The Intelligence: What the Business Experts Are Saying about Coaching

Harvard Business Review:
“In a 2004 survey by Right Management consultants, 86 percent of companies said they used coaching to sharpen skills of individuals who have been identified as future organizational leaders ... For better or worse, many executives can’t find this type of conversation partner – what Harvard Business School professor Thomas DeLong calls a ‘truth speaker’ – elsewhere in their companies.”
“What An Executive Coach Can Do For You”, Paul Michelman, 6/13/05

Fast Company:
“If you’re not getting better, you’re falling behind. To elevate your game, find the personal coach with the right strategy and style for you ... World-class athletes know it. So do opera divas. Winners in nearly every profession know that without the right coach, they won’t perform at their peak. And now a select number of businesspeople know it, too: as organizations flatten, as production cycles hit hyperspeed, as change becomes a constant, coaches can help you become a better, more nimble business leader ... Executive coaching isn’t therapy. It’s product development, with you as the product.”
“Wanna Be A Player? Get A Coach!”, Claire Tristram, Oct/Nov, 1996

The Boston Globe:
“Coaching is now often a prerequisite to promotion, an intense leadership training course for talented people who need assistance smoothing a few rough edges. Typically, the coachee is a chief executive, a division head, or a highly regarded employee earning a minimum of $100,000 to $250,000 per year.”

“Companies are hiring coaches to teach executives how to sharpen management skills and communicate effectively”, Diane E. Lewis, 11/26/2000

Chemistry Business:
“Simply put, coaching enhances the impact of executives, increases their speed in becoming effective within the organization, and improves overall job satisfaction and retention.”
“The Case for Executive Coaching”, Andrew W. Talkington, Laurie S. Voss & Pamela S. Wise, November 2002 (PDF)

CNN.com:
“Once used to bolster troubled staffers, coaching now is part of the standard leadership development training for elite executives and talented up-and-comers at IBM, Motorola, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and Hewlett Packard. These companies are discreetly giving their best prospects what star athletes have long had: a trusted adviser to help reach their goals.” (5/28/01)

The Wall Street Journal:
“People who want to stand out at work or face a job crisis increasingly turn to career coaches.“ (6/26/01)

Fortune:
“Asked for a conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from the coaching they got, these managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the coaching had cost their companies.”
“Executive Coaching — With Returns a CFO Could Love,” 2/19/01

“What's really driving the boom in coaching, is this: as we move from 30 miles an hour to 70 to 120 to 180…as we go from driving straight down the road to making right turns and left turns to abandoning cars and getting on motorcycles…the whole game changes, and a lot of people are trying to keep up, learn how, not fall off.” ...

"We have a lot of people who were trained to be superb managers but now have horrendous leadership challenges thrown at them. I think a lot of the coaching is aimed at trying to help people develop skills and actions that are different from what they grew up with."
John Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School, quoted in, So You’re A Player: Do You Need A Coach?, Fortune 2/21/00

The Chicago Tribune:
“Who, exactly, seeks out a coach? ... Winners who want even more out of life.”
(12/17/00)

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