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Building Leadership Capacity Power: Coaching can be very effective in accelerating the development of an employee, especially when an organization links that individual's development goals to its corporate strategies
(Published Saturday June 5th, 2010 in the Telegraph-Journal )
Any professional sports franchise looking to make money knows winning as much as possible is good for business. To make this happen the owner hires coaches to help players perform better individually and as a team.
The City of Saint John has been hiring executive coaches for the senior municipal employees for years. This trickled down the management ladder and turned into an employee engagement strategy. ‘We have started training all our managers on how to use a coaching leadership style,’ says Stephanie Walsh a certified business coach and the city’s manager of staffing and development. ‘What we’re trying to do is empower employees to be more creative and take control of their own initiatives.’
Business or executive coaches use the same logic to try to make companies perform better by helping people overcome the challenges in their jobs.
Photo: KâtÈ Braydon/Telegraph-Journal
The City of Saint John has been hiring executive
coaches for the senior municipal employees for years.
This trickled down the management ladder and turned
into an employee engagement strategy. ‘We have started
training all our managers on how to use a coaching leadership
style,’ says Stephanie Walsh a certified business coach and the
city’s manager of staffing and development. ‘What we’re trying
to do is empower employees to be more creative and take
control of their own initiatives.’ But coaches aren't as common in the office as they are on the ice, field or court, and are often met with skepticism from business people, including Google Inc. chief executive Eric Schmidt. "I'm an established CEO, why would I need a coach? Is something wrong?" he told Fortune Magazine, explaining his initial reaction to being offered a coach.
But since working with one, he says it has really helped to have someone who can watch and ask questions.
"The one thing people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them," he says.
Moncton-area business coach Diane Allain says certified professionals, such as her, aren't just for executives, but can help leaders at all levels of a business.
"You can manage a billion dollar organization with 5,000 employees or you can manage 50 employees," she says. "Most of the same leadership challenges are there."
Allain, president of Evolution Consulting Group, says coaches are professional confidants who can challenge their clients and hold them accountable to their goals.
"It's not about solving anyone's problems," she says. "The fundamental principle is you are the expert in your area and the coach is the facilitator who can ask powerful questions and help connect the dots."
This may sound like a good friend, but Allain says the difference is objectivity, training and experience.
Karen Kelloway, an executive coach and senior consultant with Knightsbridge Robertson Surrette, says many organizations use coaching to help build their leadership capacity.
"When the organization links the individual's development goals to the corporate strategies, then coaching can be very effective in accelerating the development of that leader - whether the individual is a middle manager preparing to move into a leadership position or a seasoned executive wanting even greater results," she says in an email.
Vision Coaching co-founder Marilyn Singh says the coaching role of helping people think through what they have to do, rather than telling them, is something organizations can also do internally through out all levels of management.
About five years ago the City of Saint John started hiring executive coaches for the senior municipal employees, which trickled down the management ladder and turned into an employee engagement strategy.
"We have started training all our managers on how to use a coaching leadership style such as asking powerful questions and using active listening with their employees," says Stephanie Walsh a certified business coach, and the city's manager of staffing and development.
All managers have been given a basic one-and-a-half day to three-day coaching training, so they can act as coaches to their employees.
"What we're trying to do is empower employees to be more creative and take control of their own initiatives," Walsh says. "It enhances communications in all directions, and it empowers employees to work to their full potential."
While many managers would already naturally try to help employees solve problems themselves, rather than giving them the answers, she says the training emphasis on coaching helps encourage all managers to do it.
"Generally the employee has the answer and they might have a better answer than you have," she says.
Walsh, who took a six-plus month coaching program to get certified, also coaches some of the city's middle managers, and is available to employees who want coaching beyond their direct supervisor.
The organization has put a strong emphasis on coaching at every level, because "every employee is here for a reason and his or her job is very valuable," she says
"It (coaching) can improve employee performance and hopefully improve customer satisfaction," she says
Though the municipality isn't technically a business, it is a large employer looking to efficiently and effectively service a group of people.
Coaching has been growing in the province, and in February 2009, Singh started a New Brunswick chapter of the International Coaching Federation, the largest global professional association.
The federation also grants a higher level of certification to coaches who have completed education in the field, and a set number of working hours, similarly to the P. Eng. designation for engineers.
The organization aims to raise awareness about coaching and make coaches better.
"Beware of the coach who has no coach," Singh says.
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