Companies have a vested interest in focusing attention on ways to ensure that the firm realizes the goals and objectives of its stakeholders. An effective executive team is critical for achieving long-term and sustainable success. Firms will spend time and money to locate the right professional talent, and then commit additional funds for compensation and incentive packages to retain this needed talent. It is reasonable then for these firms to make additional investments to provide their talent pools with the tools and training necessary to maintain a high level of performance.
One way to address this issue is for the firm to contract with a coach to work specifically with a selected key employee. The company has an interest is assisting the employee to further develop necessary skills that will ultimately lead to firm success, and the employee has an interest in increasing his/her value to the firm. Some areas that an executive coach may focus on include leadership skills, interpersonal relationships, time management, and communication.
While the firm certainly has a vested interest in the outcomes, the employee receiving the coaching also has expectations for what the engagement can provide. The employee has committed time to the firm, and is motivated to seize opportunities that can lead to increases in compensation, responsibility, and respect. The employee may or may not understand what skills they have that need to be improved, and they also may or may not appreciate the role that an executive coach can play in the engagement.
Given the potential for conflict with the parties involved, the executive coach has a responsibility to appropriately frame the process, and to provide both the firm and the employee with a well-defined understanding of what will be addressed, and what outcomes should be expected. A clearly defined outline of how the coach will proceed, what the firm and the employee can expect from the coach, the objectives of the engagement, and a process for evaluating the outcomes, will reduce the incident of conflict, and set realistic expectations for the parties. A positive (win-win) outcome should be reflected by both the company and the employee being able to identify appropriate changes in the client’s behavior that can be observed, and that are having a positive influence on the employee’s work environment.