Thinking about your future?

I’ve been fielding queries this week about availability at Harley Street. It’s a nice job to have.  One query made me think about the boundary between personal and executive coaching – coaching that is sponsored by your organisation and coaching that you pay for yourself.

Perhaps you recognise something of yourself in the description below (amended for anonymity):

“This is what I’m taking from John’s e-mail [who put us in touch]… just checking my understanding. You’re gifted. You bring an appetite for improvement and you’ve been able to bring this to bear in an area which is relatively stable. As you become more senior, you may well find an increasing tension between your vision for a better future and the readiness of those around you to embrace change. This has raised questions for you about how to influence and engage others. It may even be raising questions for you about whether your future is ultimately with your current employer or elsewhere”.

Without question, coaching can be timely for someone like this, as they work through a number of key questions. “How can you navigate the relative stability of your current job and still make a difference? How can you maximise your opportunities with your current employer? When might it be time to move on (and to what?) How can you stay present to you – to your values and motivations, to your skills and so on – so that you know just how long you can make your current employment work for you and when it might be time to look beyond your current organisation?”

But who pays?  In general terms, organisations do sponsor coaching for people at times – typically to help them to develop their career in-house, e.g. to acquire the skills they need at increasingly senior levels. When coaching is sponsored by an organisation, this is often the focus. Equally, there are times when an individual needs support away from his or her employing organisation to open up a wider question than “how do I make it work here at organisation X?”  Sometimes organisations do sponsor coaching with this agenda, because they recognise that with more clarity some individuals may choose to stay and indeed, that it can serve both individual and organisation to recognise when it’s time to leave. Equally, there are times when people like to sponsor this kind of coaching for themselves and to meet with their coach away from work.

I started the Sunday Coaching Clinic at Harley Street because I recognise that sometimes, people want to sponsor their own coaching as they explore the question of “what next?” and because I love working with clients for whom this question is timely.