Isolation and lack of time to think may be the bane of every Chief Executive Officer's existence.
The more Chief Executive Officers (CEO) work and the more responsibilities they take on, the more isolated they become. Their spot at the top cuts them off from the people lower down on the corporate totem pole, and thus from reliable, "un-spun" information.
So what's a CEO to do? Why, get help, of course!
No single definition can capture what every executive coach does. But most coaches who work with CEOs seem to be part confessor, part behavioral therapist, and part management consultant. And all coaches will tell you that unlike the members of the "C-suite," on whom the CEO relies, they aren't angling for his job, they have no vested interest in the company, and they will come in with a fresh perspective.
CEO coaching comes in many varieties. One is aimed at helping the executive hop off the treadmill long enough to think. "Coaching is a way to have an outboard processor, someone who's helping you process your own experience, which is just coming at you too fast and too furiously," says Rachel Bellow, a consultant and executive coach based in Manhattan. Call this "outsourcing your self-reflection"—bringing in help to do the kinds of thinking you might not have time to do on your own (Was I too hard on my CFO at the corporate retreat?), or would prefer not to (Was it because he reminds me of the bully from my junior high school?).
Simply, the coach is a secret advisor and has no other relationship in the CEO's life---that allows both parties to say the "unsayable to each other" and get to a place of self-awareness where great leverage for change can happen.
Source: Rachel Donadio, The Atlantic, November 2004
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