It used to be the job of every manager to develop his or her "subordinates." Managers accomplished this task with widely varying levels of success. Over the last twenty years, and increasingly since the 1990's, companies of all sizes are utilizing the services of management coaches to develop their people. Coaching is used to boost personal development and it benefits the recipient's personal life, as well as his or her business life. For good or bad, the boundary between a person's work and personal life is becoming increasingly permeable. Examples of personal growth contributing to professional and company growth abound in management literature. The client or the organization can initiate the coaching relationship.

The coaching relationship usually starts with discussion, assessment, and feedback. This often includes a 360-degree assessment, where the client gets feedback from the people with whom he or she works. From there, the client and the coach collaboratively develop goals for the coaching process. Meetings are held in person and by phone and e-mail, and include formal coaching time, as well as lots of informal coaching discussions and feedback. The best coaching occurs when the client feels the need to talk, to discuss, or to get clarity about something. The biggest indicator of success in a coaching relationship is the burning desire of the client to develop.
Employee and Managerial Personality Assessments

Employee and Managerial Personality Assessments
Coaching often goes hand in hand with personality assessments. An assessment is simply a written questionnaire that is used to help gain greater understanding about one's personality and that of others. All personal growth and change begins with self-awareness. We use these tools to provide a solid foundation of self-awareness, or the current reality. From there, clients can determine goals for growth and self-improvement. Whenever a new assessment comes on the market, if it is appropriate to our clients' needs, we add it to our toolbox. Assessments are often taken in person, but most can also be taken online. Contact us for details. Here are descriptions of a few assessments we use:

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)
• Hay-McBer® Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI™)
• Human Patterns® Personality Inventory

Our initial coaching assignments are normally for a period of three months, and are then extended for three, six, or twelve more months, and often beyond twelve months. Usually the goal is to help the client to change identified managerial and leadership behaviors. The Human Dimension shares accountability with our clients for the success of coaching engagements. We guarantee results so clients do not pay for our services until the end of each three-month period of the coaching assignment -- and only if they see improvement. Of course, if we see that the relationship is not going to be successful for some reason, we recommend other avenues for our client early on in the engagement.