Someone to Watch Over Me

By Jill Vitiello

December 4, 2000 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - There are four Primary reasons why people use executive coaches, according to a survey conducted by the Washington-based International Coach Federation - for advice, inspiration, friendship and a guardian angel.
"An executive coach is like having a personal fitness trainer working for your career advancement and improvement," says Laura Berman Fortgang, president of LBF InterCoach Inc. in Montclair, N.J., and author of Take Yourself to the Top: The Secrets of America's #1 Career Coach (Warner Books Inc., 1998).
For the most part, IT leaders want coaches with a proven track record in their profession to provide practical, actionable advice.
Actionable Advice
Tom Roach decided to use a coach after undergoing a 360-review process by his staff, peers and management. "I found that my perceived strengths were not necessarily my true strengths," says the vice president of IT in charge of worldwide film distribution at Los Angeles-based 20th Century Fox.
Roach hired Susan Cramm, president of Laguna, Calif.-based Valuedance, a coaching firm for IT executives. After four years at the company, Roach had transitioned to a new position in which his peers also reported to him.
"Susan helped me build relationships with my peers, and pretty soon a tough situation began going much more smoothly," says Roach.
Cramm, a former CIO at Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell Corp. and chief financial officer at a division of Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo. Inc., began coaching IT executives after she made her own life-changing choice.
"At the end of 1997, I learned my mother was terminally ill. I resigned my CFO position to spend time with her," Cramm recalls.

			Executive Coaching Basics • How much do executive coaches cost? Coaches charge by the hour, by the month or by the project. Expect to pay the equivalent of a management consultant's fee. Rates run $150 to $375 per hour. • How long does a coaching relationship last? Most coaches ask for a commitment of six months. • How is the coaching delivered? In general, most executive coaching is delivered over the telephone in half-hour or hour-long conversations several times a month. CIOs, however, seem to prefer face-to-face consultations of about an hour and a half once or twice per month. • Where can I find a qualified coach? Most people meet their coaches through personal referrals. The International Coach Federation (ICF) sponsors a referral service. Visit its Web site at www.coachfederation.org or call (888) 236-2622. • What kind of people hire coaches? Most are professional people whose average age is 41 and who have college or advanced degrees. • What are the results of working with a coach? According to the ICF, clients report the following outcomes as a result of working with a coach: • Self-awareness 67.6% • Setting better goals 62.4% • More balanced life 60.5% • Lower stress levels 57.1%

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS

Leading IT Pros Weigh In on Top IT Issues

Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.

WHITE PAPER

For Best Results, Think Beyond the Box

Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!

WHITE PAPER

Accelerating the Path to Demand Intelligence with a Demand Signal Repository

Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

Natural User Interface for Enterprise Applications
Learn how a revolutionary user interface can make a complex enterprise application so intuitive even casual users can jump right in....

Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....

A Truly Global HCM System
Learn about a system built with advanced object-oriented technology that support multi-national requirements and costs less to implement, maintain and upgrade....

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Cost savings, speed to value, and innovation brought to the enterprise by Workday's software-as-a-service solutions for HR and Payroll....

Craft a Strategy to Lower Your Total Cost of Ownership
Get the tools to build a business case to assess the total cost of ownership of your HR technology footprint....

SaaS at Flextronics, Inc.
Dave Smoley, CIO of Flextronics, discusses the real value of software-as-a-service and why he chose Workday for his HR solution....

Navigating the Economic Morass
Need help making your way through today's volatile job market? In this Learn-Fast Guide, you'll learn how and where to look for your...

Why Compliance Pays
This OnDemand webcast explores the relationship that firms with best compliance records have higher revenue, greater customer retention, lower financial losses from data...

Accelerate SSL Encrypted Applications
The amount of SSL traffic is growing in the enterprise. Because it is encrypted, it cannot be properly controlled and accelerated. Blue Coat...

Agile Enterprise Content Management (ECM) for Rapid ROI
Find out how combining ECM and BPM will help adress issues about content rich business processes....

All White Papers | All Webcasts