Getting More From Executive Coaching

According to the January 2007 issue of Harvard Management Update (Vol. 12, No. 1), The International Coaching Federation membership of executive and life coaches has jumped from 1500 in 1999 to over 10,000 today. In selecting a good executive coach follow three steps: 1) identify your coaching goals; 2) follow a disciplined coach-selection process; and 3) adopt a learning mindset. Be sure to check references and qualifications. Most importantly your coach needs to be someone you will feel comfortable talking frankly with.

Keith Barton

Welcome to Keith's Virtual Executive Coach weblog. Hopefully my business postings over the last several years will enlighten, generate discussion, and test old theories on building a small business, surviving in a corporate environment, dealing with the realities of layoffs, obsolescence, and aging in an increasingly competitive global economy. Whether you are new to business or coaching, the blogs are to be interactive and build a community of leaders who wish to strive to pursue excellence at work, family, and play. Much of my content will be taken from Fortune 500 companies, small business magazines, and business books such as the Alpha Male Syndrome, The World is Flat, Wisdom of our Fathers, Conservatives Without Conscience, The One Percent Doctrine, and Blue Ocean Strategy. Your opinions matter; feel free to reply to any blogs. I would also invite you to visit my newsletters: The Executive Connection for business and The Writer's Connection for writers. Also feel free to visit my website for executives at www.virtualexecutivecoach.com.

Google is #1

It's official; according to Fortune's January 2007 issue, Google is the #1 best company to work for; the Google gang are jumping for joy in their jeans and smiles on the cover. Think you have what it takes to work at Google; think again. You should graduate from Stanford, Harvard, or MIT, have at least a 3.7 GPA, write software code during your interview, have diverse interests, work well with teams. Don't talk about your dissertation, money, or the competition.

Leadership and Intuition

Franz Humer, chairman and CEO of Roche Pharmaceutical, talking about intuition in this month's HBR talks about being hyperaware of one's environment during negotiations. How are people behaving and reacting in the room? It's about process, not content; it's about the abstract, not the concrete; it's about being, not doing.