Top Secret Executive Coaching?

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency says it needs some folks with rather rare Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearances for its formal agency-wide Leadership Coaching Program (LCP).

A buzzword-laden notice to industry said these coaches will work with NGA's Human Development Strategies Office (HDS) -- Policy & Partnership Program Development Division "to effect deep, sustainable change in this agency."

That's not all, folks. These coaches, NGA said, "should be able to cultivate leadership initiatives and create a coaching culture that brings out the curiosity of the people within it, expands perspectives that allow differences, encourages new approaches, utilizes appreciative inquiry and fosters more productivity and meaningful conversations."

I don't know how much these TS/SCI cleared coaches will cost, but I have a suggestion that will save the agency a bunch of bucks.

Spend $99 for an annual subscription to the Financial Times, which includes the Saturday weekend edition that has some really good profiles of executives who have mastered their crafts without the benefit of executive coaching, which over the past month has included former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Australia's former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of HSBC Holdings -- parent of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp.