Increasingly, organizations are providing their rising stars and emerging leaders with a management coach to help accelerate their development. Gone are the days when coaches were seen as a remedial solution to someone’s poor performance. Now coaches are seen as enablers to accelerate their client’s development as a leader. But does coaching really work? Yes- according to a recent book by Richard Kilburg, Ph.D. of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Kilburg provides evidence that a coach can help you to become more effective in handling complex interactions with people, increase your capacity to handle what’s on your plate, and improve your social competencies. He also claims that a coach can help increase your ability to manage yourself and others during organizational crisis, help with career transitions, and improve your ability to handle the tensions between business needs, family needs and personal needs. Having coached over a hundred individuals and teams I can attest that Dr. Kilburg’s claims are valid. I have seen people make dramatic improvements with the help of a coach. After all, even Tiger Woods has a coach! Ok it’s for golf but the same principles apply. Management coaching can help accelerate your progress because an experienced coach can take all the trial and error out of figuring it out for yourself. A good coach will give you the hard hitting feedback and direction you need to raise your game and “be all that you can be.” Organizations need to be careful, however, when selecting a coach, and should check references and credentials. It is also important to make sure that the personal chemistry is right between the coach and coachee or the coaching relationship will founder. There is no state license or other qualification required to be a management coach, and neither is there a universally accepted code of ethics for management coaches – so anyone can set them selves up in this business. When purchasing the services of a management coach, therefore, “let the buyer beware!”