Coaching: The benefits of a holistic view of life at work

By ExecutiveBrief Staff

Wayward, discouraged executives are a cost your company wouldn’t want to carry. Try coaching and put them back on track.

In this era when iPOD-crazed young adults start entering their “quarter life” crisis as they reach their mid-twenties, their older brothers and their parents leaping to the next mountain of their career path find that the ground beneath them is shaky.

Technology is always named as the culprit. There is always too much information to absorb. New skills seem to sprout by the pathway every new year. An employee who has mastered a word processing program and Internet surfing is considered a caveman. If he wants a promotion, he’d better master the intricacies of HRMS and PowerPoint, and be adept to say the least in culling online business intelligence.

Then there is the seemingly insurmountable challenge of mastering these new tech wonders, instead of being overwhelmed by them.  However, a manager forced to take a call on a weekend right in the middle of her twelve-year-old’s birthday party knows better.  So does the harried executive whose inner glow after soaking up the sun in the Caribbean for two weeks dissipates at the sight of 2,000 e-mail missives waiting for him.

If left unchecked, this sense of vertigo can accumulate to erode the corporate athlete’s self-esteem, stunt his career development, make him question his own worth as well as that of the company’s, and throw him off his set career path.  Low morale stunts his performance and throws him off course.  At that point, he would feel that his best course of action is resignation--until the same malaise hits him again in his new workplace.  Luckily, corporations which had felt the blood flow in the continual exodus of once valued employees stem the tide by hiring an executive coach especially for their senior leaders who feel the most pressure. 

Coaching is different from staff development in several respects.  First, the latter often focuses on the enhancement of skill and the reiteration of the corporate mission and vision meant to enlighten the staffer as to his true place and role in the firm.  In contrast, coaching is more holistic, addressing the intellectual, emotional, social, personal, familial needs of the person, encouraging him to look inward and discover his unique strengths, weaknesses, and personality traits.