Executive Coaching What's In It For You?
by Robert Witherspoon and Randall P. White
We all want to perform better. In the beginning improving
performance is relatively easy. Learning some new skills,
applying new technologies and just plain experience seem to do
the trick. As high performers move up the ladder of success,
however, squeezing out that extra ounce of performance becomes
increasingly difficult. For many, coaching is the answer.
For decades, athletes, public speakers and performing
artists, facing a similar dilemma, have turned to coaches to
help them perform better. Often, these individuals have
already reached the top of their profession. The coach's role
therefore, is not as a teacher, but as a partner who
introduces the high performer to new challenges, options, and
behaviors.
Now, this approach has taken hold in the business world,
where top performers are turning to executive coaches to help
them reach their business and personal best.
According to Fortune's survey of leading companies, those
coached in business "may be anyone from a $60,000 middle
manager up to the CEO, although more commonly that person will
be a leading contender for the CEO's job." These coaching
candidates are valued people who are motivated to perform even
better.
Because executive coaching targets high performers, the
focus is less on teaching new techniques than on helping the
executives become their best. Those who coach are typically
skilled outside consultants who collaborate with executives on
a regular basis. These relationships may last a few months to
several years, during which time a coach provides the
constructive feedback and wise counsel an executive needs.
Feedback - the coach's stock in trade - ranges from active
listening to formal reports about an executive's behavior and
blind spots. Executives (like all of us!) are often unaware of
the impact of their actions on others. Feedback gives the
executive a snapshot of these important tendencies and helps
change behavior as a result.
As executives climb the ladder of success, squeezing out
that extra performance becomes essential. For many, coaching
is the answer.
Executive coaching goes far beyond collecting raw data,
however. For example, to be "successful" at leading a booming
business (or to "fail" at turning around a chaotic operation)
may tell the executive nothing. Most useful learning lies in
examining how a situation was managed, what available
resources were used and how things might have been done
differently. By asking tough questions the coach and the
executive learn lessons from experience and practical insights
to prepare.
An Overview of Coaching Situations
When it's lonely at the top. When there's pressure to
improve. When gifted people are groomed to advance. Typical
client CEO, heads of business or major business function
Senior executives, key performers and executives at risk
Promising people and "high potentials" Coaching Role Talking
partner Performance coach Development coach Focus Better
results: focus on executive's agenda. Better performance:
focus on improving effectiveness in executive's present job.
Better development: focus on preparing executive for future
job or leadership roles.
Benefits Better decisions:
• More ideas and options.
• More and better support for executive's agenda.
• Clearer performance goals.
• Greater self-awareness and responsibility.
• More and better learning for performance development.
• Clearer development goals.
• Better discovery of developmental needs.
• More and better learning for career development.
For future leadership roles:
This personal learning process is the essence of executive
coaching. Because executive coaching is so personal, no two
situations are alike. But the following scenarios serve to
better illustrate the coach's role.
When it's lonely at the top
Leading a business or a major business function can he a
lonely activity. Issues such as the executive's own growth and
development, working relationships with the executive team, or
specific business challenges can be highly confidential. But
these matters are also important enough to merit the rare
opportunity to discuss them, think out loud, and receive
constructive feedback.
As an objective outsider and "talking partner" a coach is free
to question and engage the executive on major issues, an
option less open to corporate insiders. Often, a coach also
helps the executive to obtain valid data to address specific
issues or concerns.
When it's lonely at the top, coaching leads to:
Better decisions.
Experienced coaches offer insight and perspective on an
executive's ideas. Talking through actions before they are
implemented tends to improve the chances for sound decisions.
More ideas and options.
A coaching environment encourages creative suggestions from
both the executive and the coach. An exchange occurs without
risk. One creative idea often sparks another.
Better support for the executive's agenda.
Coaching sessions start with the executive's agenda. Coaches
are free to offer suggestions but the coaching format ensures
that executives address the issues and concerns that matter
most to them.
When there's pressure to improve executive skills:
Today's turbulent environment demands more from executives.
As goals, roles and business conditions change, executives
must learn new skills and hone their old ones. The reasons for
performance coaching can range from stretching "seasoned
hands" to sharpen their current skills, to capitalizing on
"stars" by keeping them challenged, to correcting the behavior
of poor performers. In any case, the executive coach acts as a
"performance coach."
Specifically, the coach helps the executive to assess his
performance, to obtain confidential feedback on individual
strengths and weaknesses, and to learn new skills and
behaviors. These coaching sessions typically focus on
performance in the present job, although improvement may well
lead to future positions. When there's pressure to improve,
coaching leads to:
Clearer performance goals and roles.
Coaching helps the executive step back from daily operations
to size up the situation and determine the difference between
goals and reality--the distance between where the individual
is and where he or she wants to be.
Greater self-awareness.
Coaching helps the executive discover individual strengths,
weaknesses and possible behavior problems. Better
self-awareness develops quickly through being coached. The
feedback data and coaching sessions reveal priority areas for
improvement and motivates executives to take action.
Better learning for performance improvement.
Coaching is just-in-time learning, with little loss of time
from the job. Coaches recommend learning resources that are
tailored to immediate needs. Executives apply their new skills
and behaviors promptly and learn effectively on the job.
When an executive is groomed to advance
Developing executives to fill key positions is one of the
most challenging and critical tasks facing business today.
Typically, what's lacking among candidates for the executive
suite is not technical skill but the ability to lead and get
along with others. Coaching for these candidates tends to
focus more on strengthening their leadership and managerial
effectiveness than on sharpening technical skills. In these
situations the coach acts as a "development coach" by helping
executives to discover their potential to advance and to
address their long-term developmental needs--often over
several years or a career.
When promising people are groomed for the top, coaching
leads to:
Clearer career and leadership development goals.
Coaching helps executives and their organizations to clarify
the skills and competencies for success in a leadership role.
Better discovery of developmental needs.
Coaching helps an executive discover strengths and weaknesses,
determine where growth is needed and how to fill the gaps. In
the process, executives discover their developmental needs for
future jobs.
Better learning for career and leadership development.
Coaching helps an executive prepare for advancement. Coaching
also provides an opportunity for an executive to reflect on
life experiences, clarify future goals and plan for continuous
development.
Getting started with coaching
Coaching helps executives solve their own problems and grow
to new levels of performance and maturity. Coaching also keeps
key people motivated and involved. Unless careful thought goes
into choosing a coach, however, many of these benefits may
never materialize. Choosing a coach should start with one's
needs. Does the executive need a confidant?
To learn a new skill? To perform better in the present job?
To prepare for a future leadership role? Often these needs and
the coaching "fit" can be clarified in an initial exploratory
meeting. Some coaches, for instance, often specialize in one
kind of service.
Beyond matching skills and needs, however, personal
chemistry is an integral part of any coaching relationship.
Executive coaching will fail if communication is not open and
clear. A coach who misunderstands basic business issues or
makes impractical suggestions will not be able to gain the
trust and build rapport with a business executive. For
coaching to really succeed, the executive must feel confident
that the coach is a valuable resource, assisting the
individual to reach important goals. Helping executives to
achieve their goals is what executive coaching is all about.
A good coach helps create an environment where the
executive learns how to learn, is motivated and involved and
receives the support he or she needs to succeed. Thus coaching
goes beyond most training and instruction. A partnership
between executive and coach fosters personalized development
that encourages business executives to make the most of their
unique abilities.
Indeed, our concept of coaching is about bringing out the
best in people. The very first use of the word "coach" in
English occurred in the 1500's to refer to a particular kind
of carriage. (It still does.) Hence the root meaning of the
verb "to coach" is to convey a valued person from where he or
she was to where he or she wants to be. That's still a good
meaning for coaching executives today.
Adapted from Training &
Development.
Copyright March 1996, American Society for Training and
Development. |
