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Coaching in context

The essence of coaching is to use the wisdom of the coach to bring to consciousness the wisdom that those being coached hold within themselves.

David Clutterbuck (2007)

In this chapter we will explore what coaching is, why coaching is important, and look at how effective coaching is in practice. We will give a number of reasons why we think coaching is an important and essential part of the manager’s toolkit, discuss the context of coaching and the barriers to implementing coaching in organisations.

What is coaching for managers?

Coaching for managers is different to the type of coaching practised by executive coaches. For example, their role in the organisation is to coach and nothing more. Typically an executive coach would not offer any advice, but the manager has to do many things, of which coaching is only one. They also have to instruct and teach and inform and offer guidance as well as coach. So the question becomes: ‘When should I coach and when should I instruct?’

So, what do we mean by coaching? Coaching is largely about listening to the other person and helping them to improve their effectiveness. There are a number of definitions of coaching. Eric Parsloe, Director of the Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring, says that coaching is ‘a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve. To be a successful coach requires a knowledge and understanding of process as well as the variety of styles, skills and techniques that are appropriate to the context in which the coaching takes place.’ Coaching expert Sir John Whitmore suggests that coaching is ‘unblocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.’ We would wholeheartedly agree with both these definitions and add that it is about enabling people to think for themselves and come up with their own options and possibilities, rather than telling people what to do or just giving advice. When done well, coaching involves allowing your colleagues to develop their skills and knowledge to their full potential.

There are, however, many definitions of what coaching is. The UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) acknowledges that there is a lack of clarity about exactly what coaching is and what it isn’t – and how it differs, for example, from counselling and mentoring. We hope in this book to provide you with some clarity about the role of leaders and managers as coaches in today’s business environment.

Why coach?

The art of coaching by line managers is becoming an essential part of the effective people leader’s toolkit. There are a number of reasons for this:

• Because we live in an increasingly complex world. In the so-called VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) there are fewer clear-cut solutions, so the need is for managers to use their people to develop more options and possibilities, rather than trying to give their own answer which may well be wrong and outdated. We will say more about this later in the book.
  

  US President Barack Obama refers to the complexity of the world he is dealing with when he says in Mark Bowden’s book The Finish: ‘You’re always dealing with probabilities. No issue comes to my desk that is perfectly solvable, because if people were absolutely certain, then it would have been decided by somebody else.’
  

• To gain competitive advantage. When products and services are similar, competitive advantage comes from having people with ideas, skills, responsibility and initiative. The core idea of coaching is to develop others, to help them learn and to instil confidence. Without coaching this cannot be achieved. Ultimately, as the environment grows more and more complex, performance will be as a result of learning. Writer and futurologist Alvin Toffler predicts the successful future organisation will be a learning organisation.
  

  Reg Revans, the founder of Action Learning, used to say that if the environment changes faster than your organisation learns, you’re out of business! Jack Welch, ex-CEO of General Electric, has also made this phrase his own. This means that we cannot wait for the rest of the organisation to change before we change. We have to take individual responsibility for learning, and as a people manager encourage others to do the same. Practising the art of coaching will help you to become an effective leader. In a conversation with Kevin Bowring, Head of Elite Coaching for the England Rugby Football Union, he told us that his colleague, Head Coach Stuart Lancaster, says that ‘Coaches need to be open to learning and constantly learn themselves.’
  

• Because expectations of Gen Y and Millennials have changed. They expect managers to be coaches rather than directors who tell them what to do. In recent research undertaken at Ashridge Business School, 56 per cent of the Gen Y’rs surveyed identified that their ideal manager is someone who fulfils the role of coach or mentor. The disconnect is that 75 per cent of the managers who took part in the survey believe that they are fulfilling the role of coach/mentor while only 26 per cent of the Gen Y respondents think they actually do. Interestingly, more women (61 per cent) than men (48 per cent) want a coach/mentor relationship. Could this be a reflection of the preference among women for the more collaborative and cooperative approach to work and a willingness to embrace the emotional and self-awareness aspects of coaching? If this is the case it may mean that women are more accepting of the coaching approach and will more readily take on coaching roles.
  
• To help people achieve. Effective coaching is about helping people to achieve something they want to achieve, whether it be promotion, skills, improved performance, self-understanding or better balance. Coaching has to primarily focus on the individual being coached, in conjunction with the needs of the organisation.
  
• To give others responsibility and ownership. The aim of coaching is to produce better performance, whatever the field of coaching: sport, the arts or business. People perform better and are more committed when they take responsibility and ownership for their actions. They can’t do that if you are micromanaging them.
  
• To develop your own skills as a leader. Leadership entails taking a step back from the operational details of the job and looking more at the strategic and human elements. You won’t be able to accomplish this if you are busy doing everything. Practising the art of coaching will help you to become an effective leader and will contribute to your organisational credibility and reputation.
  
• To get people to think for themselves and develop initiative. If you are the person who ends up having all the ideas then you are not encouraging your people to use their skills to the full. Your job is to develop your people, and that means getting them used to coming up with both new ideas and ways of implementing them. One of the most effective ways of doing this is to coach. As the saying goes: ‘If we do what we always did, we will get what we always got.’ So in the ever-changing and complex world in which we live, innovation and creativity are at a premium – your job is to encourage it in others, not just come up with all the ideas yourself.
  
• Ownership. The process of coaching people hands ownership of the issue back to the person being coached, who then is able to take responsibility for their actions and behaviours. You are more motivated if you have ownership. Solutions discovered by the coachee are more likely to be implemented on a sustainable basis than solutions imposed from above.
  
• Autonomy. If you coach someone rather than give him or her advice then you are effectively increasing their autonomy and showing you trust them, without abandoning them. According to Daniel Pink, in his book Drive, autonomy is one of the key engagers and motivators for individuals in organisations.
  
• To support an organisation’s mission, culture and values. Many organisations talk about the value of their people and that they are their greatest asset. Coaching can contribute to building on this part of any organisation’s mission or value statement by investing in the growth and development of the staff. In a conversation with Steve Ridgley, Coaching Manager at the John Lewis Partnership, he talked about internal coaching as part of the process of bringing about change in the culture of the Partnership. In particular, he mentioned that the skills and capabilities of an effective coach will help to model the important need for open and honest conversation as a way towards organisational excellence and good interpersonal practice. At the John Lewis Partnership coaching is linked to the organisation’s constitution, which is a written framework that defines the Partnership’s principles and the way it should operate. In particular, Steve highlighted Principle 1 as underpinning the Partnership’s approach to coaching – supporting Partners to find a satisfying and worthwhile place in the organisation or broader happiness in their lives. Principle 1 states: ‘The Partnership’s ultimate purpose is the happiness of all its members, through their worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business. Because the Partnership is owned in trust for its members, they share the responsibilities of ownership as well as its rewards – profit, knowledge and power.’
  
• Creativity. Coaching allows people to be more creative. There isn’t much scope for creativity if you are telling people what to do. Your answer may not be as creative or innovative as your colleagues. And creativity and innovation are key differentiators in a VUCA world. Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber, both professors in urban design at the University of California in Berkeley, observed as long ago as 1973 that problems could be divided into two types: ‘Tame problems’ and ‘Wicked problems’. Tame problems, although they may be somewhat complex, can be resolved by applying established processes and techniques. Wicked problems, on the other hand, cannot be resolved in this way, and in fact have no right or wrong solutions – only better or worse, or good enough or not good enough.
  

  Warwick Business School’s Professor Keith Grint gives examples: a tame problem for example, is teaching your child to pass their driving test, a wicked problem is being and remaining a good parent to them. Clearly there are an unlimited number of wicked problems facing us today: from how to provide excellent health care, to the issues of drugs, terrorism, pollution and global warming to mention only a few. Most human and relational issues are wicked problems, in the sense that there are no obvious and clear answers to the issues like relationships, motivation, energy and dedication that managers have to face on a daily basis. Coaching is the ideal way to work in this VUCA world and to resolve wicked problems.
  

The context of manager as coach

Coaching someone is always going to be within a specific context. And the leader as coach has to be aware of the relationship and the different – and possibly competing – contexts within which he or she is operating. There are three aspects to the context as set out in Figure 1.1.

The organisation context

The coach will need to be able to address the following questions:

• What are the current issues challenging the organisation?
  
• What is a coachee’s perception of these?
  
• How are they affected by this context?
  
• How are they behaving?
  
• How might they behave differently within their team or department?
  
• What is the relationship between coachee and wider organisation?
  
• What is the relationship between coachee and the team?
  

These will all have an effect on each different coaching scenario or situation.

The coachee context

The coach will also need to be able to understand the context in which the coachee finds themselves. For instance:

• What are a coachee’s values and attitudes?
  
• How does the coachee see things?
  
• What is happening for them?
  
• What are their perceptions and assumptions?
  
• What are their strengths?
  
• What are their development areas?
  

All of these will affect the coaching conversation.

Your context as a coach

Finally we need to look at you in context, as this will affect how you coach others:

• What is going on for you?
  
• What strengths, values and assumptions are you bringing to coaching?
  
• What is your relationship to the organisation?
  
• What is your relationship to the team?
  
• What is your relationship to the individual being coached?
  

All of the above have an influence on the coaching processes you adopt. Your answers to these questions will help you to become more aware of the context in which you are operating and will help you to determine your approach to any coaching situation.

Barriers to coaching

There are a number of barriers and hurdles that have been identified within organisations and among leaders and managers to using a coaching style and actively promoting coaching as part of their managerial philosophy. These are:

• Time. We very often hear from managers that they would like to coach but simply don’t have the time. For us this is a false problem. The reality is that managers don’t have the time NOT to coach. Of course there is an investment of time up front, but if the result is that your people think for themselves, are creative and use their initiative, then ultimately you save time. And sometimes it takes less time to coach than it does to tell and convince someone that your way of doing things is indeed the right way.
  
• Reward. It may be that leaders are not rewarded for coaching and developing their people. The organisation might not have built it into their reward structure, so any time spent coaching might be seen as a waste of time. The old adage that what gets rewarded gets done then comes into play.
  
• Competence. Do leaders have the competence to coach effectively? We are not sure. We often see leaders who think they are coaching, but who are in fact telling people what to do and giving advice. Often they disguise their advice as coaching by framing it as a question. For example: ‘Don’t you think it would be a good idea to do…?’ or ‘Have you thought of…!’ This isn’t coaching! However, we do understand that leaders do need to give advice and offer ideas from time to time. Often it’s a question of when to give the advice and we believe that any advice should be given after first of all questioning the coachee and raising their awareness of issues.
  
• Resources. Does the leader or the organisation have the resources and will to train their managers to become coaches? Do they invest in training and coaching? Will they put in place an infrastructure and culture where coaching is simply the way things are done? If not, then it’s likely that the initiative for coaching will die out.
  
• Interest and motivation. Does the leader have enough interest and motivation to actually coach as opposed to simply telling people what to do? Is the coaching mentality measured at recruitment? Is it rewarded (see above) formally or indeed informally? If a coaching approach is not part of the culture then employees might resist using the approach.
  
• Culture. The culture of the organisation could be a potential barrier to implementing coaching. If the culture of coaching within the organisation is autocratic and top down, then it is unlikely that a coaching culture could be easily implemented. There is a common expression in business that says ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. In our experience the attitude of top management is critical. If they support coaching initiatives and actually use a coaching approach in their management style, then a coaching approach is more likely to succeed.
  
• Expertise. Who is the expert? Traditionally leaders would say they are, and this leads to a bias in favour of telling and prescribing. We would challenge this perspective. The reality is that by definition a leader should rarely know more about a particular area than the person doing the job. The basis for promotion to management and leadership is often expertise in a specific area and so it’s logical that when you get promoted you start to manage and lead in areas where you have no or little specific expertise. For example, many managers are promoted from specialist roles, such as Senior Marketing Manager to, say, Plant Director or Chief Operations Officer, so while they may have expertise in marketing they will not be an expert in any of the other areas reporting to them. For this expertise they will have to rely on others.
  

While this is often the case, there are undoubtedly times when the leader does have better knowledge or expertise than the person they are managing. But even then it is not evident that telling someone what to do and simply instructing them is the best way to proceed. The important question is: how can the leader with the greater functional expertise transfer knowledge in a sustainable way? Perhaps the manager can still coach by first finding out what the employee does know, or what ideas they might have before simply telling them what to do?

None of these barriers is insurmountable. However, it is important to be aware of them.

Is coaching effective?

If recent research is to be believed it would certainly seem that coaching is increasingly effective as a development process used by organisations. Of course, many organisations work with executive coaches. What we have experienced at Ashridge is that there is a growing trend to encourage leaders and managers to acquire and use coaching skills in their day-to-day role. In the Ridler Report published in 2013, Trends in the Use of Executive Coaching, respondents indicated that there was a clear trend towards the use of internal rather than external coaches.

Research by the UK’s Corporate Executive Board in 2009, which is a leading member-based advisory company, found that coaching by an executive’s manager drove leadership bench strength (this is a sports term which refers to the qualities and readiness of potential successors to move into key leadership positions) more than any other factor. The well-known Google organisation did some research in 2011 and they looked at the key indicators of successful managers and found that being a good coach was one of the indicators of effective management. For example they found that one to one coaching with a problem manager led to a 75 per cent improvement in that manager’s performance. A recent survey by the CIPD shows that the key reason for organisations to coach was to improve performance and engagement. In conversation with Simon Presswell, an MD and entrepreneur in the music and entertainment business, he stressed that in the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of creative businesses, coaching can often act as a lighthouse warning of the impending danger of rocks ahead, and help you decide if you wish to avoid them. When the manager or leader acts as a coach they will be far more likely to pick up on the realities of their business situation.

In fact the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel Development’s annual survey on learning and talent development reports that coaching by line managers is ranked one of the most effective learning and talent development practices (CIPD 2013). Interestingly the same survey tells us that coaching is one of the key leadership skills that organisations lack! The fact is that many organisations are already using their managers and leaders as coaches. According to another CIPD report, more than 50 per cent of coaching in organisations is done by line managers and internal coaches (CIPD 2011). At Ashridge Business School, training managers in coaching skills and techniques and offering qualification programmes for executive coaches has been a major part of their offering for many years. Professor Erik de Haan, Director of Ashridge’s Centre for Coaching, suggests that coaching is:

• Based on the creation and maintenance of an effective working relationship.
  
• Focused on goals and outcomes while allowing creativity to emerge.
  
• Oriented towards successful organisational performance.
  
• An opportunity to offer individual feedback on perceived behaviour and styles in order to facilitate self-awareness, learning and personal change.
  
• Confidential.
  

It is clear to see that internal coaching by an organisation’s own managers and leaders is fast becoming a major part of many organisation’s learning and development strategy. In order for coaching to succeed in any organisation there must be a clear understanding of the benefits, challenges and barriers together with an organisational culture that supports, promotes and rewards coaching as a managerial philosophy.

Tips for success

• Remember, research shows that coaching leads to better performance.
  
• One of the main barriers to coaching is lack of time so you must actively make time to coach.
  
• The key to good coaching is good listening, so listen more than you speak.
  
• Remember, ‘wicked’ problems have options and possibilities rather than definitive solutions.
  
• Your role as a coach is to help others learn for themselves NOT to teach them.
  
• Generation Y expects and wants to be listened to and coached.
  
• Coaching encourages independence in others.