Happy Coach – managing
I enjoyed the write-up to our Association for Coaching debate (News, vol 2, issue 6, page 8), where Phil Ferrar argued that managers could “only wear the coach’s hat when the sun is shining”, and I put the case for managers using a coaching style all of the time. Having worked in a true coaching culture at Virgin with “natural” coach, Sir Richard Branson, I have learnt at first hand that managers not only can, but should, be coaches all of the time, and suggest that Phil’s excellent research is taken as an indicator towards greater training and supported coaching practice, rather than an end in itself.
The example I used at the debate was to contrast Sir Alan Sugar’s demeaning way of firing with Branson’s motivating style. Branson filmed an Apprentice-type series where all of the fired participants enthused about their experience because of his supportive leadership. The relevance of this in today’s workplace is about retention: all businesses are chasing the same talent and staff changes are costly.
Having also experienced the opposite of a coaching culture, I can understand why people find it hard to believe that managers can be coaches all the time. I also have faith that a coaching approach prevails in other organisations. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has positive experiences to share. I wish you happy coach-managing and, for HR leaders, happy coaching-culture creating. Never doubt that it can be done.
Carol Wilson
Head of accreditation, Association for Coaching
carolwilson@performancecoachtraining.com
Nuture your staff
It’s no surprise to me that business improvements are four times more likely when senior executives mentor and encourage their senior managers’ coaching and development efforts. I’m just amazed that it’s such a surprise to Kimberly-Clark, which undertook the study (“Juggling act”, vol 2, issue 5).
Isn’t it plain logic that when people are supported and encouraged, they tend to perform better? Take the parent-child relationship, and the impact positive and negative transactions can have on our future lives. This is well documented by Eric Berne in his theory of transactional analysis(TA).
Modern TA theory splits the parent ego state into four quadrants. Nurturing and structuring are seen as positive quadrants, while spoiling and critical are the negatives. Applied to most modern management and mentoring techniques, it is easy to see how managers fit into each of the quadrants.
The traditional role of the manager is that of an individual charged with applying structure to those they manage. The nurturing parent is an ego state not normally associated with task management. Nurturing requires an individual to have the self-belief and self-confidence to back themselves, so in a way it should be of little surprise to Rick Woodward and his colleagues that only 51 per cent of their sample felt that their leaders backed them and mirrored their coaching and mentoring efforts. It’s managing the balance between operating as a structuring and nurturing manager that is the key.
I’m not convinced that Woodward and his CEO, Tom Falk, are correct to extend their coaching
programme across the board as the answer. However, it’s still early days and they should be applauded for their efforts.
Charles Helliwell
Business Personality Audits
charlie@bpaudits.co.uk
Accredited coaches are common sense
In volume 2, issue 5, it was hard to miss the momentum that is impelling the flight to quality in executive coaching. Several stories dealt with aspects of the issue head on (for example, “EMCC quality award to go Europe-wide” in News) or indirectly (“How to… coach two at a time”). Why is it, then, that some of the biggest firms fail to insist that a minimum condition of entry to their coaching panels is bona fide accreditation of the coach’s firm and/or the coach personally?
Achieving this minimum level of quality assurance would seem to be common sense. It is also a vital enabling act towards turning what has been a cottage industry into a respected profession. No organisation of any substance would hire unqualified accountants from fly-by-night firms to give them expert financial input. Why, then, do some of the same organisations connive at doing exactly that with respect to coaching? A few years ago, there wasn’t a choice. Now, with accreditation, there is.
So come on you HR professionals, save yourselves some time. Go for accredited sources, reduce the effort of panel selection and help us to make our flight to quality happen!
Steve Wigzell
Partner, Praesta Partners
steve.wigzell@praesta.com
Correction:
In the last issue of Coaching at Work (vol 2, issue 6, page 12), we wrote that Katherine Tulpa is president of CAKO. She is chair of the Association for Coaching.
Volume 3, Issue 1