Executive coaching promises to address senior
Executive coaching promises to address senior management "skills gap"
Keywords: Coaching, Executives,Skills, Development
It's expensive, it's unregulated and it's very popular among top executives. A new study of executive coaching by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES)shows why this business approach is booming in the UK and Europe.
Welcoming the report, IES Director, Richard Pearson, said: "While still seen as the latest management "buzzword" by many, executive coaching is now being used as a serious business tool. Its growth has been phenomenal,reaching into boardrooms and senior management offices in every sector of the economy and government, with consultants charging up to £2,000 per day. But, until now, little has been studied about how to get best value and assess its effectiveness. This report presents an essential overview for organisations wishing to take advantage of executive coaching."
The reasons for – and impact of – this growth are identified in the report, Executive Coaching: Inspiring Performance at Work. As Alison Carter, IES Principal Research Fellow and author of the report, comments: "The downsizing and delayering of the 1990s has produced a generation of isolated(and even lonely) senior managers. The larger gaps resulting between hierarchies mean that when people are promoted there are more skills to learn and less time to support one another. This has led to a new reliance on executive coaching as a way of imparting missing skills and improving existing ones. In the twenty-first century, key soft skills or "people skills" are increasingly necessary for those at the top. The feedback and self-insight necessary to acquire these soft skills was an area often neglected in the past by business schools and internal company training programmes. This is why there is now a skills gap among some now reaching the top."
Executive coaching seeks to address this gap through a one-to-one interactive process that is designed to help the executive develop rapidly. It is usually work related and focused on improving performance or behaviour. It is a goal-orientated form of personally tailored learning for the busy executive,working closely in a relationship of trust with their coach. The relationship is short-term and offers feedback and objectivity that cannot easily be gained from within the organisation.
Executive coaching is one-on-one personal development with a focus on the rapid acquisition and improvement of knowledge, skills and behaviour. As Alison Carter explains: "Many senior managers consider that they have "made it"and therefore don't need further development. Being seen to undergo training can be perceived as admitting to a weakness. Attendance on courses can also be seen as an imposition into an already busy schedule. Executive coaching is a private process not visible to the uninvolved, and can easily be fitted around other commitments."
The IES exploratory study examines the experience of people from 14 different major organisations currently using executive coaching. It was sponsored by the IES Research Club, a group of 30 of the UK's leading employers, who help shape an ongoing programme of topical research. Several member organisations also collaborated and participated in the study itself.
Further information on the report (Executive Coaching: Inspiring Performance at Work by A. Carter, IES Report 379, ISBN 1-85184-308-6,£19.95) is available from IES, Mantell Building, University of Sussex,Brighton BN1 9RF. Website: http://www.employment-studies.co.uk
