Understanding Executive Coaching

Interview reprinted from HR.com
Diana Churchill

Coaching: The Relationship is Key

When one talks about professional coaching, most people think sports. Many will nod in understanding when coaching with the corporate elite is explained. But its use outside the ‘super performer’ arena meets with more quizzical and sometimes sceptical responses. Shouldn’t companies use their own people to coach? What place does psychology have in the business world? Is this the newest fad in consulting? For the Human Resources professional, this article proposes that understanding the coaching relationship provides the key to understanding, explaining and using coaching services effectively.

The Interviews

Ten coaches and ten coachees located throughout the United States and Canada were interviewed for this article. The interviews invited open-ended discussion of coaching with a focus on coaching relationships with professionals and middle managers. Of the coaches, eight were business and two were personal coaches. The coachees were professionals, managers and directors, all having used coaching through a transitional period in their work and life.

Coaching Basics

Who Are They?

Professional coaches come from a wide range of educational and experience backgrounds. Some are psychologists with expertise in human behavior within a corporate environment. Others are business people who have specific training in coaching through the growing number of educational programs available. Business coaches use a range of adjectives in their titles to describe their particular niche, such as executive, leadership, transitional, career, performance, and success coaching. However the most significant distinction is between business and personal coaches. Personal coaches work with private individuals outside of the business environment. The range of backgrounds for personal coaches is broader than it is for business coaches, as a business or psychologist background is not necessary.

As in any relatively new and rapidly growing field, it is especially important to check credentials. There are two main associations for coaches, with their most critical function being to set minimum standards for knowledge base and education. The International Federation of Coaching certifies personal and business coaches while The National Association of Business Coaches focuses on business coaching exclusively. Both are valuable sources of information and referral. The NABC for example recently produced a document "How to Find a Quality Corporate or Executive Coach", available at the Advantage Coaching & Training website. It describes why business coaches are hired, what to look for in a coach and how to differentiate them from other professional services.

How Does Coaching Work?

Personal and business coaching relies primarily on a talking model of impacting change, although some business coaches may provide onsite shadowing and behavioral feedback. Focused questioning is used to get to the underlying issues of a person’s goals, motivation and performance, with the goal of enabling the client to become the best they can be in what they choose to pursue. Assessment tools such as self-rating questionnaires and 360-Degree Feedback are often used, particularly by business coaches who are psychologists. Following the initial assessment, coaching over the telephone is the norm, as the advantages in cost efficiencies and logistics outweigh the disadvantages. A typical example of contact would be weekly or biweekly telephone sessions of forty-five minutes to one hour for at least three months. The duration of coaching services with middle management is generally shorter than it is for executive coaching, with a typical involvement lasting six months to a year. Those who hire coaches privately, either for personal or business coaching reasons, may keep that person as a resource for years, reestablishing contact as needed.

What Do They Cost?

Fees range dramatically. Business coaches can range from $150 to $1000 per hour, with $300 to $500 per hour being the more common range. The coachee’s employer almost always pays for them, so the parameters of involvement are within that context. Personal coaches are usually paid for privately and the focus may not be on career at all, but on a range of other life issues that the individual wants success in. Their rates are typically much less, with $75 to $100 per hour being usual.

What Makes the Coaching Relationship Unique?

When coaches and clients spoke about their relationships, the most common point made was about the mutuality and balance of power in the relationship.

Dr. Tim Ursiny of Advantage Coaching and Training believes there is little comparison between his previous psychotherapy clients and his present coaching relationships. As a clinical psychologist, his relationships were framed within the role of the psychologist to diagnosis a dysfunction. As a coach, he makes no assumption of dysfunction and his role is not to be an ‘expert’ on his client's life or business. As a coach, he is their "partner" rather than an "expert." This is also one of the keys in differentiating coaching from consulting, counseling or training.

Rather than providing the expertise, the coach works to draw that ability out of the coachee, often by uncovering personal and psychological barriers to maximizing their performance and achievement of goals. This type of relationship, whether it be for business or personal coaching, becomes much deeper and more exposed than consulting and most other business relationships. Even in the most successful mentoring relationships, the emphasis is on the wisdom and experience of the mentor, and the relationship does not necessarily delve into issues underlying performance and growth strategies. Again the difference relates to the shift in control, in which it is the ability and wisdom within the coachee that it is being focused on. Dr. Sally Jenson has been coached and now coaches clients working to complete their doctoral theses. She spoke of this comparison between consulting and coaching by describing the coach as "championing: for the client and that the coach "reminds them of their dreams... believes in their ability as a person and hold them bigger than they might do themselves."

Relationship Issues Identified

Trust

Trust was the first thing most clients identified as the critical factor in a successful coaching relationship. Particularly in a work environment, clients are taking a significant risk, given the depth and personal nature of the relationship. Clients interviewed seemed to build a sense of trust based on their perceptions of the quality and validity of their coach's work with them. However external factors intervened as well, regardless of the coach’s individual ability. A number of coachees said that they could never speak with a coach internal to their company about the issues they discussed with external coaches. One coachee even went so far as to hire and pay for a business coach herself. She felt this made the process more effective for herself because she simply would never reveal herself as honestly to someone paid for by her company, regardless of the reassurances that might be given. She also trusted more that her coach was not conflicted by the company’s agenda when they discussed her career and personal aspirations. While trust may seem an abstract concern in establishing coaching programs, it was the first thing mentioned by most coachees and the example above speaks to its importance.

Personality Style

In establishing a successful coaching relationship, the issue that clients identified second to trust was personality style. Coachees had difficulty defining it, but most felt they knew intuitively in the first conversation whether or not the coach was a good match for them. Some coachees gave examples of commonality in perspective and values as well as how on target the coach’s comments and insights were, as signals of a successful relationship. Some coaches use assessment tools designed to address nebulous personality factors that generate chemistry in a coaching relationship. Mike Jay, author of Coach2 The Bottom Line: An Executive Guide to Coaching, describes using tools to help determine a successful coaching match, measuring such factors of interaction as experiential and developmental level, motivation, conceptual style and intention related to coaching. He believes that the client benefits from a good match not only directly but also indirectly, by the heightened creativity and energy generated through a coach who genuinely enjoys the relationship.

Accountability and Challenge

Coachees emphasized the importance of accountability and challenge from their coaches much more than support and empathy. They had a number of different relationships in their lives that could be used for support. What was unique about the coaching relationship was that their coach also challenged them. One coachee said that his coach challenged him to be brutally honest about his own responsibility for issues that were going on in his career at the time. Another said that her coach’s questioning held her accountable for taking specific action towards the goals they had set from previous conversations.

Respect

Mutual respect is a mainstay of successful relationships. In coaching, the relationship transcends lines between business and personal issues. So for the coachees interviewed, it was important to respect the coach as someone who ‘walks the talk’. In the case of personal coaches, this focused on life experience and for business coaches — business experience. Beyond that, coachees varied in what they valued. Academic qualifications were noted with less emphasis than life and business experience. One suggested that the coach would have to have rare genius to ask the right questions without having the benefit of experience. Some interviewees valued experience in their specific field of work. A few preferred a coach with significantly different experience, believing that brought a broader perspective and less temptation to give advice.

Summary and Recommendations

• Coachees should assess potential coaches themselves and should be encouraged to speak with a number of coaches before making a decision. This increases the chances of a successful match plus provides a process to work through potential reluctance and misunderstanding about coaching relationships. Before a coach even becomes involved, coachees will have to identify what they are looking for in a coach, thereby developing a better understanding of what coaching is and what they hope to achieve.
• Policies related to trust in the process, such as confidentiality, should be emphasized and given thorough attention in implementation, as this is a foremost concern. For some, coaching may be seen as personally intrusive - crossing the traditional line between work and home life. As with therapy, there are those who will question its value and feel suspicious of the process.
• Credentials and experience should be checked with an eye to what the coachee views as valuable to their coaching goals. Academic credentials will mean more to some than others, and the nature of the coach’s experience will be interpreted differently as well.
• Respect that for some, other types of development strategies may have more impact. The coaching relationship is more involved than many are familiar with in their professional relationships, and it cannot be forced. Will Calmas, MBA, Ph.D. is a business coach who believes that ‘coachability’ is the most critical factor in a successful coaching relationship. While potential clients may be capable of and interested in change, they must also be personally committed and open to the processes involved in working with a coach.

The fact that corporate executives are supporting the expansion of professional coaching through the ranks of management gives credence to the profession’s argument that coaching directly impacts the ‘bottom line’ as a unique and effective tool for performance enhancement. However while senior executives generally initiated and controlled the arrangements, for those ‘further down the ladder’, coaching is more often introduced as a perk or perhaps a requirement. This is an important distinction to remember for the Human Resources professional organizing a coaching program. The referral and selection process differs from arranging consulting or training, primarily because coaching centers on a unique and individual relationship. By ensuring potential coachees have involvement and control in the selection process, the likelihood of a successful relationship is enhanced. Beginning the process this way gives full potential to the success of coaching, as the relationship forms the basis of what makes its impact so powerful and enduring.