The importance of coaching

As a child I remember asking my stepfather what the loneliest job in the world was. We came up with a pretty good list as I remember.

Jobs like lighthouse keeper, long haul truck driver, round the world solo sailor, all figured pretty high on our list. But now I know better.

The loneliest job in the world is that of chief executive officer (CEO). Think about it.

No other person in an organisation incarnates more a company's success or failure, no other person is more accountable to the shareholder for bottom-line delivery, no other person has the responsibility of steering the ship.

However a strong a management team the CEO has built, the buck stops with him (or increasingly her).

Because of the nature of the job the whole organisation turns to this one person for answers, for inspiration, for leadership, for energy. You would almost expect that a requirement on a job spec for a CEO would be infallibility.

Answer

So who does the CEO turn to for the answers, who does the CEO turn to for advice, counsel and guidance? For many successful CEO's the answer is that they turn their coach. The rest just bare their loneliness, their doubts, their worries, their fears, on their own.

The old definition of success being 90 per cent perspiration and 10 per cent inspiration is a good one.

Talk to any great athlete or performing artist and they will talk of the relentless struggle to continually improve their performance. They will also talk of the endless hours invested in them by a coach or producer in that daily grind to achieve excellence.

The CEO is no different to a top athlete or performing artist. All three have to give their best, day after day, year after year.

The CEO is at the pinnacle of career; he has worked his way to the top and now has to deliver to his public.

In his case, his public are his customers, his employees, his shareholders, all of them as fickle, unforgiving and as demanding as anything that Andre Agassi and Tiger Woods have to face.

The role of an executive coach is multi-faceted. Partly it is to act as confidante. But in fact it is far more than that.

The coach is there to help the CEO go through business problems, rehearse and discuss strategies, identify weaknesses in his performance and work on strategies to overcome these.

For this relationship between coach and CEO to be successful, it is critical that the relationship is one of complete confidentiality, that there is trust between the two individuals and that the coach has the credibility and experience to be a worthy partner to his trainee.

What type of person makes an effective coach? There are two broad types of individuals in the profession.

One is the professional psychologist type. The other is the experienced business executive who has already had a successful career in his own right.

While both can be extremely effective assuming a number of fundamental qualities integrity, wisdom, empathy there is much to be said for the coach who has actually faced the types of issues that the CEO is faced with.

Practical experience counts for a lot in a coach. It also means that the CEO is more likely to take his coach seriously, thus rendering the relationship more successful for both parties.

Many executives do not admit to having a coach. They are embarrassed about taking on a coach. They feel the world around them will think the less of them for having to turn to a third party for help. But, of course, this is the wrong way of looking at it.

The role of the coach in the CEO's life is to help him manage peak performance and thus deliver greater results for his company's stakeholders (customers, shareholders and employees). There is nothing shameful in this. It must be encouraged.

The writer is the managing director of Korn/Ferry International in the Middle East.