In recent years executive coaching has become increasingly popular. Once limited to entrepreneurs and CEOs, coaching is now finding its way into middle and lower levels of management. Why are more companies funding the advancement of coaching to lower levels of management? The answer is simple: ROI. According to a recent study, the average ROI (return on investment). The same survey set a dollar value on the ROI at more than $100,000. Surprisingly, this dollar figure was based on the actual reports from executives who estimated the monetary value of the results achieved through coaching.

The academic world concentrates on technical skills and theories instead of people skills. On the other hand, coaching is focused on people skills. At entry level, skill is extremely important. Can someone type? Can someone run a cash register? Can someone file? Can someone drive a forklift?

At the upper level, people skills are more important. Can you lead people? Can you communicate effective? Can you draw talent out of people?

In the middle, a blend is required - however rarely achieved on one's own. Research by the Center for Creative Leadership has found that the primary causes of derailment in executives involve deficits in emotional competence. The three primary ones are:

==> Difficulty in handling change

==> Inability to work well in a team

==> Poor interpersonal relations

Due to the lack of academic attention to soft skills, employees are finding a huge need to improve the people skills of their executives. To instill people skills and how to use them, companies have the choice of public workshops and seminars or coaching. Workshops can handle topics generally, however coaching handles topics independently. Coaching also has an accountability factor not present in seminars.

According to Amos Robinson, "Effective coaching works with executives and others to develop their proficiency in working with change. It helps them identify when teamwork is important and to use their skills to foster it. Coaching builds skills and capacities for effective working relationships. Coaching paves the way for decision makers to create higher levels of organizational effectiveness through dialogue, inquiry and positive interactions. Coaching creates awareness, purpose, competence and well-being among participants. Coaching is NOT another feel-good exercise based in soft skills that has no correlation to the bottom line."

The key to effective coaching is to assess the cognitive skills and personality traits of the individual being coached. Additional techniques might include multi-rater feedback. The coach's goal is to know the person being coached better than know themselves. An effective coach will then help the person overcome weaknesses and build on strengths to deliver better results for their organization.

Michigan based MaxImpact offers coaching in the United States and Canada through the Catapult(R) program. Successes are tremendous as entrepreneurs and executives have found their attention changes from "fixing people problems" to building business and profits.

Max Impact has seen results similar or better than the survey shows when you look at things in perspective. President Rick Weaver says, "Coaching results appear right after the first sessions and then have a compounding effect, growing exponentially.

Coaching has proven itself and it is time for all executives to get on the bandwagon.

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Rick Weaver is an accomplished business executive with a wealth of experience in retail, market analysis, supply chain enhancement, project management, team building, and process improvement. Building on a strong retail background, Rick moved to full supply-chain involvement, working with hundreds of companies to improve sales, processes, and bottom-line results.

As Rick's interaction in varied industries expanded, he became troubled as he increasingly noticed that people and companies had untapped or unfocused talent.

Coupled with Rick