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Coaching as an Employee Development Strategy
BY JENNIFER WHITCOMB
In the past, organizations engaged executive coaches to help fix undesirable behavior. Today, coaching is seen in a more positive light and is more about creating an opportunity to develop and enhance the performance of high potentials. In some organizations coaching is so highly valued and perceived as a perk that executives feel they are missing out if they are not given the chance to work with an executive coach.
The International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.
Coaching can be considered a just-in-time, immediate activity to enhance leadership skills. The coaching process is flexible and can take place face-to-face, over the phone, or via Skype. Coaching is tailored to the individual’s needs and goals with identified success factors. Coaching is more than a meaningful conversation; it’s about working toward the desired results with the client. Coaching is ideally adapted to the client’s learning style preferences. The client learns “how to learn”; this is what Chris Argyris from Harvard Business School refers to as “double loop learning.”1 The client not only learns about the challenge he or she is facing, but also learns about his or her underlying assessments, values, and beliefs that he or she holds around the challenge—thereby deepening the learning and potentially replicating the results.
The metaphor for coaching can be described as “polishing the diamond”—someone who has excellent skills in some areas, yet needs support to achieve goals in other areas. For example, a leader can demonstrate exemplary business development skills yet need support to better manage internal relationships or navigate the political landscape.
The Role of HR in Coaching
Ideally, coaching is part of a larger leadership development initiative and is tied to the organization’s overall goals and leadership competency model. Human resources often takes the lead in the process from identifying the high potentials and, when needed, assigning a coach. It is sometimes best to avoid coaching requests that are designed to “fix it.” Another activity or intervention might be better suited to solve the situation, unless the person is a senior leader in a critical role.
It might be helpful to create an intake and/or agreement form for coaching. Human resources can be involved in the process of creating the internal coaching agreement, which can include the parameters of the coaching relationship. This form can include coaching goals and measures of success, number of coaching hours, length of coaching engagement, and cancellation policy.
Human resources will often have a cadre of coaches from which a client can select. Two to three coaches may be contacted to see if they are available to take on an assignment, be informed about the potential client, and agree to be interviewed.
The coaching relationship between coach and client is considered highly confidential. Once the human resources professional has engaged the coach, then he or she should avoid talking with coach about the content of the coaching conversations. To find out how the client is doing, talk directly with the client periodically, or his or her manager. You may need to talk with the coach independently if the client misses appointments or there is a change in the contract.
Typically, the coach will set up a three-way conversation with the client and client’s manager at the beginning, mid-point, and end of the engagement. At the beginning, it is to determine if the client and coach are in alignment with the goals of the manager, and to ask the manager to support and provide feedback on the coaching goals.
Reasons for Using an Executive or Leadership Coach
When a high potential leader is identified and an assessment determines that coaching is a good fit.
When the organization wants to support the development of an executive and this is in support of leadership and organizational goals.
To provide support to successfully transition a leader to a new organization or role.
To sharpen the skills of leaders who have been identified as a high-potential and future leader.
To support top producers.
After a person has been promoted, to help him or her acclimate successfully to the new position.
When a leader wants to increase his or her effectiveness with his/her team and stakeholders.
When a leader needs to improve his/her communication strategy to effectively reach his or her audience.
When a leader wants to capitalize on his or her strengths.
When a leader gets derailed by a slippage in work performance.
When a leader needs to improve communication style or work relationships or manage the political environment.
As a confidant to senior leaders to help him/her make better decisions with challenging issues.
To resolve tension between leaders. (A coach can mediate and help create partnership.)
To support a larger leadership development initiative.
Is the Client Coachable?
Ideally, the person to be coached shows interest and welcomes the opportunity to be coached. He or she should see coaching as a positive development experience, and be open to growth and learning.
The manager is also an integral part of the process by providing the time needed for the coaching engagement and providing feedback to the client on how he or she is achieving his or her goals.
Choosing a Coach
Experience. Find out how long the coach has been working in the field and the level of client that he or she has coached to. What other relevant experience does he or she have? Does he or she have experience in your industry? Or, has the coach been in a leadership role himself or herself?
Results. Ask for examples of the results that the coach has achieved when working with clients. What outcomes have resulted from his or her work, and how have the client achieved their goals?
Coach training. What kind of coach training does the coach have? Ideally, the coach has attended a training program from an accredited school with at least 100 hours of coach training. How long was the training program and when did the coach graduate from the program? What other development has he or she done since completing the initial coach training?
Philosophy and approach. What is the coach’s philosophy to coaching? What is his or her coaching process? A solid coach process includes some form of assessment (either confidential interviews of peers and manager, or formal assessment), providing feedback, development of goals, and designing activities and practices to support the achievement of the goals. These goals may be documented on an individual development plan that sometimes is submitted to human resources.
Qualification/certification. What qualifications does he or she have as a coach? Credentials from the International Coach Federation range from an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with minimum of 100 coaching hours, to a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with 500 hours of coaching and a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with 2,500 hours of coaching. Coaches also can be certified from the coaching school they attended.
A Typical Engagement
Most coaching engagements are between three and six months. If the engagement is less than three months, then it may be unlikely that the results will be achieved. It can often take up to six months for behavior change to occur. Coaches often meet on average with clients twice a month for an hour to an hour and a half, either face-to-face or over the phone. These arrangements can all be tailored to what’s best for the client.
The process often looks like this:
Initial meeting. Once the coach has been selected, an initial meeting can take place with the client. In this meeting the client and coach discuss how they will work together, the coaching philosophy and process, goals and desired results, and logistics.
Assessment. The coach can be provided with assessment results from Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, 360 assessment results, or any other recent assessments. The coach also may choose to do confidential interviews of various stakeholders, including the manager, direct reports, and peers. Gathering feedback on the client provides the coach with others’ perspective on the person, and helps with the development of the coaching goals.
Feedback. Once the information has been collected from interviews and/or assessment, the coach presents the feedback, highlighting a few themes that became apparent. During this discussion, the client and coach select which areas to work on.
Goal development. Goals are developed from feedback results and from conversations with the client and manager. These goals can be formed into an individual development plan or goal worksheet. The measures of success with the desired results are included.
The coach and client begin regular meetings, working toward the goals. The client chooses the agenda for the meeting, and the client and coach determine a successful outcome for the meeting. The coach works with the client asking questions, providing observations, facilitating activities, and developing new practices in support of the goals and outcomes. The coach rarely provides advice, as often the coaching process sees the client as being resourceful, creative, and whole. The coach guides the client, versus directing the client.
Some Tips to Consider When Engaging a Coach
Before |
Determine the success factors and goals for the coaching engagement by asking the potential client and his or her manager. What results are expected from the completion of the coaching engagement? Provide several coaches for the leader to choose from and provide their biographies. Encourage the leader to interview coaches to determine a good fit for him/her. Develop a pool of coaches to select from. Each coach should hold a coaching credential from the International Coach Federation (ACC—Associated Credentialed Coach, PCC—Professional Certified Coach, MCC—Master Certified Coach). Interview these coaches yourself to determine their fit to the organization, organizational level experience, and industry level experience. Determine the coachability of the leader. How willing is this person to learn or make changes? How open is he or she to the process? Describe coaching as an investment and a positive opportunity for growth. Also explain that this is a confidential relationship between the coach and client. As an HR professional you might check in with the client periodically to see how it’s going, if the client feels that he or she is getting the results he or she needs, etc. Refer to the organization’s core competencies. Emphasize the value of the executive and that coaching is to help support him or her. Provide different coaches when there is a potential conflict of interest such as reporting relationship. For example, retain a separate coach for the direct report and the manager. Avoid promising results from completing the coaching engagement such as promotion or another assignment. Create an intake form with the request for coaching and length of the engagement. |
During |
Check in with coaching client to see how it’s going after the engagement has started, midway, and at the end. Check in with the manager to get a sense of how the client is progressing. |
After |
Check back with the client to determine if he or she has achieved the results desired and to receive feedback about the coach. If the coach has not touched base with you at the end, you may want to close out the business side of the coaching relationship. |
Coaching can be a valuable resource and benefit to the individual client and the organization. If the client is open to the process and the organization positively supports this form of leadership development, it can generate sustainable results.
Discussion Questions
1. How is coaching used effectively in today’s organizations? How does this compare to how coaching was used in the past?
2. What role (s) does HR play in the coaching process?
3. Name three or four reasons for engaging a coach.
4. How can you determine if a client is “coachable”?
5. What should you look for when selecting a coach?
6. Describe a typical coaching engagement. How does it start? What are some of the steps taken in the coaching process?
About the Chapter Author
Jennifer Whitcomb is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) and Principal of the Trillium Group, a San Diego–based firm that provides executive coaching, leadership development, and mentor coaching. She is a faculty member of the Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program.