The
complexity of the marketplace demands agile
enterprises and executives. More companies are
flattening their organizational charts, reengineering
and outsourcing business processes, working closely
with their supply chains, erasing job boundaries,
implementing functional and cross-functional work
teams, hiring knowledgeable outside contractors and
using virtual employees. To cope with this rapid rate
of change, many executives are seeking coaching and
counseling support.
So what is a
coach?
Unlike mentoring (a
process where a highly visible and experienced company
executive advises a rising star), you don't normally
see coaches…but they are ever present. Coaches
are frequently drawn from the outside and provide
individual executive support and consultation on both
personal and business matters. Some executives have
called their weekly coaching
sessions
"just-in-time" career management seminars.
Who
pays for coaching?
The employer usually
pays for coaches...but sometimes the employee pays the
coaching fee. It is estimated that there are up to
10,000 personal coaches practicing today and charging
between $300 and $1,000 a month for telephone
coaching. When coaching is desired on site, the cost
runs much higher. Many business executives trade
budgeted dollars normally used for out-of-town
training conferences for a year's worth of one-on-one
business coaching. Business coaching can earn an
excellent
payback for
both the executive and the employer organization.
Here
are seven reasons why it pays to coach key employees
in critical job assignments:
1. The higher up
you go in management; the value of your technical
skill declines while the value of your interpersonal
skill increases.
To effectively manage
within your functional area requires a good
understanding of the invisible networks of key
employees. These knowledgeable workers can choose to
give, influence or hoard information depending upon
their personal relationship with you, the
requester.
Many knowledgeable
workers will not want to share their
knowledge…simply because they want to always be
the "go to guy". The personal approach that you use to
acquire needed information from them could be
important for moving a critical program forward. Your
coach can help you sort out these organizational
relationships, determine how work is actually
accomplished, better understand your personality's
affect on other people and work with you to establish
for yourself the right relationship links.
One client was a
longtime employee who was never asked for information,
so he never offered any. He thought it was great that
no one was bothering him or challenging his
suggestions. With coaching, he began to find out how
much his silence was costing the company. He learned
how to offer frequent suggestions in a manner that
others would not challenge him. The results have been
rewarding to him and his employer. Now he gets
involved when needed, offers the insight of past
practical experiences and is open to creating a new
way of conducting business matters.
2. Growing
organizations need emotionally mature employees:
a. A motivated
management team...not a bunch of lone rangers.
b. Executives who are
proactive...not reactive.
c. Effective
communicators who know how to listen & learn.
d. Leaders who will
share the glory & wealth (while also being
compassionate).
Meeting customers'
needs both internally and externally requires a
corporate culture of committed people. While
management may espouse that "employees are our #1
priority", common sense is not always common practice.
When executives use a coach, they quickly find out
when they are not leading by example... but...only
pretending to do so.
When selecting a
business coach, make sure that the coach is not
assessing values or making decisions that require
people to "change." For example, expecting a highly
competitive and assertive person to be a highly
effective team player may not be reasonable. However,
it is reasonable to expect that coaching &
training of this person will improve his/her "people
skills". As a result, the executive will work more
effectively with coworkers to successfully complete
projects.
3. Personal growth
and development can seem like a painstaking process,
especially when you approach it alone.
People want to be led,
not managed. Organizational leadership is an art that
must be learned, then earned. As a leader, you have a
unique need for objective insight into what you think
and why you think it. A coach can help you to gain the
insight that leads to clarity for making clear,
thoughtful and confident decisions that keep you on
your chosen career path. Without this information,
your decisions could be costly, even disastrous.
We had a client that
really wanted to change her career, however, she
wasn't financially able to sell her business and move
on. She kept procrastinating until the opportunities
seemed no longer viable. With the insight gained from
her coach, she was able to stay focused on the types
of work activities that increase revenues and is now
in the process of selling her business to pursue her
heart's desire.
4. Excessive
employee turnover can rob a company of its base of
knowledge.
Developing key
employees within the organization is a less expensive
task than recruiting and hiring from the outside. A
coach will help you keep talented people productive
and happy by getting to the root causes of employee
turnover. The coach will teach you how to find, hire
and retain talent by pointing you in a direction that
your company may need to take from a human resource
perspective: compensation, rewards, recognition,
benefit programs, training & development seminars,
etc.
5. Work life can
seem like a hockey game at times…full of
naturally flowing chaos while you try to control the
game with just a hockey stick.
One of Wallace
Stegner's to-the-point quotes is, "Chaos is the law of
nature. Order is the dream of man." As an executive,
it is easy to fluctuate from confusion to frustration
to completely stressed-out states while trying to keep
things in order, as you attempt to balance home and
work life. An ongoing interaction with a personal
coach makes it easier to cope with the chaos by
learning key business strategies only known beyond the
walls of your workplace. Executives also find it
invaluable to have an extra set of eyes and ears that
are not "ingrained" in the way things are done
internally.
Here is an example of
how a manufacturing executive client turned around an
unexpected workplace situation. A key employee
threatened to quit and many other employees could
follow him. What did the executive do? He called his
coach to brainstorm ideas. Then he had a conversation
with the key employee to find out why he wished to
leave. The executive then determined what changes
could be made to benefit the key employee, as well as
the company. He presented the proposed solution to the
key employee who decided to stay onboard.
6. Each of us has
our unique set of personal core values and interests
that must be compatible with our work environment.
A good coach knows
that you cannot coach, train or motivate anyone to be
other than who they are. However, it's easy to think
that we can change people. The truth of the matter is
that we can't. We've each had a long time to perfect
who we are. What a coach will provide you with is the
insight to make things work for you in a way that
supports your core behavioral characteristics and
those of the corporate culture.
Your coach may suggest
a brief assessment process that will gage your
motivation, interests and personality, as well as
360-degree feedback systems. This will provide you
with an understanding of how your personal strengths
can easily become weaknesses. The value is being aware
of how you approach situations and opportunities
before moving forward. A coach will help you to see
opportunities within the business problem that you
face and how best to interact with your work
environment, business situation, management team, etc.
7. Seamless
integration of all life's activities should be your
overall goal.
Weighing the
possibilities with your personal coach is a very good
way of working toward achieving this seemingly elusive
challenge.
Are you enjoying the
ride? Happiness is not only the result of success, but
also part of the process of getting there. We all need
balance. Life is very short. If you keep doing what
you've always been doing, you'll keep getting what
you've always gotten. You may believe, "that's the way
it is." However, truly successful executives have
learned how to achieve balance, how to delegate, and
how to accomplish unprecedented results with ease.
While getting the job done, a coached Chief Operations
Officer recently said, "I can't believe I'm having so
much fun!"
John G. Agno of
Signature, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI and Jeannette L. Seibly
of SeibCo., LLC, Livonia, MI are business coaches.
They may be reached by either voice mail or email,
respectively, at: 734.426.2000 / johnagno@signatureseries.com
and 517.321.7800 / jlseibly@aol.com
Where
do you want to be? What's the biggest challenge you
have? Are you doing today what you do
best?
Want
to learn about the costs of executive
coaching?
Want
to check out some coaching plan
options?
If you are really
committed to what you want to do, let's have a
conversation about getting there from here. Call
734.426.2000 (US Eastern Time Zone) or email
johnagno@signatureseries.com
to arrange for
a free consultation to discuss where you are heading.
To learn more about John Agno, business coach,
click
here.
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