improving effectiveness in corporate positions or for developing strategies
that provide for productive movement between positions, whether that
movement is from one organization to another or whether the moves occur
promotionally or laterally within the same organization.
Leading organizations such as IBM, AT&T, Ernst and Young, Kodak are just
a few of the market leaders who employ independent corporate coaches to
maximize the success of their employees. In many cases, as well, individuals
who are convinced that they alone must be in charge of their career directions
hire corporate coaches to help them navigate through the challenges that they
are presented on a daily basis in corporate America.
Corporations hire them to improve an employee's skills or, in some cases, help
the employee realize that the fit is just not right in the current organization.
Workers at all levels are frustrated by the lack of advice and mentoring from
within companies, so they are taking matters into their own hands and enlisting
coaches for guidance to how to improve their performance, increase their
revenues and production, and make more effective decisions about topics
ranging from staffing to strategies.
Many individuals refer to corporate coaches in a number of ways. Some call
them just what they are: coaches. Others refer to them as mentors or job
therapists. Karen Cates of Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of
Management observed: "If ever stressed-out corporate America could use a
little couch-time, it's now. Baby-boomers have been burned; Gen Xers aren't
expecting the Corporation to take care of them. Under these circumstances,
employees are much likelier to go outside and get independent advice to help
them be better managers. Most mentoring systems internally have failed.
Organizations are so lean that they don't have time for coaching. You're paid
for what you produce, not for time you spend developing people." (Fortune,
February 28, 2000).
The coaching phenomenon falls outside of the traditional corporate
organizational chart. The corporate coach stands outside of the corporation
and provides objective feedback to the individual untainted by personal
agendas, politics and manipulation. While the look of corporate America has
changed considerably, the phenomenon of coaching is a reminder that people
still have developmental needs that can't be supplied by fellow team members,
email, videoconferences or motivational sessions. People on the job still need
mentoring, guidance, monitoring and substantive interaction with others who
want to see them excel in their careers and their lives.
