Today’s business professionals are becoming actively engaged in one or more of the online social media. Some may just be dipping their toe into the water, while others were early adopters, and daily messaging is now part of their quotidian routine. Many believe this involvement is motivated by a desire to join a community of interest. In business, that could be a LinkedIn HR Group, a Twitter “hashtag” for a posted leadership forum, or a visit to an innovation thought-leader’s Facebook fan page. Others seek out professional social networks to share resources, learn about new methodologies and tools, and follow big-picture trends and issues.

But recent research indicates a wholly unexpected motivator for people’s involvement in social media—conflict. A research team at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) has looked at how social network systems succeed in harnessing the “wisdom of the crowd.” (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1210/1224285184861.html)  PARC studied Wikipedia in particular and found that conflict drives productivity among the contributors who are editing, changing or expanding on someone else’s prior offering.

This inclination to jump into a conversation to either counter or build on what others have said got me thinking. Coaching is also a way to tap into someone’s thinking and help them expand their perspective. Coaching conversations challenge individuals to question assumptions, to think more deeply, to consider other points of view, and to consider entirely new frameworks and options.

There can be a beneficial tension in what the PARC team labels conflict. Healthy conflict is one symptom of a high-performance team. It’s that desire to contribute, to improve and build on the discussion, to be heard and valued, and ultimately to help meet a challenge.

If the robust dialog and healthy conflict of the social networks are the lure to the “connected,” it’s good to remember that coaching and a coaching orientation offer the same benefits in addressing real business challenges in the workplace.

What parallels do you see between social networking and coaching?

If you found this post helpful, check out “About the Book” on this blog, and order yourself a copy of “What could happen if you do nothing?” A manager’s handbook for coaching conversations.

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Innovation is the word of the day. From the classroom to the boardroom to the White House, it is being invoked as a mantra for leadership and success. All well and good. But how does one foster an environment that encourages new thinking and nurtures the pioneers who will exercise it?

Coaching can provide a process for recognizing the need for innovation as well as opportunities to pursue it. This is because the coaching process itself models the kinds of dialogs, deep thinking and listening that foster innovation.

Abby is a senior manager in a mid-sized tech services company. She has hired a coach to work with her on enhancing her leadership in driving innovation. Her company faces increasing competition in the marketplace, and she needs to light a fire under her sales and marketing group to help grow their customer base.

Abby’s coach listened carefully to how she presented the situation and how she defined her goal. He noticed that Abby never mentioned herself in terms of the challenge. He asked her to explain what she meant by innovation. This forced Abby to think more specifically about what she envisioned. He asked her what was at stake: What were the risks? What were the benefits? How did she feel about taking risk? What could make her more comfortable with failing? What had she learned from previous failures? How had she addressed the challenge with her people? What could she do differently?

Over a series of coaching conversations, these questions revealed to Abby her own aversion to risk and failure, and enabled her to role-play “what ifs.” The coaching process allowed her to “test drive” a new approach with her group. She conducted a full-team brainstorming session, supporting totally free-wheeling thinking and sharing of ideas. She offered feedback and acknowledgment throughout the process, both modeling and encouraging her people to do the same. The session identified a short-list of the most viable ideas, and Abby asked sub-teams to do a cost-benefit analysis and come back to present to the group. She was actively and encouragingly moving the process forward.

Abby remarked at how engaged the group was while generating ideas. She recognized that in freeing herself up to consider even “bad” or seemingly off-the-wall ideas, she had also freed her group. She saw that her coach’s layered questioning and critical listening had modeled behaviors for her to follow with her own people. This helped them reframe their thinking to allow for new insights into their existing customers and open the door to markets they hadn’t previously considered. The collaborative nature of her coaching process had also modeled a healthy give and take in her group.

Abby’s take-aways to drive innovation:

• Inspire and support risk taking
• Have a stomach for failing
• Design opportunities for freely sharing ideas, and encourage critical listening and thought-provoking questions
• Offer plenty of feedback, acknowledgment and appreciation in developing people

Coaching succeeded in helping Abby drive innovation in her team, while simultaneously helping her innovate ways she worked with them.

What does “innovation” mean to you?
What factor(s) has been critical in your own involvement in a new initiative for growth/change?

If you found this post helpful, check out “About the Book” on this blog, and order yourself a copy of “What could happen if you do nothing?” A manager’s handbook for coaching conversations.

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Sad to say, but appreciative recognition is often the first casualty in the rush and stress of deadlines, new initiatives, making the numbers, hiring, firing, and reorganizing. Many managers simply aren’t very good at giving positive feedback. Some even find it harder to recognize a colleague’s contribution than to offer negative or corrective feedback.

Coaching can uncover this tendency and offer opportunities to express genuine appreciation.

I know a manager (let’s call her Daniella). She was supervising a project leader whose people were not functioning well together. Daniela’s coaching style, including careful listening and incisive questioning, led her projecct leader to reveal that he offered little acknowledgment to his people. “They’re paid to do their jobs,” he said. “I don’t feel they need to be rewarded all the time.”

By helping the project leader shine a light on this behavior, Daniela offered a hard-working, results-driven manager  an opportunity to see that he couldn’t remember ever offering positive reinforcement to his troops. This had led to a dispirited and disengaged group…hardly a “team” at all.

Recognition is directly related to engagement, performance, and retention. Moreover, acknowledging contributions should be timely, specific, and genuinely linked to the team’s objectives.

Once the project manager perceived the benefits of acknowledging performance, Daniella encouraged him to explore a variety of ways of going about it. Often, it’s simply a matter of thanking someone for going the extra mile, for staying late to finish a proposal, for taking over when someone is out sick, for stepping up.

There are other opportunities to recognize performance as well. One-on-one feedback is basic. Public recognition can also be very powerful, whether in the company newsletter, a quarterly meeting, or a team or department meeting. In their coaching conversations, Daniela and her project leader generated a long list of meaningful rewards—from token awards that simply say “nice job,” to gift certificates, days off, and even professional development opportunities such a subsidized courses or conferences.

Daniela also recognizes that coaching itself is a form of acknowledgment. It put her hard-working project leader front and center, and nourished his own potential to up his game, acknowledge outstanding performance on his team, and become a more effective manager in the process.

How has acknowledgment directly affected your own performance?
How do you acknowledge the performance of your people?

If you found this post helpful, check out “About the Book” on this blog, and order yourself a copy of “What could happen if you do nothing?” A manager’s handbook for coaching conversations.

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Lately, we hear “coaching” more and more frequently proposed as the solution to a workplace problem. A manager might seek coaching as a way to work through a challenge. A senior executive might see it as an opportunity to help an individual or team resolve an issue. More and more managers see coaching as a training tool to enhance their leadership skills and performance. This is all good news, but only as long as the people being coached know what to expect.

What coaching is

Off the bat, it’s wise to define what coaching is and what it is not. First, coaching is about positive, lasting change. It’s forward looking. It’s not therapy. There is nothing to “fix..” It’s a process that happens in real time: the coach guides the process, and the coachee manages the content. The focus is on mining the coachee’s own potential to meet a goal.

Rules

There are ground rules. For starters, confidentiality is key. If a manager institutes coaching for a direct report, for example, then all parties need to set and agree on boundaries for what will be shared and what will remain confidential between the coach and coachee.

There is usually a set time frame and schedule for a coaching engagement. This could be anything from two to six months, with weekly or bi-monthly 50-minute sessions. It is essential that the coachee honor the schedule as a contract and show up on time and ready, even when the coaching is conducted by phone.

Being ready also means clearing the decks of any external or internal interference, and being prepared to focus totally on the coaching conversation.

The process

Coaching is basically a conversation—many conversations. The coach uses intense listening and powerful questions to guide the coachee to think more deeply, to consider options, to commit to taking action. The coach offers feedback and often helps to reframe the conversation to enable the coachee to gain added perspective on the situation.

Accountability

Yikes! There’s homework? Well, sort of. During a coaching session, questions can encourage new thinking. The parties might agree that the coachee do more thinking on the topic before the next session; for example, the coachee might decide to talk to a colleague she realizes could be a helpful resource. And once a goal is clearly defined, the discussion will focus on the steps needed to reach that goal. During the engagement, the coachee will commit to taking these steps, and subsequent sessions will discuss outcomes.

Maintenance

There is an arc to a coaching engagement, which means it will come to an end. The engagement will reach its agreed time. At this point, the parties may decide that “time’s up,” or to extend the engagement for another defined period. Whatever beneficial changes the coachee may have accomplished will need to be sustained, and the parties must address this in terms of what resources might be needed to ensure ongoing success. Sometimes they will agree on occasional check-ins as a follow up.

Coaching can offer many positive surprises—added insight, creative problem solving, welcome support. However, the coaching process and its ground rules need to be clear from the start. Those who are best prepared for what to expect from coaching will be the most ready to jump in and reap the rewards.

Is there anything else about coaching you feel would be helpful to address in preparing someone for a first coaching engagement?

If you found this post helpful, check out “About the Book” on this blog, and order yourself a copy of “What could happen if you do nothing?” A manager’s handbook for coaching conversations.

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“I feel like I never catch up.”
____________________

“Caleb is constantly throwing a wrench in things. It seems the team can never
move beyond his objections.”
____________________

“We always meet our milestones, but then Lori’s department changes the specs, and we have to make
adjustments with no extra time or resources.”

At one time or another, we all grapple with something that moves out of the realm of mild frustration and into gridlock. Managing time, building consensus, clarifying communication—whatever may be handicapping performance—is fertile ground for coaching.

The coaching process begins with defining a dilemma and then articulating a goal that will resolve it. Easier said than done, you may say. Often the dilemma itself is tough to identify. We may speak specifically about this or that frustration, but not see how they are related. A manager who listens carefully may discern patterns and threads in what her coachee says. She can then frame questions that help shine a light on these themes, helping the individual understand how a missed deadline, complaints about workloads, or an in-box full of unanswered e-mail all relate to her difficulty with managing time.

Once we define a dilemma, such as a need to better manage time, we can consider what we must change to resolve the dilemma. This is the time to establish a goal. Coaches often talk about SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based.

For example, a SMART goal might be to find five extra hours per week by the next fiscal quarter, and to allocate that “found” time to reducing the pile of work that hasn’t been getting attention. This goal is specific (find five extra hours a week), measurable (we can track the time, and allocate it to other tasks), relevant (more time to meet responsibilities), time-based (the next quarter is the deadline). Achievable is another matter: the coachee needs to consider how she currently uses her time, what tasks she performs, which ones should be priorities, and which can be delegated.

Most importantly, she then needs to commit to making the changes required to meet the goal. Most likely, a careful analysis of these factors will reveal that the goal is achievable.

Because even a SMART goal can seem too big and daunting, a manager can coach his charge to break down her goals into smaller tasks—stepping stones to the big goal. He might see that an element of the weekly meeting agenda might be better dealt with as a summary report. This could save 20-30 minutes a week…a nice steppingstone. Realizing each task is reinforcing. Appreciating how each step is building to the big payoff renders the entire effort achievable.

It’s a process, with the manager/coach as a guide and the person being coached providing the content and doing the “work”—self-assessing, thinking more deeply, stepping out of the weeds and looking at solutions.

Once the coachee has reached her goal, she must decide how she can maintain the change. The coach can also help here, with an occasional touch-base to explore how things are working and keep the coachee accountable.

It’s easy to make a wish list or fantasize a perfect situation. We often make an attempt, but then strike out. It’s entirely another matter to set a clear goal, decide how to reach it, and commit to getting there. Coaching can help make the process SMART…and deliver a win.

What has helped you set — and achieve — a clear goal in response to a difficult challenge?

If you found this post helpful, check out “About the Book” on this blog, and order yourself a copy of “What could happen if you do nothing?” A manager’s handbook for coaching conversations.

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Micromanagers and control freaks can drive people crazy…including themselves!

In trying to control everyone else’s work, they feel like they can never catch up. They’re stressed, and often pass along frustrations through unpleasant interactions with others…barking orders, never acknowledging accomplishments or contributions. They feel overworked and under appreciated.

Enter the coach! Really? Yes…coaching can be very effective in helping a person let go.

Dave was a senior manager who was lost in the weeds of detail and minutia. He jumped in to take on big and small tasks. He suffocated others with constant reminders and suggestion, only to compromise the quality of the work they had so seriously invested in. Dave had lost his proper focus on the big picture and the future. His micromanagement led his people to believe that he ultimately did not trust them to do their jobs properly.

An executive coaching engagement has helped Dave sort out his real responsibilities in the organization…to focus on what’s important, the future rather than the present, the work he should be doing in leading his group versus the work he can pass on to someone else. During his coaching engagement, Dave also discovered opportunities to develop his people by having them assume greater responsibility.

Becoming more skilled at delegation has given Dave more freedom, and has enabled him to develop himself as well. Let’s look at the process:

The big picture

What’s the whole view of the work to be done? What is our purpose? What are our objectives? What are the parts, and the steps to get to the finish line? What tasks can be farmed out to others, and what skills are essential to those tasks?

Self-assessment

What must remain under my control, and why? Where are my strengths and weaknesses, and what can I delegate to someone more capable?

Resources

What resources—time, budget, people—are available to me? How are these resources currently allocated, and how could that be improved?

Stakeholder Input

How are others—our reports, our team, our department, colleagues, our boss, our customers—affected by our purpose and objectives? What recommendations could they make for improvements? Who could be given more responsibility?

Next Steps

Once you’ve identified tasks to be delegated, you can define boundaries and success criteria, assign necessary resources and supervision, point out development opportunities and any potential problems.

Successful managers are successful delegators. They and their people realize many benefits beyond the work at hand, including:

• Greater engagement
• Cost and time efficiencies
• Individual and team development

Who wouldn’t give up something to gain so much in return? Just ask Dave!

What have you learned from your own delegating abilities?

If you found this post helpful, check out “About the Book” on this blog, and order yourself a copy of “What could happen if you do nothing?” A manager’s handbook for coaching conversations.

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Every day at work involves some kind of negotiation, whether it’s simply when to schedule a conference call, or a more complex issue such as where to cut costs on next year’s budget. We wrestle with the pros and cons and usually come to consensus…or someone simply acquiesces and moves on.

However, there are occasions when issues become really thorny. Someone digs in and won’t budge. “Getting to yes” is subverted by getting nowhere.

In this case, an individual is often identified as the problem: “He’s so stubborn and won’t listen to what I think should happen.”  “She thinks she knows all the answers, but this is more complicated than she realizes.”

Coaching can help move people outside their comfort zone and beyond their “positions” by letting them deal with difficult personalities and find common ground. Managers who coach individuals and teams through these difficulties can guide a problem-solving process that may have benefits beyond the roadblock issue: the outcome may include greater self-awareness, improved communication, cost and time efficiencies, and more.

Reframing

Coaching conversations can help to reframe a situation, enabling someone stuck in a position to look at it from another perspective and consider others’ viewpoints. For example, coaching can help someone with a negative outlook to see the pros instead of the cons: what is working rather than what isn’t; what opportunities are out there vs. what barriers may exist.

Anticipating and planning for hurdles

Coaching might include role playing the worst that could happen, giving a “glass half empty” person the chance to test the likelihood of all those downside possibilities. Then there’s the opportunity to anticipate the upside, and how to make it happen.

Appreciating different styles

Coaching can help us better understand our work and communication styles, and those of co-workers. We can identify particular strengths and call upon them to facilitate cooperation. Appreciating different styles can open the way to better ways of collaborating and communicating, so all parties are heard and understood.

Thinking deeply

Finally, coaching’s emphasis on engaged listening and deliberative questioning enables the coachee to think more deeply about threads and patterns—when his coworker has not been unpleasant, when she has been more collaborative. Identifying these positive patterns can encourage more successful interactions going forward.

Thinking more deeply can also provide better insight into what triggers difficult exchanges in the first place, and ways to avoid those triggers in the future. Small behavior changes are the stepping-stones to healthier, more collaborative working relationships.

Because coaching is solutions-focused, managers who coach can help their people recognize and accommodate different styles and points of view in working to a common goal.

What have you found works in working with difficult personalities?

If you found this post helpful, check out “About the Book” on this blog, and order yourself a copy of “What could happen if you do nothing?” A manager’s handbook for coaching conversations.

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The average professional in corporate America spends at least 45 hours a week at work, often more. That’s a huge chunk of waking time to be “living” at the office.

It’s no surprise to see office walls and shelves brimming with personal artifacts: an award from an industry association, knick-knacks from last year’s conference, and pictures—from rafting the Colorado to a snap of the family gerbil. All are attempts to add a personal touch, to make the space familiar and comforting.

Where is my turf?
Our personal domains extend beyond the space we inhabit. At work, they include our ideas, the projects we run, the responsibilities we shoulder. And we can become very proprietary about these things. Wherever we may perceive a threat to our turf —whether an office move or a new person on the team—our protective hackles can go up very quickly.

A case in point
Coaching can be particularly helpful to senior managers whose default decision-making style may have become autocratic. Back in the early ’90s, the CEO of a celebrated ad agency responded to the cubicle culture by re-designing his California offices in a “loungy- like Starbucks” style, according to a manager who was there at the time.

Employees were told to keep their personal belongings in lockers overnight, and check out the equipment they needed every morning. They no longer had their own work spaces.

The boss saw the change as innovative and future-oriented, but in this new community no one had his own turf. A mini-rebellion ensued, and many people opted to work at home. The company was subsequently acquired, and employees once again got their own work spaces.

What might have been
How might coaching have helped this CEO avoid this design flaw and the staff disengagement that resulted from his top-down decision? Coaching might have offered the CEO an opportunity to explore ways to build support and engagement, to seek input from stakeholders, to anticipate and prepare for resistance, and to facilitate the communication that would build engagement.

This exploration might have revealed to the CEO that his people had a definite interest in shared spaces for brainstorming and relaxation, but also placed a high value on inhabiting their own spaces, designed with their personal effects.

Authority can be turf, too
Our autocratic CEO might have even decided to delegate the office redesign project to one of his lieutenants. Coaching might have helped him identify his own autocracy as a form of turf. In this case, he might have discovered the benefits of delegating his authority and letting go of his turf.

By sharing what was solely his domain, he could have lightened his load, made the process itself more communal, and enriched the workplace—just like the loungy office space he envisioned.

Have you ever impacted your people’s turf? How has change impacted your professional turf? What helped you deal with it?

If you found this post helpful, checkout “About the Book” on this blog and order yourself a copy of “What could happen if you do nothing?” A manager’s handbook for coaching conversations.

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Coaching is a process of conversations that help people leverage their own potential and unpack all the information they can use to meet a challenge. The process helps them: articulate a clear goal, identify options for action, and follow through to an improved outcome.

IDEO, a Palo Alto-based industrial design firm known for its trademarked “deep dive” brainstorming process, features a short video on its website called Sam and Dave Save the World. “Sam and Dave Save the World”. The video shows how differently Sam and Dave respond to climate change—basically how differently they react to their electric bills. The information they receive and how it’s expressed determine that difference. I saw parallels to coaching in the video’s message.

Sam’s electric bill presents his usage and the whopping amount he owes. Same reacts by simply turning down the thermostat and continues to turn it down with each successive over-the-top bill. Dave’s bill shows his usage and impressive balance due, but it also informs him of the impact of using energy efficient bulbs, insulating his roof, and downsizing in other ways. His bill clearly conveys how those actions will translate to cost savings. Dave responds by taking initiative and proactively changing his behavior.

Sam attacks the symptoms. Dave searches for root causes…and their solutions. Information is the key influence to the choices they make. Same reduces his bill but endures unnecessary quality of life sacrifice. He and his family are freezing to their bones. Dave looks at a bigger picture of information, considers a wide variety of options, takes proactive steps to change his behavior in the face of a challenge and enjoys lower bills without unpleasant compromises to his family’s lifestyle.

A coach establishes a conversational framework that enables the coachee to make a big-picture assessment of the current situation and find opportunities for improvement. The coaching process encourages a solutions-based response like Dave’s. The situation may not be about the utility bill, but the process is energetic and the rewards can be electric.

* The Deep Dive is now a trademark of Deloitte Consulting.

Has having more information ever enabled you to make a better decision or set a clearer course? How did you come by that information?

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Robert C. Gallagher, businessman and former director of the Green Bay Packers, was right when he made this quip about change being unavoidable.

In the face of the inevitable, we need to confront change and embrace it to make it work to our advantage. This is where the rubber meets the road. In business, coaching anyone—from the C-suite to the factory floor—can help her embrace change, as well as guide and support her people.

Four key behaviors are the foundation for optimal performance for people and teams during a change effort:

• Fostering a positive attitude
• Modeling open, transparent communication
• Enlisting stakeholder participation
• Supporting and reinforcing necessary behavior changes

Managers who understand and exhibit these behaviors, and encourage them in others, can expect better business outcomes.

Attitude
A positive attitude is a significant factor in dealing with change. An “up” outlook on the world energizes participation in creating long-term solutions and helps foster innovative thinking. The hallmarks of coaching — future-orientation and focus on outcomes — engage people’s participation and help them take ownership of the change. This engagement and ownership actually help the brain learn and sustain new behaviors.

Transparent Communication
In their book, Switch, Dan and Chip Health say, “Change is easier when you know where you’re going and why it’s worth it.” We’re much more likely to see everyone pulling in the same direction in companies that communicate openly and transparently.

Openness and honesty are always essential ingredients for engaging employees and generating optimal performance. They are a critical antidote to rumor, fear, and stress.

Stakeholder Participation
Getting everyone on board, and enlisting the participation of all those impacted by a change, demonstrates that you value your people, that you see the merit of investing them in the change process, and that you understand that the business will benefit from their input.

Support the Behavior Change
It’s not enough to bullishly announce a change and give people the opportunity for their input. Change is hard, no matter how much sense it makes, no matter the optimism it may engender. It takes commitment, work, and the actual formation of new behaviors to transform performance. Again, the coaching process can help support this effort by encouraging:

• Seeing new outcomes by engaging in new thinking
• Forming new habits to address intransigent problems
• Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) goals
• Engaging stakeholders by offering ongoing feedback and acknowledgment
• Sustaining the change with regular updates, touch-ins, and tweaks

Yes, change is inevitable. Coaching gives us the tools that can help insure it will inevitably be successful.

What leadership skill(s) have you discovered in yourself, helping your people through change?

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