Orxestra Inc.

Oops!… I did it again.

John O. Burdett

Over the past five years there has been a veritable explosion of interest in coaching. Indeed, few of today’s consulting brochures, executive programs and/or in-house leadership development initiatives would be deemed complete without the ubiquitous framing of the leader as a coach.

The quality of what is being offered aside, it is difficult to argue with the logic implied. Flatter structures, speed of action, managing across borders, the need in a retention-conscious world for talented performers to be given the space to deliver, an emphasis on business process and with it the unbundling of hierarchy… all mitigate against a "power over" mind-set. That having been said, leadership that emphasizes a "power to" way to operate is likely to come to naught unless those charting the way forward are willing to (1) shed the ego-fulfillment that comes with a "gotcha" mentality (2) reinvent what and how people in the organization learn and (3) as Gandhi so elegantly suggested, become the change being proposed.

For not a few, coaching is internalized as a complex process that, insofar as mastery is concerned, remains the province of the few. A more generous point of view suggests that after 40,000 years of evolution - which up until 4,000 years ago focused on the hunt - modern man to survive, of necessity, had to have as part of his survival kit, a highly active coaching gene. It is a point of view that leads one to the belief that coaching, like its first cousin teamwork, is less something to be learned that it is an inherent capability that lies waiting to be rediscovered. In The Wizard of Oz, Tin Man was looking for a heart, the Lion was distraught because he didn’t have courage and the Scarecrow wanted a brain. In their quest for wholeness what they learned was that the answer didn’t lie out there but was an integral part of who they were; a dormant but vital part of their inner-self that lay waiting to be discovered within. Those who travel the yellow brick road of coaching likewise are likely to find that their own personal mastery is far more about being than it is about becoming; it is far more about letting go of that which gets in the way than it is about acquiring new stuff. Lao-tzu said, "To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day."

Championing the notion that coaching excellence lies within us all is not to ignore the benefit of a robust coaching model, insight into how the human psyche deals with feedback and/or the value of having defined the leadership competencies for the role in question. Learning to ride that first bicycle always seems easier and faster when training wheels are provided.

A simple coaching model is outlined in Figure one. The model itself and the questions presented draw on the author’s coaching experience. At the center of this work is the belief that in this age of smart people and dumb companies - as opposed to the last century where the assumption was that people were dumb and the company was smart - successful leaders must not only address the head and involve the hand, but engage the heart and enrich the spirit. The head (strategy, goals, outcomes) defines the what. The hand (structure, process, technology) describes the how. The heart (commitment, learning, the will to win) evokes the why. The spirit (community, connections, teamwork) speaks to who gains. A focus on the head and the hand means that even the most far-reaching strategy will want for implementation for without heart and spirit, little that is labeled "change" can be sustained. Note: researchers such as Michael Beer at Harvard suggest that the majority (80%) of major change initiatives do not succeed.

To surface that which we already know is to connect with who we already are. It is a journey of discovery made whole when framed by a means to guide our actions. Here we speak not of rules or edicts but of a series of simple statements of philosophy that provide a springboard for action.

At the heart of what it means to coach lies generosity of spirit. Coaching has relatively little to do with the success of the coach and everything to do with the performance of the individual being coached (employee). To coach is thus to serve. To serve implies humility. To coach is to be open to being coached. To serve also means that when the occasion calls for it, the coach must be tough minded.

In any coaching conversation the answer invariably lies with the employee. The role of the coach is thus to focus on outcomes, listen with purpose and through the use of artful questions help the employee discover the way forward. Giving advice should be seen as an act that has merit only after the employee has emptied his or her own well of ideas.

The leader cannot deliver that which he or she does not have. If the leader lacks clarity of vision, if the leader is not personally aligned with the organization’s values, it is cruel and unusual punishment to assume that the employee will have and deliver that which the leader does not.

A crucial role for the coach is to ensure that any agreed coaching agenda is aligned with the organization’s mission, vision, emerging value proposition, the business processes the role impacts, team goals, the leadership competencies for the role and the individual’s (stretch) performance goals. A kite without a string cannot fly.

When it is apparent that the employee is stuck, the role of the coach is to help the employee uncover the underlying issues that prevent him or her from moving ahead. Such concerns will invariably lie at one of three levels: (1) a shortfall in knowledge and/or skills (2) the employee has framed the challenge (mind-set) in a way that is misaligned with the agreed performance goals (3) the issue lies with who the employee perceives him or herself to be (identify). The deeper and more rooted the mind-set, the more problematic it is for the coach to surface and/or work to change that mind-set. When the issue is one of identity (e.g. the role is misaligned with the employee’s personal path to mastery) the probability is that the employee is in the wrong role. Knots or tangles in the string prevent the kite from reaching its full height.

What the coach believes is far more important than anything the coach might say. Even where this belief is presented only through gesture, tonality and posture, if the coach does not think the employee can win, it is inevitable that any and every coaching conversation will be polluted by this unstated "reality."

In coaching language is everything. Language generates imagery and imagery begets behavior. New patterns of behavior demand new language. Conversely, to repeat the same old language is to be assured that past ways to act will prevail.

Coaching is not the same as problem solving. Because it is what leaders have been trained to do, the vast majority of coaching sessions quickly become bogged down in a collaborative attempt to solve "the problem." In solving the problem the coach not only significantly devalues the learning process but also ends up inappropriately assuming much of the accountability for the employee’s results. To engender learning and with it growth, the employee must be given the space to fly his or her own kite.

Coaching comes in two sizes: (1) family pack - a formal, preplanned discussion or (2) economy size - a fast, in the moment, informal conversation. To coach is to recognize opportunity and to act. Coaching is not about hyperbole, wishful thinking or it would be nice to do…coaching is rooted in action. The outcome of a successful coaching encounter is enhanced performance not a better person…admirable though the latter might be. To coach is to know where the thermal updrafts are.

Like a good deal else in life, effective feedback is a matter of timing. Equally important, feedback that makes a difference is specific. Meta-language (a broad, all-encompassing statement e.g. "good job"), in that it bundles both effective and ineffective behavior into one statement, leads to confusion. At one level the employee always knows when the coach is not being open and/or honest. Half-truths, feedback that is slanted to serve the interests of the coach, and omissions rooted in political expediency create what ineffective leaders invariably describe as "resistance to change." Not to act, not to give feedback is to give permission for inappropriate behavior to continue. The richest feedback of all is to catch the employee doing it right. To take off people need to know which way the wind is blowing.

10.

In a world marked by uncertainty people are hungry for leadership. This does not mean that people are prepared to follow blindly. To lead is ultimately to compete for people’s dreams. To lead is to appeal to the head. To lead is to address the hand. To lead is to engage the heart. To lead is to enrich the spirit. Anything less is an inadequate and temporary substitute for leadership.

Leadership and learning are synonymous. The leader who lacks a passion to learn is but a short step away from redundancy of purpose. The leader who cannot engage others in the learning process is destroying value. Of the tools available to the successful leader none is more immediate and more value-laden that the act of coaching. In coaching we touch that part of ourselves that lies at the very center of who we are. In coaching we bring history full circle to a time when survival depended on the collective wisdom of the team, the tribe or clan. Indeed, part of what makes coaching so impactful is the joy that comes from knowing…Oops!… I did it again.

John’s practice focuses on reinventing the leadership process within major organizations, work that in the past five years has taken him to thirty countries and, of necessity, involves a coaching role with key leaders. New Role, New Reality describes how successful leaders reinvent themselves when presented with a new or significantly changed role. Further information is available on Website www.orxestra.com.