Executive Coaching - A Guide For The HR Professional.pdf

140 EXECUTIVE COACHING
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of working. One was focused on attacking specific problems and
issues. I would describe a situation and possible solutions and use
my coach both as a sounding board and as someone to help me
work through to an answer. He did a good job making clear that his
role was not to tell me what to do, but to help me learn how to use
a consistent process to analyze issues and deal with them. The other
thing we did together was to work on more project-oriented issues,
generally around organizational management issues. For example,
when I was restructuring a new business unit and had a list of ten
major issues to be dealt with over a number of weeks or months,
he was there to help me set up the process, time line, et cetera. He
also worked with me on a number of “offsite” meetings over the years
where I would be working with my management team, or a particular
business unit, on a particular set of issues. Having him actually
attend, and even help run some of these meetings, was quite useful
both for his expertise and for the inside look it gave him into my
issues and my staff.
One thing my coach did not do was to act as a cheerleader for
me. I noticed he rarely gave me more than a subdued “good job”
when I was telling him about one success or another. I remember
realizing this and thinking that a good coach must remain objective. If
he were always on my side, like my boss or certain employees, I
would not have gotten nearly as much out of the relationship.
I liked it when he would critique me. I rarely received the type of
constructive, and instructive, criticism intended to help me improve
my skills. I realized that for the first time in my career I had someone
who was focused on giving me constructive criticism in order to
make me a better executive, and that was his only job. While there
were many people who had criticized various aspects of my work
over the years, there is a big difference between straight criticism
and objective constructive criticism. Most of what I received over the
years was simply criticism.
The seminal coaching moment of our relationship was one time
a few years into our relationship. My coach and I were having a