when it was a last-ditch intervention to help low achievers improve their performance. But experience demonstrated that didn’t work.

If you wait until leaders are mired in the muck of poor performance, hiring a coach is not the right solution. By then, these poor performers have a whole host of things going against them, including their followers, who are fed up and unwilling to give them a break. Instead, executive coaching is now a service for senior leaders and high achievers that allows them to gain an edge in their leadership.

For example, Microsoft recently completed an extended program of coaching. In its program, every leader was carefully selected on the basis of being a high performer who showed great promise of becoming one of the top leaders in the company. Some 250 of these leaders in sales were coached by 40 executive coaches across the globe.

The results of this program have been astonishing enough that Microsoft is planning to expand it to other areas of the company. Microsoft’s willingness to prepare its leaders in this way says a lot about the company. It also says a lot about where executive coaching can make its greatest impact — with leaders who are already high achievers.