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From "Even Executives Can Use Help From the Sidelines"
- The New York Times, October 29, 2002
"Executive coaching is becoming mainstream," said Rick Gilkey,
a professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta.
"It fills a gap."
Teri McCaslin, the executive vice president for human resources and
information systems at the ContiGroup Companies, one of the largest
privately held agribusiness corporations in the world, estimates that about
half the 60 middle and senior managers at the New York headquarters have
undergone company-sponsored executive coaching. In addition, she said,
"every one of our businesses, across the board, uses executive coaching
in one capacity or another, from the top down, starting with senior
management."
She explains the benefits this way: most executive coaches begin by
providing feedback, essentially, how you and your performance are viewed,
through the eyes of bosses, colleagues, subordinates and clients. In the
absence of feedback, mistakes tend to be repeated. Worse, those mistakes can
cost the company in lost business, inefficiency and, possibly, the expense
of firing, hiring and training someone new.
That expense, Ms. McCaslin said, "far exceeds the price of investing
in coaching." Using another analogy, she said: "If you have
physical assets, such as a manufacturing facility, you continually upgrade
and invest in the latest technology. As a result, you would expect an
increased return from that asset."
Alicia Whitaker, the managing director of global human resource programs
at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York, also views coaching as an
investment.
"We have a lot of people who are rocket scientists, great strategic
thinkers or great with clients," she said. "But very few business
schools prepare people for the messiness of managing people, and a lot of
coaching is about effectively managing people."
Not every employee welcomes a company's decision that he or she needs
coaching. But Ms. Whitaker said she thought the offer was a badge of
distinction, not a stigma.
"We've heard from the grapevine that people who get coaching see it
as a positive, a benefit," she said. "And more and more people are
coming forward and asking, `Can I have some, too, please?' "
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
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