Bankers seek lucrative careers as executive coaches

Do you want a job that offers the potential for nurturing others as well as earning a handsome amount of cash? Look no further than executive coaching.

Redundancy and low bonuses mean that careers in coaching are now looking attractive to many bankers - though few are likely to make the grade.

Executive coaching is a lucrative business. Many coaches earn 1,200 (€1,800) a day and at the top level they can pull in three times as much.

Myles Downey, who runs the School of Coaching at The Work Foundation (formerly the Industrial Society), says that a few probably earn even more than that.

Downey says anyone can learn how to coach other people to improve their performance, but that not everybody will be good at it.

The raison d'etre of an executive coach is helping clients, invariably senior executives, to thrive at work. They help with immediate problems - like how to deal with an awkward colleague - as well as longer term personal strategies.

Coaches usually meet their clients for a one-to-one session, lasting an hour or more, once or twice a month.

The role suits people with top-level business experience of their own. But they must also have superior social skills and an understanding of human nature.

However, it is money and not the urge to help others that appears to be attracting many people to the profession. There is no shortage of would-be coaches as a result.

Steven Wilson, head of the coaching practice at Drake Beam Morin, the human resources consutancy, says he is recruiting coaches for the City of London-based operation.

He says that he has seen many senior bankers who have left a job in the industry and now want to become a coach. Some expect to earn 2,000 a day, despite having no experience. Most are unsuccessful.

"Having a lot of industry knowledge makes you a mentor, but it does not make you a coach," says Wilson.

He identifies three features of a good coach: the gravitas to talk with a chief executive on a one-to-one basis for more than an hour; understanding of how to help someone change their behaviour; and experience of personally helping people to do their jobs better.

Wilson advises reading books such as 'Emotional Intelligence' by Daniel Goleman, and attending coaching courses. These include 'Coaching and Consulting for Change', run jointly by Insead and HEC in France, and the Professional Business Coaches programme run by The Work Foundation.

Manfred Kets De Vries, who runs the Insead/HEC course, says applicants have very different backgrounds; some have PhDs, some do not have a first degree. He advises that anyone interested in the course should simply try their luck and apply.

Bankers have been successful in the past. Graham Ward, a former head of global equity products at Goldman Sachs, went on the course at Insead last year. Ward is now the global head of leadership and development for the bank's equities division.

He says the course provides a solid grounding in psychology, which is key to being a good coach in any industry.