Why do you need an Executive Coach?

 Having spent almost 3 decades in Corporate life and having experienced a strong influence of the role of coaches and mentors in my personal and professional life, I decided sometime back to be a Professional Coach myself, so that I could spread the message further and help expedite the learning and development of as many professionals and Executives as possible.

 Interestingly, in some personal or professional meetings, whenever I share that I am an Executive Coach, the response I normally get is – “Which subject do you coach on”? Or, “Whom do you coach?” etc. While much of such response is expected, given the fragmented nature of the coaching industry, however, believing the strong credentials of this noble profession and the kind of transformational impact it has on people, I think it certainly needs better appreciation and recognition. This became my trigger to try put across some viewpoints that might not only help spread right awareness, but facilitate the uninitiated to take right decisions, when it comes to development of their key talent and leadership.

I believe that most of us would have experienced some form of coaching in our lives- whether formally, or informally. I guess the informal incarnations of Coaches might have been more prevalent than formal coaches in our lives, at some point or the other. It could have been our parents helping us discover our careers, a senior hand-holding a fresher at the college, or a manager or leader sharing insights, providing feedback and challenging our thought process that might have triggered Eureka moments for us. It might have been called Coaching or not, but it did exist around us for long.

One of the first and best coach of the world was Anne Mansfield Sullivan who was herself partially sighted, but helped teach a deaf and blind girl Helen Adams Keller, how to read, write and speak, despite her handicap, through her senses- touch, feel, experience & smell (remember the movie “Miracle Worker”!). Helen Keller went on to become the first blind and deaf American author, political activist and lecturer, who had received critical acclaim for her achievements throughout her career. Helen believed that her success was due to the constant support & enduring encouragement from her Coach.

It’s not that the world has forgotten about formal Coaching. Of course, there are a number of Indian companies including Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel or Tata’s, etc. and globally admired companies like GE to Goldman Sachs etc., who have realized the importance of Coaching their leaders and have formally institutionalized Coaching as an integral part of their top talent, high potential and/or leadership development programs.

 However, most other companies would typically fall in one of the following categories:

• No singular focus on leadership and talent development. Feel that leaders and top talent are smart enough to take care of themselves, and that their domain expertise would carry them through.
• Organize extensive leadership development programs, but without any substantive results. Reason is they overlook the context of the leader and the business, separate out the reflection and reinforcement from real work, underestimate mind-sets (i.e. thoughts, feelings, assumptions, and beliefs, etc. of the individual leader, which are usually a precondition of behavioral change) and fail to measure results.
• Focus on traditional means like classroom learning programs, e-Learning interventions, or just sending people to one of the big management schools for their General Management programs, assuming one- size- fits- all approach. Obviously, to their horror, they discover, that Executives who go through such programs do not retain more than 10% of the learnings post the programs.
• Invest heavily in learning and development initiatives across the organization, however, fail to see any tangible results or institutionalize a learning culture. They fail to realize that success of any talent and leadership development programs ultimately depends on the ability and willingness of their managers and leaders to, firstly, demonstrate readiness to learn and unlearn themselves, and secondly, engage in a continuing developmental relationship with their talented employees.

No wonder, employees and leaders in such companies feel that training programs are a luxury, and people can be spared for it if they have nothing business critical to manage in the interim. Training managers struggle to maintain class attendance, as there are last-minute drop-outs due to business exigencies! Net. Net. It just results in wasted time and efforts of all.

While there could be multiple ways of handling such dysfunctional situations (which I don’t want to delve into in this article), I strongly believe that the fountain head and one of the key levers to put things in place is when we train leaders to think, reflect, empathize, listen, provide feedback, challenge, empower, and enable them to create continuing development-oriented relationship with people around them. This is what is enabled by Coaches in an organization.

 “You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink”

Coaches bridge this key dimension, which otherwise, generally leads to failure of most other forms of learning interventions.

So what is unique about Executive Coaching, and why is it required:

1.      Different times need different ways of thinking: In today’s demanding business environment, disruptions, cost pressures, changing expectations of diverse stakeholders, “speed to market” as a competitive advantage with time pressure, etc., Executives have limited opportunity to devote time and energy to their own development as leaders. Most executives struggle to fulfill the responsibilities of their positions and are too busy or too stressed out to step back and learn from their experiences or to implement changes that ensure both individual and organizational growth. They eventually realize that they can’t solve their problems with the same thinking that they used while creating them.

2.      You can rarely do it alone all the times: While, there are leaders who do reach the top by virtue of being smart, motivated, responsible, and probably, being at the right place at the right time, however, given the perennial state of change that exists and the fact that past performances do not guarantee future results, such people hit an abrupt roadblock and eventually get plateaued. One of the common reasons is that Executives fail to realize their own potential, align with their talents and aspirations, and address their limitations. Coaching gets them to slow down, gain awareness, notice the effects of their words and actions, and perceive choices consciously, rather than simply reacting to events.

3.      “It’s lonely at the top”: Normally, rank and file don’t open up with top leaders or give them some honest feedback or dare to “Show them the mirror”, unless the leader himself/herself asks for it and creates proper environment on sustained basis. Also to the employees and people around them, a leader is supposed to know all and be an expert in all matters. However, we all know that it is normally not the case. But such things rarely come in the public domain, unless a big catastrophe or organizational setback happens.  Coaching offers a personalized and customized approach to leader’s learning, that acknowledges and honors their individuality. With their candor, authenticity, objective feedback and non-judgmental approach, Executive Coaches nourish the growth of individual leaders by providing a safe environment to see themselves more clearly, decide their own agenda, explore options for action ”to get from where they are to where they want to be”.

4.      Makes learning stick: It is believed that “the more an individual is involved in identifying problems, in working out and applying solutions for them and in reviewing results, the more complete and the more long-lasting the learning is. This form of self-improvement tends to bring about learning with a deeper understanding of self, others and the context, than any learning that is taught.

5.      More structured, short-term and action-oriented learning, with focus primarily on the present and future, unlike the process of managing (which delves on past performance)or counselling (which helps in resolving situations from the past, address underlying psychological problems and understand the root causes of long-standing performance problems/issues at work), or mentoring (with focus on long-term career growth, where mentor provides direction and advice)

6.      It is essentially a non-directive form of development that does not work on fixed agenda: Coach can’t just tell “what to do”, or impose his/her views and suggestions. Focus is on what the client wants and utilizes a process through the one-on-one coaching sessions to enable the client to self-discover, learn and determine their own “answers”. It is the client who determines the goals and commits to their goal, while allowing the coach to hold them accountable.

Having said that, it is important to note that coaching is not for everyone. It can’t be forced down the throats of unwilling leaders, who are obsessed with their own perspectives, fail to listen either to others or to their inner self, or have discomfort with any personal inquiry, which they feel as questioning their authority and supreme status. People must be receptive to coaching, or the coaching will be ineffective from the beginning. Some of the essential pre-requisites include openness to feedback, eagerness to improve, awareness of their needs, awareness of the possible consequences of not improving their performance and able to commit time to being coached.

Finally, I end with some powerful and credible global expressions on Coaching:

"I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities." ― Bob Nardelli, former CEO, Home Depot 

“To be the best next-generation leader you can be, you must enlist the help of others. Self-evaluation is helpful, but evaluation from someone else is essential. You need a leadership coach. Coaching enables a leader to go further faster.” -- Andy Stanley

“….many companies….offer coaching as a prerequisite to proven managers, in the understanding that everyone can benefit from a detached observer.” ― Harvard Business Review

“Does coaching work? Yes. Good coaches provide a truly important service. They tell you the truth when no one else will.” - Jack Welch, Former CEO of General Electric

“You can either waste a lot of time, money and effort working it out for yourself, or you can invest in a business coach.”- Richard Branson, Virgin Group

Hope some of these words might implore companies to initiate their discovery in the world of coaching, not only for enabling a sustainable individual and organizational growth, but to create more abundance, happiness, fulfillment and accomplishment around them.