178 50 TOPEXECUTIVECOACHES

test them in action, and carefully review results. We learn as we go along,
improving our understanding of how to realize integrity, alignment, ease, and
adaptation.
The coachee does nearly all of the work; the coach serves as an informed,
supportive ally who facilitates the coachee’s development of understanding.
By acquiring understanding, coachees empower themselves. They tap their
own resources more fully and effectively to reach their defined goals. What a
coach can bring to bear in this process is brains, sensitivity, experience, objec-
tivity, commitment, heart, and—on good days—wisdom. Homework assign-
ments rarely require much investment of time, focusing instead on building
awareness and testing ideas in action.
Usually, it is obvious when the engagement is complete. When coaching is
successful, the coachee has integrated new understandings and skills into
daily behavior, and has learned methods of self-monitoring, self-correction,
and ongoing development. The coach becomes redundant and departs. A suc-
cessful coaching process promotes integrity, confidence, and ease with
change. It produces clarity and objective understanding about the interplay
ofthe coachee’s nature with the organization and the larger business envi-
ronment. It powerfully enhances the conscious alignment of personal and
business imperatives. The measurable result of the coaching is a beneficial
change in the coachee’s attitude, behavior, and work product, a change that is
noticed and appreciated equally by the individual and the organization. A
formal 360-degree evaluation process can validate this result, but the impact
ofsuccessful coaching should be perfectly obvious: The coachee has become
more effective, in ways that everyone can see.