The CEO's Secret Weapon. Really!

Now I know why I never quite made it to mega million CEO status. It wasn’t because my eyes glaze over when I see numbers. Or because I don’t own the requisite tailored black suit. Or even because I am heedlessly aggressive rather than the more P.C. “assertive” -- as well as being totally lacking in basic political smarts.

All that and more could have been overcome as I rocketed into the fast lane. But now I know I was missing a vital link that could have spun my dross into solid gold.

What was my fatal flaw? Are you ready? I never had an executive coach! I never even knew they existed until I heard one speak recently at a networking session. And I certainly never knew that executive coaches are a top manager’s secret weapon. The “dirty little secret”, as this practitioner put it, of the corporate world. All the really successful corporate officers have one, she said. Really.

An executive coach, it seems, is not a mentor. Everyone (how déclassé!) has one of those. An executive coach is someone who understands the corporate jungle because he or she has survived and prospered in it. An executive coach is an objective advisor who is not connected with your old company or your new company. Someone you pay by the hour or the day or on retainer to be there to interpret your every hiccup. Who rehearses that big job interview with you. Or deconstructs that crucial meeting before it happens. Or even dresses you for success. You can have this totally honest relationship with your executive coach because he won’t go running to anyone else in your company and tell on you because he isn’t part of your company.

Has an executive search firm come calling lately? Well don’t worry. It’s apt to have an executive coach ready to help you get that top job -- and to help you make a smooth transition into the new corporate culture. He or she will even stand behind you for as long as 6 months -- ready to nudge or even shove you in the right direction! But after that, apparently, you’re on your own. With his or her parting words – and I quote - “Always have an exit strategy because how you loose a job is often more important than how you win a job”. Right.

As I said earlier, now I know why I never climbed the success ladder high enough for the Securities and Exchange Commission to slap me with a corporate indictment. On the other hand, maybe the top officers of - say - Enron, World Com or Health South didn’t know about executive coaches either because they certainly could have used an exit strategy. Several of them.

I’ve never had an exit strategy – unless it was to wear padding because the door kept hitting me on the way out. But I at least can still collect unemployment. Kind of tough to make that weekly phone call to insist you’ve been looking for work… when you’re in jail.