Executive Coaching - A Guide For The HR Professional.pdf

68 EXECUTIVE COACHING
............................
3. Develop a pool of coaches. Where does an HR person go to
find good coaches? There is no national registry. Through
experience and networking with HR colleagues, a list can be
built. It is then up to you to create the process to select the
right coach for the needs of your organization. What are the
skills and abilities needed in a coach for your organization?
For this client?
As one HR professional from a high-tech company puts
it: “HR professionals need to make sure that they have someone
who is capable as a coach, who has the interpersonal
skills and recognizes the balance between the individual and
the organization. You can’t use the same coach for all people.
You need a few different coaches in your back pocket.”
4. Be an effective gatekeeper. Develop criteria for determining
when coaching is needed. Coaching should not be used in situations
where it is very unlikely to succeed. Non-successes
will happen anyway, but situations that are loaded against the
coach are just a waste of time, money, and reputations. What
are the criteria to determine whether coaching is needed or
not? Requests for coaching may come from anywhere in the
organization. Your first task is to see whether it’s really a
coaching situation (you may wish to refer to the material on
“When Coaching Is Appropriate” in Chapter 2). Sometimes
saying “no” will be tough on your relationships with others,
but it has to be done. There also will be times when you
should be the one to initiate a discussion about bringing in a
coach with either the client or with the client’s boss. Sometimes
the gatekeeper needs to open a door that others didn’t
even think was available.
5. Monitor the PR. In the course of your other activities, keep
alert to what’s being said about coaching. Is it seen as a valued,
positive alternative? We all know that some coaching
assignments begin because there’s a “problem” or an “issue”