The Five Steps Leaders Use to Coach

Bob, the director of the YMCA youth department, called me into his office and said, "Dave, we're going to open a Junior High Team Center next month."

"That's great, where are you going to have it?" I asked.

"YOU are going to have it right here in the youth lobby." He smiled.

"You want me to lead the Junior High Team Center?" I was astonished because I was only a freshman in college.

"Why not? You are already doing a great job with our Leadership Corp Program."

I opened our New Junior High Team Center on Friday night, the next month. It was a big hit for the kids and for me because Bob was an effective coach. How effective is your coaching?

Coaching is strongly associated with employee engagement, retention, and work satisfaction. Yet surveys show that while 79% of organizations report that their leaders coach, only 40% say they hold these leaders accountable with performance coaching measures; and a mere 37% say that their organization has a specific coaching framework or model for their leaders to follow. (1) In other words, leaders have the responsibility to coach but no methodology. Here are five steps to help you implement a consistent and effective coaching framework:

1. Define the vision.

Ask the person you are coaching (coachee) to answer several questions such as, where do they want to be in five years? What type of responsibilities would they like to have? What do they like most about their current job? Do they have any specific goals? Back when I was in my first year of college, I told Bob I wanted to be a director at a YMCA.

2. Assess what is true today.

Use a variety of tools, such as interviews of the coachee's coworkers, 360 feedback, self-assessments... to understand the employee’s strengths and weaknesses. To read a great article about the importance of 360 assessment, click http://davejensenonleadership.com/CrimesWeCommitAssessment.html

3. Agree on a plan.

Discuss the difference between their vision and today's reality. Brainstorm different approaches to minimize the gap. When I coach leaders, I focus on helping them lead with their strengths while managing weaknesses. This means creating a laser-focused plan that builds on their strengths and deals with their weaknesses. Bob and I put together a plan that increased my responsibilities, such as running the new teen center.

4. Experiment and practice.

Encourage them to try new behaviors and test different approaches. This stage also works best if you are able to employ those with whom the coachee interacts on a regular to help reinforce their practice. I just don't do 360 assessments when I coach, I use 360 COACHING to help the coachee put the plan into practice. We learn by doing.

5. Conduct after action reviews.

Meet with your coachee on a regular basis to assess their progress against the plan. It is also helpful to begin building systems that help reinforce the new behaviors. For example, Bob had me create checklists for opening and closing the Junior High Team Center in order to grow my organizational skills.

These are the fundamental steps I use to coach executives and to teach leaders how to coach. I encourage you to adapt them to fit your organization. Let me know what methodology you are using or how you adapt this one to help your leaders coach.

Keep on coaching,

Dave

http://davejensenonleadership.com/

PS These are the steps that Bob used 35 years ago. He continues to be a great friend and wonderful coach today.

1. Annette Fillary-Travis and David Lane; Does Coaching Work or Are We Asking the Wrong Question?, ‘International Coaching Psychology Review,’ Volume 1, Number 1, April 2006, 23-36.

How Leaders Coach for eXtraordinary Results

The process of coaching for eXtraordinary results has six steps. They are illustrated in the eXpansive Leadership Method (XLM) seen below. Let’s see how you can use these steps to coach your direct reports.

1. Know thyself & others.

The first step to a productive conversation with a high performer, especially if they want to be promoted, is to prepare for the meeting. Answer these questions to understand the person prior to your meeting:

a. What does this individual’s past performance appraisals teach you?

b. What are the performance standards for new positions that might become open?

c. Who can give you an accurate assessment of their people, organizational, and technical skills?

d. What are this person's behavioral strengths and weaknesses?

During my coaching assignments, I require the leader (i.e., coachee) complete the XLM 360 assessment ( http://xlmassessment.com/ ). I also conduct one-on-one interviews with the person’s boss, direct reports, and peers. All of this is designed to provide an accurate assessment of the coachee’s current skills and developmental needs.

2. Engage others.

Begin your conversation by pointing out the value they bring to the organization. Identify specific scenarios when they exceeded expectations. Then, transition to questions about their hopes and dreams for their future. Engage them by asking what they want to achieve over the next few years, why they want to achieve these goals, and what skills they believe they need to achieve these goals?

The intent here is to enter into a dialogue about their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and aspirations. They should do 80% of the talking during this phase of the discussion.

3. Clarify expectations.

Explain that you are very interested in their growth and development. Let them know that you want to see them advance in the organization. Clarify the different career paths available in your organization, as well as the behavioral skills needed in the various positions. Contrast their present skills with those needed to fill positions they aspire to. Discuss the amount of time and effort necessary to develop those skills.

4. Inspire creativity & change.

Invite them to create a development plan designed to fill the gap between where they are today and the skills they need for tomorrow. Ask them to take a few days to brainstorm a number of possible actions that will serve as the beginning of a career development plan. Volunteer to help them with their plan and to mentor them. In addition, encourage them to get input from those who completed their 360 assessment.

5. Manage operations & plans.

Gain agreement from them to implement a step-by-step plan to develop the skills needed for advancement. The nature and extent of the plan depends on the goals and the difficulty of the skills to be developed.

In their book The Leadership Machine, Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger summarize the data they have collected on 53,000 people from more than 140 companies worldwide. (1) They point out that there are four types of experiences that contribute to development. In order of importance, these include:

a. Key jobs. 75 to 90% of what is learned in the work environment is learned on the job. Therefore, the best way to develop key skills is to take a job that requires the coachee to use these skills. The jobs that tend to matter most are those that include starting something from nothing, fixing an area that is broken, moving from line (e.g., branch manager) to staff (e.g., headquarters human resources), managing a major change in scope or scale of the job, and taking on a major projects.

b. Important people. Those individuals who have a variety of people to learn from, learn the most. People who challenge one's thinking provide the best development. Good bosses can serve as great models, while bad bosses teach what not to do.

c. Hardships. Although you may not want to plan for hardship, you and the people you coach are guaranteed to experience it. The research tells us that the most successful leaders not only experience tough times, they learn from them.

d. Courses. Being able to take a class that is directly linked to performance on the job is critical. It provides the self-efficacy that people need in order to perform.

The coachee’s development plan should be put together with these four types of experiences in mind. The eight elements of an effective plan should include the following:

• S.M.A.R.T. goals and objectives
• List of benefits of achieving the goal to the coachee and organization
• Possible obstacles that must be overcome and their solutions
• Action steps to improve performance
• How to measure the actions step
• Partner to work with on that specific action step
• Dates to review specific milestones and progress
• Signature line for each coach and direct report

6. Execute with passion and courage.

Unlike a counseling session, you probably will not need to access your commanding style to “encourage" them to be involved in creating and executing an improvement plan. That's because you should be coaching a motivated, high achiever.

How surprised will you be when your direct reports achieve eXtraordinary results because of your eXceptional coaching? Let me know which steps you use and how they work for you.

Keep eXpanding,

Dave

http://www.DaveJensenOnLeadership.com

1. Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger; The Leadership Machine, Lominger Ltd., Inc. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2002.

Five Coaching Questions Leaders Must Answer

To coach effectively, the five questions leaders must answer are: What is coaching? Why bother doing it? Is coaching effective? Whom should you coach? How do you coach? This blog answers these questions.

What is coaching?

Coaching is not a one-time event; it is the process of engaging your employees in their ongoing development. The process usually falls into one of the three categories:

Skills Coaching – which is of short duration and focuses on specific behaviors;

Performance Coaching – a longer process that involves setting goals, overcoming obstacles, and monitoring performance;

Developmental Coaching – takes a broader more holistic perspective, often addressing personal and professional growth.

Most mid-level managers require either skills or performance coaching, while higher-level executives frequently choose developmental coaching. In reality, there is considerable overlap among the three.

Why bother doing it?

In a previous blog on the empowering leadership style, I stressed the importance of developing employees as part of a strategy to engage and retain them. Professor F. Leigh Branham confirmed this when he analyzed the data on more than 19,700 employee exit interviews. (1) He found that 60% of employees felt they had received inadequate coaching, thereby contributing to their decision to leave. The Lominger group surveyed 47,592 employees worldwide, asking them to rate their managers on 67 leadership competencies. (2) The employees scored their managers on the competency “develops direct reports" dead last at 67. You should only "bother" coaching your employees if you want them to stay at their job and be fully engaged on the job.

Is coaching effective?

Annette Fillery-Travis and David Lane found only one published ROI studies when they reviewed the coaching literature. (3) The study, conducted by Right Management Consultants, found that external executive coaching delivered a 5.7 ROI. (That’s right, 570%) The 100 executives in the study reported tangible business results that included improved productivity (53 percent), better quality work product (48 percent) and greater organizational strength (48 percent). From an intangible business standpoint, executives described enhanced relationships with their direct reports (77 percent), supervisors (71 percent), and peers (63 percent); as well as greater teamwork (67 percent) and job satisfaction (61 percent).

Teaching sales mangers to coach can make a difference also. (4) Researchers at the University of Maryland studied the sales force of a multinational manufacturer whose managers had undergone a two-day coaching workshop. Coaching represented 36% of the differences in improved performance among surveyed salespeople. A 29% improvement was also seen in sales managers who were coached by executives. These executives had attended separate workshops designed to teach them how to coach sales managers.

Finally, The American Management Association studied the successful coaching practices of more than 1,000 global executives and managers. (5) Overall, they found that coaching correlated with increased productivity, revenue growth, profitability, market share, engagement, retention, customer satisfaction and overall employee performance. A few of their other key findings:

• Coaching is used in 55% of international companies.
• Most companies that don't have coaching programs yet, plan to implement them.
• Using methods to measure coaching effectiveness (e.g., 360 assessments) increased the likelihood of success.
• Externally based training was more highly correlated with overall coaching success than internal training.

My own experience as an external coach validates these findings. Most of my clients have experienced significant growth. However, not everyone has benefited. I find that unless you select the right individuals, you might find yourself "putting makeup on a corpse."

Whom should you coach?

Early in my coaching career, I received a phone call from a desperate executive in Silicon Valley. She had recently promoted a manager, Bill who was now struggling. She wanted to know if I could coach him through his transition to management. Being an optimistic, energetic new coach, I agreed to interview Bill. During our initial conversation, Bill’s answer to one of my questions should have given me a clue that he was not a candidate for successful coaching. When I asked him if he was willing to commit to the work necessary to make the changes, in order to succeed as a new manager, he commented that he would try even though he was already very busy.

You can probably guess the rest of this story. Bill refused to work on some of his core issues and seldom completed his homework assignments. After three months, I called Bill’s supervisor and her boss (i.e., the executive who had originally called me) and told them that I didn't think the process was working. They turned up the pressure on him and asked me to continue. But it didn't work. As Samuel Butler wrote, “He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still.” At the end of six months, Bill went back to his old position.

Whom should you coach? Bill's story gives us part of the answer -- only those who fully commit to doing the work required to grow. Do not mistake compliance for commitment. The other criteria you might use is level of competence. Since you probably don’t have time to coach all your direct reports to the same extent, I suggest you begin with your high performers. That doesn’t mean you ignore the others. It does mean you spend more time with those who are doing well. If you don’t work with them, they’ll soon work for someone else.

How do you coach?

The process of coaching is quiet similar to the counseling process described in a previous blog. The difference lies in the amount of emphasis and questions asked in each of the six steps. Employ the eXpansive Leadership Method (XLM), seen below, as a guide to your coaching. We’ll step through the entire process in a subsequent blog.

Now you know the five coaching questions leaders must answer to be effective coaches. Let me know how the answers work for you.

Keep eXpanding,

Dave

http://www.DaveJensenOnLeadership.com

1. Leigh Branham; The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It's Too Late, AMACOM Books, NY, NY, 2005.

2. The LEADERSHIP ARCHITECT® Norms and Validity Report, Minneapolis, MN, 2006, page 499.

3. Annette Fillery-Travis and David Lane; Does Coaching Work or Are We Asking the Wrong Question?, International Coaching Psychology Review, April 2006, 23 - 36.

4. Larry Yu; The Benefits of a Coaching Culture, MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter 2007, page 6.

5. Edward T. Reilly; Coaching - A Global Study of Successful Practices, MWorld, Fall 2008, 15 – 18.