Executive Coaching

1. Executive Coaching Health & Performance Solutions University Presented by Michelle Clos, LPC, CEAP, ACC October 9, 2008

2. Executive Coaching Catalyst for Action and Change “There is no greater way for a leader to enhance his or her effectiveness and development than through coaching. Anyone can take classes and obtain a good degree of knowledge, but a coach helps the person apply that knowledge to his or her unique situation.” Robert Hicks, PhD, Director of executive and professional coaching UT Dallas School of Management. Source: Smart Business Dallas, January 2007.

3. Objectives • Define Executive Coaching • Review Four Key Components of Executive Coaching • Identify Skills Set of a Successful Executive Coach • Differentiate Between Coaching, Counseling, Consulting and Mentoring • Give Examples of Coaching Engagements • Review How to Maximize Returns for Executive Coaching • List Resources for Additional Information

4. Definition: • Formal engagement - coach works with an organizational leader in a series of dynamic, confidential sessions designed to establish and achieve clear goals that will result in improved business effectiveness, both for the individual and the organization • Organization, an executive, and the executive coach work in partnership to achieve maximum impact • Primary focus is on organizational performance or development, but may also have a personal component as well • Results produced from the relationship are observable and measurable, and are in line with the performance requirements the organization has for the person being coached • Experiential and individualized leader development process that builds a leader’s capability to achieve short-and longer-term organizational goals

5. Be Cautious When Selecting an Executive Coach • Many individuals calling themselves coaches • International Coach Federation - resource for locating credentialed executive coach • Leading global organization dedicated to advancing coaching profession by setting high standards, providing independent certification, and building worldwide network of credentialed coaches • Developed and promotes an industry wide Code of Professional Standards and Ethics that all members pledge to uphold • Developed first universally accepted accreditation process which preserves the integrity of coaching through standardized credentials

6. Key Components of Executive Coaching~ Effective Executive Coach~ • Needs to be able to think in business terms and understand how organizations work • Understand the behavioral change process, adult learning, change management and leadership development • Have technical skills, such as executive development, organizational development, team building • Be familiar with the options and techniques of several coaching models, tools, and approaches and apply them according to the needs of the client and organization

7. Key Components of Executive Coaching~ Effective Executive Coach~ • Well-grounded with solid experience dealing with senior-level people and understanding their lifestyles • Possess a strong level of confidence for dealing with successful people who are very confident • Be politically savvy • Maintains confidentiality • Fosters independence and analytical thinking • Do not need to be expert in the client’s business • But need to know enough to make a contribution to the conversation

8. Key Components of Executive Coaching~ Executive Buy In~ • Life long learners who value personal and professional development • Possess self awareness regarding their strengths and weaknesses and are interested in learning about them • Have a strong self identity and are not threatened by feedback • View coaching as an investment rather than an expense

9. Key Components of Executive Coaching~ Organizational Buy In~ • What is the organization trying to accomplish? • Why should this executive receive coaching? • What two or three goals should be set for executive improvement? • What does the individual want? • How is this organization using coaching to improve their success? • Is the coach a trusted advisor? • How much time will be committed to the process? • What measurements will confirm executive improvement? • Is the organization open to feedback concerning other factors that might be contributing to the executive’s dysfunction? • What information will be shared with the coach? • Will the organization honor the confidentiality of the process? VERY IMPORTANT!

10. Key Components of Executive Coaching~ Comprehensive Coaching Plan~ • Written Coaching Agreement • Assure anonymity for executive and other contributors of information • Have an escape clause • Should specify what information will and will not be released, to whom, and how • Spells out initial goals, a timeline, fees, roles and responsibilities for coach and client • Well defined and put in measurable terms defined by the client and/or organization • List what measurements will be used to assess the executive’s improvement • Determine under what circumstances the contract would be amended

11. Different than Consulting • Do not give advice on specific technical aspects of a business • Not designed to deal with poor performers • Management consultants fix the problem, often offering a defined solution to the problem. • Essential in coaching that the client makes the decision and designs the plan regarding the best way to move forward

12. Different than Counseling • Skill overlap between counseling and coaching: active listening, ability to build trusting relationships, expert communication skills • Coaching focuses on the present and future • Counseling focuses on past and the present • Coaching is action oriented with the client making the decision regarding how to best move forward • Counseling is often assessment and diagnostically driven, counselor designs a treatment plan to address the client’s needs • Most Important: professional coaching is aimed at skills development, performance enhancement and personal development with non-clinical populations

13. Different than Mentoring • Communication relationship between a senior organizational member (the mentor) and a more junior organizational member (the protégé or mentee) • Mentoring offers advising, coaching and counseling to the mentee to enhance career development and success for the protégé • Executive coaching is a relationship between equals • Coaches do not give advice

14. Executive Coaching Engagements~Structure~ • Structure of the Coaching Session • Identify the agenda and what outcomes the coachee is seeking • Explore possibilities, resources, and potential action plans • Client identifies action steps • Review potential barriers and remove them • End session with a recap of action plan: what will be done, by when, and by whom…set next meeting time • Structure of Coaching Engagement • Should be designed to meet the issues, the schedule and the cultural needs of the client. • Face to face at worksite or off worksite (49%) • Via telephone (40%) • Email (10%) • Videoconference (1%)

15. Executive Coaching Engagements~Leadership Development Tool~ • 78% of the 472 top business and human capital leaders surveyed for the study said they viewed coaching as a credible, effective way to improve a company’s performance • ROI ranged from 100 – 500 %. Factors were executive output, quality improvements, cost savings, and senior leader turnover. • Other benefits: developing ‘high potential’ mid-level managers for succession planning, and raising capable executives to more optimal levels. • Qualitative benefits: high achievement of development objectives, positive assessment from the coach and the coached individual’s ability to take on new tasks

16. Executive Coaching Engagements~Assist with Cultural Transition~ • Coaches who are working in cross-cultural environments must be grounded in the different types of communication patterns in order to provide effective coaching. • Requires a thorough understanding of what culture is and how it impacts the employees • Relation to hierarchy, protocols of formality and communication patterns • Important to understand the importance of Ethnorelative approach – looking at cultural differences as inevitable and acknowledging that one’s worldview is not that of others and that rather than being threatened by differences, one is curious and eager to learn about them. • Differences treated with respect • Coach there to support coaches learning and understanding of other values, encouraging flexibility, appreciation for differences with respect to how they impact the communication in the workplace.

17. Executive Coaching Engagements~Organizational Development~ • Creating a coaching culture • Human Resource and Organizational leaders must both be committed to achieving • Managers as coaches • An additional management tool not a replacement of manager’s current management style • Requires managers to have powerful questions, NOT all the answers • Requires managers to be interested in the employee, not to have a PhD in psychology

18. Maximizing Returns on Professional Executive Coaching • Identify Best Fit Coaches • Focus Coaching on Business Needs • Optimize Executive Coach Matching • Leveraging Senior Management Participation • Managing Coaches to Performance Standards

19. Maximizing Returns on Professional Executive Coaching I. Identifying “Best Fit” Coaches • Has your organization developed a set of standardized criteria for screening and selecting professional coaches? • Does your organization incorporate business as well as individual considerations in the recruitment of professional coaches? • Does your organization recruit professional coaches with a particular view to bringing to the organization the full complement of skills and experiences that executives typically require? • Does your organization rigorously interview each professional coach, either on an individual basis or in a group, before approving the coach to work with executives in the organization? • Does your organization contract with each professional coach at the corporate level around service-level expectations and the terms and conditions of employment? Corporate Leadership Council May 2003 Reprinted with permission

20. Maximizing Returns on Professional Executive Coaching II. Focusing Coaching on Business Needs • Does your organization prioritize professional coaching for key contributors, such as senior executives leading a critical business initiative? • Does your organization consider an executive’s likely ability to execute or over-execute against business goals when allocating professional coaching resources as development opportunities? • Does your organization mandate a clear linkage between business goals and the developmental goals pursued through a professional coaching engagement? Corporate Leadership Council May 2003 Reprinted with permission

21. Maximizing Returns on Professional Executive Coaching III. Optimizing Executive–Coach Matching • Has your organization identified clear criteria and decision rules for matching professional coaches to executives? • Does your organization consider experience, expertise, and relationship factors when matching professional coaches to executives? • Does your organization monitor the effectiveness of a executive–coach match throughout the coaching engagement and over time? • Does your organization offer guidance for executives on appropriate courses of action if the coaching engagement derails owing to interpersonal dynamics? • Will your organization be aware and able to intervene proactively if coaching engagements derail owing to interpersonal dynamics? Corporate Leadership Council May 2003 Reprinted with permission

22. Maximizing Returns on Professional Executive Coaching IV. Leveraging Senior Manager Participation • Does your organization position the direct manager or the business as the ultimate customer of a coaching engagement? • Does your organization mandate that a coached executive’s manager approves of professional coaching as an appropriate development interaction before coaching is initiated? • Does your organization encourage manager involvement in the creation of a “coaching action plan”? • Does your organization encourage regular, three-way progress checks between the executive, the coach, and the direct manager? • Does your organization provide additional support to coached executives, e.g., through mentors or other senior staff, to ensure that on-the-job development needs identified through the coaching engagement can be properly addressed? Corporate Leadership Council May 2003 Reprinted with permission

23. Maximizing Returns on Professional Executive Coaching V. Managing Coaches to Performance Standards • Has your organization developed an overarching performance standard to which each professional coach must adhere, for example, a timeline of deliverables and outputs across the engagement? • Does your organization manage the professional coaches that it employs as a coherent group, e.g., by appointing a manager for the group and bringing the group together for regular meetings? • Does your organization leverage the collective knowledge of the professional coaches who work with your senior executives to better assess organization-wide development needs and other trends? Corporate Leadership Council May 2003 Reprinted with permission

24. Maximizing Returns on Professional Executive Coaching SCORING SYSTEM

25. Resources • Auerbach, Jeffrey E., Ph.D. (Eds) with Everett, Caty; Heimbuch, Jamie; and Herrera, Jamie. Executive Coaching Summit VII,Cutting Edge Practices for a Dramatically Changing Marketplace, Nov. 2005 • Bungay-Stanier, Michael, OD Practioner, Journal of the Organization Development Network, Volume 40, No.3 Summer 2008. • Beets, Lisa Murton. (Jan. 2007). Executive Coaching: How to move toward your goals more effectively. Smart Business Dallas. • Corporate Leadership Council: Maximizing Returns on Professional Executive Coaching: Council Essay, May 2003 • The Executive Coaching Forum (Third Edition, 2004). The Executive Coaching Handbook. www.theexecutivecoachingforum.cum • International Coach Federation http://coachfederation.org • Laske, Otto, PsyD, PhD. Can Evidence Based Coaching Increase ROI?, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring Vol. 2, No. 2, Autumn 2004 • Lockwood, Nancy R., SPHR, GPHR. SHRM Executive Coaching – Cross-Cultural Perspective • Miller, Patricia A., Society for Human Resource Management Online Organizational and Employee Development Focus Area, August, 2008. Q & A: Organizational and Employee Development. • National Post, Wednesday, April 4, 2007, ‘The Second-Fastest Growing Profession” Ray Williams • Noe (1988, p. 458) as cited in S. Aryee et al. "The Motivation to Mentor…" Group & Organization Management (September 1996): 261. • SHRM Online’s Organizational and Employee Development Focus Area, August 2008 • 2008 Sherpa Coaching, Cincinnati, OH USA • Smith, Dr. Lee and Sandstrom, Dr. Jeannine. White Paper, Executive Coaching Summit 1 • Wolfinger, Peter, Organizational and Employee Development, SHRM, September 2008.