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Coaching executives in the game of life
by Suzanne Monson

Coach Linda Miller won't be found organizing a scrimmage or calling in plays from the sidelines. In fact, Miller's coaching work comes nowhere near a basketball court or ballfield.

Her arena is the business world, where corporate leaders turn to Miller, head of Kirkland-based Interlink Training and Coaching, for career coaching for their professional and personal lives.

Since breaking into the American Zeitgeist nearly a decade ago, career coaching has attracted more than 10,000 people worldwide to the profession.

What's driving this growth? Clients who need someone to listen to their conflicted choices, coaches say. It's a coach's job to encourage people struggling with decisions and goals related to career changes, relationships, life simplification and more.

"People are just beginning to recognize what frenetic chaos their lives are in," said Anne Juhlian, business and executive coach at Northwest Coaching Group in Issaquah. "They want to know how to design a well-balanced life and package in this high-octane economy. They are trying to figure out what is real and what is illusion. They want to know what it means to put in 16 hours a day in a cubicle and how to have time to friends, family and vacations. They want to know where to put their hearts so they're not selling out."

Juhlian and Miller recognized those needs in their previous professions. Before coaching, Juhlian spent more than 20 years in broadcasting and had her own businesses specializing in mainstream and high-tech employment. Miller is a licensed therapist who counseled those with relationship conflicts.

But while Miller's clients range from individual high-powered Microsoft executives to companies such as IBM, Boeing, US West and Delta Faucet, whose upper management uses her guidance, coaching is far from counseling.

Counseling, she says, is about "how the past affects the present. Coaching is for the present and taking action for the future."

"It's certainly not therapy. That's not her gig," said Juhlian's client Jeff Horst, who came to her for coaching last year while weighing career choices and new business opportunities.

"She wants to help me get from Point A to Point B," said Horst, now vice president of business development for MTI Worldwide Logistics.

"Basically, I needed a sounding board - but I also needed to pay the mortgage and take care of my family. What she did for me was to cut through and capture the real issues. She'd ask me `What about this angle?' and `Have you thought about this?' It's not a pity party. By the end of the conversation, I'd have a plan."

Coaching attracts people "who've been in the trenches and have deep life experience," said Juhlian. "It's for people who have really lived life big and have done significant things in their world. It's for somebody who says, `I've got some things in my background that I can offer to others.' "

Only about 10 percent of coaches were counselors. Others have worked in business, education and health care.

Coaches who choose to become certified must complete a training program. Coach U, a Colorado-based electronic-training program for people who want to become coaches, is the best known. This program and others typically include one to two years of long-distance study. Most cost $3,500 to $5,500. Work with clients can begin during this training, Juhlian said, because "it's one of the deepest ways you learn."

Training often features weekly or twice-monthly teleconferencing classes linking 10 to 20 students. Study may include about 20 reading hours or monthly fieldwork, and tests.

Though coaches can earn from $100 to $400 hourly, Miller cautions prospects, "Don't quit your day job." It takes time to create a solid base of clients. If you're successful, both women said, clients will move on after meeting their goals.

Most clients are referred by word-of-mouth, but a national organization called Corporate Coaches in Colorado can help place certified coaches who have at least one year of experience with clients.

Because corporate and career coaching is relatively new, some coaches would like to see licensing. To establish professional standards, the International Coach Federation hopes to begin offering a national certification exam.

"It's not just a matter of hanging out a shingle," Miller said. "I run into a lot of people who say they're interested in coaching but are not interested in getting the training. I think that's scary."

Various levels of extended certification, which may take extra study time, help coaches specialize in venues ranging from health care to personal coaching and both internal and external corporate coaching.

Miller, an external corporate coach, is hired by companies on a consultant-type basis. Other companies, such as IBM, hire their own in-house coaches. Juhlian, meanwhile, focuses on small business and executive coaching with her own business.

"The cool thing about coaching is how it's becoming very specialized," Juhlian said. "People can ask themselves 'Where can I fit in? What client base would I be most suited to work with?'

"What it boils down to is that more coaches are born," she said. "They know they've got something in their background that shows they've got something to offer. They know it in their gut. Now there's a term - coaching - they can wrap around that."

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