Who has the responsibility for choosing a coach for the CEO? Is it the CEO himself/herself? Is it the Board that sees this need in the first place? This and other aspects of how important coaching has become to CEOs comes out in Ray William’s post ” Why Every CEO Needs A Coach” in the Financial Post.Ray Williams is the co-founder of Success IQ University and Ray Williams Associates.
Coming back to the question raised earlier, I agree that the CEO has the major responsibility to choose a coach. After all one has to be comfortable with the coach and this often is established at the initial process of getting to know each other. The relationship between the CEO and the coach will be much stronger where there is a high degree of mutual respect for each other. The buy in of the CEO to the very process of selecting a coach becomes that much more important.
A word of caution, though. The Board would be well advised to meet and interact with the coach at the start of the assignment. This ensures that the right coach has been selected- and not someone who will not be able to stand up to the CEO -and that the right expected outcomes are clearly articulated to the coach. The Board would not like to get stuck with a coach who says only what the CEO likes to hear!
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