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Overview of Our Approach to Workplace Coaching

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Overview of Our Approach to Coaching

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Ten Tips to Build a Culture of Trust

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The Benefits of Internal Coaching

I thought you might like this story entitled: The Benefits of Internal Coaching.  It is available from Human Resource Executive magazine on the HRE Online site and reproduced below.

 

Because coaching is a confidential one-on-one experience, many organizations may be unaware of its benefits, but coaching -- particularly through internal coaches -- can help employees at all levels successfully deal with their daily work challenges and facilitate the accomplishment of organizational goals. 


By Michael Slade

It's a shame that more organizations aren't aware of the extensive benefits of having their staff work one-on-one with an executive coach.Executive coaching can help anyone accomplish more, get it done faster and do so even if they feel stuck in their current circumstances.

Until fairly recently, most coaching was conducted with C-level executives and athletes, both at the professional and amateur levels. Even though most Fortune500 companies have been hiring coaches for their senior staff for years, and it is estimated that there are some 50,000 coaches worldwide, coaching is still not well understood, even by HR professionals.

There are two primary reasons for this.

One is that coaching is a private, confidential discussion between coach and client and little information is shared outside the coaching relationship. Confidentiality is a key facet of coaching and critical to the client's development.

The other is that coaching is not mass-marketed and instead is typically sold via word-of-mouth referrals. Some better known coaches have raised awareness about coaching, but it still remains a mystery to most.

Marshall Goldsmith, best-selling author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, is probably the best known executive coach, and Martha Beck, Oprah's coach, shares some of her life-coaching techniques in her book, Searching for Starlight.

As for some of the process and benefits, John Whitmore, in Coaching for Performance, defines coaching as "unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance.It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them."

Coaching, according to the International Coach Federation, offers individuals the chance to "experience fresh perspectives on personal challenges and opportunities, enhanced thinking and decision-making skills, enhanced interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence in carrying out their chosen work and life roles."

Those enhancements will result in "appreciable results in the areas of productivity, personal satisfaction with life and work, and the achievement of personally relevant goals," according to ICF.

So how do the companies that provide coaching for their employees utilize executive coaches and how does the coaching process work?

The question varies, depending on the organization and its goals.

Robert W. Baird & Co., a top financial services firm, which was recognized as one of Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" -- as are all of the companies I spoke with -- uses external and internal coaches.

External coaches are primarily used with senior staff, and the focus is on developing leadership skills, presentation skills and personal branding, says Lori Lorenz, Baird's director of human capital. Internal coaches focus more on team and group effectiveness.

Lorenz says Baird "take[s] very seriously who we partner with when selecting external executive coaches," and plans to hold a coaching summit later this year to ensure external coaches clearly understand the work environment and company culture.

The MITRE Corp., a nonprofit research center, uses coaches as both an integral component of their year-long leadership-development program for mid-level leaders and for one-on-one coaching with senior leaders.

Some of the common development issues that coaches focus on for mid-level leaders include strategic thinking, leadership presence, balancing technical and managerial responsibilities, and delegating.

Feedback about common development issues with which coaches help senior leaders is kept confidential between the coach and client.

MITRE's project manager for coaching determines who will be coached after interviewing senior leaders and ascertaining the desired coaching goals. Then two or three coaches are suggested, and the client (coachee) interviews the coaches (both internal and external) to make a selection.

One of the challenges associated with internal coaching is that they all "have full-time human resource jobs and don't have the bandwidth to take on too many clients," says Stacey Zlotnick, director of the MITRE Institute. "The other challenge is to make sure that the internal coach and client are not from the same part of the corporation."

At Baker Donelson, the 123-year-old law firm uses executive coaching primarily for business development and time management.

Tea Hoffman, the firm's chief business development officer, decides who will be coached by external coaches, using her knowledge of the lawyers and their skill levels as well as input from the department heads.

Their internal coaches utilize an application process to make the determination who gets coached, and the program is geared to helping individuals assess their strengths and weaknesses, help set goals and guide participants to integrate and sustain change.

The major challenges of using internal coaches seem to be confidentiality and time.

But one of the major benefits for an organization that uses internal coaches is engaging in transition coaching -- helping managers who are being promoted to be successful in their new roles, according to Tony Latimer, a master certified coach.

I agree.At Eric Mower Mower and Associates, I'm just starting to work with two of our marketing executives to help them successfully launch a new business unit that will provide a new service for EMA's clients. The first step in the coaching process is meeting with the executives and their manager to discuss the desired outcomes from the coaching.

While it is difficult to share specific coaching examples for reasons of confidentiality, it is fairly easy to share some of the areas covered in coaching.

Here are 10 of the best insights you or your staff will likely get from good coaching.

1. Coaching is a different kind of conversation: It's not like a chat you'd have with your boss, a trusted friend or even a seasoned mentor. Probably the closest example is the conversation someone might have with a therapist.

A coaching discussion is about you and the possibility and potential that might come from the coaching process.

Coaches build trust early on, so a client is comfortable opening up and can honestly evaluate the necessary action to move them forward toward their desired goals. One powerful example of the type of connection a coach establishes early on with the client is the bench scene from the Oscar winning movie, Good Will Hunting.

In the scene, the psychologist (Robin Williams) connects deeply with troubled Will (Matt Damon) by sharing personal details of his own life through provocative story-telling.

2. People may be lying to you: You have blind spots that you are unaware of -- everyone does. A blind spot is defined as information that is known to others about you, but not known to yourself (see The Johari Window).

Others can see our shortcomings that are not as obvious to ourselves but will rarely point them out to us.

Through various feedback methods, such as one-one-one interviews with peers or 360-degree performance assessments, coaches uncover the hidden truth. This helpful feedback can assist in identifying an individual's coaching goals.

Goldsmith, who charges up to $200,000 per coaching engagement and only gets paid if the results are accomplished, sums this point up nicely when he says, "Almost everyone I meet is successful because of doing a lot right, and almost everyone I meet is successful in spite of some behavior that doesn't make any sense."

Goldsmith will only work with executives who are willing to examine their behaviors and are open to change.

3. Coaches help you see your real potential clearly: If you're like most people, you probably secretly believe you are capable of achieving much more that you currently are.

Coaches help you examine your thinking to see where it's flawed and where there is an opportunity to advance in the direction of your dreams.

Sometimes, all a coach needs to do is ask the right question. In fact, coaching really is all about asking questions that perpetuate learning and exploring what's possible for the client.

When Herb Brooks, coach of the 1980 United States hockey team, wanted the players to examine the possibility of beating the Russians, he mentioned over and over again, "Someone's going to beat those guys."

4. Life is just a story we tell ourselves: People look at life through a lens that artificially distorts reality.

In their excellent book entitled The Art of Possibility, Ben and Roz Zander say it beautifully: "Many of the circumstances that seem to block us in our daily lives may only appear to do so based on a framework of assumptions we carry with us. Draw a different frame around the same set of circumstances and new pathways come to view. Find the right framework and extraordinary accomplishment becomes everyday experience."

Coaches can examine your story and help you write a new one.

5. Your behavior may be insane: Insanity has been called doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Psychologists say that 90 percent of the thoughts you have today will be the same as yesterday. Life is about habits and coaches can help you examine what actions you can take tomorrow that will produce very different results than today.

When a coach asks you in the first five seconds of the conversation, "What would be the ideal outcome from this session?" you realize immediately that you are going to walk away with a plan and resulting behaviors that are different than you could come up with on your own.

6. Success in life is all about relationships: Successful people understand that, whether you work for someone or not, you'll only be as successful as the relationships you build.

This is not new to anyone, but I think many of us don't give enough thought to identifying the key stakeholders who may help or hinder our success. If there are key relationships that are causing you frustration, even if it's your boss, a coach can help you look at different ways to address this challenge.

Coaches can help clients improve relationships by examining critical past conversations they've had using tools such as the Ladder of Inference (see this graphic) or Left Hand Exercise (Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook).

These tools can help clients identify false assumptions by making some of their thinking viable, which can then be examined. The longer we work with people, the more we tend to distort reality by seeing them only based on our beliefs (i.e., jumping rungs on the ladder).

Coaches help individuals look at situations more objectively.

7. A slight shift in your perspective may make a huge difference: Wayne Dyer, a best-selling author in the field of self-development, says, "Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change."

Sometimes the way we approach a discussion, with our intention and opinions established beforehand, will dictate the potential outcome. Even in business the way you measure success can make a difference.

Jack Welch changed GE's famous vision of being No.1 or No. 2 in each of the business units once an outsider pointed out that defining success that way would limit growth. He later challenged his business-unit leaders to never define their marketplace goals in such a way that GE's business would ever be comprised of more than 10 percent of the total market.

8. You may have limiting beliefs holding you back: Many people place a limit on what's possible for them based on past experience and beliefs that were developed years ago during childhood. Most of the recent self-help financial books all point out this phenomenon.

In Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Ecker calls this the "process of manifestation." His "results formula" states that your programming (P -- experiences and limiting beliefs), lead to your thoughts (T), which lead to your feelings (F), which lead to your actions (A), and your actions lead to your results (R).

9. You may be a crap magnet: The law of attraction, which has been talked about extensively for the last few years because of books such as The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, describes this belief. It basically says that like attracts like, and you are capable of being, doing and having anything you desire, if you focus your attention the right way on your desired outcome.

However you refer to this, it is hard to ignore the overwhelming use of this process, especially in sports, where visioning the desired outcome has been used successfully with Olympic (think gold medalist skier Lindsey Vonn at recent Winter Games) and professional athletes for decades.

The opposite is also true: If you focus on a negative outcome, many times you will get what you're focused on. This may be the self-fulfilling prophecy that people refer to.

10. Coaches can provide insight: A coach can see things that you don't. Here's an example not from a coaching exchange, but between a Hollywood movie director and actor.

Dustin Hoffman described an acting challenge he had while filming "Rain Man" to James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio. Apparently, Dustin was having a very difficult time connecting to the autistic character he portrayed in the film and was not happy with his performance at all.

He described how each time he and fellow actor Tom Cruise would go off script and ad lib, he found it difficult to stay in character.

At one point, feeling frustrated, he just said a long drawn out "Yeah" in response to Tom's exchange. Dustin did not even realize it until the director pulled him behind the camera and said, "Do that."

It was like someone turned on a switch, Dustin said. Everything flowed once he found that one insight. If you've seen the movie, you know that he used that expression throughout the film and won an Oscar for his performance.

HR leaders looking for ways to accomplish organizational goals faster or seeking resources for employees to deal with the inevitable work challenges that arise on a daily basis should consider adding a coaching program.

 

 

What are you going to be when you grow up!

 

Innovations in Treating Anxiety

Michael Yapko, Caroline Daitch, Gordon Young and Rob McNeilly have completed a state of the art, completely downloadable conference on Innovations in Treating Anxiety. It includes four, one-hour individual trainings, given by each of them respectively. And there’s also an interactive panel discussion on anxiety moderated by Ryan Nagy.  More details here

 

Five reasons CEOs need an executive coach

Here are some  often unidentified reasons for engaging an executive coach.

Five reasons CEOs need an executive coach | Personal Development | Recruiter.

How to get the most out of executive coaching

By Joyce E.A. Russell

Monday, February 21, 2011

 Executive coaching as a technique for enhancing a leader's skills has grown significantly over the past decades. No longer is it viewed as a sign of trouble if a top executive signs up for coaching. Rather, it is viewed as a perk. A recent book by some of the foremost scholars and practitioners on coaching, "Advancing Executive Coaching," edited by Gina Hernez-Broome and Lisa A. Boyce, estimates that 70 to 80 percent of companies are using coaching.

The increase in the use of coaching for leaders can be attributed to the greater demands of managing global, more diverse teams in more challenging technological, uncertain environments. Leaders today are expected to quickly deliver results while managing more workers of varied backgrounds and talents all across the world.

One challenge leaders often face is how to effectively use their executive coach. As the director of several executive coaching programs, I'm often asked: What should I do in my sessions with the coach? What should my goal be? How can I get the most out of my sessions?

Think about what you want out of a coaching relationship.

Coaches come with all sorts of training and backgrounds. As a result, they can provide varying types of services to you. Most coaches should:

-- Support and challenge you.

-- Help you better understand your strengths and areas for improvement.

-- Talk with you (and possibly assess) your values and purpose.

-- Help you create a developmental plan.

-- Maintain confidentiality.

-- Serve as a sounding board.

-- Broaden your perspectives by providing an additional viewpoint and serving as a devil's advocate.

Provide you with specific tips on how to enhance your skills.

Define expectations.

The coach should talk about confidentiality and goals for the sessions, and help you understand his or her approach (whether a strong focus on assessments, life coaching or wellness, etc). Coaches should also let you know what their role will be during the coaching sessions and describe the degree to which they will challenge and stretch you.

The coach should also share his or her expectations for you in the session. For example, the coach will want you to be honest in communications, will want you to be open to feedback from others, come prepared for the meetings, be open to new ways of doing things, and to work hard on acting on feedback you get from others.

Define the scope of the relationship.

Talk about how the sessions will be conducted -- in person, e-mail, over the phone, etc. Have the coach give you some general idea of how many sessions you will have and how often you will connect. Determine a schedule and discuss "homework" to be conducted in between sessions. Some coaches have very formal sessions with you and are not available in between. Others are more flexible and want you to contact them if important issues arise (new life changes, job changes, etc.).

What can you do to get the most out of the coaching?

For executives to get the most out of the coaching they receive:

-- Periodically provide feedback to your coach about what is working or not in your sessions.

-- Remain open to the feedback you get in return. You may hear things that you never heard before. Instead of immediately denying and rejecting the feedback, ask questions to better understand it. Also ask questions if you don't see the relevance of what is being said or are confused by the comment.

-- Find a buddy at work or home who you can share your goals with and who can provide you with honest, timely feedback. This person may be able to provide added support as you try out new behaviors.

-- Make sure your coach works with you on crafting a developmental plan. At a minimum, this should outline your key strengths, developmental areas for improvement, obstacles to changing, and action plans along with timetables. The coach should be able to give you feedback on how realistic your plan is and help you to measure progress on it.

Today, executive coaching is a valuable tool increasingly being used to enhance leadership and interpersonal skills. The key is to find the right coach for your needs and for you to be open to learning, growing and enhancing your skills. Then, a win-win can be established for the leader, the coach and the organization.

Joyce E.A. Russell is the director of the Executive Coaching and Leadership Development Program at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. She is a licensed industrial and organizational psychologist and has more than 25 years of experience coaching executives and consulting on leadership and career management. She can be reached at jrussell@rhsmith.umd.edu.

 

How Executives can Learn to be Coaches

Here is a talk I recently gave on coaching at a conference titled "Solutions -a Conference on Effectiveness in Coaching". I hope you find it useful. Justin OBrien Exec Coaching - Mastered

 

Who Needs An Executive Coach? by Douglas McKenna

Not everybody. Here are five questions to answer before you hire one.

Douglas McKenna

Executive coaching is hot. What was stigma ("You're so broken you need a coach?") has become status symbol ("You're so valuable you get a coach?"). Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps have coaches. Even President Barack Obama has a coach, if you count David Axelrod. Microsoft's young high-potential leaders get coaches. If elite athletes and organizations think they need coaches, shouldn't you have one too? Shouldn't we all?

No.Executive coaching--personal training in leadership from someone who provides it for a living--should be used like a powerful prescription drug that works best under certain conditions. When employed as a cure-all, it is less effective, too expensive and has negative side effects.

Executive coaching is not aspirin. It's interferon. So when should it be prescribed for an executive? When should it be avoided?

Based on the latest research and 25 years I've spent coaching senior executives and high-potential young leaders, here are five diagnostic questions you should ask before making the decision to hire a coach.

1. How valuable is this person's performance and potential to your organization?

2. What is the challenge the person is facing right now?

3. How willing and able will the executive be to work with a coach?

4. What alternatives to coaching are available?

5. Are key people in the organization ready to support this person's efforts to grow and change?

When conditions are right, executive coaching can be one of the best people investments you'll ever make. But it is not a panacea for every executive development problem. Answer these five questions, and you'll make better decisions about who is likely to benefit from coaching. And who isn't.

Douglas McKenna is chief executive officer and co-founder of the Oceanside Institute. Formerly head of leadership development at Microsoft, he coaches senior executives around the world.