Senior executives are hired to be good leaders, not good coaches, so HR does the coaching, he says. Other HR professionals find it preferable to beef up their internal coaching efforts with outside experts. Many agree with Advanta CEO Alter that the investment is worth the results. To Alter, an outside perspective is virtually essential during the transition phase. To be in the soup while you re cooking is tough, he observes.
Internal coaches can be helpful, but it s a more difficult role.
Recently, Alter engineered a major reorganization at 3,000-employee Advanta and sold off the company s credit card division. Embarking on a search for new leadership, he decided, with some trepidation, to go outside for six of eight senior management positions. We were not in a steady state, so the new people could have had either a salutary or disruptive effect on the organization. I wanted to do whatever I could to tilt the scale to the positive side. To help, Alter bought into a program offered by Diversified Search, an executive search firm headquartered in Philadelphia, and leadership training specialists from Manchester.