article to come
Why women leaders need special coaching
February 18th, 2009Looking again at the Global Coaching Convention
February 6th, 2009Apologies because this is a long one but I hope you will bear with me…………….
In late August 08 I received several emails with documents produced by the Global Coaching Convention. I had a quick look over them but they didn’t grab me and if I’m honest I was looking through cynical eyes and thought “this is just another talking shop that is going nowhere fast”. Yes I know - I also cringe at my casual unkindness and uncoachlike spirit, because at the very least considerable effort and goodwill had gone in to their creation. I’ll tell you why I decided to look again but first I want to explain the reason for my initial cynicism.
When I started out in coaching around eight years ago, like many before me, I got enthusiastically involved with various coaching groups and was very willing to give service to the cause. However I quickly came up against various problems that I could not easily resolve and which caused me to eventually pull away and just chart my own path. I don’t want to go into a whole litany of what’s wrong with the coaching world but I will mention just two of the issues I had then. (which thankfully seem to be changing).
First of all I found that most (not all) of the membership, including the committees, of so-called coaching associations were wanabee coaches rather than real coaches. What I mean is that they had completed a course (of questionable quality), were dreaming of leaving their jobs to become full time coaches, had no clients, no experience and in my estimation would have a hard time cutting it in the business world. I found the talk at their meetings incredibly frustrating because it just wasn’t grounded in reality. I’m an idealist dreamer at heart, but I also have a pragmatic side and coming from a very commercial background I know the way business thinks. I quickly learned that no one at these associations would thank me for bursting their happy bubbles with practicalities or realism, and that being associated with such ungrounded groups could actually diminish my own credibility as a coach. I’m sure to many this sounds arrogant but I had a family to support and I needed to be seen as a professional so that I could get on with making a living. This is one of the main reasons I went back to college and invested considerable time, money and effort in gaining a couple of post grad diplomas in coaching – so that my qualifications were accredited by a university rather than a questionable association of coaches.
Secondly these associations had been originally set up to give a stamp of approval to certain coach training programmes via some dubious accreditation process. They worked like this: I run a coaching course where I charge several thousand euro per participant even though I have few if any coaching credentials myself. Each participant on completing my course becomes “accredited” by this “separate and unconnected” coaching association and now they can call themselves “an accredited life and business coach” and in some cases even get letters after their name. (no wonder the business community has trouble identifying the good coaches). Now after a while running this programme the association membership swells and perhaps it even accredits another course or two of questionable quality. So here we are a couple of years down the line with an association that has several hundred members of “accredited coaches” and loads of doey-eyed coaches queing up to be on committees to discuss standards, ethics, pr, and how to build a great website (where of course people can find profiles of these wonderful shiny new coaches.) Now imagine this. Someone suggests that the accreditation process needs to be tightened-up, perhaps the courses the association accredits need to be examined professionally to make sure standards are proven and maintained. You can see that the guys running the coach training programmes (who are making all the money in this cosy arrangement) and who are pulling all the strings at arms length are never going to allow that to happen. Plus asking these already “accredited” coaches to examine their own credentials is akin to asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. Hopefully you get the picture.
Ok so back to the GCC. I was at a coaching gig recently where someone I have a great deal of time for, Andrew Lambert, praised them and said they were made up of some of the most respected names in coaching. I quote: “The coaching industry has begun to recognise where it needs to improve, as reflected in the recent declaration of the General Convention on Coaching.” Ok so Ian got it very wrong and I should look again. Unfortunately I tried looking on the internet and came up with a website that hadn’t been added to for many months and didn’t even contain the documents. I then went back to the emails I had received and saw in their signpost document that they had changed their name to the Global Community of Coaches. A quick search of Google came up with a “site under construction” and still no documents. Just as well I had them in my email
Anyway I’m going to do my little bit here and publish their declaration which I now see is a great document. Respect due for your efforts and the spirit of true co-operation you embody. Thank you GCC.
Therefore, we, the delegates of the Global Coaching Convention, hereby declare that the individuals and organizations that comprise the Global Coaching Community need to:
Establish a common understanding of the profession through creation of a shared core code of ethics, standards of practice, and educational guidelines that ensure the quality and integrity of the competencies that lie at the heart of our practice.
Acknowledge and affirm the multidisciplinary roots and nature of coaching as a unique synthesis of a range of disciplines that creates a new and distinctive value to individuals, organizations and society. To accomplish this we need to add to the body of coaching knowledge by conducting rigorous research into the processes, practices, and outcomes of coaching, in order to strengthen its practical impact and theoretical underpinnings.
Respond to a world beset by challenges for which there are no predetermined answers by using coaching to create a space wherein new solutions can emerge. In doing so we are stepping into the power of coaching as coaches and inviting our clients to do the same.
Move beyond self-interest and join with us and other members of the Global Coaching Community in an ongoing dialogue to address the critical issues facing our field, beginning with those that were identified by the ten working groups [see the appendices from the groups appended to this Declaration].
Signed by coaches present at the Global Convention on Coaching, Dublin, July 11st 2008
Only 900 coaches in Europe are any good (ouch!)
January 29th, 2009A recent coaching survey conducted in 35 European countries shows there are around 16,000-18,000 business coaches practising in Europe. However the recent CRF coaching update tells us a sorry tale about the general quality of these coaches as perceived by the corporate market. Extrapolating an observation made by an experienced buyer in the UK only 5% of coaches may be worth their fees i.e. 900 in Europe.
I recently attended a presentation from Andrew Lambert the author of the CRF report and he explained some of the concerns among these buyers. Here are some of the highlights he gave us:
Too few ‘really good’ coaches.
Too many people who have entered the industry because it seems more enticing than the travails of corporate life.
Concern that there are too few coaches with real business experience, particularly global business experience.
It’s not easy to find good coaches until you try them out.
One experienced buyer thought that of the 7,500 coaches practising in the UK probably only 400 were worth their money. That coincided with the views of other buyers.
Organisations that focus on driving down price are less likely to obtain quality coaches.
Not every assignment requires a top-notch coach, and different development needs can be met by coaches with different profiles.
There needs to be a good understanding by the purchaser about what qualities they want and what that is worth.
A couple of experienced buyers voiced concern that, once coaches become successful and in demand there is a danger they start to act in a self-important way. However expert they might be, “when they are acting as coaches, there should only be one ego in the room, and that should not be the coach.”
Although the demand for coaches with good business experience is stressed by company after company, there are some debates about this, for example, there is cynicism concerning the number of HR and L&D executives who opt to become coaches. This stems from a general perception of a historic lack of business acumen and ‘feel’ within this fraternity. Others, unsurprisingly, disagree – and point to the strengths of HR and L&D professionals, while arguing against a prejudiced assumption about their business knowledge.
I’ll sign off with a quote from Noel Hadden of Deutsche Bank who says “This is still a profession in its infancy. It’s harder to become a London bus driver than an executive coach.” - Way to go Noel! A man who has obviously had to wade through the mire of the coaching industry to find what is real and what is simply smoke.
The unfortunate story of SWOT revealed
January 22nd, 2009In my career as both an employee and as a business coach I have seen endless amounts of executive time spent on creating hugely complicated strategic plans that are in the end largely ignored by the vast majority of staff because buy-in has been neither sought nor valued. On the other hand I have personally witnessed what can only be termed transformation in companies who committed to a people-centric approach to strategy, and this has not come at the cost of less profit. On the contrary those companies have become highly profitable organisations by harnessing the creative energy of their staff effectively, and they are vastly more focused than the average company.
I find it fascinating that the Learned, Christensen, Andrews and Guth Framework produced in 1969, which was the precursor to SWOT analysis, prompts us to consider both the personal values of the implementers and the broader social expectations when looking at strategy. Imagine a world where this and not SWOT analysis had been the most popular strategy model for the last 40 years.
Unfortunately most strategic theory of recent times has focusing exclusively on non-personal elements - a mental exercise which does not take into account the needs of people, and sees these as factors to be controlled and manipulated to achieve the outcome of short term profit. I hope that the new wave of business leaders who must guide their organisations through our current difficult times will realise people and their relationship to each other are vital factors in strategy formulation.
Yes you CAN measure the impact of coaching
January 15th, 2009
With a tougher economy comes increased scrutiny of spending decisions and internal and external champions of coaching now more than ever need to be willing and able to:
1. Validate the contribution of coaching to the bottom line, and
2. Measure where coaching has been effective and where it has not.
At a recent coaching event I was involved in a round table discussion with coaching buyers/experts from 8 large corporations. All bar one of these organisations are currently spending considerable amounts of money on an array of coaching programmes. One participant told us her organisation is halfway through spending more than 35 million dollars on a three year leadership coaching programme. These were senior people and although they “knew” the coaching was valuable, they all seemed to struggle to understand how to make a business case for it, and felt that ultimately this intangibility could impede future use of coaching in their organisations.
The good news is that coaching can be measured, and please don’t listen if anyone tells you otherwise. There is a methodical, pragmatic way that I guarantee will be approved of by hard-nosed bean counters. The bad news is that it is not a trivial exercise and requires considerable commitment, advance planning, ongoing effort and will. To measure both ROI (return on investment) and ROE (return on expectation) requires understanding of the process and a high level of co-operation from both the coach and client organisation. It is expensive in terms of the resource investment required, but this pays off hugely (a) by bringing a high level of focus to all parties involved in the coaching, which in turn makes the coaching more effective, and (b) by providing data during and after the coaching takes place that leads to significant learning for both the coach and client organisation.
Sometimes the result of a measurement exercise will show a negative ROI because some of the benefits will remain intangible and yet all of the costs must be included. Also some of the results may take several years to emerge and the final impact report, which is usually concluded within one year, cannot include future results for an ROI measurement. And as part of the reporting process you also provide an ROE statement listing the intangible impacts. Those experienced in this area generally find that senior management are so impressed by this type of pragmatic, commercial process coming from HR/L&D that even a negative ROI will not put off future investment but on the contrary gives them confidence that HR/L&D people are living in the same world as them, where they have to be accountable in all areas including financially.
I’m not going to attempt to explain how it is done here but just point you to where you can learn more about it and to an excellent case study that goes through an effective step-by-step approach that will give you a flavour of what’s involved. When I became interested in this area I invested in a number of days of training to become certified. Just reading about what’s involved will not help you. In my training we did many practical exercises working to get a feel for it. Then with help from an experienced specialist and a willing client who was also trained in the process I did my first impact measurement study and then I built from there.
I nearly always bring up ROI early on in discussions with potential new clients, especially if they are commercially focused people and I have found that they appreciate the fact that I am willing to be held accountable for my work.
There is also an excellent ROI software application available called SenseiROI™ which is:
……a highly innovative automated approach to learning evaluation. Based on the renowned methodologies of Kirkpatrick and Phillips, organisations can, for the first time, systematically plan for, execute and measure the bottom line impact of learning investment.
The software focuses on proactive planning for behavioural change that delivers tangible business impact and a quantifiable return on your learning investment. It does this in a routine, reliable and cost effective manner tightly bound to core strategic objectives.
Accreditation – the last word (for now)
January 8th, 2009The accreditation of coaches and coach training is a thorny and complex issue that is not going to be meaningfully resolved any time soon. For experienced coaches with traction in the market it’s not a barrier to doing business because they already have credibility. For new coaches however it can be a rude awakening to discover that the training programme you just spend thousands on has no currency in the market. So I’m going to cut to the chase and tell it as it is right now: There is currently no accreditation available anywhere in the world from any coaching association that holds value of any significance in the business coaching market.
Any smart buyer of coaching knows that coaching is an unregulated market and that at least 80% of all coach training programmes are accredited by self serving associations set up to make it look like there is an official stamp of approval for the training programmes they accredit. In reality the only coach training programme that has real currency with corporate buyers and is one where the diploma is issued by a recognised university i.e. it comes with CAT points which are the standard university currency.
More and more buyers are looking for a postgraduate diploma in coaching as a minimum for even entering into discussions with a coach. Of course the qualification alone is only a starting point, nevertheless coach training linked to a university is implicitly comprehensive, in order to meet the rigorous academic standards the university regulations require.
Anyone serious about making a living at coaching needs to recognise this fact early on, preferably before they have wasted several thousand dollars on attending a coach training programme from some obscure training company. I know this is not going to be a popular thing to say and I have friends who run excellent coach training programmes who probably won’t speak to me after this, but this is currently the position and I don’t see it changing for many years. I believe it is quite reasonable for a company who is going to provide high priced coaching to their senior staff to expect that the coach is committed and serious enough about coaching to invest in their own development as a coach to at least a minimum standard. Furthermore, if we coaches do eventually get our act together and some of the accreditation bodies gain credibility in the marketplace then let’s face it none of them is going to refuse someone with a postgrad.
Trends the coaching profession should take urgent note of
January 4th, 2009As coaches I like to believe most of us share common ground in that we believe coaching has the potential to become a potent force for much needed change in the business world. But for this to happen we need coaching to continue to prosper and grow, and not to become derailed by bad practise and personal agendas. As coaches we know that receiving feedback can be a powerful experience leading to positive behavioural change. I see Andrew Lambert’s recent report on coaching from the Corporate Research Forum (CRF) as just such much needed feedback for our industry.
Much of the data for the CRF report has come from the coalface of the market itself - from corporate buyers- which is why I think it is so important for us to take note of. These people believe in coaching and have the budgets to back it up so we need to listen and change appropriately.
Here’s some of what the CRF report says about the trends in the coaching profession itself:
Ballooning numbers of coaching associations – each with their codes of practice and training regimes.
A profusion of quasi-institutes, networks, new publications and websites for coaching.
Tensions about the overlap with psychologists and their professional bodies.
A fragmented market dominated by freelancers.
Gradual consolidation into larger coaching companies to meet the requirement from blue-chip clients for simplified administration of coaching supply. However these companies mostly rely on “associates” and this can lead to inconsistency in quality and standards.
Coach training is widely available, although of varying quality and intensity. Universities are becoming active in accrediting coaching programmes and supporting academic research.
Scepticism over confusing coaching definitions and approaches is evident among corporate buyers, as suppliers increasingly try to differentiate their offerings.
Concerns about quality and standards.
A preference for business-experienced coaches rather than services provided by former HR/L&D executives.
Purchasing and coaching management is becoming more systematised, with rigorous selection procedures, reporting discipline and outcome reviews.
Now if you’ve been a coach for a little while then none of this will come as news, however when you hear it from the buyers of coaching you can see how the pursuit of personal agendas has such potential to damage the credibility of coaching generally. On the positive side what this report indicates to me is that a much needed and pragmatic tightening up of the industry is taking place. This is being driven mainly by the buyers of corporate coaching as they learn from their own experience about what is useful and what actually works.
I believe that as coaches we can earn much needed credibility if we practise what we preach, and that means taking feedback ourselves from our clients, and the market generally which seems to be saying that as coaches we need to be more professional and more focused on the needs of those we serve.
Trends in Executive Coaching (The latest report)
January 1st, 2009
Andrew Lambert from the Corporate Research Forum (CRF) was speaking about his new report on coaching at an event I recently attended. The last report CFR produced was in 2001 so it was fascinating to observe how the trends they had previously discussed had played out over the intervening 7 years, and of course what new trends they now see.
Here’s what Andrew said are the current developmental trends in coaching:
An increased focus on coaching the talent pool and less on remedial coaching i.e. developing high potential people.
Greater investment in coaching as part of overall leadership development.
Coaching being used to support the demand for a new vision of leadership focused around teamwork, collaboration and engagement.
Coaching being used as part of the more prevalent use of feedback mechanisms, including 360 degree appraisals and engagement surveys.
Initiatives to improve managerial skills in managing people and performance, feedback and development planning.
Globalisation increasing the need for resilient, knowledgeable and culturally aware senior execs to steer change and coaching supporting this new breed.
As more leadership teams experience and become personally involved in coaching it is common to then see them promote coaching at other levels.
More organisations are developing a cadre of internally accredited coaches to work below the top team level.
Most large companies now formally require managers to be responsible for coaching their reports and support this by training them in coaching skills – this is often part of a move towards a coaching culture.
Peer and team coaching practices are spreading, often aimed at improving engagement survey scores.
Here’s some future trends Andrew predicts:
Increased investment in internally accredited coaching, ‘manager as coach’ training, and coaching skills for leaders.
More attempts to create coaching cultures but some will meet with resistance because of national and company traits.
Continued competition for the best coaches with downward price pressures impacting on the rest.
Greater demand for scarce skilled coaches in developing markets.
More focus on consistent and disciplined approaches to how coaches are hired and managed, with an emphasis on tailoring the coaching towards specific business needs.
Recognition that finding and managing a pool of coaches is a specialised skill and a move towards outsourcing this coaching administration, and some pooling of knowledge and resources between companies.
This all seems to bode well for the coaching industry, that it is not just a fad but has truly taken hold. It seems there is a perception generally that coaching has a real value for certain types of development work - specifically where a more tailored, individualised approach is required e.g. to fine tune leadership skills, or to support feedback methodologies.
Welcome to my blog
December 23rd, 2008Hi and welcome to my blog.
I’m going to talk about various subjects relating to my work as a professional business coach. I hope you’ll find it useful. I’m very open to being shown a different point of view, so I hope you’ll join in the discussions and especially point out where I am misinformed.
As human beings we are always in relationship of one kind or another, and enhancing our relationships can have significant impact, whether it is with our family, our work, our society or our environment. I believe that coaching offers us a magnificent vehicle to make much needed improvement especially in the world of workplace relationships and authentic leadership, and this is why I am so passionate about our fledgling profession.
I try my best to navigate the often tense path between idealism and pragmatism, and sometimes this is a dichotomy that I expect you will find is reflected in my blog.