Executive Coaching

The National Institutes of Health Training Center offers individual coaching engagements for executives, senior managers, middle managers, professional staff, and other key contributors. Executive coaching offers today's busy leaders the opportunity to pursue professional development in a confidential and collaborative one-on-one environment. Executive coaching is a learning process that is tailored to an individual's needs.
The NIH Training Center offers an extensive network of experienced, certified coaches who have been thoroughly evaluated to ensure maximum benefit to the NIH community. Executive Coaches listen, conduct in-depth interviews, ask questions, provide support and feedback, and challenge individuals. Our coaches work with both individuals and teams to enhance skills. The long-term benefits to NIH include having a more productive, efficient and engaged workforce. The high-impact results achieved from coaching can be observed and measured.

What is coaching?

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

What are common areas of focus for coaching engagements?     

Coaching is a powerful tool that can assist in:

• Supporting individual career growth
• Solving complex problems
• Improving delegation skills
• Increasing individual and/or staff performance and productivity
• Improving communication, assertiveness and conflict resolution skills
• Assistance with professional creativity and innovation
• Strengthening of organizational and time management skills
• Improving work/life balance
• Enhancing networking skills
• Developing "leadership" presence

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How is a Coach different from a Mentor?

A Coach is:

• Always striving for full objectivity
• Focused on the Client's success 
• An Advisor
• Curious
• Able to tap into the Client's mind for the experiences and wisdom that has been built over time, thereby boosting the confidence of the Client 
• Adept in having the Client reveal the best answers for him/herself 
• Skilled in guiding the Client through the thinking process, allowing the client to identify barriers and solutions that will fit his/her style, needs, talents, etc. 
  
  Key words that describe a coach: objective, curious and questioner

A Mentor is:

• Typically within the mentee’s organization
• Valuable in offering advice and counsel
• Adept in providing the  "inside view" of the intricacies and politics of the organization. 
• Often able to use his/her influence to help position the mentee better, gain access to opportunities (details, promotions, etc.) and, sometimes, remove barriers. 
  
  Key words that describe a mentor:  insider, influencer and advisor.

What are the benefits to having a coach?

A coach can make a significant difference in the long-term success of both the individual and the organization.  A coach is hands-on with their coaching.  A coach wants the same thing the executives they are coaching want: to achieve their target goals. A coach works with the executives and managers they coach to capitalize on the organization’s strengths to help them achieve the very best results it can.

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What are the characteristics of a good coach?

1. The capacity to create relationships in which the client finds the courage to question the basic presuppositions from which they have been working.  
   
   Given that most actions come from some set of presuppositions, it is important to be able to identify them and to develop the courage to challenge them.
2. The capacity to listen for what matters to the client.  
   
   One of the most common losses in corporate life is engagement or passion.  Very often this loss shows up as lack of innovation and creativity.  Bringing the client back in touch with what they care about and connecting it back to the organization’s mission, vision, and strategy is a skill of a great executive coach.
3. The ability to break the conversational patterns in which the client is trapped.  
   
   Sometimes we fall into conversational patterns that become completely ineffective.  “If you keep repeating what you always do, don’t ask for different results.”  Translated for coaching, we could say, “If you remain involved in the same conversations, don’t expect new interpretations or different outcomes.”  A great executive coach has the ability to elicit fresh conversations from the client.
4. The capacity to recognize the environmental and systemic dynamics within which the client works. 
   
   Our ability to improve or to radically alter our actions is greatly dependent on the emotional dynamics and environmental systems in which we find ourselves.  Recognizing these dynamics and understanding these systems creates new territories for learning.  Helping clients increase their emotional intelligence and understanding of how both emotions and systems predispose us to act in certain ways and not in others permits them to learn and design new environments to allow for new actions.         
5. The capacity to build trust. 
   
   The client must assess the coach as sincere, competent, and reliable.  Mutual trust is cultivated throughout the coaching relationship and builds over time.  The absence of trust at any point disables the relationship.  Once trust is present, it must not be taken for granted and needs to be regenerated constantly during the coaching relationship.
6. The ability to create a mood of lightness. 
   
   Neither the mood of gravity nor the mood of triviality belong in coaching.  Lightness is the capacity to look (and laugh) at oneself without being trapped by ego or pretense.  Lightness brings to the coaching relationship the sincere desire to move into a new realm of interpretations out of which effective action can take place.
7. The capacity to maintain confidentiality. 
   
   The client must be certain that any disclosure in the coaching relationship will remain confidential for as long as they want to keep it that way.  This is an essential element in the creation of a trusting relationship between coach and client.
8. The ability to support the client into new actions. 
   
   New insights and awareness is needed, but so are new behaviors and actions.  A great coach works with the client to support them in developing a strategy, plan, and tactics for taking new actions consistent with their declared objectives and goals.

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How long is the coaching commitment and what are the fees?

FY 13 Coaching Packages:
(supervisory approval is required)

• 6 hours/3 months:  $3,290
• 12 hours/6 months:  $5,270
• 24 hours/12 months:  $9,229

Each coaching experience is different. Like any relationship, a successful coaching experience is built on trust and mutual respect. You must trust your advisor to assist in the development of an action plan. The more information shared, the more beneficial the experience. A typical coaching agreement lasts for six months to a year. Many initial executive coaching sessions last from two to four hours, with follow-up sessions varying from one-to-two hours. Follow-up coaching is done weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, depending on the desired results. Coaching can be done via telephone, in person, or a combination of both.  The coaching engagement often begins with an assessment/interview with your manager to establish an initial framework. Together, you and your coach determine the appropriate length and scope of the relationship.

Who do I contact to begin?

For more information about Executive Coaching or to pursue working with a coach, please complete the Executive Coaching Request Form. If you have questions, please contact Keisha Berkley at 301-496-6211 or berkleyk@od.nih.gov.

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Team Coaching

What Is Team Coaching?

Team Coaching helps an existing or newly-formed team achieve desired goals.

Team coaching can be used to assist with:

• Decision making
• Establishing new teams
• Strategic planning
• Creating a common vision and values framework
• Exploring and leveraging the unique capabilities of team members
• Organizational change

Is Team Coaching the same as Team Building?

No. Team building is typically a short-term activity designed to strengthen unity and collaboration among colleagues. Team coaching utilizes a more involved approach to assess a team's dynamics, composition, strategies and goals.

What is the Process?

Team Coaching is similar to Executive Coaching in terms of the selection process. The fees vary depending on the level of commitment and goals of the team coaching engagement.  For additional details, contact Keisha Berkley at the NIH Training Center at 301-496-6211 or berkleyk@od.nih.gov.

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