University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Secrets of a CEO Coach
Book

Secrets of a CEO Coach

Your Personal Training Guide to Thinking Like a Leader and Acting Like a CEO

Debra A. Benton
McGraw-Hill, 1998
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Editorial Rating

5

Qualities

  • Concrete Examples
  • Engaging

Recommendation

A coach is not just out on the athletic field praising your eight-year-old’s big score. Today, coaches are common in executive offices, pumping up professional skills from public speaking to public relations. As a consultant to business leaders and politicians, Debra A. Benton shares her insights into business coaching to hone professional skills. She helps prepare you to hire and work with a professional coach. If you would rather save the money and the time by teaching yourself, you can follow her sections on self-coaching. In these chapters, she delves a little more deeply into both psychological motivation and professional technique. Her book is filled with wit and wisdom on a variety of topics, including attitude, mindset, discipline, achievement, perception, physical cues, and emotional energy. getAbstract recommends this book to those who want a boost - whether hired by the hour or self-driven - in their work-related skills.

Summary

What is Business Coaching?

The image of a coach in your mind probably has more to do with sports than with business. So, lose the picture of the school coach urging kids to dust themselves off and try again. Forget about Pat Riley pushing the Miami Heat to double their efforts on the basketball court. A business coach has a small team - you - and a single mission: to give you private, one-on-one instruction to prepare you for specialized work. To understand who business coaches are and what they do, you must first understand who and what they are not. Coaches are not friends, bosses, family members, professional acquaintances, or even mentors.

In corporate life, coaches instruct in leadership development, speechmaking, business etiquette, personality enhancement, confidence-building, communication skills, interpersonal skills, personal and public relations, career growth, managing difficult people, appearance, crisis management, presentation skills, accent or voice correction, or any other skills that meets a specific need. For example, a doctor who is a professional witness in a medical liability lawsuit can retain a coach to prepare for the courtroom. A CEO whose...

About the Author

Debra A. Benton is president of the research and consulting firm Benton Management Resources, Inc., which works with many international corporations. She writes for Time, BusinessWeek, Fortune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. She is a featured guest on network news and interview programs, and is the author of three books, including the bestseller How to Think Like a CEO. She has been a personal coach for twenty years.

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