Should You Have A Coach

Should Every Executive Have a Coach?

You are at doing well in your career. You are dedicated, skilled, technically competent, a recognized leader in your company and a valued employee. Your performance reviews are excellent, and your manager has complete confidence in your abilities. So why would you want (or need) a coach?

In a recent article in the New Yorker Magazine, (Oct 27, 2011) a renowned surgeon talked about getting a (surgeon) coach who could give him feedback on how he performed in the surgical suite. Although his outcomes were good, his reputation was impeccable and his interpersonal skills were excellent, he felt himself too comfortable, and wondered how he really did in all aspects of his work  and what he could improve.

Knowing that he could not be objective about his own behavior, he decided that an outside set of eyes and ears, would provide a mirror to his actual behavior. He wanted to improve how he worked, so he hired a coach who in fact did help become a better physician.

The Yale Center for Parenting looks at different aspects of parenting. One aspect of their research is how parental behavior contributes to the continuation of tantrums in children. By changing behavior in the parents, and coaching them in new behaviors, both verbal and non-verbal, the behavior of their children changed, and the tantrums were diminished or eliminated. Even a different way of offering praise to already well behaved and smart children, produced better results in the kids. Parental coaching changes behavior, in both the adults and the child’s, resulting in better behaved children and more relaxed parents.

In his book "Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives", Nicholas Christakisn writes about how changes in medicine, technology or finance will not work effectively without the appropriate behavioral change in the user. You can give out millions of mosquito nets to prevent malaria, but if people do not use them, they are useless. Vaccines prevent illnesses, as long as people get vaccinated. He calls this phenomenon "bio social science" and thinks that in the 21st century, it will be bio social science that is key to changing behavior.

Behavioral change requires a change in how we perceive the world and a trusted way to learn the new behaviors. Coaching can do this. Having a coach to reflect and build on what you do well, is part of how extremely successful people stay at that uppermost level. Having a coach, who can assess your skills and work on nuanced behavior, may result in better outcomes for you and your team.

We become complacent in what we do, we stop striving for better outcomes when we are already successful, we assume we cannot change others behaviors and we think executive coaching is for the  new, problematic or dysfunctional individual.  Many organizations hire coaches for new employees to insure a successful transition into a new culture. Other organizations hire coaches for  the top employees to maintain the level of success already achieved does not diminish. In fact all of us could benefit from that outside perspective of our behavior that coaching provides.

If the best singers have singing coaches, if the most celebrated athletes continue working with coaches, even when they are regarded as the best in their sport, if the top CEOs have coaches to use as sounding boards and offer unique perspectives, shouldn't you have an executive coach as well?