In my last blog, I briefly described four leadership
strategies to apply based on the levels of people focus and goal focus. If we
were to look at these on a matrix, we visualize plots of action. There are
three kinds of attractors (Obolensky, 2014): point attractors where actions
gravitate to a particular point on a phase space diagram, period attractors
where actions revolves around a part of the phase space diagram, and strange
attractors where actions describe a pattern which doesn’t either gravitate to a
point or revolve around anything specific. What does this all really mean?
Basically…I don’t know. Ha! Okay, so I had to read my text three times to
really understand it. Fortunately, that isn’t what this blog is about. It just
is a small part of one of those attractors. This is the coaching attractor
which is a pairing of the strategies of selling and involving. Of all of the
attractors, though, this is the most demanding and requires the most skill
(Obolensky, 2014). “Coaching is a good technique to bridge the divide, as well
as move an individual towards level 5 followership (gets on with things without
supervision and reports in a routine way)” (p. 179). The coaching attractor
described here works with the GROW model which is a questioning technique that
stands for Goal, Reality, Options, and Will. However,
I don’t want to dig too deep into that here. This coaching as an attractor is
more of a science than an art but I needed to bridge the gap between the actual
profession of executive coaching and the science of complexity.
We are probably all at least familiar with executive/leader
coaching. Just as a coach for a sports team will train, observe, critique, and
correct a player’s action, so, too, will a leadership coach for the coachee. In
fact, “[professional] coaching derives from the world of sport. The duties of
the sports coach involve both helping the active person set goals for his own
efforts and assisting him in the process of reaching those goals” (Nielson
& Norreklit, 2009, p. 207). Interestingly, “ten years ago, most companies
engaged a coach to help fix toxic behavior at the top. Today, most coaching is
about developing the capabilities of high-potential performers” (Coutu,
Kauffman, Charan, et al, 2009, p. 92). Toxicity is something with which I am
all too familiar. Fortunately, it has been several years since I have had a
toxic leader in my chain of command but there is no doubt that it only takes
one person to absolutely destroy a team. Just as a team of beaten horses may
still pull a cart, so, too, may a team still achieve their objectives with a
toxic leader but at what cost? Toxic leaders just seem to steal the wind right
out of your sails. I remember this one First Sergeant that I had that would
make treated the Support Soldiers like absolute garbage. His approach to
leadership was one of fear. He was quick to punish and impossible to please.
Eventually he was relieved of his position and forced to retire but he left
behind him a wake of destruction that even resulted in a suicide (which was
confirmed to be closely linked with his toxicity, hence his forced retirement).
I am not sure if a toxic leader would have that same power in the civilian
world but it is possible. Leadership coaching was originally intended to stop
behavior like that. You see, that First Sergeant was an incredible manager. He
just destroyed his people. Today, though, the focus has shifted. Perhaps it is
because society just doesn’t tolerate toxicity as it once did. However, once
thing is clear and that is that “coaching as a business tool continues to gain
legitimacy, but the fundamentals of the industry are still in flux” (p. 92).
Concerning coaching, our assignment for this blog is
to consider the following statement:
To be an executive coach, it is necessary to know that
clients are the first and best experts capable of solving their own problems
and achieving their own ambitions; that is precisely the main reason why
clients are motivated to call on a coach. When clients bring important issues
to a coach, often they already made a complete inventory of their personal or
professional issues and identified all possible (known) options. Clients have
already tried working out their issues alone, and have not succeeded. \.
I honestly do feel that this is true. The original
intent of the profession of alleviating toxic behaviors is evidence to this. In
today’s age of information exchange, it isn’t that difficult to find the right
person with the right skills to fill a role. If someone doesn’t have what it
takes, you can just use ZipRecruiter or Monster or a myriad of other sites and
have 100 other people lined up for that position. However, the individual
already filling the roll probably already possess the raw skills needed. The key
is refinement. Today, most of that refinement probably hinges on leadership
strategies for complex environments. “As the business environment becomes more
complex, they will increasingly turn to coaches for help in understanding how
to act” (Coutu, Kauffman, Charan, et al, 2009, p. 93). Coaches, then, should be
experts in evaluating situations and advising their coachee on appropriate
strategies. Also, “as coaching has become more common, any stigma attached to
receiving it at the individual level has disappeared. Now, it is often
considered a badge of honor” (p. 93). Leadership coaching costs between $200
and $3,000 per hour! The fact that an organization is willing to invest that
amount into an individual is proof that they value the leader and would rather
make the investment in refinement rather than replacement.
When I went to the Recruiter Center Leader Course, I
was fortunate to receive my own one-on-one coaching session (which includes
three months of follow ups). My leadership coach, Dr. Mack, was absolutely
amazing. At first, I kind of blew the whole thing off but my instructor kept
talking it up so I decided to just go into it with an open mind. My goodness,
was it ever eye opening! She reviewed my personality test results from the
previous three years and reviewed my performance reports. Then, by just sitting
down with me for an hour, she was able to find two areas where I was
misapplying interpersonal communication skills which hindered my ability to
both sell and involve my team. The techniques that we discovered together in just
an hour – techniques that may have taken years to discover on my own – made an
immediate difference in the way that I interact with others and in the way that
I direct. Would I recommend it? You bet I would!
The future of leadership coaching is surely secure. As
new markets develop, leaders will be younger and less experienced and will
require coaches to guide them to optimal performance.
Coutu, D., Kauffman, C., Charan, R., Peterson, D. B.,
Maccoby, M., Scoular, P. A., & Grant, A. M. (2009). What Can Coaches Do for
You?. Harvard Business Review, 87(1),
91-97.
Nielsen, A. E., & Norreklit, H. (2009). A
discourse analysis of the disciplinary power of management coaching. Society and
Business Review, 4(3), 202. doi:10.1108/17465680910994209
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex adaptive leadership: embracing paradox and uncertainty (2nd
ed.). Farnham: Gower.
No comments:
Post a Comment