Sunday Business Post - 30 April 2006

Coaching Managers to the Next Level
(by Ruth Wildgust)

Specialised coaching can help senior executives develop a winning management style.

Once they've made it to senior level, the expectation is that managers will have amassed an arsenal of skills to push, pull, cojole, negotiate, and coerce the company - and all in it - to the next level. However, according to Maria Betts, director of Momentum Business Coaching, the reality in Irish business is often very different.

According to Betts, Irish business has moved away from a culture of hierarchical management to one where interpersonal skills - the ability to understand and communicate with staff at all levels - is often the clincher for successful management.

Without the right interpersonal skils, managers run the risk of stunting the company's development or, at worst, damaging its chances in the marketplace. The good news however is that if you're not a natural-born leader, you can still learn to become one.

"Executive coaching is all about leadership," said Betts.

"Some managers have the substance but they lack the style. Like a coach working with an athlete, an executive coach works with an executive to fine tune their performance - to help them win."

In the United States, where executive coaching has been in widespread use for the past ten years, Betts said it often formed part of employees' retention packages for their first year in a new role. Betts said "onboarding" - coaching for newly-appointed managers - was a growth area in Ireland.

"They benefit from getting off the treadmill for a couple of hours once a fortnight and focusing on the strategies that will get them where they need to be, quickly and with less stress," she said.

Johanna Fullerton, managing partner of Pearn Kandola, in Dublin, said coaching could be used not only to capitalise on managerial strengths but also to identify overused or overplayed qualities. "When we embark on coaching, we conduct assessment to examine where the executive's strengths lie," said Fullerton.

"We put a lot of energy into maximising their talents and strengths - that's where they'll derive the maximum for themselves and for the organisation."

She said the move away from hierarchical management meant executives often succeeded through networking and influencing skills rather than command and control.

For some, said Fullerton, executive coaching is a positive affirmation of their current skills. For others, it is about giving them tools and techniques to make their lives, and the lives of their staff, easier.

Where some coaching falils, she said, is in the failure to evaluate. "Six months to a year later, depending on the development plan, the coaching is reviewed by ourselves or an independent auditor or the internal HR division. We conduct 360 degree feedback at the beginning of the coaching process and a year later to determine whether the feedback from the executive's sphere of influence has changed."

Maureen Hewitt, executive coach with Emotional Intelligence Ireland, said just 1 percent of success was typically down to IQ whereas 26 percent was down to how competent executives were with their emotional skills.

"We use an emotional intelligence assessment tool to target very specific skill sets that executives need for their role," she said. "We ask 'Can you listen and communicate? Are you independent? Can you make decisions?'."

An executive may be performing the job well from a technical perspective but not making the most of their team's skills. Leadership issues examined through executive coaching include assertiveness, independence, empathy, problem-solving and self-awareness.

"We take a snapshot of how well these skills are developed for an individual," she said. "We then take another snapshot six months later and assess how the person has developed in these areas."

One client Hewitt dealt with had just been moved from a highly technical role to take over as director of marketing. Having previously worked in isolation, the executive was suddenly in a position where a large team was affected by, and relied on, their decisions. They had to hone their verbal and non-verbal language and listening skills.

According to Pauric O'Rourke of Breffney Coaching & Consulting, executive coaching is most useful where managers move from functional to generalist roles. "Coaching is often used in the transition from technical skills to conceptual and interpersonal skillls," he said.

O'Rourke said some people find it helpful to use their coaches as sounding boards to discuss the issues and problems they encounter when newly appointed to management roles.

"My experience has been with fairly young people," said O'Rourke. "As organisatons are flatter and people are given more responsibility, people in their mid to late-20s are being given supervisory positions. While they are able to manage their own performance, the challenge of managing a team and being judged on team performance is a big issue for them."

Executive coaching is often about listening to the person's anxieties so that they recognise there is more than one way of approaching an issue and develop confidence in their ability to make the right decision, he said.

To be embraced in the organisation, O'Rourke said executive coaching had to be endorsed from the top.

"It should not be seen as a 'problem child' tool," he said.

"It should be seen as a badge of development. Executive coaching should be seen as part of the management development process and a key learning tool for the organisation."