Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive

coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you

want to be perceived. I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today

we're talking about who's coachable. Recently, I spoke with a division president and a vice president who were considering coaching

for a senior employee named Martin. Martin, it seemed, was repeatedly mangling his internal

and external relationships. Because he had significant revenue generating

responsibilities, they were heavily invested in Martin's success. For 20

minutes they related the many strategies they'd use to try to improve his performance.

After each anecdote they'd add a comment like, but he just doesn't get it, or he's heard this

a thousand times, or it doesn't seem to matter what we do, he never changes.

After a while I asked if he's gotten all this help and pressure and feedback and still hasn't

changed, what makes you think coaching is going to get the results you want. The president answered, well we were

hoping that since you're an expert in growth and development you might be able to

accomplish what we haven't. That's very flattering I said but it's not really

about me and my expertise.

It's about him and whether he's a good coaching candidate, and from what you've been describing,

he's not."

The Vice President, Martin's boss, chimed in, but it's really important that he succeed.

I understand I said but he may not be able to.

If you met him how long would it take you to figure out whether coaching would do any good

asked the president we might be able to figure it whether coaching would do any good, asked the President.

We might be able to figure it out right now on the phone, I replied.

...