The unanswered question of all time is, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” While an answer to this question has yet to be determined, I will attempt to answer a similar question posed to me recently by a new manager.
CMOE is currently replicating its research on Coaching Skills, which was originally conducted in 1985. Last month, I was conducting the one-on-one interviews for this research project. During one particular interview with a very new manager, I noticed him ruminating when I asked him about his coaching style, experience, and effectiveness. I asked him to describe a specific example of one of his coaching conversations. He contemplated the question for a while before saying “When I meet with my employees on an individual basis, it is because there is a problem. These conversations tend to be more of a negative experience for both me and the employee I’m coaching. This is mostly because I’ve never clearly understood when to meet with my employees. Should I meet with them when a problem arises? Or do I spend my time conducting proactive meetings to hopefully prevent problems?”
Essentially what this person was asking is, “What comes first, coaching or the need to coach?” This is a very interesting question and one that has been asked before in CMOE’s Coaching Skills Workshop. If this question is one you’ve found yourself asking as well, please take some time to think it over or post your own thoughts and comments for others to view. Also, stay on the lookout for Part 2 of this blog that addresses this question in-depth.
We can all understand that it is important to help employees to improve their performance and increase in their skills, but sometimes it just takes too much time. There are too many employees and too much work to get done to be able to have a solid coaching session. Wrong! Take a look at the following video which demonstrates how an employee’s performance can be evaluated and his strengths encouraged in a natural setting. This method is so obvious and natural. Watch this demonstration of a One Minute Employee Coaching Session.
Raw unfiltered feedback really sheds light on people or organization issues and often comes out in full force during organizational assessments. A few years ago, CMOE was working with an organization to improve the performance and effectiveness of its managers. We provided an assessment tool to specifically help draw out insight and feedback as to how effective the managers were in their roles, skills, and competencies. Overall, the managers scored well. However, one department wasn’t doing as well as the rest. As we sifted through the data, I came across some general comments provided by an individual in this department. Let me share with you this rare glimpse of someone truly opening up and sharing.
Unfiltered Feedback – These comments has been modified to ensure anonymity
“I think Mark has good intentions, but lacks some people skills in general. He’s a good programmer and sales rep, but seems to be rather abrasive as a manager. The all-star athlete doesn’t always make a good coach. Mark tends to think it is his way or the highway. Team meetings are viewed as ‘time to get beat up’ sessions…”
“The sales team feels constant pressure to perform at a level beyond common sense. We all know there is pressure from the top down to “make the numbers,” but lose sight of the fact that our customers drive the business. Our promises to Wall Street should not influence how we treat our customers……We think short-term and are managed accordingly. Our success is based on long-term professional relationships with customers we care about and treat right. As long as we deliver what we promise and provide solutions that customers are happy with, we will do well…”
“I am VERY uncomfortable with having to share this information at this time. I fully expect to get in trouble for being open and honest and sharing this information.”
Our Summary of These Comments: The translation of the above comment is that this person loves the job, but feels changes are drastically needed for the department. It is clear that this person has also reached a tipping point where frustration will lead to radical change for them as an individual; the person may leave, start to resist, or even break down emotionally.
All-star performers often accomplish more and in return often expect more from those they manage. I don’t see anything wrong with expecting more, so long as these all-star athletes are equipped and continually develop interpersonal communication skills. The big question is have these people been identified in your organization?
Many people feel that coaching and mentoring are the same thing. Whenever you ask a group what makes a good coach, someone inevitably says “mentor” or “mentoring.” Likewise, if you were to ask a group what makes a good mentor, you would probably hear someone say that a mentor helps to coach people.
No doubt, coaching and mentoring have many similar characteristics. Both coaches and mentors are typically established to assist other people in personal development in life, business, school, career decisions, athletics, and many other areas. At CMOE, we have found that good mentors and good coaches will demonstrate many of the same types of skills and behaviors when working with other people. One thing we find to be more common than ever before is that employees are looking to their immediate managers to take the role of coach and mentor. Not only are the employees seeking this help, but many managerial job descriptions are requiring leaders to coach and mentor as well.
If you really want to understand the difference between coaching and mentoring, author Nigel MacLennan in his book Coaching and Mentoring helps distinguish the difference between a coach and a mentor quite well.
“The two roles are worlds apart and overlapping, depending on which dimension they are compared. In terms of volition, a mentor can be unwitting or even unwilling, but still a successful mentor. How? By a performer choosing a role model at a distance. A coach could never be unwitting, and is unlikely to engage in the process if unwilling. The roles overlap when a person performs successfully as a coach. He or she is likely to be adopted as a mentor of coaching skills. The reverse is not true. A mentor can never be a coach unless they deliberately adopt the skills involved in successful coaching. The coach concentrates on helping the performer learn how to achieve more. The mentor’s aim is to be available for the performer to use as a resource. A mentor can fulfill the role quite adequately with basic management, people and training or teaching skills. An effective coach must have the knowledge, technique and skill to help the performer achieve, without directing.”
MacLennan makes a strong point in that people with good coaching skills help people to learn and develop on their own, while mentors many times just direct. Another important thought the author expresses is that a coach can become a mentor more easily than a mentor can become a coach.
A mentor can be disengaged and distant, but today’s coaches are in the front lines with their troops every day. The art of coaching demands ownership and partnership, in order to build a strong foundation for communication and support within the relationship. The Journal of Applied Psychology said that, “Managers spend 57 to 89 percent of their time in face to face communication.” Even in today’s constantly changing world of technology, managers are still spending a large portion of time in communication with their team members.
Therefore, it is increasingly important for managers, directors, supervisors, and senior executives to be good coaches. They need proper coaching skills training in order to make a bigger impact within their teams and organization. When a good coach engages his team members in continuous and positive interactions, the developed synergy will produce tremendous results. Strong coaches, properly trained in coaching skills, know how to maximize interactions for positive relationships and bottom-line outcomes.
People often comment to me that they are “uncomfortable” coaching employees when it comes to unacceptable performance issues. While this is not uncommon, it often occurs because people haven’t developed their coaching skills and abilities. When coaching, especially around performance issues, it is so important to address an issue when it arises rather than waiting. By waiting to address the issue, you run the risk of making the coaching conversation more difficult. Chances are the behavior will be repeated and will be assumed acceptable.
In order to become comfortable with coaching, I usually offer two simple suggestions to get things moving:
Suggestion 1: Prepare yourself when the situation is more difficult. A little preparation will go a long way in helping ensure a coaching conversation is effective and doesn’t go off track.
Suggestion 2: Practice coaching where easy and basic opportunities arise and slowly work towards more complex opportunities.
By practicing the coaching process in easy opportunities and preparing for more difficult ones, you will develop your natural ability and the skills necessary to be a great and effective coach.
Example From My Youth
A close friend from my youth had a theory he used jokingly for a number of things in life. He called it the Hot Tub Theory. It goes something like this:
Pretend you have had a long hard day and you’re ready to soak your sore muscles in some hot water. You walk outside to your hot tub/spa. You don’t just throw yourself right into the water do you? No, you probably go through the following steps:
Step 1: You approach the hot tub and dip your toes in the water to check the temperature. Is it too hot or just right? Step 2: You step down into the first level of the hot tub (about knee deep). Feels good doesn’t it. Step 3: You slowly immense the remaining lower half of your body into the water. You’re about waist deep and it feels nice. Step 4: You let your body adjust for a minute. In preparation for the next step, you might even splash a little water on your chest/stomach/arms so the heat isn’t an immediate shock to your upper body. Step 5: Now, you’re fully immersed up to your neck. Ah, basking in the warmth. You feel comfortable, relaxed and happy. Everything seems good.
The point of the story is if you throw yourself in all at once, you might be burned or at least feel like you’re being burned. Take this theory to coaching. Ease yourself into the level of coaching you can comfortably engage in when possible. The same goes for coaching discussions, don’t just throw yourself right into the issue or problem at hand, but ease in. Ask how things are going, be supportive, address concerns and listen to the other person. Remember, an effective coach makes the discussion a two-way process. There just might be a side to the story you’re not aware of. By doing this, you’ll feel comfortable and confident in your skills.
When it comes to coaching, most of our efforts are spent with those that report directly to us. This begs the question; what needs to be done when you need to coach your boss on a particular issue? Can you achieve the results you desire and can it really be done effectively? Interestingly enough, sometimes the person who needs coaching the most is your boss, and there are ways you can coach your boss without feeling too much pressure.
We have to admit that in the business world today there are still a few managers who are less receptive to coaching and it may seem like the smart thing to throw in the towel and focus your efforts in other places. These few managers have narrow vision and see just one way to accomplish anything; their way. However, there are many bosses and leaders out there that are very receptive to coaching, feedback, and are willing to listen to other ideas that improve workplace performance. Great leaders recognize that someone else may know something they don’t, or something they could benefit from, and are more willing and open to suggestions from people who are willing to take a risk to coach their boss.
Coaching a boss or leader might not be so different from when you coach a direct report, but how can you effectively and transparently send your message up the chain of command? Carefully, and in a professional and tactful way is a simple answer. Also, it may take a little more effort to get the point across. The key here is to be sure you deliver the message in a way that your manager will be open to. When done successfully, it can really open up future dialogue and improve coaching conversations between you and your manager.
Here are a few tips in delivering the message: Plan your conversation. Decide what your topic is and walk through the key points of the conversation. You may actually want to practice it in your mind and when available find someone to rehearse the conversation with you before you go in to the meeting. If your manager agrees with you on many of your ideas, you can present the framework of how you see the future unfolding if no change takes place. Here is a great place to let your manager reflect on the future and how they see it unfolding under current circumstances. You may not have a grasp of the whole picture, so your leader’s ideas and thoughts might be very informative. The great thing about this is that your ideas might be very informative to your boss as well, making it a win-win conversation
After you have discussed what the future might look like (without any changes), let the impact of that statement sit with your boss for a while. Then, propose a plan or a solution to the problem you have brought to your leader’s attention. You may want to have more than one idea to propose and you should solicit ideas from your leader for the solution. By getting input from your boss you actually transfer ownership of the solution from just you to the two of you, creating collaboration, partnering, and synergy in creating solutions to business problems.
After some details to the plan have surfaced it may be time to identify obstacles that would hinder the success of any proposed solutions. This is a great opportunity again to gain some insight and perspective from your manager on what might trip up the plan in the future. Remember, your boss may have a more intimate knowledge of future business goals, plans, and objectives. Listen for those carefully as you may need to re-visit your plans based on your leader’s feedback.
When a solution is agreed upon, this is a perfect opportunity to clearly define what you are willing to do to implement the solution. By showing your commitment to the solution and asking for your leader’s commitment you are cementing the plan and creating the proper action steps for the future. The key here is to show that you are going to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. In addition, it might be helpful to state or recap your point of view and highlight some best probable scenarios for the future if the new plan is implemented? Employees that are willing to bring opportunities to the manager’s attention, collaborate on solutions, and provide a vision of the future are going to be seen as top performers.
When you are coaching up, you are taking a proactive approach to point out opportunities to improve the organization. Coach up when it’s appropriate.
Phil Higgins on the Eight-Step Coaching model used by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer
Any successful, professional sports person has a coach, whose role is to encourage, challenge and motivate the athlete to achieve their true potential. In the working environment, the same principles apply. The benefits of coaching include an increase in the individual’s overall performance, greater motivation through an acknowledgment that the individual is being developed, leading to greater retention and succession planning.
Profile of culture and aims of coaching programs:
Pfizer is the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, with a 1000+ strong sales force in the UK alone, each of whom has a line manager, whose primary responsibility is to coach them. The main purpose of coaching is to help people help themselves. Representatives mostly work unsupervised. The area manager’s role is to build capability in the representative, so that they can be self-reliant, successful and motivated salespeople. Fully recognizing the benefit of effective coaching has encouraged Pfizer to develop a coaching culture, particularly within the field force environment. Such an aim involves each newly appointed line manager and trainer undergoing a coaching skills course as part of their initial training. In addition, managers and trainers have the development of their people as an integral parameter in their performance-management objectives.
The field force has the opportunity, annually, to provide feed back to their area manager. Such feedback can be invaluable to the coach, as their work is largely unobserved by anyone other than the coachee. When done proficiently, coaching is a subtle form of questioning and listening, allowing the coachee themselves to establish their own goals and plan. Often coaches may not be aware of their own coaching strengths and weaknesses. This feedback process has significantly motivated the area managers and improved the overall quality of coaching.
The Model Chosen for Pfizer Success
In developing a coaching culture, Pfizer adopted a standard coaching model in the UK in 1997, following its successful application in the US. The model was developed in the US by Steven J Stowell, Ph.D. and is used by many well-known companies, such as AT&T, Boeing, Mobil Oil and PepsiCo amongst others. The 8 Step Model is the result of extensive research by Dr. Stowell and the CMOE organization, in which they discovered that there are 47 behaviors that ‘world class coaches’ demonstrate. These behaviors are then distilled into eight steps. The model is circular, and implicit is its flexibility and continuity. A coach can use any stage of the cycle for his interaction as it provides a framework to the discussion. The 8 Step Model has proved itself to be more effective in the Pfizer environment than many other well known coaching models and programs. While many organizations may utilize other coaching models easily found today, most of these models imply that the coachee is already motivated to make some kind of change in their behavior – either they know what they want to achieve, but don’t know how to go about it, or they want some other result than that they are realizing, but don’t know how to go about it. There can be occasions, particularly when coaching a direct report, when the current behaviors are not seen as affecting the outcome for the individual. As such, they are not necessarily motivated to change their behavior. For example, a manager might want to coach a junior about their expenses being frequently late, but to the junior, this is not a problem. In short, there is no motivation to change behavior, and this is where the 8 Step Model comes into its own.
The model’s impact on success
As a past area manager at Pfizer, my intention was to encourage the representatives to fulfill their job requirements independently, relying on a strong sense of self-reliance and self-motivation to generate sales. The frequency of accompanied visits averaged one day a month. To improve the support offered, I piloted telephone coaching to augment the accompanied visits. The focus of my sales call coaching also shifted to ‘pre-call’ coaching, where my primary focus was in enabling the representative to get into the optimal ‘state’ to sell, maximizing that selling opportunity, rather than the traditional post postmortem of everything that the representative could have done and possibly didn’t.
After a few weeks, I noticed that my team was much more energized and motivated at work and that they were thinking through the structure of their calls in a productive way. After a three-month pilot period, a survey was completed where the statement, ‘overall, telephone coaching has helped me become more effective’ resulted in an average score of 7.3 (where 1 = strongly disagree and 9 = strongly agree).
Summary
One of the most effective ways to invest in people’s development and to encourage them to achieve beyond their limitations is by using coaching, and in particular (though not exclusively) through the relationship between the manager and their direct reports. In Pfizer’s case, the company has generated an environment where high expectation of performance is supported and a coaching culture is alive and well.
Background
Phil Higgins worked as a district sales manager, then associate training manager at Pfizer for 12 years. He is now managing director of Peak Performance Training and Development. He can be contacted through www.pptd.co.uk. The 8 Step Model course and material is available from the Center of Management and Organizational Effectiveness (CMOE), and further information can be obtained at www.cmoe.com.
In families, organizations, and indeed even our society, one of the reasons for failure is the inability by leadership to establish and enforce accountability. Accountability in leadership is a topic that is not frequently discussed and the result is often relating to compliance to procedures, following work rules, treating customers with respect, achieving results, and getting along with co-workers. Accountability is at the heart of empowering people to perform well, demonstrating initiative, and acting responsibly. When a climate of accountability exists, things work smoothly; and when it is absent procedures fail and policies are ignored.
Let me describe parental leadership first. I read a newspaper report about a father who had an emotional outburst and caused a scene in a school board meeting regarding the suspension of his son from school. His eleven-year-old son had threatened the life of another student on the playground. Following district policy, the principal had suspended the boy for three days saying, “In light of tragedies that have happened in schools around the country, we take all threats such as this very seriously. The policy requires a three-day suspension.”
The irate father emotionally pled his case to the school board saying, “He’s a good boy and even though this is the second time this year he’s been suspended he doesn’t deserve punishment this harsh. Three days is just too much, because it’s embarrassing for him and our entire family.”
The father apparently was saying that because the suspension would be embarrassing that the punishment ought to be reduced. In other words, the consequence of the son’s behavior is trumped by the father’s desire to evade embarrassment. That is interesting in light of the father’s emotional outburst in a public school board meeting.
Now let me describe organizational leadership. A manager complained, “My employees just don’t take me seriously.” She said, “Even though I tell them over and over, some employees won’t even call in to say they are sick. They just don’t show up.”
I asked what she did when an employee didn’t take the time to call in sick. She replied, “I just find somebody else to work the shift and then when they do show up I tell them to be sure to call me next time.”
I asked, “So how is this technique working?” She said, “It’s not! That’s the problem. I can’t find good people these days.”
The situations with the irate parent and the ineffective manager are related. They both show the absence of a leader establishing and enforcing individual accountability. When people do not feel that they are held accountable for their behavior, they often lower their performance to the lowest possible level acceptable to the leader. In other words, leader behavior regarding the establishment of accountability does a lot to determine a person’s highest level of performance. That’s what the eleven-year-old boy did on the playground. He had gotten away with inappropriate behavior before (certainly at home and possibly at
school) and believed he could do it again. His previous inappropriate behaviors had not resulted in undesirable consequences for him. That’s similar to what the employees were doing to the manager. They had not been held accountable when they didn’t call in sick before, so they had no belief that it was a necessary requirement to maintain job security. The manager’s failure to hold her employees accountable created an overly permissive climate where the employees could dictate their own policies and procedures.
The foundation of establishing accountability is the principle of Behavior Must Equal Consequence. When people do not believe that their behavior will result in a consequence, they are free to choose any behavior that feels good at the moment. When people believe that their positive behaviors will result in positive feedback or even rewards, and their inappropriate behaviors will result in corrective feedback, coaching, or even discipline, they will raise their performance to the standard expected by the leader. The leader sets the standard through his or her application of feedback, coaching and discipline.
I don’t know all of the details about the parent and his son, the schoolyard bully, but it is a safe bet that the son had not been held accountable for his behaviors in the past. The reason he threatened another classmate’s life is because he didn’t believe that his behavior would have any undesirable consequences. He thought he could get away with it. And, the reason why the manager’s employees didn’t call in sick, and didn’t even apologize for not doing so was because they also thought they could get away with it. The two examples are related because in each case the leader failed to establish personal accountability by practicing the principle of Behavior Must Equal Consequence.
Effective leaders believe in and practice the principle of Behavior Must Equal Consequence. When an employee performs well and/or adheres to organizational rules, an effective manager will notice and provide the employee with appropriate feedback to reinforce the good performance. Likewise, when an employee does not perform well and/or does not follow the rules, an effective manager will notice and provide the employee with corrective feedback, or coaching to change the performance. Exactly the same thing is true when raising children. Behavior Must Equal Consequence, both positive and negative, must be a guiding principle to raise responsible children who as a consequence act responsibly.
Personal accountability is a climate that is created when a leader consistently practices Behavior Must Equal Consequence. The word “consistently” often bothers managers, because they think it means “every time.” Clearly, a manager cannot provide supportive or corrective feedback every time an employee does something. That obviously is not possible. But a manager can do what is necessary to become more aware of an employee’s performance and then provide appropriate feedback as often as is practical. Simply, if employees feel and act as though they are accountable, then the leader is practicing consistent feedback. If employees do not feel and act accountable, then the leader is not consistent with his or her feedback.
Consistency not only involves the frequency of feedback in that it must be frequent enough to create a climate of accountability, but it also includes the ppropriateness of the feedback. In the principle of Behavior Must Equal Consequence, good performance must result is supportive feedback, and poor performance must result in corrective feedback. If a manager, due to stress, anger, lack of understanding, failure to take time, or habit gives negative feedback for good performance, positive feedback for poor performance, or no feedback for any performance, then the employees will sense a lack of consistency and conclude that they are not accountable for their actions. Thus they are free to act any way they want.
So the secret to creating a climate of accountability is to become more aware of performance levels, take the time to give the correct type of feedback or coaching, give feedback as often as practical, and do so as consistently as conditions permit. Done over time with the proper administration of rewards when deserved and discipline or sanctions when appropriate, a manager can create a climate of accountability and become more effective.
In order to successfully position your organization in the marketplace, leadership teams must create a compelling and distinctive value proposition. Customers must believe you are there to champion their needs, not just to make a profit. However, defining a really attractive value proposition is actually the easy part. The hard part is getting the organization totally aligned and in sync with a customer focused value proposition. Everyone in the organization must understand and see that the customer is part of their personal responsibility. This customer-oriented culture relies on front line leaders that help people understand how they fit into the strategic management of the business and why they matter.
If you can get people to think strategically about the customer at an individual level and act in ways to exceed their current and emerging expectations, you can keep the organization well ahead of your rivals. However, developing a passion for customer problems and creating solutions doesn’t come naturally to most people and can be challenging to develop. Begin by thinking about your own experience. Ask yourself how well you like doing business with the last company that had lack of interest in your problem? In fact, you might even ask yourself if your current suppliers are anticipating your future needs and problems.
More than 30 years of strategic management and consulting experience has indicated to us that “customer acumen” is the heart of successful business strategy. However, creating this customer oriented culture is hard work and it is not an exact science. Here are a few tips to get started:
Insure everyone in your organization understands that giving customers value is a clear priority. Leaders at all levels have to instill a deep understanding and reverence for what the company stands for and what your value proposition is. In essence, knowing what the company is trying to be, why the company does the unique activities it does, and why these activities are hard to replicate by competitors. A customer centric culture is a function of the behaviors, attitudes, and training of each individual employee.
As leaders you have to preach customer value every opportunity you get. This movement must become part of the daily vernacular. Let people know that bringing value to the customer is the core goal of the organization. Then, coach employees to take responsibility and act in ways that show they embrace customer value.
Finally, give them honest and immediate feedback when they succeed and when they come up short. The end goal is to help members of your organization understand that creating value for the customer is the ultimate measure of their success. It is what keeps you in business and pays the bills. To do this, leaders need to understand their role as change agents and coaches. You must extend the call to all leaders to be courageous coaches and hold people accountable. It is also important that leaders receive development opportunities so they know what feedback and coaching looks like and feels like. These discussions are different than the usual business opportunity discussions. Robust coaching sessions will focus on strengths, weaknesses, and actual behaviors that are occurring on the job.
With active strategic management you can achieve long-term sustained success for your employees, customers, and owners. Once people understand their role as customer advocates, they will begin to see opportunities to grow the business and serve customers by exceeding today’s needs, anticipating future problems, and creating innovation solutions. As leaders and employees alike become comfortable challenging the status quo, they will create a dynamic and rewarding organization for everyone.
The unanswered question of all time is, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” While an answer to this question has yet to be determined, I will attempt to answer a similar question posed to me recently by a new manager.
No doubt, coaching and mentoring have many similar characteristics. Both coaches and mentors are typically established to assist other people in personal development in life, business, school, career decisions, athletics, and many other areas. At CMOE, we have found that good mentors and good coaches will demonstrate many of the same types of skills and behaviors when working with other people. One thing we find to be more common than ever before is that employees are looking to their immediate managers to take the role of coach and mentor. Not only are the employees seeking this help, but many managerial job descriptions are requiring leaders to coach and mentor as well.
Step 1: You approach the hot tub and dip your toes in the water to check the temperature. Is it too hot or just right?
Here are a few tips in delivering the message: Plan your conversation. Decide what your topic is and walk through the key points of the conversation. You may actually want to practice it in your mind and when available find someone to rehearse the conversation with you before you go in to the meeting. If your manager agrees with you on many of your ideas, you can present the framework of how you see the future unfolding if no change takes place. Here is a great place to let your manager reflect on the future and how they see it unfolding under current circumstances. You may not have a grasp of the whole picture, so your leader’s ideas and thoughts might be very informative. The great thing about this is that your ideas might be very informative to your boss as well, making it a win-win conversation
Profile of culture and aims of coaching programs:
Now let me describe organizational leadership. A manager complained, “My employees just don’t take me seriously.” She said, “Even though I tell them over and over, some employees won’t even call in to say they are sick. They just don’t show up.”
With active 
