The personal benefits of coaching are as wide ranging as the individuals involved

Clients report that coaching positively impacted their careers as well as their personal lives by helping them to:

• Establish and take action towards achieving goals
• Make better decisions
• Contribute more effectively to the team and the organization

• Gain more job and life satisfaction
• Take greater responsibility and accountability for actions and commitments
• Work more easily and productively with others (boss, direct reports, peers)
• Communicate more effectively

Managers report:
• Better outcomes
• More alignment of purpose and action
• Easier communication with and amongst team members
• Markedly heightened “team spirit”

Team leaders report:
• Improved teamwork
• Decreased isolation
• Improved productivity and quality of their work
• Greater job satisfaction
• Increased feeling of being heard, respected and part of something
• Improved relationships with team members and managers
• Greater ease of communication with managers and leaders.

What does a coach do?
• Creates a safe environment in which people see themselves more clearly
• Listens, asks focused questions, reflects back, challenges, and acknowledges the client(s)
• Asks more of the client than the client would have asked of him or herself
• Clarifies goals and agreed-upon results
• Identifies gaps between where the client is and where the client needs or wants to be
• Helps the client develop a strong strategy and action plan to close the gap
• Understands and anticipates potential obstacles
• Guides the building of the structure, accountability, and support necessary to ensure sustained commitment and produce desired results
• Promotes creativity

What does a coach not do?
A coach does not:
• Consult or counsel, but works with client(s) to draw upon and enhance existing skills and strengths.
• Focus on the past but looks to the future and focuses on solutions
• Provide answers, but rather focuses on helping people think more clearly and find and find their own best solutions.

We are, however, uniquely positioned to draw upon depth in our affiliate organizations to provide both IT and behavioral consulting.

Why use external coaches when we already have internal coaches?
• Employees tend to talk more freely with an outside person than with someone within the organization.
• An outside person is not perceived as having their own agenda; an inside person has the organization’s agenda.
• Senior management frequently feel “lonely at the top.” but no matter how good internal coaches are, they may not feel comfortable discussing critical strategic issues particularly if they that could affect the job security of the internal coach.
• Few organizations provide team programs—much less systematic programs with proven results.

External coaches can complement internal coaches by mentoring those coaches or working with specific individuals within the organization who prefer or demand to work with an external coach due to the nature of their job.

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