OEC Consultant's Corner
Maximizing the
ROI of Executive
Coaching
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By: Joyce Grillo
As
executive coaching becomes more complex and pervasive, organizations face the
challenge of applying and managing this resource effectively to maximize ROI. Coaching that
occurs in a vacuum—without being aligned to the company
and its culture, strategic direction, and talent-management objectives, as well
as to the specific situation and developmental objectives—does not enhance organizational
effectiveness. Without standards that create the alignment, coaching can be a series
of disparate initiatives.
Understanding What You Don't
Know
In some
organizations, coaches are brought in by senior line management for a
particular assignment and then migrate around the organization on
their own. HR people at these companies have told us, “We
have no idea where these people are, how
long they’ve been there, or what they’re doing.” It’s like
having independent workmen all over your house without a general contractor and
a blueprint.
The good news is that an increasing number of
companies view executive coaching strategically and are centralizing it under HR. If
you are charged with managing a coaching program,
you need to be knowledgeable about the state of
the art so you can make better decisions in setting
standards, selecting and monitoring coaches, and troubleshooting problems.
There is much more involved in
effective coaching than matching the chemistry of coach and
candidate. We frequently encounter HR professionals who are
not asking coaches the right questions, who are allowing
candidates to interview and select their own coaches—and, in
some cases, who are having trouble even convincing management
of the need for a coaching program. These situations often
stem from a lack of knowledge about coaching.
For HR
professionals responsible for executive coaching programs and
efforts in their organizations, it can be helpful to turn to
someone with experience for assistance in filling in the
knowledge gaps.
Mastering the Basics
The first
step is understanding the basics:
- The differences among coaching, therapy, personal
counseling, and EAPs
- The various coaching approaches, models, and assessment
tools, and which work best in which situations
- The characteristics of an effective coach and how to
ensure a good coach/ candidate fit
- The nature of the coaching process: structure, needs
assessment, confidentiality, the roles of the various
stakeholders (HR, sponsor/manager, and candidate), measuring
and reporting results
- When to coach and when not to
- The obstacles within the organization and the candidate
that can derail the process and how to head them off
- How to set and manage expectations
We can provide
this foundation and make sure you consider all
the factors and options that go into developing
standards that are right for your organization and then
using those standards to select and manage relationships with external
coaches. Once the program is in place, we can
help you address and resolve issues and conflicts, answer questions, and assist
in program evaluation on an ongoing basis.
Tapping Outside Expertise
One advantage of
centralizing and tying coaching to organizational development
initiatives is that if there are systemic problems, external
coaches can serve as detectors. We advocate and can facilitate
group debriefings to extract and pool the coaches’ insights
about what the company is doing right and wrong from a
managerial viewpoint, without breaching confidentiality. This
is valuable information too many companies leave lying on the
table. Systemic problems that remain unaddressed can have
enormous implications for organizational effectiveness.
Yet another area in which outside advisers
can be invaluable is in setting up internal
coaching programs. The use of internal coaching makes
it possible to bring cost-effective coaching to lower levels
of the organization. We can help HR define, structure, promote,
and deliver such a program. We can also train
HR professionals to deliver the coaching—coach the coaches—objectively review and/or supervise cases,
and provide confidential peer-level consultations as needed.
As companies come to better
understand the importance of coaching to talent management and
organizational effectiveness and invest more in coaching
programs, HR needs to make sure this resource is leveraged
wisely to get the best ROI.
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For more information,
please contact Joan Caruso, Managing Director of Organizational
Effectiveness Consulting at The Ayers Group — (212)
889-7788.
Joyce Grillo
is a former HR executive with more than
20 years of experience in providing executive coaching
and leadership development services for FORTUNE 100 organizations.
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