Leadership Coaching: When It's Right and When You're Ready

As managers move higher in an organization, it can be more difficult for them to get accurate and unbiased input about their performance and leadership skills. Many managers recognize that to focus their personal development plans they need the uninterrupted time and attention of a skilled, objective professional - a coach. This publication extends and improves on CCL's knowledge first articulated in the Ideas Into Action Guidebook Choosing an Executive Coach, and it draws from CCL's extensive coaching practice as detailed in The CCL Handbook of Coaching: A Guide for the Leader Coach. Leadership Coaching places coaching in its proper place as a means of leadership development to be integrated with other methods. It helps readers figure out how to evaluate their readiness for coaching and how to engage a coach to achieve the most benefit. It also provides practical guidance for executives who are being urged to take coaching or who have coaching provided for them as part of a leadership development initiative.

Douglas Riddle is the Global Director of Coaching Services at the Center for Creative Leadership. He is responsible for the advancement of coaching research and practice, and manages over 400 professional leadership coaches around the world. Under his leadership, CCL coaching has expanded into work across Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. CCL coaches are located in twenty-six countries and speak as many languages. Doug frequently speaks and writes on leadership, coaching, and organizational change. He holds doctorates in psychology and theology, and is a licensed psychologist in California.