Books in Brief | July 2006 print issue

Coached to Lead:  How to Achieve Extraordinary Results with an Executive Coach by Susan Battley  (Jossey-Bass, 2006 | $24.95)

This “consumer’s guide to executive coaching” advises coaching clients—including HR professionals who choose coaching services for their organizations—in selecting the right coaches, setting up formal agreements and getting the most out of coaching.

Whether you’re shopping for a coach for yourself or for others, you need to decide initially if coaching really is what’s needed. Author Susan Battley, who has coached Fortune 500 executives, walks readers through a number of questions: Do you have the budget for a coach? Can you take negative feedback? Can you realistically fit coaching into your schedule?

In Coached to Lead, Battley gives tips for selecting an executive coach. Learn to create a “perfect coach profile” that outlines competencies your coach will need. Identify coaching candidates by getting colleagues’ referrals, considering presenters you’ve heard and researching coaches on the Internet.

Interview potential coaches with Battley’s sample questions and learn about red flags, such as coaches who don’t provide references or trial periods, or coaches who focus on their own agendas and not the client’s.

Battley also addresses issues that executives in large companies may face, such as whether to accept coaching paid for and selected by their employers or seek outside coaching on their own.

Even if your employer pays for the coach, you should have a written agreement that addresses your individual goals for coaching, Battley advises. Agreements should cover billable activities, confidentiality, the use of e-mail in the coaching relationship, both sides’ criteria for ending the coaching relationship and more.

Battley’s five-step coaching model, with real-world examples, shows how the coach and client can:

• Define coaching issues, goals and desired outcomes.
• Assess the client’s current professional situation.
• Plan goals and create a specific to-do list to reach them.
• Act to reach goals through job assignments and more.
• Review how well coaching is working.

A chapter on sensitive coaching situations shows how to handle difficult issues. Consider how to make a case for a company-funded coach when the company is strapped for cash, what to do if your coach tells someone something you said in confidence and when you should “fire” a coach.