Executive Coaching - A Guide For The HR Professional.pdf

134 EXECUTIVE COACHING
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When I look back on this now and try to remember why I resisted
some simple steps, two things come to mind. First of all, it seemed
gimmicky to me. Organization specialist, consultant—whatever—just
seemed like a waste of time. (The irony is not lost on me.) After all, if
I needed tips on organizing, our HR department was always posting
helpful hints at the bulletin boards by the elevator. I just needed to
copy some of this stuff down and follow it. But the second reason is
the real reason. I believed that my value to my company was greatly
enhanced by my perceived ability to engage on dozens of topics,
projects, and tasks all at the same time. If things fell through the
cracks, I would pick them up later. If people got upset at me for not
getting back to them in a timely way, well, I felt I was making good
choices about what I concentrated on. They would have to wait.
So it’s easy to see how these two reasons were really only one. I
didn’t seek coaching help of any kind because I couldn’t conceive
that I needed any.
Well, the owners of my company—my bosses—thought differently.
For a long time, they tried to offer me help, guidance, assistance,
and some management to get me pointed in the right
direction. But, to be frank, this is not the forte of my bosses—
management, that is. And I was mostly left to figure this out on my
own. And here’s the paradox. Because of my talents, I kept moving
up the executive management path at my company. I was trusted
with more and more decision making as well as more and more
important projects. Unfortunately, this has the reverse effect on my
performance in their eyes. Late last year, I was called to a meeting
with the COO. He gave me the bad news. As soon as he finished
with me, I was handed the “letter” from the company founder
(the majority owner), which spelled out in great detail his great
disappointment with my performance.
Luckily, they held out one carrot to me. They wanted me to start
executive coaching. They believed in me deeply. They believed that I
had the talent and intellect to achieve great things for my company.
They also believed that I needed outside help since they couldn’t