A633.7.4.RB - How Do Coaches Help?

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.