OwlCast: The Leadership & Coaching Podcast

Where Coaching Goes Wrong with Charlotte Jordan

·58 min·5 clips

A CEO demanded to know what his executives said in confidential coaching sessions.

The episode begins with hosts David Morelli and William Oakley introducing Charlotte Jordan, CEO of coaching.com, as a thought leader in coaching. Charlotte shares her accidental entry into coaching through reading foundational texts and witnessing its impact. She explains coaching.com's mission to elevate professional coaching worldwide by supporting coaches and leaders. The discussion centers on where coaching goes wrong in organizations, with Charlotte highlighting the misuse of coaching as a 'fix-it' strategy for underperformers, often as a prelude to termination. She stresses the importance of clear organizational definitions for coaching's purpose and boundaries. Charlotte describes the 'wild west' scenario where decentralized coaching efforts lack measurement and consistency, hindering impact assessment. She recounts a dramatic incident where a CEO demanded confidential details from executive coaching sessions, leading to a negotiated compromise. The hosts and Charlotte explore building coaching cultures, emphasizing executive sponsorship, transparency, and aligning coaching with organizational values. Charlotte introduces the formula 'visibility plus credibility equals sustainability' for cultural initiatives. Practical advice includes measuring coaching impact through client feedback and specific outcome articulation. The conversation shifts to managers as coaches, with Charlotte arguing that coaching skills are essential for effective management despite power dynamics. She notes coaching's speed to impact, using Meta's early rapid onboarding as an example. Final thoughts encourage managers to ask if they provide value and to create coaching microclimates, with Charlotte underscoring leaders' role in sustaining coaching cultures.

As heard by us

Charlotte Jordan makes the case for enough coaching structure to measure value without flattening choice.

Charlotte Jordan frames coaching as a practice that can lose its promise when enthusiasm runs ahead of structure. Speaking with David Morelli and William Oakley, the coaching.com CEO describes how coaching often spreads informally through a startup or an organization still new…

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Want to keep workplace coaching from turning into a well-meant wild west?

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