I recently met with an executive who strongly resisted the suggestion that he retain a coach. The essence of his argument was that he had been successful, worked his way up the hierarchical ladder, and certainly did not need any outside help at this stage in his career.
This is not an uncommon reaction and executive coaches worth their salt do not force their services on unwilling clients even if others in the organization are pushing for a coaching intervention.
There, however, are three compelling reasons why, regardless of the executive’s past successes, coaches are needed:
1. There is always room for improvement. The best professional golfers, for example, who are seemingly at the top of their game, spend large sums of money and devote valuable time to working with coaches. The reason for this is that they know they can get even better and need an outside perspective.
2. Despite sincere efforts to be open, learn from our mistakes, and pay heed to feedback; we are locked into our own defense mechanisms and use them as a filter to distort what we see, hear, or feel. We need an outside perspective to clarify our hard wired distortions.
3. Success is time and context bound. What was successful leadership behavior in one environment and in one time frame may not be successful in the future. A good coach can help executives adjust their behaviors and style to new and unique contexts.
