Here’s a continuation of Tom’s comments from last week:

Time is a valuable commodity. Before I started coaching, my tendency was to think, “Is this going to give me a commensurate value for the hours I spend? I could be spending those hours working!”

What I learned is that it’s not just about the time I spend working, it’s about the effectiveness of that work. Failing to take the time to evaluate effectiveness is enormously costly in the long run. Coaching allows me to work on my productivity. It’s an investment any executive (or any other employee, for that matter) needs to make in him — or herself.

I honestly don’t understand why coaching isn’t more highly regarded as a profession. Athletes, actors, and entertainers all have an entourage of coaches. In the business world, however, there seems to be this sense that by the time you reach the executive level, you’re supposed to know everything. That’s ridiculous. And even if you know everything, you may not be the best at implementing it 100 percent of the time!

Several years ago, when I was on a business trip, I ran into Tiger Woods in the hotel gym. He wasn’t there by himself — he had a coach with him. The coach’s purpose was to observe how Tiger was executing, and provide immediate feedback. The same concept applies to the world of business. A coach helps you to observe how you’re executing. You can keep doing what works and correct what doesn’t. That way, you don’t end up with a lot of firmly entrenched, unconsciously created harmful ha