All-Star performances from your workers

Coaching Corporate MVPs
Challenging and Developing High-Potential Employees, by Margaret Butteriss, 224 pp., John Wiley & Sons 2008

For clues to finding success in the changing global marketplace, smart chief executives need only look to the world of sports, says author Margaret Butteriss in her book "Coaching Corporate MVPs." Just like basketball teams, the typical office supports its share of "most valuable performers" - a motivated, gifted, 5 to 10 percent of the working world that carries a large quantity of organizational weight. MVPs are self-starting trendsetters who aren't afraid to challenge existing rules or modes of thinking. They are valuable team players who live by the ideals of their organizations. But most important, MVPs are intensely in-demand human capital - important organizational assets who are increasingly valuable as competition for talent heats up.

In "Coaching Corporate MVPs," Butteriss analyzes not only what makes these employees strive to perform so effectively, but how a smart organization can better identify, cultivate, and keep high-achievers from offering their talents to someone else. And again, just like in the world of sports, the answer lies in the age-old practice of mentorship. To truly shine, even the most gifted person needs an equally talented coach.

The great news is, according to Butteriss and her friends - a collection of two dozen CEOs from companies like Chubb, General Electric, and LoJack - coaching really works.

Coached MVPs offer that they are more ready for future promotions than those who received less help progressing.

They feel that they have developed a higher level of work skills and behaviors than they would have if they were left to their own devices.

They feel they have broadened their perspectives on work, become better company role models, and forged ahead as more adaptable leaders. And, this word-of-mouth can be substantiated.

From her interviews, the author reveals an interesting discovery. That through analysis of factors such as rising retention rates for highly sought-after MVPs, lightning-fast promotion rates for well-coached star players, an increase in those employees' day-to-day commitment to the company, and other anecdotal evidence and observations, the basic worth of coaching can be quantified. Here, the issue "to coach or not to coach" becomes a dead one. "The issue isn't whether coaching is a good thing," Butteriss summarizes, "but rather what is the right way to provide it."

In Butteriss's book, 10 chapters break down the process. The reality: Coaching corporate MVPs is expensive, difficult, time-consuming, tenuous, and wholly, utterly worth the trouble. The quest to discover, develop, and maintain talent may well be the most important game in the business world. And winning relies on the ability to see potential, lead cunningly, and coach like a World Series winner.

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