Irish Independent - 30th November 2006

Careering Ahead

Executive Coaching can be a good way for top-end staff to regain their sense of place in an organisation, discovers Elaine Larkin.

Top companies see executive coaching as an increasingly relevant element of investment in talent management and performance development programmes, a business breakfast organised by Praesta Ireland, a supplier of executive coaching to senior executives in the Irish market, was told in Dublin last week.

Caitriona Murphy, a partner with Praesta Ireland, explains that executive coaching is a leadership development tool used if people want to improve their performance or develop their leadership skills.

John Buckley of Momentum Business Coaching adds that companies will choose individuals who have got to where they are thanks to knowledge, technical skills and the ability to get results. "When they're at that new level or new position, often there are more qualities needed to stay on or excel." And that is where an executive coach steps in.

Murphy says coaching is becoming more prevalent in Ireland because organisations are much leaner and there aren't wise old heads around on whom executives can lean for support, encouragement or advice in particular situations. "A lot of the management layers have been flattened in organisations, so somebody may find his or herself coming up through a particular function and suddenly catapulted into a wider span of control than he or she has really had time to acclimatise to."

Buckley says a coach would find out: "How do they [executives being coached] deliver, how do they communicate and also how do they handle the emotional side of it. Basically how do they handle themselves and how do they handle others."

Depending on the person, coaching could be for six months or a year. Both the coach and the individual would meet at regular intervals.

"Usually it's about changing one's behaviours of either managing your team, managing your relationships with your peers or managing your relationship with a board. None of them are quick fixes so we work with people over a year", remarks Murphy.

Challenging Roles

The role of the coach is not as an advisor. "We challenge them", says Murphy. Executives will be asked to think about whether there are other ways of doing something and where else they can get support. "It's helping them to expand the fact they have a lot of what they need within their own frame".

A coach would observe what the individual is doing as well as use psychometric tests, assessments, feedback from colleagues or ask questions that are designed to increase awareness of their own personal habits.

"A lot of the time you're looking at what people are doing right and making sure they are continuing to do that. There also may be areas where there could be some blind spots or maybe some behavioural change needed," notes Buckley.

Another key area of coaching is confidence and identifying one's strength. "Just knowing what your strengths are and putting a label on them and making sure they are able to bring that into their workplaces [is important]. Working on that area can increase their confidence levels very much," adds Buckley.

In addition, executives commit to particular action in between coaching sessions, says Murphy. "They say: 'What have I got out of today and what am I gong to do differently over the next three or four weeks?'".

People who have gone through executive coaching all state they have a greater awareness of their own impact on others and an awareness that by developing others they're actually enhancing their own job function as well as their own career, says Buckley.

He says the big change that people will see is what others are saying about them: "We would encourage them to get feedback from the people they are working with. It's almost self-fulfilling; they then see it's working and they put even more time into the process."