What people say about coaching:
Who, exactly, seeks out a coach? … Winners who want even more
out of life."
Chicago Tribune
“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.”
CNN.com
“Coaching is an action-oriented partnership that, unlike
psychotherapy which delves into patterns of the past,
concentrates on where you are today and how you can reach your
goals.”
Time
“To create a high-performance team, we must replace typical
management activities like supervising, checking, monitoring,
and controlling with new behaviors like coaching and
communicating.”
Ray Smith, CEO, Bell-Atlantic
“I never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching
process to draw out the skills or talent that was previously
hidden within an individual, and which invariably finds a way to
solve a problem previously thought unsolvable,”
John Russell,
Managing Director, Harley-Davidson Europe Ltd.
“Tiger Woods has one. Pete Sampras has one. So why not small
business owners?”
Charles Boisseau, “Put Me In, Coach,”
localbusiness.com
“I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never
reach their maximum capabilities”
Bob Nardelli, CEO, Home
Depot
“…[A coach is] part advisor, part sounding board, part
cheerleader, part manager and part strategist.”
The Business
Journal
“The leaders of organizations such as Alcoa, American Red
Cross, AT&T, Ford, Northwestern Mutual Life, 3M, UPS, American
Standard, the federal governments of the United States and
Canada are convinced that coaching works to develop people and
increase productivity…“Motorola say they expect to spend in the
low millions this year on executive coaching for their best
middle managers.“
C2M: Consulting to Management
“The coaching relationship also has a unique structure. After
an initial assessment of the client's situation, the coach and
client set specific goals for the client. In each subsequent
meeting with the client, the coach determines what goals have
been met and why other goals were not…the coach prods the client
to keep to the action plan.”
The Business Journal
“…the quickly growing wave of coaching relationships that are
helping small-business owners improve their business skills,
recalibrate their approaches to management, and, often, totally
reboot and rebalance themselves as leaders on the job and in the
home and community. Coaches can help entrepreneurs get their
personal lives in order, which can go a long way toward solving
what may have looked like purely business problems.”
Dale D.
Bliss, Nation’s Business
“Coaches work with clients in all areas including business,
career, finances, health and relationships. As a result of
coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make
better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths.
Coaching is not about the past or figuring out why and how life
got so complicated or overwhelming. It is about moving forward
on the things that matter most to you, dissolving barriers and
blocks to your own success, and designing a life that you love.”
Sausalito.net
“People usually turn to coaches for professional and career
growth. They want help in setting goals, solving problems or
acquiring new skills. But business coaching often leads to
personal insights. Clients are better able to deal with
obstacles and change. It's easier to balance work life with
their personal life. And in some cases, it gives them the
courage to pursue a dream.”
The Arizona Republic
"I first heard about personal coaches five years ago — at the
same time personal fitness coaches were beginning to flex their
muscles. The two fields are related: coaches in both areas help
you achieve your potential…Personal coaches provide powerful
professional insights. My personal advice: Get one.”
Chicago
Tribune
“Coaching can certainly help you strengthen your sense of
self-worth, focus on your goals — and get there, fast.”
The
London Daily Telegraph
“For years, business people have used corporate coaches to
help their companies work more effectively. Now, an increasing
number of individuals are turning to coaches for help in finding
balance in their personal lives.”
The Spokane Spokesman
Review
“If you want to build your business and at the same time have
a rewarding personal life, you call a coach.”
Denver Post
"Today's managers, professionals, and entrepreneurs are
hiring coaches to help them with time management, a change in
career, or balancing their work and personal lives. People are
looking to coaches as sounding boards and motivators who can
offer a fresh perspective on career and life problems — but
without the conflicting agendas of a spouse, family member, or
even a mentor.”
Fortune
“Coaching started in the business world to help stressed
executives cope with their professional and personal lives, and
it still thrives in the corporate environment. But individuals
are increasingly turning to coaching for help with all sorts of
challenges.”
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune
“At a time when companies are downsizing and out placing…at a
time when boomers are facing 50, coaches are easing traumatic
transitions.”
Long Beach Press-Telegram
“Want to get even further ahead?…What you need is a coach,
your own personal motivator. They're not just for top-ranked
tennis players anymore.
Miami Herald
"Coaching — also known as nonsports coaching, life coaching
and a host of other terms — is a growing phenomenon. Top coaches
have popularized it on "Oprah" and spread its tenets in a range
of magazines from Cosmopolitan to the Harvard Business Review.
The impact coaches are having in the business world is being
widely covered.” “…but what does a coach do? “Listen
deeply…coaches listen for the gap between where people want to
be and where they are. A coach’s job is to help you discover
what you want, to help you bring it out, and help you bring it
out quickly,” says David Flack, President of the San Antonio
Professional Coaches Association. While coaching can center on
career growth or change, it can also focus on issues as varied
as spirituality, finances or relationships. Much coaching, even
for people in business, brings up other life issues. But
coaching is not therapy. "Coaches believe their clients are
already whole and complete human beings and are looking for ways
to overcome the barriers they see in themselves," Flack says.
San Antonio Express News
"It boils down to caring,” (coaching is) invaluable. It
points out things people would not notice themselves and plays a
big role in shaping behavior."
Charles Barrentine, Eastman
Kodak
“Among the benefits to executives who received coaching were
improved: Working relationships with direct reports (reported by
77% of executives) Working relationships with immediate
supervisors (71%) Teamwork (67%) Working relationships with
peers (63%) Job satisfaction (61%) Conflict reduction (52%)
Organizational commitment (44%) Working relationships with
clients (37%)..."
Executive Coaching Yields Return On
Investment Of Almost Six Times Its Cost, Says Study - Business
Wire
"Regardless of how you define success, an emerging specialty
called 'success coaching' (also known as personal and
professional coaching) offers the chance to visualize your
highest goals and stay on track to achieve them.”
Central New
York Business Journal
“Once reserved for executives and professional athletes,
personal coaches…are going mainstream….Investment bankers,
entrepreneurs, dentists, accountants, secretaries, even
homemakers are hiring coaches to help guide them in everything
from changing careers to starting a business to balancing work
and family.”
Christian Science Monitor
"Coaching has been a valuable resource for creating
professional and personal changes in my life. My coach and I
developed strategies and solutions that enabled me to produce
results more efficiently."
Kara Gade, Stress Management
Specialist
“Jim Parkhurst, senior engineer at MCI WorldCom, in Fremont,
Calif., so values his coaching that he's willing to pay for it
out of his own pocket. ‘It’s like going to the gym with a
personal trainer. It's a much more focused event, as opposed to
going to the gym alone or just having a mentor to casually talk
about things…it's my agenda, not the coach's. We're really
defining what my goals are, the best courses of actions, and
what am I diverging from. I have a lot less stress about
changes, as well as an ability to see clearly what needs to be
done to better position myself. Clients also say that coaches
give them a fresh perspective. ‘A lot of times you're fighting
fires and don't see an easier way to solve the problem,’
Parkhurst says. The objective, distanced view of a coach can
also lead to new ways of looking at issues because the coach's
ideas aren't limited by politics or a position within the
company.”
Infoworld
“Even modest improvements can justify hiring a coach,’ says
Jerome Abarbanel, Vice President of Executive Resources for
Citibank: ‘An investment of $30,000 or so in an executive who
has responsibility for tens of millions of dollars is a rounding
error. Coaching is a success if one subordinate who was too
intimidated to speak before comes up with a good idea.”
Fortune
“The things I've gained are worth much more [than the $260
monthly fee], says Dominick Bencivenga from Huntington Station,
manager of Citibank’s Commack branch…phone bills are expenses.
This is an investment. I'm designing my life. Coaching has given
me an energy to put more of the things I want in my life, he
says. I can now focus my downtime, which used to be wasted
time.”
The Long Island Newspaper