Coaching as a Strategic Initiative

In the preceding four chapters, we have read some wonderful stories

about how people grew personally and professionally with the guidance

of their coaches. In Chapter 3, Jane was under fire as the HR

manager responsible for, among other things, dealing with the

challenges of a merger. She felt overwhelmed trying to do all of her

responsibilities, was underperforming, and lashed out at her colleagues.

Her coach was ultimately able to get Jane focused and performing

at a higher level. Jane’s relationships with colleagues

improved along the way as well.

In Chapter 4, Jack had major issues with relationships, and given

his new promotion to client relationship VP, these issues had to be

urgently addressed. Jack’s coach helped him work more effectively

with clients and adopt partnering skills that enabled him and his

extended team to deliver what the clients needed.

We learned in Chapter 5 how Mark utilized coaching to expand

his repertoire of leadership behaviors, which enhanced his ability to

manage those situations that were especially challenging. As a result,

his team’s on-time performance for project delivery increased, the

team was more satisfied with their work, and two team members

were brought back from the brink of termination.

In the fourth and final story presented in Chapter 6, Clare hit her

stride as a VP. She tempered her enthusiasm, learned how to listen,

gained influencing skills, and was able to rally consensus for her

business proposals.

The Leading with Insight model demonstrated how coaching

created value for people at four different levels.As the coaching relationships

evolved, more value was created. The opportunity facing

organizations is how to harness that value and drive the value to the

business. Coaching taps into a well that is rich in resources. Our

challenge now is how organizations can draw from this well to drive

tangible results to the business, without losing what makes coaching

so powerful in the first place.