202 50 TOPEXECUTIVECOACHES

question, challenge, and coach the CEO and senior team, and help them see
how they can become more effective individually and together. It’s a process
that I think is enormously helpful in building the capability of the most piv-
otal part of an organization, the CEO and his or her top team.
I regard a coaching engagement with an organization as a long-term rela-
tionship rather than a one-time project. Most consultants are hired for spe-
cific change initiatives or strategic shifts. But these events often become a
series ofunconnected programmatic changes when the organization needs
an overall systemic review. A coach who is there for the long run can be
helpful in keeping the focus on that systemic change—and, equally impor-
tant, can ensure that it is management who develops and implements it. The
coach can provide the advice, encouragement, and sometimes discipline to
keep working toward the big organizational goals and prevent a drift back to
day-to-day operating requirements.
Most managers are very smart, capable people. I work with them recog-
nizing t hat they know their industry and business better than I do. I’m there
to understand what they do. Then, I’m going to question and challenge. If
things seem blocked, I’m going to apply the naive questions of an outsider to
try and pry it open. As trust and comfort grow, I can challenge and push the
top team with more skill and precision. From my perspective, I need to re-
gard the challenge of the organization as something interesting and engaging
that I’m going to learn from and contribute to. I need to like the people with
whom I will be working, and have a strong belief that they are capable and
committed.
A coach can build the individual competencies of a top manager, but I be-
lieve that individual competency is leveraged enormously if it is put in the
context of the top team and the building of organizational capability. If clients
are not comfortable with that, I may still work with them, but more as a con-
sultant providing my expertise. I don’t consider my work coaching unless I am
developing their individual and organizational capabilities.