Tucson Executive Coach, Catherine Vigil and Dale Bruder

Context of Executive Coaching

Business leaders today are asking hard questions about how to improve productivity and create an environment of high performance. The rate of organizational change and the difficulty in keeping up with new technology and global competition are impacting every industry. Lagging employee morale and insufficient leadership are problems in many organizations.

If high performance is the key to not only surviving but thriving in the current business climate, what can executives do to maximize their own performance and develop the leadership skills needed to move their organizations forward in the 21st century?

Many successful professionals today consider their executive coach to be fundamental to their continued growth and development - the competitive edge they need. Organizations like A.T. & T., Citicorp, Motorola, Kodak and others regularly employ coaches to help maximize performance and manage change. Entrepreneurs and professionals in virtually every industry use a coach to help shift their mind set, approaches and behaviors that lead to more effective action and greater business success.

In every field of human endeavor in which performance is key - coaching is integral to the performing. The greats in a field, whether in sports, the arts, entertainment, etc., maintain an active and empowering relationship with a coach.

An executive coach works with people who are masters in their field of "work" and are ready to bring their leadership skills to the level of mastery. The scope of executive coaching includes (but is not limited to) the following:

Lead - rather than manage or boss people

Address the gap between action and commitment in their organization and bring the commitment into reality

Communicate effectively

Produce bigger results

Deal effectively with difficult people

Improve their personal and professional presence and presentation

A minimum six-month coaching engagement is suggested in which the client identifies specific goals to attain. The coach will work with them to identify and transform mind sets and behaviors that previously stopped them from producing their desired results.

The Framework for the Strategic Executive Coaching Process

Adapted and Designed by Dale Bruder from various sources

Executive coaching is part of a larger partnership with the executive concerning an organizational initiative that he or she launches. Early in the process we conduct a secondary data analysis to know what's been done, how and by whom.

We ask a series of open ended questions around these topics:

What are the key business challenges facing the organization?
What business goals are you trying to achieve?
What core values best define a common framework for how business results are achieved in your organization?
What leadership skills, knowledge, and abilities have been critical for success in your organization in the past? What is required in the future?
How does your organization determine whether you have the leadership bench strength to compete effectively in the future?
What is your organization's strategy for developing future leaders?
How do you evaluate the success of your approach?
Does your organization have proven methods to attract, develop, and retain required talent?

Once the strategic context has been mapped out, the actual executive coaching process can begin. From the point of view of the executives being coached, this is the personal component of the coaching process, where their own particular strengths and development needs are benchmarked against the leadership attributes needed to achieve the strategic goals of the business.

The coaching process can be broken down into five steps. The exact determination of the dividing lines between the individual steps is less important than the approach that is taken to address the issues that arise during the process as a whole.

Careful Contracting It takes skill to create a trusting environment in which open dialogue can occur and underlying issues can be brought to light. A great deal of honest communication and feedback will set the parameters of the coaching process.
A contracting meeting for the purposes of defining expectations should take place before the individual coaching begins. Those attending should typically include a senior level human resources representative, the executive coach, and the executive receiving the coaching.

The objectives of the contracting dialogue include:

Identification of success factors for a specific executive or team's current and potential role
Agreement regarding confidentiality boundaries
Identification of specific results expected
Confirmation that the chemistry is right
Clarity regarding roles and responsibilities
Agreement regarding milestones and timelines
Agreement regarding financial terms
Addressing these issues will help to define the organizational and individual expectations and support the business objectives.

Comprehensive Assessment The second step in the executive coaching process is the assessment of each individual executive. There are many types of assessments available (e.g., 360 feedback). My experience has been that face-to-face interviews are one of the best approaches to understanding the challenges facing the executive being coached.

Another excellent approach is "shadowing" the executive (i.e., spending a day or two with the executive in her/his daily life on the job). The main advantage of these approaches is that they enable the coach to probe, see things first hand, and thus provide both quantitative and qualitative feedback that is real-time, powerful, and linked to business events. The ultimate value of the assessment process is that the results clearly illustrate areas of strength as well as those requiring attention. This paints a clear picture for the executive and thus focuses and informs the coaching process.

Feedback and Action Planning The first order of business in an effective feedback session is to revisit the agreed-upon objectives and to review the ground rules. Properly preparing executives for feedback is key to ensuring their willingness to listen, accept, open up, and move into action planning. Sessions should occur outside the normal office environment to ensure a more relaxed experience, free of interruptions or ready escape routes.

The coach must facilitate the feedback flow process, help the executive understand the data, and moderate any negative reactions to it. During the feedback dialogue session, the coach will continue to refer to the business requirements, leader attributes, and expected business results, and compare them to current performance. The aim is to work within a framework that directs feedback toward the key objectives of the business.
The feedback session typically follows these stages:
Reaffirm ground rules and establish rapport
Review coaching objectives and business context
Describe how to interpret results
Give the executive opportunity to review results
Discuss surprises or frustrations
Highlight strengths
Identify development needs
Agree on areas of improvement
Begin development-planning process
The action plan must focus on behaviors that contribute to specific business outcomes.

A typical action plan includes:
Strengths, and why they are important in the executive's current role
Development areas
Action steps required, or interventions needed in areas requiring improvement or further development
The type of coaching style that will best suite the development process
Suggestions for active learning or experiential development suggestions
Ways in which direct reports, boss, peers, and others can help
A process for following up with key stakeholder
Key milestones
Once the action plan is complete, key stakeholders will be invited to endorse it. These stakeholders typically comprise the same group of people involved in the initial assessment interviews. By sharing the action plan with those who were initially interviewed, the executive can be assured that the planned improvements are consistent with expectation. The other benefit of close-loop validation is that it involves those most likely to be influenced by the change in the executive's behavior. As a result, this process fosters their commitment to help the executive develop.

Active Learning Once the key stakeholders agree with the action plan, the coach guides and reinforces the development strategies, which can include techniques such as action learning, role play, case study, simulation, video feedback, shadowing, and journalizing.

Special developmental courses and action learning are often recommended to support the coaching process. This step is usually supported by a series of monthly meetings involving the coach, executive, and key stakeholders. These dialogues help to ensure the milestones are being met and the ground rules are being followed, and the coaching process continues to be focused on the organization's business needs.

Reviewing and Sustaining Success Approximately six months after the feedback session, an abridged version of the initial assessment is conducted to determine the impact of the process on the individual and the organization. The results of the assessment give credit for progress and address areas in which changes are still required, or bring attention to necessary midcourse corrections. The results of the abridged assessment are shared with key stakeholders to further the development of the executive and ensure alignment.

Research shows that follow-up is a critical factor in the success of the entire coaching process. Additionally, to ensure overall quality, assessment of the coach is essential.