Coaching for development

Executive coaching is a growth business.The marketplace is increasingly crowded with messianic motivational coaches. Amid the hype, the real power and purpose of coaching can be forgotten. Mike Brent brings coaching back to the basics of learning and development.
Mike Brent is a senior consultant in Ashridge Consulting and has trained and consulted with major

There are many definitions of coaching. One w h i c h I f i n d u s e f u l i s by t h e w r i t e r D e n i s K i n l aw : S u c c e s s f u l c o a c h i n g i s a m u t u a l conversation between manager and employee that follows a predictable process and leads to superior performance, commitment to sustained improvement, and positive relationships. This definition is attractive because it stresses the two way aspect of coaching. Coaching is a conversation rather than a monologue. Having a predictable process allows for repeatability and training. This is important in organisations where too often the coaching process is so informal that there is no real structure or follow up. The aim of coaching is always to have better p e r f o r m a n c e a n d i t i s my b e l i e f t h a t t h e relationship between manager and employee is key to effective performance. Recent research by G a l l u p h a s s h ow n t h a t t h e k e y f a c t o r i n successful performance is the relationship between manager and employee. The coach facilitates learning and does not own the problem. The coach helps the person being coached develop their own thinking and awareness. Many managers make the mistake of trying to own their employees problems with the result that they end up taking responsibility a n d l e a r n i n g away f r o m t h e p e r s o n .

C o a c h i n g , t h e r e f o r e, i s a b o u t l e t t i n g t h e employee perform to their full potential.

The need for coaching

As we change from an industrial society to a service and knowledge economy, the need is for employees who can think for themselves, be creative and react quickly and appropriately to different situations. The command and control model cannot work in this environment, as people need to be able to think independently. If employees have to wait for the boss to decide, or if they let their boss do all the thinking for them, then it slows down the whole organisation and it eventually becomes a dinosaur. There is an expression, To take the monkey, meaning that you end up taking on other peoples problems and issues. This is extremely common in management for two reasons. First, the manager very often thinks that their job is to solve problems. Second, as a result of hierarchy and command and control cultures, many employees have got used to letting someone else do their thinking for them. At Ashridge, we see in our workshops many examples of managers whose default style is to go immediately to giving advice the Why dont you style of management.

international companies all over the world, as well as lecturing at several business schools. He is interested in the nature of challenge and creativity in organisations, in helping managers develop their coaching skills, and in facilitating change.

Email: mike.brent @ashridge.org.uk

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Coaching for development

Instead of asking questions, and listening, when an employee comes to them, many managers feel obliged to offer their solution. Apart from the fact that the boss is not always right, this leads to a mental laziness from the employee, who is not being forced to think the issues through and come up with different courses of action. A further impetus to coaching is the shift from management to leadership (although example, the question, What should our strategy be for the next five years? has no single correct answer waiting to be discovered. This is a dilemma, not a puzzle nor a problem. All managers can do is to engage in dialogue, listen, be creative and come up with different options and alternatives. Then they need to objectively analyse the alternatives and choose the one that has a chance of engaging the organisations attention and energy. If we confuse puzzles with dilemmas, then we are in danger of simplifying the issue, imposing dogma instead of looking together for alternatives. As one manager said: Its got to be an extremely
COACHING IN A COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT

organisations still need both). In this new leadership paradigm, leaders must be able to coach. Coaching is essentially about creating and generating options and alternatives. If your only

simple

question

to

have

an

answer.

Unfortunately, in reality there are no longer that

+
DILEMMAS
T LIC NF AL CO ENTI T PO

many simple questions.

UNCERTAINTY

PROBLEMS

TO ED NE ARE SH

ONS

Abandoning the security of knowing

PUZZLES

The question for managers must be: If youre not coaching your people how are you managing them? If
COMPLEXITY +

coaching can be defined as unlocking potential, if managers arent unlocking it, what are they doing? Coaching unlocking potential, developing

Figure 1. Source: Critchley and Casey1

style is to tell people what to do, you are not empowering or enabling them. You are not growing and developing your most important resource. And, you are wasting your own valuable time. Time is increasingly short because the rate of change is accelerating and the degree of complexity encountered by managers increasing rapidly. Managers are having to deal less with simple puzzles, and more with complex problems and dilemmas (see Figure 1). The difference is that with puzzles, there are answers available, and they can often be solved by an individual. With complex problems, they are less evident and are likely to need input from different sources to solve them.
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people, promoting learning and confidence is the key role of the manager. More and more of the problems the manager faces are human ones rather than technical ones. Many managers are excellent at solving technical issues, but are not so good at dealing with human ones. One of the key roles of a manager is to develop his or her people. It is not always an easy role to play. One manager, talking about the move from being the expert to being the coach, put it nicely when he said: Its very uncomfortable to leave the comfort and security of knowing. Coaching is about helping people, enabling them to achieve something they want to achieve, whether it may be promotion, skills, performance or self-understanding or better balance. It has to be client centred and not coach, or even organisation, centred.

And then there are dilemmas which dont have any solutions, only options and alternatives. For

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The argument for coaching in terms of competitiveness is among the most

If your only style is to tell people what to do, you are not empowering or enabling them.You are not growing and developing your most important resource.

straightforward. When products and services are similar, competitive advantage comes from having people with ideas, skills, responsibility and initiative. Learning makes the difference and the core idea of coaching is to develop others to help them learn. Without coaching this cannot be achieved. Ultimately, as the environment grows more and more complex, performance will be as a result of learning. To paraphrase Reg Revans, the founder of action learning, if the environment changes faster than your organisation learns, youre out of business. This means that managers cannot wait for the rest of the organisation to change before they change. We all have to take individual responsibility for learning. superiors were not on board, and that it would be a waste of time to implement coaching in their own teams. Too often organisations send their managers on coaching workshops to gain transactional skills, without linking coaching to the larger, strategic aim of transformation. If coaching is seen as the latest fad, it will have no

effect on performance.

Why dont managers coach?

Fear. Few managers would admit to being afraid of coaching, but we often see managers who are

There are many reasons why managers do not actually use coaching in their everyday lives. Some of the main ones are: organisational culture; fear; not convinced it works; lack of skill; coaching is seen as remedial. Culture. Many of the managers in our workshops raise objections to the idea of coaching typical remarks are It wont work here, We dont have the time, Its tree hugging, etc. Few admit to being afraid or unprepared to coach. We found this resistance rather surprising initially, and resented wasting time, as we thought, dealing with this resistance. What we saw were organisational cultures that, although paying for coaching workshops, were in reality paying lip service to the philosophy behind the concept of coaching one in which continuous learning and growth are seen as important. Although top management were convinced of the need to have a coaching culture, not all of the managers actually used coaching as a way of managing their own employees. Many participants reported that although they were keen to coach, they felt that their hierarchical

extremely anxious about their ability to coach. There are a number of skills, attitudes and tools which need to be mastered if one is to become an effective coach. Managers need to be supported and they need training in these techniques. Not convinced. Sometimes we see managers who see no value in changing their command and control style to a coaching one. These managers tell us that their job is to give advice. If an employee has an issue or a problem, the manager doesnt feel it is right to spend time eliciting the employees own thoughts. They feel it is a waste of time to coach and that there is nothing to gain by helping employees develop their own thinking. Although giving advice or telling employees what to do is appropriate in some circumstances emergencies, for example it is not a means of developing employees. In reality, we found that these managers subordinates actually wanted to be coached. Coaching as remedial. Many participants come to coaching workshops with the idea that coaching is remedial. This is a barrier in the sense that they
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Coaching for development

dont think it is something that could be used every day with all team members, but just as a tool to be used with poor performers. If they tried a coaching approach with anyone else, that person resisted because they felt they were then being considered as a poor performer. options are. Almost any interaction can be done in a coaching style, although we dont recommend asking people for their different options and alternatives in the middle of an emergency.

Coaching needs a supportive organisational

culture. It is vital to have a coaching culture within the organisation, otherwise it fails. The coaching culture has to come from a strong

Making coaching work

There are many models which can be used in training managers to be more effective coaches. However the real value of the coaching training lies in the actual practising of coaching, with participants bringing real issues to the workshop. In our experience, role playing is not as effective as working with real issues. After all, when you are back in the organisation, you dont have the option of saying, This was just a game.

belief that it can add value to both individuals and the organisation, and is not simply seen as a sheep dip reflex or fad.

Successful coaching is about more than

simply developing skills and techniques. If the right attitude is not there, no amount of skills will make you a good coach.

Workshops are not enough. If all you do is

organise some coaching workshops for your managers, but then do not support a coaching environment, then at best, you are wasting money. Just paying lip service to the idea of coaching is counter productive. Many participants in our workshops fully understand the importance of developing a coaching style, but if they go back to a boss who uses old fashioned command and control styles, and does not support coaching in practise, there is a strong possibility that

Coaching needs a supportive organisational culture. It is vital to have a coaching culture within the organisation, otherwise it fails.

Making coaching work requires a number of things:

they will stop using their coaching skills.

Recognition that coaching is not time

consuming. One of the common objections to coaching is that it takes too much time. The opposite is true. Simply telling people what to do is what actually consumes time. You can coach in a five minute session simply by developing the reflex of asking rather than telling. Too often managers are tempted to
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Top management must communicate the

importance of coaching. It is vital that senior management support the coaching initiative. This means that they have to be visible in supporting it, show up at the workshops to demonstrate its importance, and also reward those who use it in practice, and most importantly, use it themselves and encourage other senior colleagues to use it. Coaching is often seen only as transactional when it should be transformational.

use the Why dont you model, instead of asking people what their own thoughts and

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 For coaching to be most effective, it is

important for senior members of the management team to point out the strategic importance of coaching to the participants. A coaching culture will not survive in the organisation unless it is seen to add value to the strategy of the organisation and improve the quality of organisational life. As consultants and trainers we can remind participants of this, but it is clearly the responsibility of the organisations leaders to communicate it.

Advice to coaches
Here is a list of tips and advice to help you coach more effectively. They are not a panacea, but should help you avoid the most common mistakes.
Dont over question its not an interrogation Summarise often Be aware of double pressure on you your

Resistances to the idea of managers using a

coaching style must be acknowledged and brought into the open. Some managers do resist and it is important to listen to their concerns.

preference for giving advice and the coachees request for advice Resist giving advice prematurely Try to offer reframes and different perspectives through questioning Remember that coaching should lead to action Identify restraints, especially internal ones Check whether the issue is a puzzle, problem or dilemma

Coaching must not be seen as a fad or only

as remedial. The aim of coaching is to help people achieve their potential, and everyone, at all levels, can benefit. No serious sportsman or woman would consider not using a coach why shouldnt managers?

When training managers to be coaches, there

must be practice sessions using real issues as well as theory. The real learning comes by doing, and getting feedback.

Balance your reality questions with questions which move the issue on Remember to use the nave question Understand the emotions as well as the logic
REFERENCE

Coaching must take account of cross-cultural

differences especially when people are being trained how to coach.

Challenge if necessary, but learn how to challenge elegantly Use what if questions Ask how important the issue is Build on what the coachee is actually saying, rather than inventing new questions Pick up on non-verbal communication. Notice if people get excited, or sad Use more open than closed questions.

1. Critchley, Bill and Casey, David. (1984). Second thoughts on team building, Mead.

Coaching must be linked to strategy. If we only

focus on change at an individual level then the effort and initiative will be lost. On the other hand, if we work on strategy but forget implementation, then we are wasting time.

RESOURCES
Gallwey, Timothy. (2000). The Inner Game of Work, Orion. Kinlaw, Denis. (1989). Coaching for Commitment, Pfeiffer.

Implementation is always carried out by

individuals and a process is needed to work through the implementation of the strategy. Coaching is such a process.

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