STAN J TONOSKI,

 Entrepreneurial Coach

Making Business Better 

Executive Coaching, the Executives Perspective!

Coaching has seen the most exponential growth of any profession in the last decade. It has evolved in response to the rapid evolution of our society and the disintegration of family and community values. The breakdown of community has forced us to look elsewhere for the support we once had.  Increasing demands are placed on individuals, employees, and executives as a result of the pace of change in our culture. 

Steve Mitten, the 2005 president of the International Coaching Federation and 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year, has stated that 71% of the workforce is not emotionally engaged in their work. Seventy five to ninety percent of visits to physicians are stress related. He sees coaching as an organic response to a real need in the world. He went on to state that our knowledge and our power has evolved quicker than our wisdom and our compassion. He believes coaching is hugely important in the world and is one of the best ways of elevating understanding. 

So What Is Coaching?  

Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives, career, businesses, or organizations. Through coaching, clients deepen their learning of themselves, improve their performance, and enhance the quality of their lives.

Who uses coaches and why?

Coaches are used by organizations of all sizes and for many reasons. Major Corporations have found that simply using coaching as a follow up to training or as a delivery method for training has produced significantly better ROI (Return on Investment) than can be achieved by training only. Studies have shown that conventional training results in little more than a 5 – 10% transfer of new skills to the workplace two to six months later. By providing coaching after the training, the transference to the workplace increases to 90%. How would this impact the ROI on the training budget in your organization?

In the July 30, 2001 edition of Business Wire, it was reported, “Xerox Corporation carried out several studies on coaching. They determined that in the absence of follow-up coaching to their training classes, 87% of the skills change brought about by the program was lost."  Xerox’s study clearly indicates that a significant portion of the training budget is best allocated to coaching in order to instill the mindset of the new habits and methodologies presented during training and staff development programs.

Lee Hecht Harrison surveyed 488 Human Resource professionals in 2002 to learn how coaching is being used in their organizations.  Companies are increasingly turning to coaches for leadership development, style issues and talent retention, so it makes sense that 55% of respondents said that their organization uses coaching as a one-on-one process intended to maximize management and leadership potential and 54% do so to change behaviors. A surprising number of respondents indicated that their organization uses coaching for personal/psychological counseling (36%), advice on appearance or attire (13%) or preparation for a major speech or presentation (11%). 

About 6 out of 10 (59%) organizations currently offer coaching or other developmental counseling to their managers and executives, according to a nationwide survey of more than 300 companies by Manchester, a human capital consulting firm. Another 20% of organizations said they plan to offer such coaching within the next year. The Manchester Group found the organizational benefits from coaching include:

Improved Relationships 77%

Improved Teamwork 67%

Improved Job Satisfaction 61%

Improved Productivity 53%

Improved Quality 48%

 Is coaching a fad?  Who should have access to coaching? 

Research by the Chartered Management Institute and Campaign for Learning - "Coaching at Work" provided results issued in a press release dated 16th May 2002:

• 80% of executives say they think they would benefit from coaching at work and dismiss the suggestion that coaching is just another fad.
• Virtually all managers (96%) think coaching should be available to every employee, regardless of seniority.
• 85% of managers say the main value of coaching is in enhancing team morale.
• 80% of managers value coaching for generating responsibility on the part of the learner.

Other Research took place at the HRD Show in London in April 2002. The respondents were all HR professionals

• 86% held very positive views on coaching.
• 86% of respondents' organizations have offered coaching at one time or another and coaching is CURRENTLY taking place in over one third (36%) of organizations.

What Are The Outcomes? 

Respondents feel that coaching achieves the following desired outcomes:

• A positive impact on other aspects of participants' lives, both at work and outside the workplace (96%).
• A feeling amongst participants of ownership of the issues and the outcomes (85%)
• Evidence of learning being put into practice (71%).
• Readily-quantifiable and positive results, often demonstrated on the company's "bottom-line" over the long term (62%).

The TOP 4 words associated with COACHING (from a given list) were:
Supportive (98%), Empowering (82%), Holistic (80%), Inspirational (77%) 

The TOP 3 words associated with TRAINING (from the same given list) were:
Prescriptive (71%), Rigid (70%), Intimidating (50%) 

What Is The Perspective Of The Executive Being Coached?

Christine Turner is Vice President of Icon International of Toronto. Ms Turner realized that although studies were done on the benefits received by corporations using coaching, no one had actually interviewed the business executives who had been coached. Ms. Turner published the results of her study in a 5-page article in the May/June 2006 edition of the Ivey Business Journal. The article was entitled – “Ungagged: Executives on Executive Coaching” The following is a summary of her findings. 

All of the executives interviewed said their primary focus was the development of their leadership skills. These skills applied to all areas of business from dealing with people to the technical skills needed to manage the business. “They equated strong leadership with heightened levels of emotional intelligence” 

The top five benefits they identified are: 

1. “Continuous one-on-one attention”

Executives found that having the coach provided a long-term ally, who is focused on him or her. They found it to be a great way to learn and to entrench new habits and new learning’s. They much preferred this over external courses and seminars. 

2. “Expanded thinking through dialoguing with a curious outsider.”

The coach’s job is to be curious about you and your business. A coach asks the questions that cause the executive to think out loud and to explore possible new avenues. Ironically, the best coach can be the one who has a different business and educational background, so they can bring a fresh perspective with no hidden agenda to the client.

3. “Self-awareness, including the blind spots.”

It is the coach’s job to help the client gain self awareness. This often comes from the coach’s integrity in telling the client the ugly truth about himself or herself, either directly or with a revealing question. It is in this, that some of the greatest gains and greatest learning’s occur. The coach is not there to be nice. The coach is there to take us out of our comfort zone and help us see what we may not see for ourselves. 

4. “Personal Accountability for Development”

Turner states, “Coaching  provides an objective outside person to help you do assessments, set developmental plans, and hold you accountable.” Tiger Woods credits much of his success to his coach. He understands that no matter how good we are, we need to be held accountable to be even better. Without outside accountability, we can easily let our work and life challenges override our commitments. 

5. “Just-in-time learning”

A large part of coaching is focused on what is going on Right Now! This allows the coach and the executive to respond to today’s and tomorrow issues on the spot, developing the necessary learning or reinforcement needed to take the next step forward.  

Executives expect that their coach will have the “ability to build relationships, ask challenging questions, listen effectively, create accountability, and motivate them towards their objectives.”  These factors positively impact any business whether it be an entrepreneur, a family run business, or a multi-national corporation. 

Turner goes on to say, “It must be understood that the primary focus of executive coaching is to help executives learn. Coaching is not a panacea for a host of business ailments. It falls on the shoulders of coaches to clarify the purpose of coaching at the beginning of the process, to ensure all expectations are realistic. It is also important for executives to realize they can slip into old habits during stressful times at work. But, as coaching is ongoing, there are plenty of opportunities to get back on track. Relapses are an inevitable part of the process, and decrease as time goes on.” 

The question each business owner and executive must ask is; What does it cost me to not have a coach? I would be pleased to discuss the benefits of coaching  with you.

Stan J. Tonoski, Executive Coach

Footnotes:

1)       Except as noted direct quotations are from the article –May/June 2006, Christine Turner  “Ungagged: Executives on Executive Coaching” in The Ivey Business Journal which is published online. www.iveybusinessjournal.com 

2)       Article copyrighted October 16, 2006. Article may be reproduced with full credits.

"There may be no heroic connotation to the word "persistence," but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel." Napoleon Hill