Professional coaching improves effectiveness on campus.(executive coaching)

With 60-80% of companies using executive coaches to help gain a competitive edge, campuses are now looking at coaching as another service to help leaders maximize their potential, enjoy a higher quality of life and increase loyalty.

In 2004, Sam Hester ran a three-month pilot study to measure the effects of coaching at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where he is work/life coordinator. He shared results at the Alliance for Work-Life Progress conference in Austin in March. His office has offered executive coaching services since 2004.

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What is coaching?

Recognizing that interpersonal skills are often more important than cognitive IQ in today's workplace, coaching concentrates on the "who" instead of the "what." Hester said coaching provides a process for challenging and supporting people to continually explore new ideas and expand their capacity for results. They acquire and increase skills and competencies in areas such as leadership, communication, conflict and stress management, and interpersonal relationships.

Coaching is different from therapy. While therapy addresses concerns from the past to the present, coaching concerns those from the present to the future. Therapy assumes there's current difficulty in functioning, while coaching does not. Participants in coaching can be either those identified for performance issues or those eager to optimize their skills and increase their value.

Hester used Thomas J. Leonard's definition of coaching: