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Karine Michael

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK - As an IBM product manager in Research Triangle Park, Jane Creswell knew that motivating her employees was key to the success of her division. About four years ago, she not only began discovering new motivational techniques, she also discovered the field of professional coaching - helping people form and attain goals.

Creswell decided to pursue certification and began coaching people on the side.

She also began talking about personal goals with her colleagues at work on all sorts of topics - from balancing work and home life to motivating them to be more organized and productive.

As she helped her product team, she realized there was a need for corporate cheerleaders within IBM.

"One day, I went to my group director and told her that IBM ought to let me coach in IBM on a trial basis," Creswell says.

With some convincing and an impressive coaching plan, the 17-year IBM veteran was granted six weeks to work in her experimental role.

Two months later, employees were so enthusiastic about the idea that IBM created a full-time coaching position for her. Creswell then began devising plans for a coaching structure on a corporate level.

"I was IBM's first coach," she says. "It was my job then to help implement a coaching strategy."

Creswell's division was so successful, IBM spun the company off as an independent business named Home Director. Now, employees in the two-year-old Morrisville-based software developer refer to Creswell as "Coach Jane," although her official title is vice president of organizational development. The company has grown from 20 to 95 employees and Creswell's coaching curriculum is as important to the business as the company's strategic planning sessions.

Call it professional coaching, executive coaching, life coaching, or corporate coaching.

Whatever the name, this new phenomenon is one of the hottest services in corporate America today. Coaches are being used by individuals who are either tired of little or no guidance on the job, or want to attain a clear focus on how to shape their goals and what method to use to attain them.

Life coaching encompasses family issues, financial affairs and the work and home environment. For companies who fall prey to the tight labor market, hiring coaches helps ensure they keep motivated employees who concentrate on increasing their job performance and resolving time management constraints.

"Everyone should have a personal coach, Tiger Woods has a coach to help him with his game, I need a coach to help me on my journey through life," says Bill Gautier, an investment advisor with JC Bradford Inc. in Raleigh.

The corps of accredited coaches is growing in response to corporate demand. Companies such as IBM, AT&T and Kodak are hiring in-house coaching professionals, while many independent coaches are growing their own businesses.

Executive coaching is not particularly new - top CEOs have used trainers and consultants for years. But now, coaches are accessible to all sorts of professionals at every level of the corporate ladder.

Gautier, a retired Navy captain, says his philosophy that life is a journey not a destination relates to his coach, Sharon Ragsdale, who runs a Raleigh-based coaching business.

"On a journey, you need a guide and Sharon's gone on that journey with other people; it's like she's looking down from a helicopter at the road ahead, giving you directions," says Gautier.

Although coaching appears to have therapeutic elements, professional coaches, such as Ruth Ledesma, say it's not therapy.

"Therapy looks into the past to find out how your childhood experiences have affected your adult life," she says. "Coaching focuses on the positive, it builds on your existing strengths and helps you forge a path to live the life you've always dreamed for yourself." Ledesma runs a home-based coaching business, Ledesma Associates, in Chapel Hill.

Coaches instead see themselves as part advisor, part sounding board, part cheerleader, part manager and part strategist.

Christa Wessell needed help with her life journey and decided to hire a coach because she didn't really know what direction to take in her life or career.

Feeling disillusioned after a last minute relocation to the Triangle in 1992 and a job that wasn't satisfying, Wessell, became unhappy with her post-graduate life.

Wessell, 31, had majored in music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and wanted a career in that industry.

"I moved to the Triangle in desperation," the Durham resident recalls, "And landed job after job that wasn't in the field I wanted."

After two years of coaching by Ledesma, Wessell, says she's now on the right career path as a radio announcer for WCPE, a classical music station in Wake Forest.

There's no uniform way to coach, says Ledesma, but most coaches spend one to two hours a week with each client, mostly by phone.

During these conversations, the week is recapped and dissected as the client tells the coach what worked and what didn't.

Then there's the homework: Clients must complete exercises designed to make them more organized and get them to plan for the long-term. Exercises involve creating lots of lists, such as writing down goals and listing annoyances they are putting up with, but would rather not. Clients are also asked to spend time reflecting on issues and writing their thoughts and feelings in a journal.

Individual coaching prices range from $150 to $500 a month, and clients usually stay with the program for a minimum of six months.

There are no laws mandating that coaches be licensed. However, many of the coaches, such as Creswell, Ragsdale and Ledesma have graduated with a two-year degree from Coach University in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

And many coaches have master's degrees or backgrounds in career development.

The Pyramid Resource Group, a 6-year-old coaching firm in Cary, tries to expand its coaching base by networking with the International Coaching Federation, says Joe Diab, director of coaching group operations for the business.

Today, one of the firm's coaches, Marcia Reynolds, is president of the organization and D.J. Mitsch, Pyramid's president, is president-elect.

Despite being on the inside track to qualified professionals, keeping pace with a growing list of major corporate clients in the Research Triangle Park area has spurred the firm to develop its own proprietary coach training.

"Finding well-regarded, qualified coaches is the number one priority in growing the business," Diab says.

 

Copyright 2000 American City Business Journals Inc.

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