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Fast
track to success
How business coaches get their clients
to perform their best
Princeton
Business Journal
Melinda Sherwood
August 10-12, 2004
 Initiating
change
Setting down goals, developing a business strategy and
identifying strengths and weaknesses are all methods coaches
employ to help their clients.
But
when it comes to making real changes, many people don't
even know where to begin.
The
most important thing an executive coach can do is help
people see alternatives to what they're doing, said Elizabeth
Treher, founder and president of The Learning Key in Washington
Crossing, Pa., a company that trains both teams and individuals,
primarily in the pharmaceutical and high-tech industries.
"Oftentimes
people in their career get feedback," she said. "It's
another thing to come up with alternative behaviors and
know what to do differently and that's where you can really
help someone to make changes."
Among
the many coaching tools she employs are the Myers-Briggs
Indicator, a personality test, as well as the "360-degree
assessment" - a series of interviews with a client's
co-workers. She also has clients keep a daily log of their
tasks to help them identify areas where they're spending
unnecessary time and energy.
What
she often discovers is that many successful people lack
communication and interpersonal skills.
"A
lot of people coming into the world of work have very
specific knowledge about their field but they're not well
trained in other kinds of skills," she said. "Certainly,
they're better trained now in computer skills, but in
terms of
communication, leadership, some of the fundamental personal
skills are not necessarily any better."
Successful
people also tend to find it difficult to delegate, she
continued. "Many people come to a role of leadership
because they're very good at their jobs, and once they
get there, they want to second guess everyone
who's now doing their old job and unlearning some of those
behaviors can be tough," she said.
Tough
but not impossible.
Ms.
Treher has several tricks to help people modify their
behavior and achieve results over time.
For
example, people who talk too much at meetings can learn
to count to 10 on their fingers before they speak.
People
need those types of tricks, said Ms. Treher, "something
silly they can hang onto, some little technique to help
them start modifying their behavior."
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