I believe that many behavioral coaches are paid for the wrong outcomes.
Their income is a largely a function of “How much do my clients like me?” and
“How much time did I spend in coaching?” Neither of these is a good metric for
achieving a positive, long-term change in behavior. In terms of liking the
coach—I have never seen a study that showed that clients ’ love of a coach
was highly correlated with their change in behavior. In terms of spending
clients ’ time—my clients are all executives whose decisions often impact billions
of dollars. Their time is more valuable than mine. I try to spend as little of their
time as necessary to achieve the desired results. The last thing they need is for
me to waste their time!
Qualifying the Coaching Client: Knowing When
Behavioral Coaching Won’t Help
Since we use a “pay only for results” process in behavioral coaching, we have had
to learn to qualify
our coaching clients. This means that we only work with
clients that we believe will benefit from our coaching process.
As this book so clearly points out, there are several different types of
coaching. I only do behavioral coaching for successful executives—not
strategic, life planning, or organizational change coaching. I have the highest
respect for the coaches in the categories that are represented in this book.¹
That is just not what I do. Therefore, I only focus on changing leadership be-
havior for individuals and teams. If my clients have other needs,
I refer them
to other coaches.
Have you ever tried to change the behavior of a successful adult who had
no interest in changing? How much luck did you have? Probably none. I only
work with executives who are willing to make a sincere effort to change and
who believe that this change will help them become better leaders.
Some large corporations write people off; but rather than just fire those
people, the organization engages in a pseudobehavioral coaching process that
is more seek and destroy than help people get better. We only work with lead-
ers who are seen as potentially having a great future in the corporation. We
only work with people who will be given a fair chance by their management.
Finally, I would never choose to work with a client that has an integrity
violation. I believe that people with integrity violations should be fired,
not
coached.
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