Most forward thinking businesses know that the traditional command and control approach to leadership, with one charismatic leader (taking the organisation bravely into the future), is an outdated model. Thriving organisations are now led by connected leaders who use their coaching and influencing skills to inspire, engage and motivate their teams.
The role that coaching plays in this new leadership paradigm is undisputed. Research shows that coaching has a positive impact on achieving goals, improving performance, building resilience and engaging teams. Many organisations are committed to building a coaching culture, combining the best of their own internal coaching champions with external coaches generally brought in to work with the most senior executives and high potentials.
As the coaching profession grows, so too does the desire to establish best practice around the coaches who work with your senior talent. Within your organisation you need to know, as a minimum: who is being coached, what are they being coached for, how much is the organisation spending, and how is the coaching being monitored and evaluated?
The IECL currently sits on more than 20 coaching panels and for the past decade hasbeen involved in advising clients on best practice. Here are the critical areas to be clear on when hiring external coaches or setting up your coaching panel.
1. Understand the business need
It is important to be able to articulate what you are using coaching for. Where does coaching sit within your leadership framework and how does coaching link to the key competencies? Ask yourself: what would you like your executives to be doing differently as a result of receiving coaching?
Bringing in external coaches is expensive, so it is important to understand the appetite of the business to invest in coaching. Is coaching appreciated and sponsored by the senior leaders? Which executives would you target to be coached and where are they located? What do they need to be coached on? (Common areas include developmental, career, succession, performance, remedial coaching). These questions will help you to establish the business need and appetite for coaching.
2. Understand the current reality
Now that you know the need, understand the current reality. Do some research to understand what your organisation is using coaching for. Who is currently being coached, which coaches are you using and why? What is the range of coaching services; one on one, group or team coaching? What is your current procurement process? How do you measure the success of the coaching? This will then enable you to compare the business need with the current reality, and identify the gaps.
3. Coach credentials
Next we look at matching your organisation’s needs with the available coaches. Coaching services are provided by a wide range of people with extremely varied backgrounds, experience and training. It’s important to be clear on what type of coach will best fit with your executives. There are many types of coaches. We generally recommend that organisations hire coaches who have a business background and are specifically trained as organisational or executive coaches.
Coaching is an unregulated industry; anyone can use the title of coach, so at a minimum you may wish to consider the following when selecting coaches:
- What is their formal coaching qualification? (Are they trained by a reputable and accredited provider, for example accredited by the International Coaching Federation?)
- Are they engaged in regular coaching supervision and aware of the code of ethics around coaching?
- How do they maintain their ongoing professional development?
- What is their depth of experience as a coach and in what industry sectors?
- What is their business experience and educational background?
- Do they have referees who can attest to their effectiveness?
- Do they have a credible business with the necessary levels of insurance and the ability to work professionally with your organisation?
4. Managing and Measuring the Coaching
This is where most organisations fall down. Often, no one ‘owns’ the process and no clear measures of success are established around the coaching engagement. It is important that stakeholders get together to work out what type of outcome is best measured and what assessments will most accurately measure them. These should then be applied to every coaching engagement.
Internationally, the most common approach to assessment of development interventions is still the one designed by Kirkpatrick, who outlined four types of outcomes, or levels of impact. These are Reactions, Learning, Behaviour and Results. Afifth level, more recently added, is return on investment, or ROI.
A growing body of research confirms that coaching is one of the most effective ways to create dynamic and high performing organisations. Taking the time to follow these basic guidelines when you set up your coaching panel will set you up for success, long term.
Julie Parkinson is Director of the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership. If you wish to learn more about IECL or get in touch, visit www.iecl.com.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
