Book excerpt: The field of executive coaching is growing at an astonishing rate. Corporations are increasingly turning to coaching as an intervention, as it offers leaders and managers both on-the-job learning and built-in follow-up. But how can you make the best use of coaching within your organization? Executive Coaching for Results helps this critical leadership development method come of age. This is not a “how-to-coach book”—there are already plenty of those—but rather a comprehensive guide on how to strategically use coaching to maximize development of talent and link the impact of coaching to bottom-line results. Underhill, McAnally, and Koriath draw on their rigorous original research (through Executive Development Associates) with Fortune 1000 and Global 500 companies such as Disney, IBM, UBS, Unilever and many others, and combine that with their years of industry experience to advance the state of the art. Executive Coaching for Results includes topics such as: Integrating coaching into your organization's overall leadership development strategy Locating and screening coaches worldwide Developing an internal coaching program Deciding which coaching assessments and instruments are appropriate to your situation Measuring the impact and ROI of coaching Following up after coaching Throughout, the authors provide numerous examples from major organizations such as Dell, Johnson and Johnson, Intel, and Wal-Mart. Offering practical learning, best practices, and illuminating case studies, this is the first definitive guide to the effective use of executive coaching in the corporate environment.