Executive and leadership coaching aren’t the right change methods for every organization. Ultimately, the organizational culture is a primary determinant of whether or not a coaching engagement can prove effective. To the extent that the following statements describe your workplace, executive coaching has a great chance of improving an executive’s performance and effectiveness. Conversely, if many of these statements don’t ring true, your organization might want to rethink using coaching as an human resources development strategy at all.

• Leaders would willingly share information to help the coach understand organizational, financial, and business-related issues that affect the person to be coached.
• Coaching is viewed as a developmental bonus, not a punishment or remedial tool.
• The choice to engage a coach can come from HR/OD, leadership, or executives themselves. It’s not only a mandate from higher-ups.
• The organization is committed to using coaching systematically, as part of an integrated leadership development program.
• The organization routinely uses assessment instruments such as 360-degree feedback, so conducting a 360 wouldn’t be interpreted to mean the executive “screwed up.”
• Feedback already has revealed an area in which the executive wants to improve. He’s not going into it blind, with management hiring the coach as a “hit man” to break bad news.
• The executive and organization both are open to insights gained from an outside perspective—not only about the executive, but also about the organization.