Be brave - get a coach!

Today, I was discussing the role of executive coaching with a prospective client. “I want to send my team to you for coaching. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, it’s purely so they can have a different perspective from mine”. What a relief to hear that!

 In my related blog “Coaching, not fixing” I make the point that lots of bosses send me clients for coaching, meaning they think the coachee needs some sort of correction. So I was delighted to hear this enlightened MD explaining that he knew he could lead his team well, but that he was clearly self-aware and emotionally-literate enough to know that his team would benefit from additional perspectives, to help them to develop their focus, performance and operational capability.

 This MD clearly has a good understanding of how to look after his team – and his business. I would argue that more leaders in business need to understand the vital importance to the bottom line of their team’s ongoing ability to excel ... and coaching's role in that.

 This is where I believe coaching has a clear role to play. When decision-makers in large organisations face challenges, or even introduce changes, their decisions will have differing impacts on different people (even their fellow leaders). People are different and their experiences, values, beliefs and perceptions all act as filters on the way they respond to their workplace. This means a workplace will be full of people, all at different points along the famous change curve. A one-size-fits-all approach to the business’ ability to respond cannot reflect that diversity of response. That means that organisational strategies need to be more agile and offer different interventions to support employees to respond positively and with greater resilience.

 I am arguing here for investment in prevention rather than cure. And the argument is based on simple business sense; I am recommending organisations choose to spend a defined amount on a supportive strategy which supports employees’ sense of being valued and able to contribute, which in turn has a high probability of building a more productive and motivated workforce. This is in preference to choosing to spend unknown sums, which may be high due to the acute remedial interventions required or the suits brought by disgruntled employees, which contribute nothing to the wellbeing of the workforce or the organisation as a whole, and which have the potential to undermine motivation and productivity.  Senior employees are still human, still needing recognition, still welcoming the sense of being a valued colleague.

 There is also the ambassadorial potential for coaching. When employees receive coaching, its impact is often firstly that the coachee perceives the sessions as “time for me”. In other words, they perceive it as an investment in them by their employer, inferring a sense of being valued and, at a senior level, being prized as a key investment and influencer. This in and of itself has the potential to work wonders, as senior employees’ self-esteem rises, their preparedness to work within the changing workplace increases, and they are happy to cite coaching as part of that improvement. That knocks on, with conversations out of work, and serves to build the reputation of the employing organisation as a place which invests astutely in its workforce and takes innovation in work seriously as part of its business success.

 In a CIPD survey, 92% of UK businesses reported that professionally-delivered coaching contributed to their bottom line performance. Coaching has an important strategic role.  It is proven to be effective, it costs less than therapeutic interventions, and it is flexible to any client's needs. It can be used from the Boardroom to the shop floor, and it is even something companies can provide in-house. When the top 3% earners of Harvard alumni were surveyed, 98% of them said they had a personal coach. 

So I hope that the prospective client who cares so much about his senior team will take on coaching as part of his business’ growth. If you want to join him, and show your thought leadership and innovation by investing in your top team and grow their potential, please get in touch.  

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