Helping Organizations Optimize and Retain Top Talent (Part 2 ...

by David Madison, Ph.D., Director, The National Guild of Five O?Clock Club Career

This is the second in a series of three articles on the broad topic of executive coaching and leadership development, based on interviews with senior Five O?Clock Club executive coaches. All of our coaches are experts in helping people with job search. These coaches are assigned to help the employees who are entrusted to The Five O?Clock Club when their employers let them go.

But The Five O?Clock Club?s experts offer a wide range of services beyond outplacement, because our coaches are heavily credentialed in other areas as well, including:

• Business/executive coaching
• Team building
• Career development for all employees, from the top, down
• Employee engagement programs
• Executive & high-potential onboarding
• Cross-cultural training

Correcting Avoidance-Oriented Management
Derek is the divisional CEO of a global advertising agency. He was one of several members of top management asked to participate in an executive assessment program. The battery of instruments included 360 evaluations. Much to his surprise, Derek received unsettling feedback. It turned out that he was considered aloof and unapproachable by the people who reported to him. In the formal language of the evaluation: his communication style was ?avoidance oriented.? Derek knew that he had to come to terms with the perceptions that made it hard for him to be effective as a leader?even if he was surprised by the 360 feedback and wondered if it were really true!

?My client jumped right into the process of getting rid of damaging behavior.?

But Derek is also a person who is passionate about self-improvement. Thus, he worked closely with the HR department to recruit a suitable coach for him to work with, and the coach?s initial impression was positive: ?He?s a bright guy, and he?s usually tuned into people. But once he saw those 360 scores, he wanted to make a profound change.?

The coach reviewed the 360 results, but he also interviewed Derek?s colleagues; Derek found that he had the most trouble dealing with subordinates who had job-performance problems. ?Instead of being clear about what he wanted, he had a passive-aggressive approach.? If one of his managers wasn?t doing something the right way, or quickly enough, or thoroughly enough, Derek would ask someone else to do it?or do it himself.

By going around people this way to solve problems or get tasks accomplished, he was undermining the authority of his direct reports. ?It looked like Derek was intentionally letting people dangle in the wind,? the coach says, ?but it was primarily a communications issue. Derek was not very good at letting people know what was expected of them.?

It was agreed that Derek and the coach should meet once a week, in person or by phone. ?We created communication strategies,? the coach reports, ?for each of Derek?s direct reports. We based these preferences on how each person had expressed themselves in my interviews with them.?

For example, in the case of one of the marketing VPs, everyone agreed that there had been a contentious relationship. Derek has a low-key laid-back management style, which the VP actually found intimidating, because she had worked for passive-aggressive bosses before. ?So we moved Derek into a different mode. He began to check in with her regularly. He learned to ask her what was happening on her front, but in such a way that he didn?t seem to be micro-managing. We created systems and processes for this type of approach, so that it didn?t get overlooked.? And things did turn around. ?They ended up getting along much better.?

Many executives may hesitate at the thought of getting 360 feedback. A certain level of emotional intelligence is required for the curiosity to be there??Gee, how do other people see me? What do people think about me???and for being receptive to the truth. But organizations don?t run well in the absence of honesty and trust, and Derek wanted, above all, to be an effective leader. ?He?s a very bright guy,? observes the coach, ?but everybody has blind spots, and he jumped right into getting rid of damaging behavior.?

A recent study by AMA and the Institute for Corporate Productivity showed that of U.S. Companies:52 percent have business coaching in place; 72 percent say they would be implementing coaching programs in the future

Overcoming a Cultural Gap

When a coach is called in to help an employee, it may turn out that there has been a misalignment of expectations when the employee was hired. A Fortune 100 company had welcomed an executive from its Tokyo office; Hideaki was the new temporary hire, here for a one-year assignment. The coach, well known as a cross-cultural expert, discovered in an initial interview with the U.S. boss that Hideaki had been brought to this country because he was considered a marketing expert: ?We expected him to come here to assume a leadership role.?

The Japanese office, on the other hand, had sent him here as a ?learner??he had been pegged as a high potential who could benefit by getting global experience. The coach was hired because Hideaki ?was floundering and not productive.?

It turned out that there were several factors that contributed to Hideaki?s lack of success in his new environment. ?His English was not brilliant,? the coach says, ?and he certainly had trouble understanding the nuances of American speech.? Furthermore, he came to his new assignment with the mindset of a learner. This manifested itself, the coach points out, ?in a reactive style. He waited for instructions from his manager?he was expecting to be told what to do.?

Nor was he accustomed to the informality of the American workplace, and the individualistic approach to work here in the U.S. ran counter to the group ideal that he was used to in Tokyo. Clearly, he had not been adequately prepared for his new setting, and his new colleagues had not been informed of the cultural differences that might come into play. Hideaki was the only Japanese employee in the office. ?We had to work on the cultural issues right away?in some ways they were possible ?loss of face? issues,? the coach says. ?Working together we set two goals. He had to begin initiating instead of waiting?anytime and anywhere. And he had to improve his listening skills, which meant grasping the meaning of the English being spoken around him. I counseled him that there was nothing wrong in asking people to repeat what they had said and even asking them to slow down.?

The employee was not to blame. An understanding of the cultural differences solved the problem.

For the desired improvements to be realized in this situation, the coach also had to work with the manager and colleagues. ?Mistakes were made in his process of assimilation,? the coach notes. ?They were inclined to blame him for the floundering, and it wasn?t that simple. The manager had to become more aware of the cultural differences. Once they understood what had been happening, there was a turn-around. They began to see the productivity that they had hoped for.? When the coach conducted post-assignment interviews with manager and others, ?They were grateful for better awareness of the cultural factors.

?She had four bosses in just one year. People at her level coming into an organization can get killed politically.?

The coach had been hired to work with Hideaki for six months of the one-year assignment, but at his request the contract was extended for the full period. This meant that he was able to receive coaching for the process of returning to his Tokyo office after a year of American immersion!

Surviving Ongoing Political Turbulence

Farhana is a very bright and highly marketable pharmaceutical executive. When she landed a new job at a foreign-owned pharmaceutical, her new boss said, ?We want you to work with a coach.?

The foreign ownership was one of the factors that had lead to this decision, but the political landscape would have been a challenge for anyone. This was a case of a company landing a star performer and knowing that retention would be a constant worry. Indeed, as it turned out, Farhana ended up having four bosses during her first year.

?The coach was brought on for a one-year assignment, and grasped the situation at the outset: ?This was not a stable political environment. No matter how brilliant an executive is?and Farhana is one of the best?people at that level coming into an organization can get killed politically. When you?re new, you probably won?t have anyone to confide in?you may end up talking to the wrong people. The coach is there to help with strategy.?

Farhana herself had sensed the danger fairly soon, and arranged to meet with the coach for two hours every two weeks for the first three months?then they moved to a once-a-month schedule, with quick phone calls as needed.

?We literally drew a political landscape chart,? the coach says. ?We filled in as many details as we could about all of the people who reported directly to Farhana?s boss. It turns out that there was a huge rift between the marketing department and Farhana?s area, medical affairs. So we had to figure out how to manage that.?

As any astute employee knows, learning how to manage your boss is one of the keys to success, so this was an issue that Farhana?s coach could help with. Their management styles could not have been more different; the boss being the kind of person for whom the term ?micro-manage? had been invented.

?He went beyond micro-managing,? Farhana said, and this put a drag on her ability to get her work done. The coach notes,?We found ways to merge their very different work styles and this was no easy task. We arranged for people on Farhana?s staff to keep the boss supplied with all the nitty-gritty stuff he wanted.?

The coaching had substantial payoffs: Farhana overcame the turbulence and forged ways to achieve major goals, the outcomes that had been formulated from the start. The rift with the marketing department was replaced by a strong working relationship. She had also established strong ties with the foreign home office; how that would play out had been one of the reasons at the outset for hiring a coach. She also achieved visibility in the organization by getting to know all of the key players.

And the boss considers her a major ally. ?Farhana had never reported to someone like that before. She is now his right-hand person, and he is one of her strongest supporters. He wants her to sit right next to him at all meetings.?

Coaching for Promotability

Alistair had been on the job for about 10 years at a distribution center of an international publishing company. The center enjoyed a reputation for being efficient, progressive and innovative. So it?s not a surprise that Alistair?s boss favored the development of ?in-house,? and he wanted Alistair to move higher up in the organization.

?We want to stretch him,? the boss said. ?We feel that he can grow to make a contribution at a higher level.? Alistair was told that the company wanted him to work with a coach, to increase his chances of getting ahead. He was willing, but hesitant.

The employee count at the distribution center was around 60, which made it seem like one big family. He was concerned that all eyes would be on him. He knew that he wouldn?t lose his job if the coaching wasn?t successful, but he didn?t want to look like he had failed if the coaching goals were not met. But he had a long-standing positive relationship with his boss, which made it easier to trust that the coaching was a good idea.

At the beginning, the coach interviewed the HR officer and the boss: ?I wanted a clear picture of the corporate culture. It was important to know what success would look like, what were their goals for the coaching.?

Then the coach met for a half day with Alistair, to launch the six-month program. After that, they met twice a month for a while, then monthly. The meetings were in person and by telephone. The coach asked him to complete self-assessment exercises, but also conducted 360 interviews with his boss and colleagues ?to identify his strengths, limitations or blind spots.?

There was the expected mixture of positive and negative feedback, and I combined the data to protect the confidentiality of the respondents. We compared the 360 data with his self-evaluations.?

The common feeling was that Alistair was capable of performing with more responsibility. He was soft-spoken and reserved, and was perceived as risk-adverse. The goals that Alistair and the coach had agreed upon were based on his need to come across as more courageous. And his thinking had to move to the next level, to the big-picture strategic level.

The coach met periodically with the boss, comparing notes on how Alistair was responding to the coach?s guidance. At the end of six months, it was felt that Alistair was making progress, so the coaching assignment was extended for another three months.

The boss remained supportive throughout, always depicting the coaching as a ?positive development project.? Not? surprisingly, Alistair developed strong rapport with the coach and came to trust him in the process. And the outcome was the one hoped for. Within less than a year after the conclusion of the positive development project, Alistair was promoted.

Source: http://fiveoclockclub.com/2013/01/helping-organizations-optimize-and-retain-top-talent-part-2/

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