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| Executive Coaching is not just managerial frill and fancy. Today, it is widely accepted as a ‘necessary learning,’ needed to augment businesses. It has made its presence felt in India too – top corporate honchos now acknowledge the invigorating role that a coach plays. The Centre for Executive Education (CEE,) at the ISB, recently hosted accomplished and most sought-after Executive Coach, Marshall Goldsmith, to interact with a spectrum of participants during the Executive Coaching Programme. |
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What is common to GE’s Jack Welch, IBM’s Sam Palmisanio, and e-Bay’s Meg Whitman? They all had to seek the expertise of an executive coach in order to strengthen their vision, performance and capacities. A Chicago Tribune article once quoted, ‘Who exactly seeks coaches – Winners who want even more out of life.’
Executive coaching has become more mainstream today. It is accepted as part of standard leadership development for elite executives and talented up-comers. It is a one-to-one collaboration between a certified coach and an executive, who wants to generate positive personal changes, inculcate greater adaptability, better his leadership skills, access new perspectives, and above all, reach maximum potential.
Executives should seek coaching “when they feel that a change in behaviour – either for themselves or their team members – can make a significant difference in the long-term success of the organisation,” says Marshall Goldsmith, coach to top executives in many of the world’s leading companies.
However, there are not enough professionals who can don the garb of a CEO coach. It was this lacuna which the CEE, at the ISB, wanted to address. An exclusive Executive Coaching Programme for senior professionals, who want to be CEO Coaches, was held at the ISB, between August 20 and 22. It is the first time that such a Programme is being conducted in India. |
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Said Deepak Chandra, Assistant Dean, CEE, at the ISB, “It was during a Leadership Skill Programme, conducted by the CEE, when we received a feedback about the felt need in the industry for a cadre of executive coaches. It was then we conceived this pioneering programme to help people, within or outside an organisation, to become good coaches.”
Speaking about the relevance of such a programme in the Indian context, Chandra said, “As a concept, Executive Coaching is still new in India. In our past, the Gurukul system was an example of a one-to-one coach for individual students. It was built on a deeper inter-personal relationship. In today’s world, the concept of hiring a personal guide and coach is not often possible. However, the growing complexity of businesses in this era of globalisation, has prompted senior management to counsel, seek, and simply talk to a person who can be an amalgam of a sounding board, a critic, a seer, a friend, etc.”
Usually CEO coaching focusses on three aspects – strategy, organisational change, and behavioural coaching. The Programme at the ISB concentrated only on behavioural change. The Programme aimed towards improvement of positive and measurable behaviour of the participants, by identifying specific behaviours to improve upon and choosing concrete methods of change. Coached by none other than Goldsmith himself, the Programme rested on Goldsmith’s favourite line– “The same beliefs |
