PRISM - award for coaching excellence
Celebrating Organizational Excellence Through Coaching
by Dennis Hooper, copyright © 2008, published in the Houston Home Journal on Saturday, March 22, 2008
Would you welcome the opportunity to talk with respected business leaders about how they used professional coaching to achieve significant gains in their hard-number results? Consider attending the third annual PRISM Awards conference with about 250 other business leaders and professional coaches. The educational experience will be held on Tuesday, April 29 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
The Georgia Coach Association (GCA) is one of 156 worldwide chapters of the International Coach Federation (ICF). For the past two years, the GCA has honored organizations that have achieved business improvements through a commitment to coaching as a leadership strategy.
In 2006, the GCA recognized ADP (Automatic Data Processing), which has over half a million clients worldwide and $8 billion in revenue. Last year, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, third largest Marriott in the world, was recognized as the Georgia Prism Award recipient.
These two companies were selected from nominees who were able to show how coaching supported:
• a beneficial impact on results such as revenue, cost savings, productivity, employee retention, and customer satisfaction.
• expanded effectiveness in areas such as leadership development, team development, performance enhancement, and support of skills training.
The PRISM award honors the impact coaching can have on organizational enhancement. The award was initiated in 2000 by the Greater Toronto Area chapter of the ICF. The concept has spread so that now, all chapters of the ICF are encouraged to recognize organizations within their geographic area.
Additionally, three years ago, the International Coaching Federation established an international award. During the ICF’s recent annual conference in Long Beach, CA, PRISM Awards were granted to Deloitte and Touche and NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Reflecting upon the recognition, Barry Salzburg, CEO of Deloitte and Touche USA, stated, “The results of a coached environment are very tangible: higher quality client service, retention of high performing talent, and highly satisfied paying clients.”
The International Coach Federation was started in 1995 and is the leading global organization for coaches, with over 13,000 members in more than 80 countries. The Georgia Coach Association is growing rapidly, with 250 members currently and about 300 members anticipated by year end.
The upcoming PRISM Awards conference will be a full day of presentations and networking by leaders whose businesses are among the best in the state in using coaching. Attendees will be able to ask all their hard questions about documentable return on investment in terms of coaching time and dollars.
The conference will attract coaches, of course. But the coaches will likely be outnumbered by two types of business leaders. First are those who want to make their existing coaching efforts more productive. They’ll be looking for best practices and helpful hints for enhancing their results.
The second type of leader has not yet adopted a strategy of coaching to support the organization’s leadership development efforts. The company’s focus in the past has been to develop functional and technical skills needed to meet customer requirements. These leaders are inquisitive, investigating this relatively new and rapidly growing coaching methodology for effecting favorable behavior change.
The Georgia PRISM Award conference is Tuesday, August 29, 8am to 4pm, at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. Cost is $225. For registration and other information, go to www.georgiaprismaward.com.
I am grateful to Becky Dannenfelser, co-chair of this year’s Awards conference, and Andrea Hopke, co-chair of the PRISM Award selection committee, for providing this information.
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Dennis Hooper is a member of both GCA and ICF. E-mail him at dhooper2@juno.com or call him at (478)-988-0237. Also, take a look at his website at www.buildingfutureleaders.com.
