After 17 years as the president and CIO of his own technology integration firm, Glenn Schentag was itching to do something else. Exactly what that change would be, however, he wasn't sure.
"I was going through a period when I was almost feeling like it was time for me to get out of tech," Schentag recalled.
But rather than hightail it out of IT altogether, Schentag took a winding road on his quest for personal and career satisfaction. It began with the sale of his business in 1999, a deal that left him as the VP of IT for the acquiring company. But he left unhappy after only one year.
Schentag then took a 20-month hiatus from work, found a career coach, and did some soul-searching and personal development exercises. Ultimately, he decided to start his own executive coaching business.
Coaching requires specific skills
Executive coaches help CIOs and other highly placed managers improve interpersonal relationships that affect the work environment. Coaches can enhance leadership abilities or offer advice on career progress and work-life balance, among other issues.
Just like Schentag, many people step into the coaching profession during a period of career transition, according to Wendy Enelow, founder and executive director of the Career Masters Institute.
Few of these new coaches have the title CIO on their curricula vitae, however, making Schentag's career decision remarkable. The two main reasons CIOs and other IT execs don't often turn to coaching is because it typically pays less, at least initially, and it requires strong communication skills.
-Tech people have a long history of not being great communicators," Schentag said. "If there's a broad sweeping generalisation, it's that they talk down to people and that they're easily frustrated by end users." That's definitely not the archetypal disposition for a coach or life skills guide.
Yet, some attributes that made Schentag a good CIO also have helped make him a good coach, he said. CIOs must be active listeners, demonstrate sound decision-making abilities and, perhaps most importantly for the CIO-turned coach, serve as a trusted partner in drawing out problem-solving abilities, he said.
Some of these skills Schentag acquired during years of taking professional development training, such as at the Excellence Foundation's The Excellence Series. Other skills, he learned on the job while running his systems integration business. "Systems integrators have to listen to what people's needs are and combine resolutions that will solve their needs," he said.
Assess career needs first
Despite his seemingly natural ability, coaching was not the career path Schentag would have picked on his own. He arrived at it only after he completed a career assessment test and a career coach helped him identify his aptitude for human resources-type workââ,¬"a prospect Schentag did not initially relish.
But by working with his coach, Schentag uncovered the reason he didn't want to do 'HR' kind of stuff. He found that he lacked the confidence to probe deeper into the underlying reasons for employee dissatisfaction and motivational problems.
With that barrier out of the way, Schentag continued on his personal quest and underwent neuro feedback exercises, a form of mental fitness training. To round out his education, Schentag is in the process of getting certified under Erickson College's Professional Coaching Certificate Program, a 15-day series of classes offered at sites worldwide.
Erickson's program is one among several available to coach wannabes. Other providers include Results Coaching Systems, which offers face-to-face training or distance learning programs that can be completed in as little as three months, and the Executive Coach Academy, a 16-week distance learning program.
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