A Cook Associates Report
In business, getting ahead has much to do with trial and error. And it has only been through this means that companies have come to realize that corporate success and employee success are symbiotic. Yet, human beings are complex. When you put them together day after day in an office for eight to nine hours, it's imperative that everyone is on the same page; the alternative could be disastrous.
When it comes to employee relations, human resources directors are getting savvier. It is becoming common practice to hire outside contractors to assist with improving organizational performance and morale, all to increase the odds of achieving success.
The techniques found in corporate and executive coaching are praised by many corporations who have implemented such practices into their business regimen. However, there is debate that for corporate coaching to work, companies must make it an integral component of day-to-day operations.
"I firmly believe that for the organization and its employees to reap the genuine benefits of coaching it needs to become ingrained in the DNA of the business," said Mary Kier, Vice Chairman for Cook Associates, Inc., who oversees the executive search division at the firm's Chicago headquarters. "Senior executives and the leadership team need to embrace coaching as a way to help managers attain their potential within their organization."
Kier has worked in the executive search industry and served as a team leader for over 20 years. During this time, she has conducted more than 500 searches for senior executives and advised clients ranging from small to mid-size organizations to the Fortune 50. Many of her clients recognize the imperative to develop high-potential leadership, yet Kier is perplexed by the lack of knowledge when it comes to addressing the need for a corporate or executive coach.
"So often we see an employee with a great pedigree, solid resume and work history, who others in the organization genuinely like, but has a leadership style that does not mesh well with the organization " said Kier. "A coach can help re-focus the employee and guide that person in a supportive way. Coaches can unlock untapped potential and talent, so in many ways, they are a major asset for a company."
The concept of facilitating potential is only part and parcel for creating a win-win situation when it comes to working with a corporate coach. In fact, a study was completed in 2001 by Dr. Merrill Anderson of MetrixGlobal, who worked with a Fortune 500 company, and documented the company's successes after hiring an executive coach. Dr. Anderson found that the introduction of a corporate coach produced a 529 percent return on investment (ROI).
Research about the introduction of corporate coaching also revealed that impact learning is not efficient or effective in the business world as it was once thought to be by management schools. Impact learning is a one-time exposure to a learning event that delivers a 2 percent cognitive retention after 16 days. It is the main reason why organizations fail when it comes to delivering positive ROI. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it is a common misconception that a oneor two-day workshop, seminar or conference will reap major results in the areas of knowledge, skills and training.
"My clients who view coaching as a part of the foundation of their business have employees who feel challenged, excited and trusted. These employees take more risks, and are rewarded for their achievements. Coaching helps build high performing teams because it fosters a high-performing environment," said Kier.
A Coach is Born
Corporate and Executive coaching started to achieve recognition in the late nineties. However, according to organizations involved in corporate coaching as well as professional practitioners, the movement began in the 1940s and 1950s by notable psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham H. Maslow, who coined the concept of " client-centered therapy."
The coaching movement finds its roots in similar techniques based on proven concepts in clinical psychology and counseling.
As a greater understanding was gained of how therapeutic elements could be added to the business world, executive coaching was introduced to employees who met the concept with considerable resistance.
"In the beginning there was this stigma attached to it," said Dr. Betty Orlandino, who has been a corporate coach for over 18 years and represents five major Fortune 500 companies with several Fortune 100 companies in her portfolio. "Employees would warn one another: ‘Here comes the corporate shrink!'" recalled Orlandino.
"There was always a fear that people would see it as a weakness, but now people are excited about it and they are willing to be more proactive, so it has gotten away from the myth that it's about damage control and problems. What we learn in grad school is a very small piece of it. This is about making an investment. It proves that a company is personally investing in them and it's realized that this is a large compliment when a corporation invests in them."
The idea of assisting executives to develop common sense, no nonsense reasoning to empower their leadership abilities through work is not as revolutionary as it may The Danish philosopher Nikolai Grundtvig was ardent in his writings about leaders working to build strong, beneficial relationships with their workers. For centuries, leaders have had advisors who functioned in the same capacity as a coach would. Kings and Queens had them, state leaders had them, and still today, CEOs are also known to have them.
Advisors are there to help, support, dissect essential information, and discuss with leaders rational solutions to problems. In many ways, executive coaching is a hybrid in wide range of disciplines that encompass elements of sociology, psychology, positive adult development, career counseling, mentoring, values assessment, behavior modification, behavior modeling, and goal-setting.
The qualitative and quantitative analysis is undeniable and has not only helped to create a new way of thinking in the corporate business arena, but it has also added an entirely new job role to the executive rank and file.
"It is relatively new as a profession," said Diane Brennan, President-Elect of the International Coach Federation in Lexington, Ky., a professional organization that provides resources for businesses seeking personal coaches.
"While measuring the return is still evolving, several studies demonstrate that there is significant return on investment when a company hires an executive coach. In the past, technology corporations was where you would most often find corporate coaches on the payroll, but now they might be found working within HR departments, or helping with organizational leadership. It won't be long until there is a commitment within the corporate world toward having coaches as part of their everyday business structure."
Effective Coaching
Much is required of a corporate coach, and being able to identify the goals of a client is a two-way street. A corporate coach also has to have above average communication skills, a high emotional IQ, and be able to scrutinize a situation from the top down and come up with workable solutions to a problem.
"Corporate coaching is a process utilizing focused conversations, powerful actions and a commitment to sustained improvements. It is a relationship between two willing and equal participants, and is built upon trust, respect and common objectives," said Executive Coach Joel Garfinkle in a description of the coaching process on his webpage. Garfinkle, who has a firm in Berkley, Calif., is one of the Top 50 executive coaches in the U.S. He has worked with such Fortune 500 companies as Eli Lilly, Cisco Systems,
According to Garfinkle, companies often approach an executive coach with the idea that they can provide a quick fix to an organizational problem. He says that in order to be effective, companies have to understand that it takes time to change a certain behavior in order to reach a desired objective.
"Corporate coaching is not a quick fix. It takes time to change a way of thinking. It's a process," said Garfinkle. "Clients are investing in a process."
Dr. Orlandino also noted that corporate coaching helps to fix certain leadership flaws that often go unnoticed by managers who don't realize how they are coming across to their employees.
"You would be surprised by how many executives plateau in critical interpersonal skills," said Orlandino. "They don't realize how something sounds. There are clues in their tone of voice and often when a manager approaches an employee in a sarcastic way, that person is going to shut down and avoid talking to them at all. This is hardly what I call a productive process. A large part of my work is about shadowing people to see how people respond to them and get some idea on how they are interacting. Often they are giving away what they are thinking by their tone of voice and the look on their face. I always say that this type of micro-messaging is not a good business practice you want to keep your employees."
Kier of Cook Associates believes that in order to avoid the time and money that is spent in losing a star employee, or having to fix a legal problem regarding a disgruntled one, it's best to prevent a problem long before it starts attacking a company's bottom line. Corporate or executive coaching can be the solution to a major and costly problem in the future.
"Coaching improves leadership effectiveness. It is involved in defining opportunities for professional and personal growth, whether in dealing with a boss or peers and the accompanying set of complex issues related to that, to navigating the political landscape," said Kier. "No matter where a person is on the executive ladder - from first rung managers all the way up to CEOs - corporate coaches can help by building trust with the individual, and then being committed to helping the executive in all the areas that will lead to success."
About Cook Associates, Inc.
Cook Associates, Inc. is a retained executive search and M&A advisory services firm. We are uniquely positioned to help our clients capitalize on the brightest talent and best performing companies in the marketplace. Our client base ranges from multinational corporations to early stage entrepreneurial companies, private equity and venture capital firms. www.cookassociates.com