222 50 TOPEXECUTIVECOACHES
else could they act productively as coach to those soon to be coaches? I find
that it is very difficult to learn coaching from folks that have little under-
standing of what actually goes on formally and informally in the company.
Understanding the business and culture makes outside resources credible as
advisors to senior leadership who see coaching as a strategic tool. Educators
must be trusted to knowledgeably bring that strategy and point of view into
the classroom and be seen as coaches themselves. They need to create a chal-
lenging and engaging practice field for those new coaches, one that recog-
nizes the complexities and cultural realities of their environment.
Measurement should be part of the coaching strategy. It’s necessary to
decide from the beginning what outcomes the organization is after and how
it will know if it has achieved them. The organization might take particular
inhibitors identified in the early analysis and look at whether they are still in
place. It might want to see improvements in elements of the organization’s
people and pulse surveys measuring feelings and beliefs within the enter-
pr ise. Stories and qualitative evidence can also be very informative, as can
an examination of particular elements of strategy execution. The important
thing is to decide what success looks like up-front and to design to achieve it.