Coaching for Success

FlowCoaching.. What?Coaching.. Benefits!Coaching.. Who?Coaching.. Why?Coaching.. How?Case StudiesFinal thoughts

Executive Coaching. Defined.The art and science of facilitating the personal and professional development, learning and performance of an executive by expanding his/her options for behaving authentically.

Case Study: Dealing effectively with conflictBackgroundKarthik - New CEO of Retail CompanyOrganisation keen to set him up for successAssigned a coach for first 100 days

Case Study: Dealing effectively with conflictCollaborative & has strong interpersonal skillsNeeds to be able to deal with conflict

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Strategic/ creative/ insightfulPragmatic/ Process FocusedTHOUGHTFUL AND PLANFULBalance of strategic and pragmaticStrong interpersonal relationsEven tempered, calm in a crisisEnergetic/Drives Self and OthersLearning OrientedOpen to change/ differencesIndependent thinker/strong decision makerExpressive, PassionateOverly linear/ black & white thinkerMicromanager, controlling of othersPoor interpersonal relationsResistant to changeEmotionally unpredictableDifficulty building trust; emotionally detachedUndisciplinedSelf promotingConflict AverseDifficulty with AmbiguityOverly Independent, not involvingLack of energy, leadership ambitionIndecisive

Approval Dependent8785

Perfectionistic878787

Eccentric87

Attention Seeking8552

Impulsive85

Arrogant8744

Avoidant8790

Imperceptive9087

Risk Averse878517

Argumentative

Volatile90

Learning Orientation90

Inquisitive-ness905087529020902092

Prudence5089904840909090209020

Interpersonal Sensitivity90506040872525909089

Sociability87879020872584

Ambition9090902087

Adjustment852020

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Strategic/ creative/ insightful

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Case Study: Dealing effectively with conflictIncreased Self AwarenessUncomfortable with situations of conflict Take it personally Get defensive

Case Study: Dealing effectively with conflictProcess & ResultsAction based: reading, case studies, observation, role-playing, & live feedbackStrengthened professional boundariesAddressed conflict positively used it to drive culture of innovation Now a successful CEO!

Types of CoachingCoaching for Success Guiding people toward success in new or challenging situations.Coaching for Improvement Guiding people to improve unacceptable performance or work habits.Managing Performance Problems Addressing chronic performance or work habits problems or serious misconduct.

Coaching In The Past..Focus on performance issues leading to career derailment View negatively, applied to failing leadersSeen as last ditch effort to salvage a career

Coaching Today..Dynamic & competitive market, need to enable people to achieve business objectivesHow to take good people and make them the best they can beApplied to top performers whose leadership & growth potential are highly valued

Coaching in IndiaStill considered taboo and remedial in natureNeed to change current perceptionsCoaches are Retired CEOs, Running Training Organisations, Heads of HRCost from INR 15,000 to 1 Lakh, per sessionMonthly sessions, 2-3hours, focused on one client need

Indian Companies Using Coaching

Case Study: Being Less PerfectionisticBackgroundPriyanka Recently promoted to director of IT infrastructure and quality assurance Large MNC, IT company.

Case Study: Being Less PerfectionisticESTJPractical, realistic, matter-of-fact, with a natural head for business. Not interested in abstract theories; want learning to have direct & immediate application. Like to organise & run activities. Often make good administrators are decisive, quickly move to implement decisions; take care of routine details.Highly confident & achievement orientatedNeeds to be less critical of others performance

Case Study: Being Less PerfectionisticReflected on outputUnlocked the SituationRealised self prescribed perfectionistNone of team taking ownershipLittle work-life balanceOverlooking big pictureShort-changing development of subordinates

Case Study: Being Less PerfectionisticResultsAddress fears about delegation and producing less-than-perfect resultsDelegated low-risk to more high-risk tasksLess critical of othersMore time for strategic planning & family

Why is Coaching Successful?Rapport BuildingDeep ListeningCreative QuestioningGoal SettingIntuition Presence Giving Feedback

The Achieve Model

Research Data Widely Used59% of 300 organizations survey currently offer coaching to their managers and executives. Manchester, Inc.

GE, Sony, HP and Johnson & Johnson use coaches. Ernst & Young will spend $2 million this year on them. Forbes Magazine.

Quantifiable ROIAn average return on investment of 5.7 times the initial investment in a typical executive coaching assignment, or a return of more than $100,000. Industrial & Commerical Training.

Research Data Productivity

Center for performance excellence found coaching increased productivity, diversity, team member satisfaction, customer satisfaction, & teamwork. Industrial & Commercial Training.

Management training program increases a manager's productivity by 22 %, but when combined with eight-weeks of one-to-one coaching, the managers productivity exploded to more than 85 %. Coaching.com.

Case Study: Influence for SuccessBackgroundAshok, HR Manager at an Automotive companyFacing challenging situation Little support of function heads, turnover at 30%, & MD asked to leave

Case Study: Influence for SuccessOpen to feedback & AdaptableNeeds to build stronger relationships with peers

Case Study: Influence for SuccessProcessActed as sounding board to express frustrations Change of placeTried something newObserve those good at influencing, practice new technique, & received objective feedback

Case Study: Influence for SuccessResultsSupporting Resource > Business PartnerCoaching function headsBuilt stronger peer relationsStronger influencing skills to get support for candidate for new MD position

Coaching Bodies

Ensuring FitAlignment of ValuesWisdom, Insight, & Intuitive LeapsHuman Chemistry

Beware!Coach DependencyTriangular RelationshipPsychotherapy

Do you need Training? A Coach? Or Both?

To Recap..Coaching.. What?Coaching.. Benefits!Coaching.. Who?Coaching.. Why?Coaching.. How?Case StudiesFinal thoughts

ContactIndiaChennai5/2, 5th Avenue, Besant Nagar, 600 090Mellissa Ferrier+919677145544mell@consultpurplepatch.com

Executive coaching is a complex interpersonal interaction which is difficult to define definitively. However, there is a need for both purchases and providers of executive coaching services to understand whats on offer and what the process aims to achieve.

Art & Science An executive coach needs to be both artist and scientist. Executive coaching is more than just an artful conversation. The process and the techniques used in coaching are drawn from a wide range of research-based disciplines giving it firm academic background. On the other hand simply applying scientifically proven practices does not ensure achievement of desired results. The practice of executive coaching requires the coach to select and use the techniques in a blend most suited to the client sitting in front of them. In this sense coaching is an art where the skill, flexibility and experience of the individual executive coach and his interpretation of the methodology and situation all contribute to the success of the coaching programme. Facilitating a non-directive form of development with a focus on guiding the executive through a process rather than simply providing advice or instruction.Development, learning & performance coaching is an action-based activity which leads to improvement of one or more aspects of professional/personal life for the client. Coaching is not a directionless conversation; it is always based on the achievement of specific outcomes. Expanding options for behaving the aim of any executive coaching programme, is to increase choice for the coachee. With increased choices the client has more ways to achieve the desired goals, which increasing the likelihood of a successful outcome. With limited options, any barriers that present themselves are likely to delay progress towards goal achievements.

Lets take the example of Karthik! BackgroundKarthik has just been promoted to CEO of Retail Company, after the previous incumbent was asked to leave. Having learned from its previous errors, the organisation was keen provide extra support from an executive coach to Karthik during the first 100 days transitioning into the top job. What happenedKarthiks coach, a qualified psychologist, first focused on increasing his self awareness, facilitated by using the results from an assessment centre, that used various psychometrics including MBTI and Hogans Leadership Effectiveness Inventory, as well as incorporating objective 360 degree feedback results. His coach also observed Karthik in person, during his interactions with the board and key business heads. A key area of focus emerged from this process - Karthiks reluctance to deal with conflict. Overtime, Karthik slowly began to realize that he was uncomfortable in dealing with situations of conflict and needed guidance on not only recognizing those moment but also handling it in the most productive way. He began to realize that where there was conflict , he would always take it as a personal issue, thus making him emotional.

During subsequent coaching sessions, Karthik went to work, his coach giving him homework, for example key readings on conflict management, case studies, and to observe the style of successful leaders that could deal effectively with conflict. Karthik participated in role-playing sessions, high in conflict, so that he could practice new skills with feedback from the coach. Once Karthik had mastered these skills he tried them out with the board and key business heads, reflecting after each experience and assessing what went well and not so well with his coach.

ResultsDuring the early stages when he found it tough not to fall back to his old ways, Karthiks coach played an important role to keep him on track. He regularly keeping in touch with short reminder SMSs and emails, as well as scheduling brief weekly telephone conversations on his way to work early in the morning. By strengthening his professional boundaries, to ensure that he didnt over give personally and thus get defensive, also allowed him to deal with conflict more easily. And so at the end of the coaching assignment, rather than shying away from conflict, Karthik addresses it positively to generate alternatives and drive a culture of innovation within the organisation with great success.Now we have just seen a great example of coaching for success, the topic of tonights presentation. There are other types of coaching too: Coaching for improvement, guiding people to improve unacceptable behaviour; as well as managing performance problems for addressing chronic problems.

Coaching for success is more proactive than coaching for improvement and managing performance problems. Figure provided by DDI (www.ddiworld.com)

Ten years ago, coaching primarily concentrated on people with performance issues. A coach came on board because a managers personal style had a negative impact on peers and DRs, or because his/her skills set was inadequate conditions that were leading to career derailment. Sometimes, the coach was simply a bulletproof, to communicate bad news about performance before dismissal. An thus Coaching was often viewed negatively, as something applied to failing leaders or as a last-ditch effort to salvage a career in which the organisation had made a long-term investment that it didnt want to throw away.

Today, that impression has turned 180 degrees. Coaching is not just for problems anymore. As the marketplace has become increasingly competitive and fast-moving, organisations now recognise they must work with speed and precision to enable key people to achieve critical business objectives. In response, coaching has embraced a whole new focus: how to take good people and make them the best they can be, positioning them to work more effectively and cohesively in their environments, and make the most of their capabilities. In other words, coach is now most often applied to top performers whose leadership and growth potential are highly valued by the organisation.

Performance issues will always arise in any development plan or in any dynamic that a leader must work through when trying to execute strategy or change. However, coaching is not intended to focus on those issues any more than absolutely necessary. The orientation is always forward, with a focus on efficiency, effectiveness, and impact.

Coaching is still in its infancy in India, although is rapidly gaining momentum.While many Indian organisations are starting to recognise the value of coaching as a talent development tool, it is still perceived as somewhat negative in traditional segments. Here is a list of some of the Indian organisations using coaching..Lets now look at an Indian case study. Lets look at an Indian case studyResults from a recent 360 degree feedback process revealed key themes: That she was highly confident & achievement orientated, showed high commitment , excellent execution skillsHowever the results also indicated that she needed to be less critical of others performance and get less bogged down on details, and more open to the ideas of others.

Her personality profile reveal her preference for details and analytics, as well as a potential personality derailer perfectionistic. This seemed also to be in line with her MBTI type, ESTJ extraverted (energised by people), sensing (perceives the environment with 5-senses), thinking (objective thinking over subjectivity); and judging (preference for structure and planning). In order for her to succeed in her new role, the organisation enlisted the support of a coach to work through identified development areas.What happened?Once rapport and trust had been established, Priyanka and her coach worked diligently through the feedback report. Her coached encouraged Priyanka to reflect on the output, to enhance of self-awareness and to identify areas to work on together. The coach relying also on his intuition picked up on Priyankas frequent use of the word collaboration, in relation to her working style, challenging her on this point. This appeared to be a crucial moment of their coaching relationship and seemed to unlock the situation for Priyanka. She broke down and finally admitted to herself that she was a self described control freak & perfectionistic, finding it difficult not to do everything herself and delegate downwards and let others own the process of how to get things done. As a result none of her team were taking ownership of their tasks, waiting for her to provide direction, even her managers direct reports would come to her directly instead of their own, resulting in a lot of redundant managers. This behaviour was also effecting her home life, putting in an average 80 hour week, meant that she didnt see much of her kids, and when she did it was all go-go, with not enough time for fun. ResultWith new found clarity and a commitment to change for the sake of her kids, Priyanka and her coach were able to address her fears about delegation and producing results that were less than perfect, and how this actually making her less effective in her role. This helped Priyanka realise for the first time that by being so focused on the details of execution, she was overlooking the big picture and the obvious, and how she was short-changing the development of her DR by not delegating.

Through the support and guidance of her coach, Priyanka now actively solicits alternatives from her DR and peers and delegates more to her subordinates, gaining confidence by first delegating low-risk decisions, and then gradually worked her way up to delegating more important tasks to her direct reports, slowly realising her fears were unjustified; as well as being more careful not to become critical of others who dont meet her high standards. As a result she had more time for strategic planning in her role, as well as quality time for her kids, to ensure she has work-life balance.

So we have just seen a successful example of coaching in an Indian context. And its success can be attributed to 7 core capabilities. 7 Core competencies for effective coaching

Rapport Building experienced coaches are typically warm, attentive, and easy to talk and related to. The ability to develop rapport with the coaching client is fundamental to the success of an executive coaching relationship. It is developed through a combination of matching: physical appearance, body language and gestures, voice qualities and language. Its also enhanced by mutual trust and respect, and shared aims and outcomes for the programme. For example, for my financial services clients I were a suit whereas for my retail clients I were jeans. I also try to break down those early barriers by getting to know their challenges and passions in life. Deep listening Listening is one of the most important skills that an executive coach needs to develop. Most often confused with hearing. Great coaches are great listeners before all else. Requires coach to concentrate both on what the client is saying, how the client is saying it and what he is not saying.Creative Questioning is at the heart of effective executive coaching. Asking the right question, at the right time, is central to coaching success how did that make you feel?. Questions compel the coachee to think, examine, to look, to feel, to be engaged; evoke clarity of thinking; focus attention on critical behaviours/areas; stimulate answers which are descriptive but not judgmental; check understanding; increase the clients self-awareness; promote the clients responsibility for using his resources and develop solutions; challenge the client to take action and initiate change; gain commitment; obtain high quality feedback. Giving effective Feedback (see next slide pull/push approach) Listening and creative questions are key capabilities of a coach, however are they insufficient on their own to enable the client to reach his goal. Listening and questioning are non-directive techniques. Effective coaching also requires the coach to occasionally apply more directive techniques to adapt to the needs of the client, depending on the situation. Giving feedback is more of a directive technique as it involves the coach making direct statements and observations. Effective feedback is important because it provides an objective mirror for the client, by reflecting on his behaviour the client can examine the consequences and to make the necessary changes so that goals are achieved. Effective feedback is objective, factual, timely, behavioural, concrete, specific, and supportive.Clear Goal Setting Without clear goals, coaching can become just a forum for discussion about issues and an opportunity for the client to let off steam. Although there are some benefits to this, it is a clear aim of coaching for the coachee to set and achieve goals which are in line with the organisation goals as well as personal objectives. Goal setting sets direction and provides a clear aim for coaching sessions. Important to assess ROI. For example, many organisations use SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound when setting goals.Intuition Experience coachs rely on their intuition to know which question to ask, which piece of feedback to select and when to probe deeper. In India, I have found that Intuition is often placed second to the scientific rigour of analysis using conscious thought when making decisions. This may be because its difficult to define/no scientific basis. First thought, best thought. Trust your intuition. Presence difficult to define but Im sure everyone in this room knows what Im talking about a persons force of personality or their personal energy level also being authentic e.g., Obama/Gandhi, Princess Diana had presence. Clients often will choose a coach based on their presence/energy levels over their qualifications and experience.

Within an executive coaching conversation all 7 capabilities come into play. This is what distinguishes an executive conversation from a normal office conversation.

I have found great success using the Achieve Coaching Model as it provides a structured framework for the coaching process. Assess the current situation: The first stage is essentially about allowing the coachee to take time for reflection about his current position and the issues that he is facing. Strengths and development areas are uncovered here. Creative brainstorming of alternatives to the current situation: The next phase, widens the coachees perspective and creates a sound foundation for the development of creative solutions and behavioural change. One objective is to increase the choices that a client has when approaching a challenge or a specific situation. DeBonos Green hat.Hone goals/Initiate options/and Evaluate Options: are focused on goal setting, refining goals and using a systematic process to identify priorities and evaluate options. Valid action programme: This stage the coach and coachee work together to develop a pragmatic action plan that is realistic in its timings and broken down into achievable chunks. This is important to gain commitment to action that help the coachee to progress towards his goal. Encourage momentum: The final stage is all about helping the coachee stay on course and reach their goals. This is done best by reviewing progress regularly.

The outcome of following such process appears to be very positive!Research has also found 59% of 300 organizations survey currently offer coaching to their managers and executives. Another 20% said they plan to offer such coaching within the next year. Manchester, Inc.

GE, Sony and Johnson & Johnson use coaches. Ernst & Young will spend $2 million this year on them. Hewlett-Packard spends a lot of time finding coaches for hundreds of employees.

An average return on investment of 5.7 times the initial investment in a typical executive coaching assignment, or a return of more than $100,000. Manchester, Inc.

Booz Allen calculated a ROI of $3,268,325 or 689% from their executive Coaching programme. IndustrialProductivityCenter for performance excellence found coaching increased productivity, diversity, team member satisfaction, customer satisfaction, & teamwork. Industrial & Commercial Training.

Public Personnel Management Journal found a typical management training program increases a manager's productivity by 22 %, but when combined with eight-weeks of one-to-one coaching, the managers productivity exploded to more than 85 %. Coaching.com. Let us now look at the final case studyBackgroundConsider Ashok, a HR manager at a large automotive company. He is facing a challenging situation at work, he does not have the support of important functional heads, turnover is at 30% and the MD has just been asked to leave. Critical to his role, is to arrest attrition levels, support function heads to assure focus on business and execution of strategy, as well as find a transformational leader, whom can turnaround the companys misfortunes.

To guide him to success during this difficult period, Ashok enlisted the support of an executive coach. His OPQ profile revealed interesting behavioural patterns low on persuasion & interpedently minded. Objective feedback from a recent appraisal revealed..What happened?Coaching gave Ashok an external sounding board, with whom to dialogue his development needs in a confidential and unthreatening way. This allowed Ashok to express his frustrations and vulnerabilities, and appear less negative and reactive to others. Coaching sessions were structured around Ashok building stronger relationships with his peer group and enhancing his influencing skills. His coach provided learning experiences, and constant guidance and feedback on his progress. For example, Ashok was asked to observe people good at influencing others, read key literature on persuasion, after which to apply these effective strategies during an upcoming and important presentation, outlining measures to reduce current attrition levels. Ashok also video taped his presentation and appraised it along with his coach afterwards, to note effective and ineffective behaviours, for the future. ResultsBy spending more time understanding the business, he was considered as a business partner, instead of just a supporting resource. He also made more time for the functional heads, listening to their concerns and coaching them through difficult periods, with resulted in stronger peer relations. And as a result of his new found influencing skills, he was able to successfully gain the support for his preferred candidate to replace the vacant MD position. Now you now the benefits of coaching as well as the capabilities and process that best practice coaches use you must be asking yourselves where do I find one? There are numerous profession coaching bodies that oversee coaching professions, setting high standards, offering structured coaching frameworks, providing independent certification, and have a pool of accredited coaches for organisations to call upon.

In India, the only coaching body is the CFI which has two main activities, accredits coaches as well as offers coaching solutions. In the UK there is the Association for coaching (AC - 1), European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC - 2), International Coaching Federation (ICF - 3) & the Association for Professional Executive Coaching & Supervision (APECS - 4)

What distinguishes an excellent coach from an average one? How does a coach achieve positive and lasting impact on performance?For me its two aspects a proficient competency level of important coaching experience, skills, knowledge and attributes as well as the use of a systematic approach to achieve measurable and sustainable outcomes and the desired result. The coach selection process doesnt always receive the attention it deserves. In part, this results from lack of clarity about what coaching should accomplish and how it should accomplish it.

Now you are convinced on the benefits of coaching but before you start thinking about launching a coaching programme in your organisation. Let us know focus on some threats to coaching:To increase the likelihood of success, its important to check the coachs background, ability, organisational fit, and human chemistry with the coachee.

Alignment of Values:A mismatch in values set leads to failure. The coachs values, demonstrated in his/her approach, methods, and personal philosophy, must be a good match for the organisation. A hard-driving organisation that values internal competition over team harmony, would not be well served by a coach who works to increase effectiveness by improving interpersonal relations. Similarly, an organisation oriented towards short-term goals might be out of line with a coach whose work is most effective at instilling long range capabilities. This will lead to conflict between coach and client and result in poor ROI. It might even place the coachee in some degree of career jeopardy.

Wisdom, insight & intuitive leapsThe coach must be able to understand the challenges of the person being coached. Ideally, the coach has had direct, personal experience that relates to the coachees current concerns and needs. Experience provides the coach with credibility. Technical knowledge or expertise can also matter, but is not as important as you might think. The coach can be well served by a lack of direct technical knowledge, as it forces the coachee to articulate issues in greater detail, and opens the door for the fresh perspective of a newcomer. Best practice coaches absorb information about the organisation, the individual, the technical concerns, and the objectives not just to steer the coachee appropriately, but also to bring him to entirely new levels of performance. The coach does so by making intuitive leaps. Important for a coach to have the ability to see patterns and connect the dots in ways that the individual could never manage alone. Evaluating the coachs experience, wisdom and intuitive capabilities is no easy feat. One method is to ask concrete, behavioural based questions about past coaching engagements.

Human ChemistryCoaching is a partnership that thrives on trust, confidence, and forward progress. Coaches and coachees often develop a very strong relationship. Best practice coaches are able to inspire that foundation from the very first stages of the engagement. Nevertheless, a coachee will not obtain a great deal of benefit from someone he/she dislikes or someone he/she likes a great deal but who is unwilling or unable to push him/her in the right direction. Likes/Dislikes may not be prime factors though but coaching will not be successful if the coachee is highly resistant to the coach. You must make the decision. For example, if the coachee is uncomfortable with assertive people but needs to develop more assertive behaviour, a coach with a dominant and hard-driving personality may be the ticket. If a coachee is from the old school and does not respect the contributions of female reports, then a determined female coach may rearrange their world view. Best practice coaches develop human chemistry needed for success.

The coachs stay in an organisation is meant to be short less than 2 years, and longer only if intermittent challenges are pursued in a way that builds on the foundations that have already been established. A best practice coach, by design and ethic, is not in the business of creating a dependent relationship. Although this may be a sensible business model, it violates one of the principle ethics of coaching: do everything in the service of the client, not in the service of oneself. Its also important to consider the nature of the executive coaching relationship. Coaching takes place within an organisational context where there are partners involved other than the coach and the client. The primary relationship is between the coach and individual. However the organisation also has a stake in the relationship. This triangular relationship needs to be carefully managed. This is done best, where each party involved fully understands their specific role and responsibilities. Its important to have transparency about the management of the triangle. General all three parties discuss respective roles and responsibilities of each party together during the first coaching session. Coaching is not psychotherapy - Executive coaching operates from a belief that those who come to coaching are psychologically whole and able to benefit from the process, and so is not a substitute for psychotherapy. Coaching is not therapy. The orientation is very different. A coach may use some of the listening and tools of therapy to build connection, trust and openness. But although personal issues or deeper problems are likely to arise in the course of working together, the coach is not meant, and usually not qualified, to provide more than supportive, confidential advice in those matters. I remember a few years ago having to refer one of my clients to a clinical psychologist after it became apparent after I suspected he had an anxiety disorder. A coachs focus of engagement is to move the client forward, in line with business objectives.

The most appropriate approach depends on the competency or behaviour being developed, the skill level and availability of your coach, and the availability of appropriate training, including the time & place the training is offered.

In general, youre better off using a training program to develop basic skills because its difficult to get a capable coach to provide the amount of time thats required as well as costly. Often there may be similar training needs across the organisation that could be supported through a group training intervention and follow up training instead.

For people in lower-level, larger populations, individual coaches might not be a practical solution or cost effective option. To recap tonight we focused on executive coaching for success, investigated its benefits, the competencies and process that best practice coaches use, coaching in India, shared the case studies of Karthik/Priyanka/Ashok, as well as things to consider before implementing a coaching programme. Many thanks for your attention. I hope you enjoyed the presentation. If you would like to contact me here are my contact details!