Carol, an excellent technical designer, who
was identified as having high management potential, was promoted
to head up a new office. Unenthusiastic about the practical benefits of evening classes
in management, her boss decided to have one of the group's Human Resources people
work with Carol as an internal coach. With substantial experience in and
knowledge about the company's culture and
politics, the coach was able to guide Carol
through her initial months, greatly accelerating
her transition to being a first-time manager and helping her navigate the potential
pitfalls inherent in most organizations. She
continued to work with Carol as she built her
group, and the high-impact, low-cost intervention attracted significant attention. Within a
year, people were lined up requesting similar internal coaching, which now had gained
a reputation as a desirable developmental opportunity.
The use of executive coaches has been a staple of executive development for decades
in corporate America. Historically, such coaches have been external professional
consultants, hired by HR departments, who
"parachute in" for assignments with defined
objectives and/or set timetables, and, all
too-often, with a focus on remedial action to fix
someone who is "broken". While there is
considerable evidence of the effectiveness of
external executive coaching, there has also been growing interest in the use of
internal "expert" coaches - typically,
trained employees functioning part-time as
coaches, who are able to expand the beneficial dimensions of developmental coaching
to a broader set of an organization's workforce. |
