Anna and Terrance are two high potential employees at their fast-growing software development company. Over coffee, they were talking about separate but similar meetings they had with Barbara, their CEO, about their leadership potential at the company and corporate coaching. Barbara had discussed their strong performance, their promising futures with the company, and her interest in having them take on more responsibility. She offered executive coaching for each of them, to help them develop and accelerate their leadership skills.
“Coaching will be incredibly helpful for you,” said Barbara, “However, I’m being selfish too. Organizations can’t outpace their leaders, and if its leaders aren’t growing, the company is stagnating or dying. The company needs to continue to evolve and I see your leadership development as part of that evolution.”
It all sounded great. But, they wondered, “Don’t people who are struggling or falling short need coaches? Would executive coaching really be a good thing for them?” So they had done some homework and were comparing notes. What they learned helped them recognize how coaching would significantly improve their workplace performance.