COACHING
FOR EXECUTIVES? WHEN MANAGEMENT SHOULD ACT
Consider
the words of management guru Peter Drucker, who 20 years ago wrote in his book
Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, "Of all the jobs
in the enterprise, the top management job is the most difficult to organize. .
. . It is also the most important one to organize." Since Drucker wrote
these words, however, being well organised measures only one element of
success in this role. Today, the list of critical success factors for
executives has grown even longer.
Should
management or the board contemplate hiring a coach to help out its executives?
Consider the following five scenarios where executive coaches have
added great value. In each case,
the limitations of the executive-as-individual were recognised, and
management’s intent was not necessarily to get executives out of trouble but
to make sure trouble never arrived.
Which,
if any, of these scenarios mirror your current situation?
When
a business is growing very rapidly
Whenever
a leader, management or board wants to take the organisation to a higher
level, it may be an opportune time to seek out a coach for help with upgrading
the executive's team, establishing new company goals, putting in place more
appropriate performance management structures and effecting various process
improvements.
With
first-time Executives
Up
to this point, a new executive's specialty field (sales, engineering,
marketing, finance, operations) may represent the bulk of his/her experience.
If so, he or she probably could benefit from some coaching that would
expand his/her business expertise. Perhaps
the first-time executive has never managed management committee or board of
directors before, or maybe he's never been fully responsible for planning
strategic alliances, raising capital or understanding corporate functions in
general. In addition to
"orienting" the new executive or assisting with skill building, a
coach might also serve as organisational advisor, referral resource and key
interviewer in executive hires.
When
a successor executive has been promoted from within
Maintaining
a clear focus on business and executive development objectives is paramount
for the new executive. It
supports his preparedness to take on this unfamiliar role and deals also very
effectively with any natural ambivalence on the part of the retiring
executive. When hired from
the outset, executive coaches can play key roles in keeping a company's
succession plan on track.
If
the coaching relationship continues past the transition process, the new
executive will likely handle the inevitable adjustment issues most
successfully, which in turn shortens his ramp time toward driving the
organisation effectively and efficiently.
The
executive as change agent
Here
the executive coach becomes a key advisor and partner in shaping company
strategy and organisation. In this scenario, the coach helps guide an
executive's approach to both change management and conflict management.
As change agent executives contemplate major organisational and
strategic shifts, they depend on their coaches to provide safe sounding boards
for the working through of typically difficult decisions.
The
executive seeking professional development
Though
performance issues (for an executive and for his/her executive team) can often
be addressed by specialists brought in as part of an overall development
program, e.g., media training, presentation skills or hiring interviews, the
executive coach can focus his client on professional development in broader
areas. Examples are: how to run
more effective staff and planning sessions, improving organisation-wide
accountability, personal organisation issues, balancing priorities,
communication and problem- solving skills, and criteria for reward systems.
Personal
trainer for the executive
The
best executive coaches offer more than mere crisis counselling, functioning
instead like a personal trainer in a gym.
Their principle mission is to keep executive clients healthy, alert,
positive and operating at the top of their game.
But
it's not a role that just anyone can play.
Though directors/managers can help with specific situation-based advice
and may even be personally capable of coaching, it is really not their role to
get personally involved in the details of an executive's day-to-day job.
If they did, they could not maintain objectivity when considering
company performance issues.
When
management or a board decides to move ahead and bring an executive coach in,
how should it proceed? Should management or the board hire such a coach or
should it get its executive to do the hiring?
While
executive coaches are retained in various ways, the most effective way is for
the board to tell its executive they'd like him to search out a coach for
himself. They should discuss with
the executive why they think coaching would be valuable (for reasons stated
above) and then talk through characteristics they would like the coach to
have.
Beyond
that, the executive should be turned loose and allowed to choose among the
candidates he finds. The
Management or board might help the executive narrow down the selection, but
the final choice must be the executive's, so that he/she is comfortable with
and trusts the winning candidate.
Once
the executive is ready to begin a search, what kind of candidate should he/she
seek? First, be assured that the best executive coaches are multifaceted,
possessing seasoned profit-and-loss management experience as well as great
interpersonal skills and a natural understanding of the business problems in
general. In effect, great
executive coaches know intuitively how to "connect the dots."
Because
of the nature of the executive's role, good executive coaches also must be
able to combine one-on-one coaching with effective team intervention. An executive's coach will be serving more than an individual;
he will in fact be coaching, if indirectly, the entire organisation.
Knowledge of team dynamics and effective organisational structures must
therefore be prominent in a great executive coach's résumé.
Bringing
an executive coach into one's organisation can work wonders. By stimulating
the executive's thinking, a great coach enables him/her to acquire both new
top-management skills and valuable coping techniques.
If such outcomes appeal to a board, discussions with the executive
should begin without delay.
Today's
leaders can only succeed by keeping one step ahead of the competition in the
face of daily barrages of unexpected developments, new technologies,
fast-breaking trends and confusing, unfamiliar ideas.
Does
expecting a company's top human resource to take on these daunting challenges
all alone constitute smart business sense?
Executive coaches protect the investment.
Executives
cite benefits of coaching
| ● |
Assists organisational change. |
| ● |
Offers safe place to vent. |
| ● |
Promotes tracking of action items, i.e., "What steps have you taken since
our last meeting and how did they go?"
|
| ● |
Provides
unbiased feedback. |
| ● |
Assists staff assessments. |
| ● |
Offers outside view of how others (especially business observers) perceive
the company. |
| ● |
Generates concrete ideas for action. |
| ● |
Broadens thinking. |
| ● |
Frees up time by improving delegation, establishing priorities, improving
personal work style.
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How to Engage an Executive Coach – a Typical
Scenario
Once
the managers/directors have settled on a coach for the executive, you may want
to follow these guidelines to make this unfamiliar engagement effective:
Start
with a short-term engagement
Every
solid, long-term partnership begins with a successful courtship. Early on the coach and executive should identify their shared
belief systems and conceptual agreements in order to set down practical
objectives and measurements. The
coach then conducts a two- to three-day organisational needs assessment,
including an in-depth interview with both the executive and his/her direct
reports in order to identify all prominent strengths and weaknesses of both
the executive and the firm. The
coach also reviews personnel files of the executive team, organisational
charts, internal correspondence, operating plans, product literature,
analysts' reports and even public files in order to assess how business is
conducted internally and externally. Finally,
the executive should also be given the opportunity to interview his new coach
thoroughly. At the conclusion of
the consultation, coach and executive discuss the findings and share a
diagnosis of what needs to be done. If
the process has noticeably added value, and if a mutual trust has been
established between the executive and coach, an extended coaching contract can
be considered.
Structure
the coaching contract
Across
The Board magazine has
reported that senior executive coaching contracts usually extend over 18- to
24-month periods with fees ranging from $50,000 to $120,000 per executive.
(Considerably
less in South Africa.)
A six-month commitment for an executive coach would normally constitute a
minimum. The coach of course
signs a nondisclosure agreement before he/she begins.
The coach does not report to the board members but to the executive,
who is termed "the client." Managements/Boards only receive
information on the progress of the coaching, its goals and results, not on the
intimate details. An agreement should include a process chart of tools and
activities, a schedule of sessions, and how this coaching intervention will be
monitored and evaluated. It
should also define the scope of the coaching assignment, i.e., desired skill
development, performance issues to be addressed and the executive’s
objectives.
No
coaching anyone else!
Executive coaches do not coach direct reports, general staff, directors or
anyone else. During the period of the coaching contract, the executive coach
cannot effectively coach subordinate executives on other than a limited basis
without diminishing value to the executive client.
The executive must have the full attention and allegiance of his coach
and not raise coaching conflicts of interest by attempting to offer similar
support to others in the firm. On
the other hand, short-term interventions and teambuilding activities
facilitated by an executive coach can be very effective in conflict resolution
and change management.
The
process
Having
built upon knowledge gained in the initial organisational assessment, the
coach then guides a development process through several steps.
First, he develops a competency model for the executive using formal
assessment tools combined with additional interviews (of staffers, service
providers and customers/clientele).
Next,
he condenses the resulting feedback with the executive's help, and then
interviews board members. Managers/directors
will appreciate being asked, at this point, to respond to pre-identified
issues; as such a framework usually aids them in formulating their own
assessments. Once the coach has
fully questioned the management/board, he has in effect compiled a powerful
360-degree feedback analysis, creating a realistic starting point for setting
down new goals and taking subsequent action steps to be guided and measured by
the coaching.
by Albert Cruywagen of quantumiii -
recognising the ground breaking work of J Masciarelli
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