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Its a nostalgic moment; I commanded the parade in 1978 and tomorrow I’ll re-live it.

Its a time of give back too for us. The Old Lawrencians mentoring initiative led by Rohan, Jessy and Sangeeta gave me an opportunity to share my thought “why craft a vision statement while at school” with few students and parents.

Live your Dream, leveraging your talents and living your passion!

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To look at it, @60 you have very little to worry about. The children have been educated, mortgages are settled and its the time to live your dream. To think of it, its the most productive period with out the burden of being tied down to your “duties”

You are at the peak of domain knowledge acquired over the period and have all the luxury in the world to decide your own time table. I started my NKPL journey thus and its been invigorating since. A dream of building an institution that all associated with it will be proud off.

These journey’s go through ups and downs like the roller coaster, but the end is always euphoric. People will come paddle stay or go. For those who stay, I have said, in 10 years Ill support you enjoy a journey of being with own journey, with NKPL being the prime customer for the expert domain service each one has. For those who have left, I thank them for being part of the journey and supporting it so far. For the very few who broke the trust imposed on them and hurt the venture, I say, no rancor, its been a big learning for me and I hope they too learn from it.

Trust and integrity alone will hep you keep smiling, break it and even a genuine smile will be a smirk.

My Grandson, Kalaeb, whom I call KaiPauChe’ shortening his full name, did do a performance. His mother preserved his performance of a few weeks earlier to dedicate to grandpa. So sweet!

The reverse journey is exciting, Lets be aware, its all in the mind. Never lose the child in you as the child in you is the creative best.

The post BIRTHDAYS that make you an Year YOUNGER first appeared on Zen Mentors LLP, CLAT Training Centre Trivandrum.

My father would have been 99 had he lived for 5 more years and he would have been the most happy and proud to witness ‘Azadi ka Amritutsav’.

As a young student leader of INC in Travancore, he leaped to the call of “purna swaraj” mobilizing the students and young in Travancore. At the time of independence, he took the call of Gandhiji for dismantling of Congress and became an active member of Praja Socialist Party (PSP) led by Acharya Kripalani, the AICC President at the time of Independence.

Panackal Varkey Thomas or PVT as he was fondly called was assigned Personal Secretary, Coordinator and Translator when Kripalani undertook the 3 week tour of Kerala to spread the concept of PSP and prepare the party for the next election. The legendary Pattom Thanu Pillai was the Chief Minister of Kerala then ( Interestingly, they were designated Prime Minister initially and then on changed to CM). Pattom would be one of the few serving as PM and then CM.

My father could walk in to the Kitchen of Pattom and he believed in the young man, his passion for political work and his commitment to the theme of Socialist Party. And thats why the young 20 something was assigned to such an important task.

At the culmination of the visit, Kripalini asked Thomas to shift his base of political activity to Delhi. He politely declined saying he had a young wife and a little son whom he could not leave behind and promised to lead the PSP movement in Kerala. Kripalani was convinced Thomas had taken a wrong decision politically, but respected his choice.

My father went on to fight the election as a PSP candidate, turning down the offer from the powerful left then to stand as an independent. He told the well meaning comrades who visited his home ” May be its the worst political decision I’ll take, but I am the lead of PSP here and I’ll fight as one”

Rest is history as the left supported indepenedent won. My father went to Malabar to be part of the founding of one of the largest schools in Malabar, serving as its Headmaster for 25 years. He has left an indelible mark in the region he worked that even today, 35 years since he left that place, he is remembered and loved as someone who taught the young generation to dream and was at the forefront of working for the infrastructure there leveraging his contacts with his freedom fighter friends in the government. To think of it, 50 years back he had built an olympic size swimming pool in his school under a special GOI scheme supported keenly by his Freedom fighter colleague in the cabinet. Those were the days of rare comradeship and self less work for society.

He later on was the Chairman of Freedom fighter federation in Kerala, a position which he held till his last days. He fought for the well being of many FF who were at the risk of penury. He fought his right for a central government freedom fighter pension, which he won from court but was later overturned by the district administration for the flimsy reason that he had a pension from Kerala Govt. It was not about the money, which always went to the Ashram for the needy he supported, but he was angry and sad that many of the people who fought for the freedom of India are being forgotten, brushed aside by young civil servants who do not know their sacrifice, but enjoy its benefits.

He always used to remind, “Power is not to rule, but to serve”.

Today I salute him and his wife, my mother, who was the source of strength to him. True Azadi comes when we respect others for their views and help create an inclusive India through power of Education.

The post MY FATHER WAS A FREEDOM FIGHTER! first appeared on Zen Mentors LLP, CLAT Training Centre Trivandrum.

 
In 2018 she was ranked 20th in the list of 50 Greatest Leaders of the World by Fortune magazine.

HUMAN RIGHT ACTIVIST THAT GAVE VOICE TO WOMEN

There is no other person in India who has single handedly fought for the rights of women and succeeded; the stand out verdict in Mary Roy vs Govt of Kerala case, that established the rights of Christian women in Kerala to equal rights in their ancestral property is epic. She continues to be the beacon of hope for many and inspiration to budding lawyers!

The post POWER OF LAWYER first appeared on Zen Mentors LLP, CLAT Training Centre Trivandrum.

The first in Modern Era to win a grand slam as a qualifier in 2021, winning US Open
She’s as old as my +2 Teens at ZEN looking at a career to build

I was one of those fortunate to have witnessed Emma create history at Rolland Garros, win the US Open, few days short of her 18 years. It was smiles and pure joy all around. The end result of self belief and hard work of an immigrant to UK. And thats what teen power is all about!

The post TEEN POWER! first appeared on Zen Mentors LLP, CLAT Training Centre Trivandrum.

WHY A NEW CLAT EXAM PATTERN?

• The two most important skills for budding lawyers include comprehension and critical reasoning skills.

• Law schools mandate that students possess these two skills to cope with the teaching methodology adopted by most law schools.

• In the recent years, the professors at National Law University (NLUs) have felt that CLAT has failed to test these skills, and has instead tested the memory quotient of law aspirants. In short, CLAT has not succeeded in testing students’ real aptitude to pursue law, resulting in a mismatch between selected students and law school requirements.

• New Pattern intends to correct this.

 
WHAT ARE THE CHANGES?
 

1. NO OF QUESTIONS – Substantial reduction in CLAT 2020 from 200 to 120-150 questions. A good change. Earlier pattern put tremendous time pressure on students.
2. GK – No more need to cram facts of history. Questions only on current affairs with focus on editorial reviews and interpretation of current events.
3. MATHS – Focus shifts to application of maths in real life; data analysis and interpretation.
4. ENGLISH – Will comprise of only comprehension passages with a view to test your understanding of the passages, contextual meaning of words and inferences drawn from the passages.
5. LOGICAL REASONING- There will be high emphasis on critical reasoning skills. This section will include a variety of questions to determine students’ ability to reason through an argument logically and make an objective decision.
6. LEGAL APTITUDE – Will be case study based. No need to have in-depth knowledge of law subjects. However, good awareness of law of land, civil to criminal with IPAC analysis capability will be a plus point while handling this section.

IS IT GOOD OR BAD FOR ASPIRANTS?

• The CLAT Consortium realised that it is rather unfair to quiz students on their knowledge of legal concepts even before they enter the law schools.
•  This section will now test students’ ability to arrive at conclusion from a given set of arguments.
• The focus shifts to identifying skills of a student for Reading and Comprehension and analysis of data and situation logically.
• Students no longer have to cram up, but hone their skills of Comprehension, Logical Reasoning and have an update of current affairs.
• This is in line with international exam patterns like LSAT, GMAT, GRE, TOEFEL etc. ITS GOOD !

TIPS FOR PREPARATION
 

• NEWS PAPER READING – Focus on editorial reading and its review. Cover news items of importance in areas of law making, economy, sports and international events.
• GK – Read issue based current affairs.
• ENGLISH – Learn concepts of OutLining and PARAPHRASING in Reading and Comprehension. Practice varied difficulties of RC.
• MATHS – Brush up Statistics,
• LOGICAL REASONING– Understand different types of LC and the concept behind each. Develop skill of deduction learning it like a game of hide and seek!
• LEGAL APTITUDE – Get overview of concepts of law. Focus on case studies. Get to understand how a lawyer builds and concludes a case argument; concept of Issue, Principal, Analysis and Conclusion (IPAC).
• GET A GOOD TEACHER – A specialist help is recommended. Identify one. Take the change in pattern as a +VE development and work.

FOR COUNSELLING,
CONTACT,
ADV REGY MANOG
PHONE 7025 222 444
ZENMENTORS@GMAIL.COM

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The student dilemma

How do I have a natural progression in course of study based on my passion after +2?
Above question that I have encountered with many students is the biggest challenge that a teenager stepping in to college life face. Interestingly, the answer is in the question itself. However, is she able to find the answer? Does the parent help him find it?

To get this answer, synergy in thinking and role clarity between student and parent need to well established. The student on most occasion has limited view of what are the fields of study available in his area of interest.

Parents sure have better view of it. But is the parent willing to facilitate her wish that may be in dissonance with mother’s or father’s wish? I have encountered numerous cases where the parents, in the fallacious noble thought of ensuring a safe future for the ward impose their decision on the child. In lot of cases the un-fulfilled dream of the parent is actualised through these decisions. This is to be guarded against as a decision which was seemingly good can turn sour if the student is unable to cope with the stream f study or realises there were other programs that matched his passion and talent to which his friends have admission and are doing exceedingly well. This can leave a life nagging question as to why my dad did not show me the option; despite I looking up to him to live my talents?

We need to realise that 12th standard is the turning point. Education up to 12th is a preparation for choice of right stream in college as can be seen from the syllabus in Schools. In India there is a greater thrust on the science streams than in the west where you have the option to choose level of difficulty in each subject. A boy with a literary streak has the option to choose a higher level of English learning and lower level of maths that’s rudimentary. This enables growth in own area of interest and know of maths needed for daily life; a win win solution. In India you do not have this luxury. As a result all students are forced to learn maths and science subjects at the same level of difficulty. This in turn becomes an excruciating rat race to catch up with the best in class in these subjects through special tuitions with out realising its limited use in future. As a case study lets look at a right brain oriented creative kid who excels in liberal streams. The advise to him would be to spend more time on correcting his so called weakness in science then build on his strength language or arts. It’s unfortunate that even today, specially in our part of the world, “you judge a fish by its capability to climb tree”.

My friend’s son David was a difficult child to most; except to his good meaning relatives and friends, that included me. He had the knack of taming class mates double his size with sheer audacity that bordered on foolishness. Four schools in 6 years with forced transfers, he was doomed to fail by his teachers. With out even telling anyone, he applied for creative design after 12th to secure admission to 2 prestigious institutions in the country, which of course turned him a darling and symbol of achievement to his naysayers. I have just been informed that he’s been recruited by a major creative agency and identified as a future potential. He’s few week short of 24.

This is where the role of parent is defining. As a parent one should listen to the child and help him choose and not impose. I have come across many parents who say “ we don’t force, he’s free to choose his option” and when I speak to the student, he agrees, only issue is that he does not know what to choose and as a result agree to study what the parent wants as its the course of least collateral damage. The parent can not run away from the responsibility of trying to understand the true capabilities and likes of the child and expose to him the various options available. I know that many parents do not have the wherewithal to impart it, in which case they need to get help. There are career guidance teachers in schools who are trained who could be consulted or free lancing specialists in this field. Its advisable to meet a consultant with whom the child can interact with out inhibition as that alone can help identify her true capabilities.

I as a Coach and counsellor do not follow psychometric assessments as a tool to identify the above. I believe more in the ZEN Concept of opening your thoughts through self probing questions that lead to identification of passion and its capability to achieve, delivering a vision statement helping

for self. It helps identify a stream and course of study with a reasonable view of how it will be utilised. In this respect, we need to appreciate the college admission procedure in west that asks the student to make an SOP or statement of purpose in life that’s sent along with the application. Professors who are trained in reading these are able to identify and choose the right talent for the institution. Those who try to live the dreams of others through a facade is unable to make the grade which I think is the best thing to happen. It will help the student and parent revisit his true calling and prepare an SOP accordingly.

I hope to share more of my thoughts and learning from interactions with students and others as we go along. Meantime it would be pleasure to hear from you too.

Till then…

Sanjeevthomas@musings is an ongoing exchange of ideas in self growth
By Sanjeev Thomas, Founder & CEO, ZEN Mentors LLP
He can be reached on Email – sanjeevthomas@zenmentors.com
Phone +91 8879787852

The post How to choose a career first appeared on Zen Mentors LLP, CLAT Training Centre Trivandrum.

Fenella Mary Herries Trevillion
Oxford, UK

ABSTRACT

Revenue spent on coaching globally is significant, yet data is lacking on the specific  leadership behaviours it develops. This study focuses on the debate about coaching  efficacy, the components of executive coaching and the leadership behaviours developed  through it. The research context is a cross-government, blended, leadership programme. Using qualitative research and case studies of coachee/manager dyads, questions on who defines the coaching agenda, the coaching consequences and success due to coaching, are addressed. A notable finding questions the need for a coaching contract. Further research is invited to investigate transformational impacts of coaching at the deep emotional level.

To Read more  : Click Here

The post Effectiveness of Coaching – Oxford Study Report first appeared on Zen Mentors LLP, CLAT Training Centre Trivandrum.

To understand what they do to merit that money, HBR conducted a survey of 140 leading coaches and invited five experts to comment on the findings. As you’ll see, the commentators have conflicting views about where the field is going—and ought to go—reflecting the contradictions that surfaced among the respondents. Commentators and coaches alike felt that the bar needs to be raised in various areas for the industry to mature, but there was no consensus on how that could be done. They did generally agree, however, that the reasons companies engage coaches have changed. Ten years ago, most companies engaged a coach to help fix toxic behavior at the top. Today, most coaching is about developing the capabilities of high-potential performers. As a result of this broader mission, there’s a lot more fuzziness around such issues as how coaches define the scope of engagements, how they measure and report on progress, and the credentials a company should use to select a coach.

The Survey Methodology and Respondents
Do companies and executives get value from their coaches? When we asked coaches to explain the healthy growth of their industry, they said that clients keep coming back because “coaching works.” Yet the survey results also suggest that the industry is fraught with conflicts of interest, blurry lines between what is the province of coaches and what should be left to mental health professionals, and sketchy mechanisms for monitoring the effectiveness of a coaching engagement.

Bottom line: Coaching as a business tool continues to gain legitimacy, but the fundamentals of the industry are still in flux. In this market, as in so many others today, the old saw still applies: Buyer beware!

What the Coaches Say

Did You Know…

What the Survey Says
Ingredients of a successful coaching relationship
Is the executive highly motivated to change?

Yes : Executives who get the most out of coaching have a fierce desire to learn and grow.

No: Do not engage a coach to fix behavioral problems. Blamers, victims, and individuals with iron-clad belief systems don’t change.

Does the executive have good chemistry with the coach?

Yes: The right match is absolutely key to the success of a coaching experience. Without it, the trust required for optimal executive performance will not develop.

No: Do not engage a coach on the basis of reputation or experience without making sure that the fit is right.

Is there a strong commitment from top management to developing the executive?

Yes: The firm must have a true desire to retain and develop the coached executive.

No: Do not engage a coach if the real agenda is to push the executive out or to fix a systemic issue beyond the control of the coached individual.

Does the focus of coaching engagements shift?
All but eight of the 140 respondents said that over time their focus shifts from what they were originally hired to do.

“Absolutely! It starts out with a business bias and inevitably migrates to ‘bigger issues’ such as life purpose, work/life balance, and becoming a better leader.”

“Generally no. If the assignment is set up properly, the issues are usually very clear before the assignment gets started.”

Buyer’s Guide
We asked the coaches what companies should look for when hiring a coach. Here’s how various qualifications stacked up.

Buyer’s Guide

Coaching borrows from both consulting and therapy

What the Experts Say
The Coaching Industry: A Work in Progress
by Ram Charan

There’s no question that future leaders will need constant coaching. As the business environment becomes more complex, they will increasingly turn to coaches for help in understanding how to act. The kind of coaches I am talking about will do more than influence behaviors; they will be an essential part of the leader’s learning process, providing knowledge, opinions, and judgment in critical areas. These coaches will be retired CEOs or other experts from universities, think tanks, and government.

Clearly, this is not a description of what most coaches do today, as the survey results demonstrate. What we think of as coaching is generally a service to middle managers provided by entrepreneurs with a background in consulting, psychology, or human resources. This kind of coaching became popular over the past five years because companies faced a shortage of talent and were concerned about turnover among key employees. Firms wanted to signal their commitment to developing their high-potential executives, so they hired coaches. At the same time, businesspeople needed to develop not just quantitative capabilities but also people-oriented skills, and many coaches are helpful for that. As coaching has become more common, any stigma attached to receiving it at the individual level has disappeared. Now, it is often considered a badge of honor.

The coaching industry will remain fragmented until a few partnerships build a brand, collect stellar people, weed out those who are not so good, and create a reputation for outstanding work. Some coaching groups are evolving in this direction, but most are still boutique firms specializing in, for example, administering and interpreting 360-degree evaluations. To get beyond this level, the industry badly needs a leader who can define the profession and create a serious firm in the way that Marvin Bower did when he invented the modern professional management consultancy in the form of McKinsey & Company.

The industry badly needs a leader who can define the profession, the way Marvin Bower did for management consulting.

A big problem that tomorrow’s professional coaching firm must resolve is the difficulty of measuring performance, as the coaches themselves point out in the survey. I’m aware of no research that has followed coached executives over long periods; most of the evidence around effectiveness remains anecdotal. My sense is that the positive stories outnumber the negative ones—but as the industry matures, coaching firms will need to be able to demonstrate how they bring about change, as well as offer a clear methodology for measuring results.

Despite the recession, I agree with most survey respondents that the demand for coaching will not contract in the long term. The big developing economies—Brazil, China, India, and Russia—are going to have a tremendous appetite for it because management there is very youthful. University graduates are coming into jobs at 23 years old and finding that their bosses are all of 25, with the experience to match.

Ram Charan has coached CEOs and other top executives of Fortune 100 companies. He is the author of 14 books, including Leadership in an Era of Economic Uncertainty (McGraw-Hill, 2009).

Does Your Coach Give You Value for Your Money?
by David B. Peterson

Forty years ago, no one talked about executive coaching. Twenty years ago, coaching was mainly directed at talented but abrasive executives who were likely to be fired if something didn’t change. Today, coaching is a popular and potent solution for ensuring top performance from an organization’s most critical talent. Almost half the coaches surveyed in this study reported that they are hired primarily to work with executives on the positive side of coaching—developing high-potential talent and facilitating a transition in or up. Another 26% said that they are most often called in to act as a sounding board on organizational dynamics or strategic matters. Relatively few coaches said that organizations most often hire them to address a derailing behavior.

The research also revealed an important insight about what companies ask coaches to do and what they actually end up doing. Consider work/life balance. It’s rare that companies hire business coaches to address non-work issues (only 3% of coaches said they were hired primarily to attend to such matters), yet more than three-quarters of coaches report having gotten into personal territory at some time. In part this reflects the extensive experience of the coaches in this survey (only 10% had five years or less experience). It also underscores the fact that for most executives, work and life issues cannot be kept entirely separate. This is particularly true of senior executives who spend grueling hours on the job and are often on the road and away from home. Many of them feel some strain on their personal lives. Not surprisingly, therefore, the more coaches can tap into a leader’s motivation to improve his or her home life, the greater and more lasting the impact of the coaching is likely to be at work.

The problem is when organizations ask for one thing and get something else. Often companies have no idea what the coaches are really doing.

One reason seems to be that coaches can be very lax in evaluating the impact of their work and communicating results to executives and stakeholders. While 70% of coaches surveyed said they provide qualitative assessment of progress, fewer than one-third ever give feedback in the form of quantitative data on behaviors, and less than one-fourth provide any kind of quantitative data on business outcomes of the coaching engagement. Even this may represent a somewhat optimistic picture, given that this data comes from the coaches themselves.

Fewer than one-fourth of the respondents said they provide any kind of quantitative data on business outcomes of the coaching.

While it can be difficult to draw explicit links between coaching intervention and an executive’s performance, it is certainly not difficult to obtain basic information about improvements in that executive’s managerial behaviors. Coaching is a time-intensive and expensive engagement, and organizations that hire coaches should insist on getting regular and formal progress reviews, even if they are only qualitative. Judging from this survey, companies won’t get them unless they ask for them.

David B. Peterson (david.peterson@personneldecisions.com) is a senior vice president at Personnel Decisions International in Minneapolis and leads PDI’s executive coaching practice.

The Dangers of Dependence on Coaches
by Michael Maccoby

All coaches recognize that they should be making you more competent and self-reliant. If the coaching relationship isn’t doing that, it’s very likely that you’re becoming overly dependent. Dependence isn’t always bad, of course—friends relying on one another, for example, is a good thing. But we all know people who can’t make a decision without first talking to their psychotherapists, and some executives defer to their coaches in the same way. They have conversations with the coach that they ought to be having with other executives in the C-suite or with their teams.

The data in this survey show that more than half of the respondents think their clients do not become overly dependent on them. In my view, that’s unrealistic. Coaches have an economic incentive to ignore the problem of dependency, creating a potential conflict of interest. It’s natural for them to want to expand their business, but the best coaches, like the best therapists, put their clients’ interests first. Harry Levinson, the father of coaching, worked with the top executives of his day. He said that if a coach wasn’t aware of the dependency dynamic, then he had no right to be a coach. What this means for you is that before you hire a coach, you should ask him how he handles dependency in relationships.

Coaches have an economic incentive to ignore the problem of dependency, creating a potential conflict of interest.

A related finding of the survey deserves special attention: Although almost 90% of the respondents reported that they establish a time frame prior to starting an engagement, all but eight said that the focus of the assignment shifts from the original intent. There are no data in the survey about the mechanics of how those engagements shift, but in my 35 years of working in the field, I have observed that it’s typically a matter of coaches recontracting with executives. Coaches who are essentially consultants may have a contract with you to work out strategy, for example, and then may offer to stay on to help with implementation. Or if you hire a coach to help you be a better team player, she may suggest that you need additional work in managing upward or working with difficult but creative subordinates. All this takes more time—and money. Extending contracts is not necessarily unethical. Just be aware that your coach may be asking you to recontract for more than you bargained for or really need.

Two particular kinds of shift in focus, though, are dangerous and should be avoided. One is when a behavioralist coach (my term for someone who monitors your behavior) seduces you into a form of psychotherapy without making that explicit. For example, he or she may say that you are now ready to explore deeper issues that keep you from realizing your full potential. The other is when personal coaches morph into business advisers. In these cases, your coach becomes a kind of speaking partner—someone you can bounce strategic ideas off of. That can be just as dangerous because it’s a rare coach who has deep knowledge about your business.

Michael Maccoby is the president of the Maccoby Group in Washington, DC, and is the author of Narcissistic Leaders: Who Succeeds and Who Fails (Harvard Business School Press, 2007).

How Do You Pick a Coach?
by P. Anne Scoular

There are two basic rules for hiring a coach. First, make sure that the executive is ready and willing to be coached. Second, allow the executive to choose whom he or she wants to work with, regardless of who in the organization initiated the engagement. The survey data support this emphatically: Willingness and good chemistry were by far the most frequently cited ingredients of a successful coaching relationship. Beyond that, respondents had strong and sometimes divergent opinions about what matters most in hiring a coach.

The surveyed coaches agreed for the most part that companies need to look for someone who had experience coaching in a similar situation, but hadn’t necessarily worked in that setting. Organizations should also take into account whether the coach has a clear methodology. According to the survey data, different coaches value different methodologies. Some coaches begin with 360-degree feedback, for example, while others rely more on psychological feedback and in-depth interviews. From an organization’s perspective, methodology is a good way to winnow the pile. If a prospective coach can’t tell you exactly what methodology he uses—what he does and what outcomes you can expect—show him the door. Top business coaches are as clear about what they don’t do as about what they can deliver. For example, a good coach will be able to tell you up front whether or not she is willing to serve as a sounding board on strategic matters.

If a coach can’t tell you what methodology he uses—what he does and what outcomes you can expect—show him the door.

Significantly, coaches were evenly split on the importance of certification. Although a number of respondents said that the field is filled with charlatans, many of them lack confidence that certification on its own is reliable. Part of the problem is the number of different certificates: In the UK alone about 50 organizations issue certificates; buyers are understandably confused about which ones are credible. Currently, there is a move away from self-certification by training businesses and toward accreditation—whereby reliable international bodies subject providers to a rigorous audit and accredit only those that meet tough standards.

What should be the focus of that accreditation? One of the most unexpected findings of this survey is that coaches (even some of the psychologists in the survey) do not place high value on a background as a psychologist; they ranked it second from the bottom on a list of possible credentials. That’s surprising; some of the organizations I’ve worked with will hire only psychologists as coaches. It may be that most of the survey respondents see little connection between formal training as a psychologist and business insight—which, in my experience as a trainer of coaches, is the most important factor in successful coaching.

Although experience and clear methodologies are important, the best credential is a satisfied customer. A full 50% of the coaches in the survey indicated that businesses select them on the basis of personal references. So before you sign on the dotted line with a coach, make sure you talk to a few people she has coached before.

P. Anne Scoular (annescoular@meylercampbell.com) is the managing director of Meyler Campbell, a global provider of training for executive coaches. She also teaches coaching at London Business School in England.

Coach or Couch?
by Anthony M. Grant

Coaching differs dramatically from therapy. That’s according to the majority of coaches in our survey, who cite distinctions such as that coaching focuses on the future, whereas therapy focuses on the past. Most respondents maintained that executive clients tend to be mentally “healthy,” whereas therapy clients have psychological problems. In the respondents’ view, coaching does not seek to treat psychological problems, such as depression or anxiety.

It’s true that coaching does not and should not aim to cure mental health problems. However, the notion that candidates for coaching are usually mentally robust flies in the face of academic research. Studies conducted by the University of Sydney, for example, have found that between 25% and 50% of those seeking coaching have clinically significant levels of anxiety, stress, or depression.

I’m not suggesting that most executives who engage coaches have mental health disorders. But some might, and coaching those who have unrecognized mental health problems can be counterproductive and even dangerous. The vast majority of executives are unlikely to ask for treatment or therapy and may even be unaware that they have problems requiring it. That’s worrisome, because contrary to popular belief, it’s not always easy to recognize depression or anxiety without proper training. An executive is far more likely to complain of difficulties related to time management, interpersonal communication, or workplace disengagement than of anxiety. This raises important questions for companies hiring coaches—for instance, whether a nonpsychologist coach can ethically work with an executive who has an anxiety disorder.

Organizations should require that coaches have some training in mental health issues.

Given that some executives will have mental health problems, firms should require that coaches have some training in mental health issues—for example, an understanding of when to refer clients to professional therapists for help. Indeed, businesses that do not demand such training in the coaches they hire are failing to meet their ethical obligations to care for their executives.

Anthony M. Grant (anthonyg@psych.usyd.edu.au) is the founder and director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the University of Sydney in Australia.

A version of this article appeared in the January 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Original Article : https://hbr.org/2009/01/what-can-coaches-do-for-you

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