Month: February 2018

‘Everyone can be coached’ is the common phrase used in coaching. Though coaching is applicable for all areas of life and individuals can be coached irrespective of age, gender or educational status, not everyone can be coached.

Coaching outcome is often affected when coachees or individuals display the following traits, issues or problems.

1. When the coachee is highly dependent on the coach
2. When the coachee or the individual is not open for change and learning new skills
3. When the coachee often cancels or misses coaching sessions and estimates coaching sessions as less significant
4. When the coachee is reluctant to take action set under each coaching session
5. When the coachee keeps presenting new issues and problem in each coaching success and is not focused towards the goal or strategy
6. When the coachee not take feedback positively and work on it
7. When the coachee believes and desires that the coach should give more inputs in the form of advice, guidance or instruction
8. When the coachee display high emotional states during each coaching session
9. When the coachee is highly anxious or depressed
10. When the coachee fails to take responsibility for life, work, decisions and choices and blames people or situations often
11. When the coachee does not desire to improve from current state to a desired status
12. When the coachee assumes that he/she is special to the coach and expects the coach to prompt for every little action required to be taken
13. When the coachee expects the coach’s attention or availability beyond the coaching agenda
14. If the coachee is under addiction or substance abuse or suffers from any form of mental disorder
15. When the coachee perceives another individual as the problem such as a spouse, sub-ordinate or child and expects the coach to fix the problem
16. When the coachee is not serious about achieving the coaching goal.

Being an executive of an organization is no simple job. It is a demanding position which requires executives learn new ways of problem solving, decision-making, people management, up-gradation of news, information and technology, introduction of development activities in the organization to keep pace with the competitive business environment, etc.

Executive learning is an essential component for an executive’s survival. It is important not only to be effective in the current position but also to prepare one for a senior role in the organization as well as to meet the surging challenges in the business world.

However, the ability to learn and use the same has several challenges which makes executive learning difficult.

The challenges of executive learning are:

1. The demands of the executive position are high. Working 24/7 also seems inadequate when compared to the rising demands. Executives have a list of ‘To Do’ things and prioritizing them is challenging. With this kind of demanding position, executive learning becomes tough.
2. Executives are highly action oriented people. They got to get things done quickly. Sometimes mistakes do happen especially when building and handling a multi-faceted human organization. It requires taking time to slow down, thing about what happened, what went wrong and learn from it. However, time demands and position demands of an executive makes reflection in action difficult.
3. Executives are people who are all alone. They do not have mentors or peers to learn from and imitate. They lack role models and business partners with whom they can discuss problems, strategies and take action; and hence absence of executive learning.
4. Executives do not get feedback regarding their leadership style, business communication and behavior which impacts business. They sometimes carry themselves with false sense of accomplishment and certainty which affects executive learning.

How Executive Coaching Helps?

In order to help executives succeed in their demanding position and facilitate executive learning, executive coaching is a useful and powerful resource. Though the demands of executive position are high, executive coaching can help the executives by incorporating learning with work thereby increasing effectiveness of the role.

By using behavior based approach, executive coaching can enable the executives have a better control of their behaviors by knowing when to slow down, when to reflect and take action. This in turn has a greater impact on executive learning.

Executive coaching enables the executives to become better coaches, for instance, leader as coach. It helps them to build their own leadership legacy thereby setting a tone for others to follow.

Executive coaching provides executives candid and actionable feedback which helps them to learn new ways to managing and leading people. Feedback such as 360⁰ is structured and practical tool which is a great source for executive success.

Executive coaching help executives succeed in their journey and not walk the path alone. Executive coaching impacts executive learning at a greater degree thereby eliminating the challenges affecting learning.

Change is the crux of behavioral coaching. Change through behavioral coaching can include different areas, levels and sectors. Behavioral coaching in organizations covers three different levels such as individuals, teams and the organization as a whole. Behavioral coaching addresses various areas such as work-related behaviors and productivity, team performance, team unity and solidity, leadership and organizational culture.

However, behavioral coaching in organizations has widely been misunderstood by many. A behavioral coach is assumed as someone who will fix a less productive employee by teaching him/her as how best the individual should work. Or perhaps even change his attitude and behavior towards work and performance.

Though behavioral coaching aims at bringing about a change in attitude, behaviors and the way things are done, it does not aim at confronting individuals with a counseling model. A less productive individual when recommended by an organization to go through a behavioral coaching is less likely to be successful from the behavioral coaching session. He/she is likely to misunderstand the whole concept of behavioral coaching with greater negative impact on his/her self-image.

Behavioral coaching aims at bringing about increased self-awareness which helps individuals to identify areas of thinking, feeling and behaving and how in turn they impact efficacy, productivity and performance. The behavioral coach and the individuals or teams work as partners in identifying thought process, attitudes, and belief systems, emotions and behaviors that are derailing and make commitment to change in order to convert them into enabling behaviors and thinking.

The commitment to change is made by the coachee rather than emphasized by the coach. The behavioral coach plays a greater role in facilitating awareness while the coachee having identified derailing behaviors makes the decision to change.

The significant role of a behavioral coach is to guide and support the individuals, teams and the organization in the change process. The behavioral coach uses various behavioral and cognitive techniques and principles among individuals and teams to facilitate the change process. The coach also works with leaders, managers and HR personnel to build an organizational culture fostering change.

The main purpose of behavioral coaching is to facilitate adopting of change that can contribute to performance, learning and development of teams and individuals, alignment with organizational goals leading to professional and organizational growth.

People dread at the phrase ‘Behavior coaching’ because it is presumed that something is wrong with the behavior of one who is coached. In reality, behavior coaching underpins personal development and growth facilitated through self-knowledge and self-awareness.

One may question, then why is it called behavioral coaching when it comprise of personal growth and development? Is it renamed under a new fad name? Definitely not, a behavioral coach uses powerful questioning and challenging statements that enables the coachee have a deeper and a rational understanding of their thinking, feeling, behavior as well as clarification of values and principles.

Personal growth and development through behavioral coaching is not performed in an instructional manner such as 10 good habits to develop. The coach rather works with the coachee in analyzing behaviors in terms of 3 stages: stimuli prior to an event, behavior, and the consequences. This approach in behavioral coaching helps the coacheee to understand behaviors: what leads to certain behaviors, things that stimulate them and consequences of those behaviors. This kind of analysis enables the coachee to see the need for change and embrace change as well.

Behavioral coaching understands the element of change that change is often difficult as well as highly resisted or quitted. However, behavioral coaching identifies behaviors that are stable and those subject to change. Behavioral coaches (having knowledge on behavioral science) recognize behaviors that can be modified to accomplish achievable change.

According to Skiffington and Zeus ‘Behavioral coaching promotes authenticity, self-responsibility and self-efficacy’. Authenticity refers to identifying the real self and having a better clarification with regard to meaning, purpose, values and belief system. Self-responsibility in behavioral coaching does not signify an element of judgment; rather it clarifies things which the cochee is willing to take responsibility. Similarly, self-efficacy refers to the choices, efforts and persistence which form the motivational factor.

Behavioral coaching helps the coachee to recognize their thinking-feeling-behaving patterns which in turn enables the coachee to direct one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviors. With the promotion of self-efficacy, self-responsibility and authenticity, behavioral coaching helps the coachee to have a better control of his or her life.

For coaching to be successful in organizations various elements come into the picture. It does not simply depend upon the competency of the coach alone. Since coaching is a collaborative professional partnership, the success of coaching in organizations highly depends on all those who are involved as well the criteria for success.

A research conducted by The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in Europe during 2005 identified barriers to successful coaching in organizations which are briefed below.

Lack of Understanding Coaching Benefits

Lack of understanding of coaching benefits is the primary reason why individuals in organizations perceive coaching as time-wasting activity. This perception can in turn prevent individuals from listening to those who try to implement coaching. Reluctance and non-participation becomes barriers to coaching success.

Not Seen as Business Priority

Some individuals, teams or managers perceive that coaching is nice to have but not a business priority. When coaching is undervalued and not seen as an important business process, then organizational buy in can be affected and becomes a barrier.

Organizational Culture

The executive leadership culture becomes the main barrier to coaching success in organizations. As long as executive leadership is instructive and non-supportive, implementing performance or sales coaching is going to be ineffective. Unless the culture of the organization should embrace change, innovation and be supportive, it is highly difficult to implement coaching in organizations.

Resistance

Coaching has been wrongly perceived as an activity for underperformers. This kind of misconception has caused some form of resistance to coaching especially among the senior executives and managers. Coaching is for successful people and not for those who do not wish to improve or move from their current state.

Coaching is for highly ambitious and success oriented individuals. Unless coaching is implemented at all levels in the organization such as CEO, VP’s, directors, senior managers, managers, various teams and departments, independent contributors, it is highly unlikely to see success at full measure.

Time and Resource

For coaching to be successfully implemented in an organization adequate resources and time should be allocated appropriately. Any hindrance to time or resource can affect the successful coaching implementation.

Reference

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2005) Training and development 2005. Survey report. London: CIPD.