The Benefits of Coaching Employees

2010 August 28 By

What are the benefits of coaching employees? Harvard Business Review’s Answer Exchange offers some great reasons:

When organizations coach employees, benefits to the company include:

  • Overcome costly and time-consuming performance problems
  • Strengthen employees’ skills so you can delegate more tasks to them and focus on more important managerial responsibilities—such as planning
  • Boost productivity by helping your employees work smarter
  • Develop a deep bench of talent who can step into your shoes as you advance in the company
  • Improve retention; employees are more loyal and motivated when their bosses take time to help them improve their skills
  • Make more effective use of company resources; coaching costs less than formal training

When employees are coached, they:

  • Build valuable skills and knowledge they can use to advance in their careers
  • Feel supported and encouraged by their manager and the company
  • Experience the pride and satisfaction that come with surmounting new challenges

Reference

Originally posted on HBR Answer Exchange (now defunct); Adapted from the book Coaching People: Pocket Mentor Series, Harvard Business Press

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Filed Under: Coaching, Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Teams, Training & Development Tagged With: , , , ,

Business and Executive Coaching Buyer’s Guide

2010 August 20 By

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) recently published a coaching guide. It appears that SIOP is trying to compete for a piece of the coaching pie by the language on the site, and I applaud them for finally doing so. For example,

“Effective [business or executive] coaching requires expertise in a wide array of fields including assessment, measurement and evaluation, change management, adult learning and development, leadership development, performance management, organizational behavior, and team dynamics. Because psychologists educated in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (I-O) have a doctoral degree and a thorough education in these fields, they are particularly qualified to provide effective coaching assistance.”

The language suggests that a good “coach” (in this case a business or executive coach, not a life coach) is one who is educated and trained in I-O psychology and the listing of things that add up to being an effective coach are taught in I-O programs. Good move I must say.

Under the first comment section SIOP makes an even bolder move by stating:

“Many people call themselves coaches, and their education may range from a one-day continuing education course to a doctoral degree from a major research university. (See the SIOP website for information on doctoral and masters level programs in I-O psychology.) Many organizations certify coaches although the meaning of many of these certification efforts is not clear. We believe the most effective coaches are well educated in the areas of I-O psychology listed above and encourage an organization to ask detailed questions about education and experience.”

Now, that’s taking your place in the coaching arena!

I also like their questions to ask a coach. And in the comment section warns those seeking coaching to, “Watch out for gimmicks and one- size-fits-all solutions. Make sure the coach is using tools that are valid, i.e., have evidence of their usefulness for their intended purpose, and appropriate for the individual and setting.”

In particular, I like these questions:

(1) What is your training and experience in the following areas?

  • Individual Assessment
  • Measurement and evaluation
  • Performance evaluation
  • Change management
  • Training and development
  • Organizational behavior
  • Team dynamics

(2) How much and what kind of experience do you have in organizations?

(3) How much and what kind of experience do you have in this industry and with
individuals in this role (e.g., line management, staff functions, professionals)?

(4) How many people have you coached?

  • How did you identify the problem(s) of the individual?
  • How do you assess the individual?
  • What tools do you use? What experience have you had using them?
  • What kind of action planning process do you use?
  • What kinds of developmental activities do you employ?
  • How do you evaluate progress? How? When?

(5) How (and how often) do you evaluate the effectiveness of your coaching?

(6) What ethics code guides your work?

  • How does the coach handle ethical problems?
  • Who is the client?

(7) What are your references?

In raising concerns about the definition of coaching (as a distinct, standalone profession) and about the credibility of coaches as well as an entire coaching industry that has sprung up, Grant (2007) raised an important consideration. He says:

“Because coaching is an industry and not a profession, there are no barriers to entry, no regulation, no government-sanctioned accreditation or qualification process and no clear authority to be a coach; anyone can call themselves a ‘Master Coach’” (Grant, 2007, p. 27).

He goes on to say that there are so many “coach training organisations [sic],” some of which are nothing more than credentialing mills because after a few days of training and payment you can become a certified master coach. “[I]t sometimes seems as if ‘every man and his dog’ [can] offer a coach certification programme… making the value of such certifications highly questionable” (Grant, 2007, p. 27).

I think it’s important to take heed of this piece of advice:

“Make sure that you take the time to find an individual (or firm) who has the skills and approach that works for your organization and your needs” (SIOP, 2009).

Disclosure: I am currently in an Industrial and Organizational Psychology program and am a member of SIOP.

References

Grant, A.M. (2007). Past, present and future: The evolution of professional coaching and coaching psychology. In S. Palmer & A. Whybrow (Eds.), Handbook of coaching psychology (pp. 23-39). New York: Routledge.

SIOP. (2009). Selecting a Coach: What Industrial and Organizational Psychologists Bring to the Table. Retrieved from http://www.siop.org/workplace/coaching/selecting_a_coach.aspx

Filed Under: Coaching, Coaching Psychology, Executive Coaching, Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Training & Development Tagged With: , , , , ,

Book Review-Good Boss, Bad Boss

2010 August 13 By

In an email exchange, Professor Robert I. Sutton (author of the highly acclaimed book, “The No Asshole Rule”) asked me if I was interested in seeing a “galley” of his upcoming book, “Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best… and Learn from the Worst” (due out September 2010). According to Dr. Sutton, “galleys” are “essentially cheap paperback versions of the book that usually have a few typos and may need a little more editing” sent as advanced copies “to the press and other opinion leaders.” I responded that I’m eagerly anticipating the arrival of his book and would love to have an advance copy.

I am a fan of Dr. Robert Sutton. I follow his blog, Work Matters regularly and enjoy his writing style. Because I’m fascinated by workplace psychology (I write the WorkplacePsychology.Net blog), I am always interested in articles and books that have a good mixture of research and practical writing and applications. In other words, cut through the bull and tell me what I need to know and make sure that what I need to know is backed by evidence and research. Last year, a book I read (“The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It” by Christine Pearson and Christine Porath) met this practical application + evidence-based criteria.

Here’s a little history for those not familiar with Dr. Sutton’s previous book. “The No Asshole Rule” is about the harm done by jerks or assholes in the workplace and what to do to survive working with or for an asshole and how organizations can get rid of or better yet, screen these individuals out before hiring them in the first place. As he explained, while words like bullies, jerks, creeps, tyrants, etc. could have been used, the word “asshole best captures the fear and loathing I have for these nasty people” (Sutton, 2007, p. 1).

Ok, let’s move on to “Good Boss, Bad Boss.”

Dr. Sutton says that as more people shared with him their asshole stories, about working and dealing with assholes (as a result of reading or hearing about “The No Asshole Rule”), he realized that everything came back to one central figure — the boss. It was from the countless workplace asshole stories and the desire to share how to be a skilled boss or how to work for one that led Dr. Sutton to write “Good Boss, Bad Boss.”

The book cites a University of Florida study that found employees with abusive bosses were much more likely than others to slow down or make errors on purpose (30% vs. 6%) [the technical term for this is “counterproductive work behavior”]. When you purposefully slow down your work, it’s called production deviance. Employees with abusive bosses also hide from their bosses (27% vs. 4%), not put in maximum effort (33% vs. 9%), and feign being sick (29% vs. 4%).

“Good Boss, Bad Boss” is about the best bosses and what they do. It’s not about incompetent or even mediocre bosses. As Dr. Sutton puts it, it doesn’t matter if you’re a boss whose team brought in the highest sales number or a principal of an award-winning school, if you treat people badly, you don’t deserve to be called a great boss.

Good bosses need to have the right mindsets by embracing five beliefs:

(1) Following Lasorda’s Law? Finding the balance between over-managing (or micromanaging) and under-managing. Good bosses understand when to exert more control vs. when to back off, and when to coach vs. when to discipline.

(2) Got Grit? Good bosses think of managing in terms of a marathon, not like a sprint. Effective bosses can communicate a sense of urgency without treating things like one long emergency.

(3) Small Wins? Having long-term goals is important, but good bosses also know that the day-to-day efforts and small accomplishments also matter. The best bosses are those who can break down problems into bite-size, achievable pieces for their employees.

(4) Beware the Toxic Tandem? The Toxic Tandem is made up of the boss’s obliviousness (to what their employees need, say, and do) and self-centered ways and the idea that followers closely watch their boss’s words and actions.

(5) Got Their Backs? Good bosses protect and fight for their employees. These bosses take the heat (from upper management) when their employees screw up.

Good bosses have their fingers (and ears) on the pulse of what their employees are thinking, feeling, and acting. These bosses know that to be successful they have to spend time and energy to reading and responding to employees’ feelings and actions. Good bosses also possess self-awareness, being highly aware of their strengths and weaknesses while striving to overcome pitfalls that may sabotage their performance.

“Good Boss, Bad Boss” warns that there is no panacea. There is no magic formula to what makes a good boss, and anyone who “promises you an easy or instant pathway to success is either ignorant or dishonest — or both,” says Dr. Sutton.

“Good Boss, Bad Boss” ends by asking and suggesting the audience think about two questions. These two questions should be something good bosses focus on daily:

(1) Would people want to work for you and would they choose to work for you again if given a choice?

(2) Are you in tune with what it feels like to work for you?

Summary: “Good Boss, Bad Boss” is an insightful and well-researched book. Following in the footsteps set by The No Asshole Rule, “Good Boss, Bad Boss” delivers a knock-out punch to those asshole bosses whose cluelessness continues to harm both their employees and the overall organization. Using the power of storytelling, Robert Sutton masterfully weaves together research and stories about good and bad bosses and behaviors in the workplace that led to their successes and failures. If you want a magic pill or quick solutions on how to be a great boss and avoid being a bad one, this is not the book for you. However, if you value the power of insight and self-awareness as part of an on-going process toward becoming a great boss, then you’ll love “Good Boss, Bad Boss.”

References

Pearson, C. & Porath, C. (2009). The cost of bad behavior: How incivility is damaging your business and what to do about it. New York, NY: Portfolio.

Sutton, R.I. (2010). Good boss, bad boss: How to be the best… and learn from the worst. New York: Business Plus.

Sutton, R.I. (2007). The no asshole rule: Building a civilized workplace and surviving one that isn’t. New York: Business Plus.

* On Amazon for $14.39 and Barnes & Noble for $16.19 (as of this post date).

Filed Under: Attitudes & Emotions, Coaching Psychology, Happy & Unhappy, Incivility, Leadership, Meaningful Work, Occupational Health Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Stress, Teams, Training & Development Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Differentiating Coaching Psychology from Counseling Psychology

2010 August 11 By

[Note]: This post is a reprint of my response in a LinkedIn group discussion in the British Psychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology (SGCP). The original discussion question asked for responses regarding the differences between coaching and counseling psychology with the aim of defining coaching psychology.

COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

In the U.S., the Society of Counseling Psychology (Div. 17 of the American Psychological Association) views counseling psychology in this manner:

“Counseling psychology is unique in its attention both to normal developmental issues and to problems associated with physical, emotional, and mental disorders.” (Div. 17 website)

Counseling psychology works with clients who require therapy to address issues (which can range from mild to severe). In my opinion, there really is not a clear distinction between counseling psychology and clinical psychology, as both can tackle various forms of mental illness. Because counseling psychology uses psychopathology (mental illness) and operates with that in mind, it is psychology for “therapy” or psychology for the treatment of mental health problems.

COACHING PSYCHOLOGY

Anthony Grant (2006) defines “coaching psychology” this way:

“Coaching psychology can be understood as being the systematic application of behavioural science to the enhancement of life experience, work performance and well-being for individuals, groups and organisations who do not have clinically significant mental heath issues or abnormal levels of distress.”

I like this last part of Grant’s definition because coaching works with healthy clients, not those needing mental health counseling.

Coaching starts with the premise that the client is healthy and works to enhance the client’s well-being and performance (in life and/or the workplace). If and when coaching clients do need “therapy,” the coach should be competent enough to recognize this need and the importance of referring these clients for therapy.

References

Grant, A.M. (2006). A personal perspective on professional coaching and the development of coaching psychology. International Coaching Psychology Review, 1(1), 12-22.

Society of Counseling Psychology. About counseling psychologists. Retrieved from http://www.div17.org/students_defining.html

Filed Under: Coaching, Coaching Psychology Tagged With: ,

Perfect Phrases for Communicating Change

2010 August 9 By

Perfect Phrases for Communicating Change by Lawrence Polsky and Antoine Gerschel is a nice and useful book about how to effectively communicate change to your employees. More importantly and for situations in which you’re at a lost for words, this book serves as a handy guide with suggested phrases to use.

Sometimes books take on a novel theme where authors mix stories with what they really wish to communicate with the reader. This book leaves out the stories part which, in my opinion, is great because it is a short book.

In fact, although the book is 165 pages, it is actually about 26 pages worth of highlights for how to lay the foundations for communicating change with the other (roughly) 139 pages listing “ready-to-use phrases.” Polsky & Gerschel outline the launch, execution, and sustain phases of change. They address balancing information, emotions, and action. I really like the section on “Three Common Mistakes Leaders Make When Communicating Change” where the authors list: not telling enough, not listening enough, and not telling the truth enough. There’s also an “Easy-to-Use Checklist for Change Messages” to help managers draft and polish their communication message to their employees.

In the book, readers will learn about the phrases to use when:

  1. Articulating new company initiatives
  2. Responding to questions
  3. Easing workers’ fears
  4. Clarifying employee roles and responsibilities
  5. Addressing resistance and performance issues

One of my favorite ready-to-use phrases section is “Coaching for Skills.” In this section, the book offers ready-made phrases to assist managers/supervisors in coaching employees about skills. Here’s an excerpt:

This new strategy will shift the parameters of your job. Accordingly, there are new skills you should acquire/refresh. Do you have any thoughts about what new skills you will need in order to succeed within this new strategy?

Because the new strategy is a significant departure from what we have done before and because a thorough understanding…are key to your success in the company, I invite you to:

(Here’s one example of a response) familiarize yourself with our new strategy documents/resources. If you come across any piece…that you are not clear about, ask me.

Summary:

“Perfect Phrases for Communicating Change” by Lawrence Polsky and Antoine Gerschel is a useful guide for managers desiring to communicate change (both verbally and in writing) to their employees. There are hundreds of phrases that can be modified (or used verbatim) depending on the business needs. You’ll want to keep this guide within arm’s-length as you will find that this lightweight book contains practical as well as powerful phrases on how to best communicate with your workers during times of change.

* Amazon and Barnes & Noble carry this book for $7.88 (as of this post date).

Filed Under: Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Stress, Teams, Training & Development Tagged With: , , , ,

SIOP-Coaching at Work

2010 August 1 By

The following (in italics) is taken VERBATIM (word for word) from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP). The original posting is called, “Coaching at Work: All Coaches are not the Same.“

Disclosure: I am currently in an Industrial and Organizational Psychology program and am a member of SIOP.

I have done this because, in the process of studying about “coaching,” there seems to be quite a bit of misinformation. This information from SIOP helps to clear up some common misunderstandings about what coaching is and isn’t and what type of coach is best suited to help clients. Rather than trying to interpret or rephrase what SIOP wrote, I felt it best to just include their own wording (below in italics).

Do you have a coach at work? Do you think of your current boss or project manager as a coach? Your direct manager is just one type of coach available to you in the workplace. Yet there are many other kinds of coaches and types of coaching if one knows where to look. Different people, particularly at different stages in their careers, can benefit greatly from different types of coaches.

Regardless of the type of coach, however, all coaches share one goal: equipping people with the skills, knowledge, and opportunities that they need to develop their capabilities and achieve success. The most common types of coaches that focus on individuals relative to their work are personal coaches, career coaches, leadership coaches, and executive coaches. Each of these types of coaches varies by the business knowledge and depth of specific training required by the coach to perform effectively on the job, the formality of the coaching effort, and the degree to which the work organization is proactively involved with or interested in the outcomes.

Personal coaches help individuals by sharing insights and lessons from their own life experience. A personal coach is comparable to a mentor with one difference the individual who wants the help usually initially approaches the coach for help. In contrast, a mentoring relationship can start with either the mentors initiative or the coachees. Personal coaching helps to cultivate an individuals skills and may tap into their unused potential. Personal coaches must build trusting relationships with their coachees. This trust allows both the coach and coachee to share personal experiences, which often include success stories but also may include disappointment or failures. This intimate sharing can serve to energize the coachee and give them the drive to succeed. If an individual finds fortunate circumstances at work, a personal coaching relationship may be developed with a leader within his or her organization. But if that relationship does not materialize, a personal coach may be found in other aspects of life, such as sports or community activities.

Career coaches generally have strong expertise within an individuals chosen career field or industry. Career coaches, as with personal coaches, may be found inside or outside of ones current organization. For example, a junior finance manager might look toward a chief financial officer or controller to advise them on strategies to advance their finance career. This senior career field coach might work in the same organization as the junior manager or could be employed elsewhere. Career coaches may connect their coachees with senior contacts for networking purposes, or may provide advice on joining professional associations and obtaining valuable certifications. This often occurs in career coaching efforts through outplacement firms.

Leadership coaches focus on developing the management and leadership skills of an organizations high potential talent. Leadership coaches may either serve as team leaders actively mobilizing a work team toward common goals, or may serve as a leadership coach through a formal leadership-coaching program. Leadership coaches develop their coachees by serving as a model for individual accountabity, inspiring trust, and leading-by-example. Leadership coaches strive to provide real-time feedback regarding their protgs management style and tactics, so that the coachee can adapt quickly to different situations. Leadership coaches also typically schedule formal feedback and development sessions with their coachees throughout the year. Leadership coaches serve as a growth engine for the next generation of organizational leaders. Leadership coaches primary duty is to develop the bench strength of capable leaders at every level of the organization. Formal leadership coaching programs exist in several major U.S. Corporations. Successfully executed leadership coaching programs provide the human talent for corporate succession planning efforts.

Executive coaches work exclusively with senior leaders and their teams to build individual leadership competencies and to promote effective working relationships that improve overall business performance. Executive coaches focus on developing strategic thinking skills, broadening emotional competencies, expanding coalitions and networks, and building organizational culture through living the corporate values. An executive gains the greatest benefit from an executive coach if that executive becomes self-aware. Self-awareness suggests the executives willingness and ability to look at his or her strengths and liabilities and to seek help where there is need to compensate for what is lacking. During the process of executive coaching, the executive comes to understand what they do best and also where they might benefit from coaching. Many CEOs pride themselves on being master coaches of their managers and promoters of company values. They tend to support the use of external and internal coaches in their organizations to enhance executives development and achieve business results.

When an individual or company begins to looks for coaches, the best outcome is likely to be achieved when there is a match between a companys desired involvement in the coaching effort, the formality of the process, and the purpose of the coaching effort. In particular, leadership and executive coaches require greater business acumen, a broader understanding of the organizational context in which an individual works, and more rigorous training in leadership skills development, group dynamics, behavioural change and organizational culture and performance. Industrial and Organizational Psychologists are specifically trained in understanding, measuring and motivating individuals in the context of work. Please refer to the Consultant Locator section on the SIOP website (www.siop.org) to find the right coach for your needs.

Reference

Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP). Coaching at Work: All Coaches are not the Same. Retrieved from http://www.siop.org/Workplace/coaching/coaching_at_work.aspx

Filed Under: Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Teams, Training & Development Tagged With: , , ,