Client confidential
In this fifth and final article in the
Masterclass series on Executive Coaching, Ina Smith examines ways client
relationships should be managed to ensure real success for both individuals and
the organisation.
It is inevitable that careful purchasers of executive coaching have a range of criteria for selecting coaches and evaluating the success of a coaching programme at its conclusion. They need to feel reassured that:
- Appropriate boundaries and contracts are established with the coach
- Clear levels of confidentiality can be ensured
- The coaching provided is of the highest quality available
- Effective ways to evaluate success can be created
Executive coaches need to have a good understanding of these issues and be prepared to be scrutinised and assessed on their ability to maintain the highest standards. By addressing some of these issues in the relationships with the individual and his organisation at the start of a coaching assignment, there is a much greater chance for a positive evaluation at the close of the programme.
Boundaries
Our assumptions about executive coaching have a deep impact on our expectations and evaluation of the success or otherwise of the coaching process and practice.
Some people would characterise coaching as a social exchange, where an individual client's performance can be measured and monitored to provide a rational cost-benefit analysis of coaching for the organisation.
Others see coaching as a way of providing support to key people within an organisation, enabling them to enact the core values of the organisation as members of a community. Such behaviour then becomes the norm. This latter view recognises executive coaching as a strategic process in the service of sustainable change. An evaluation from this perspective would require very different enquiry methods and success criteria.
It is vital the executive coach examines the assumptions of both the coachee and his organisation, to ensure expectations are realistic and to establish a true understanding of the benefits of coaching beforehand.
The initial stages of any coaching need to be focused on the particular goals for the whole coaching process, then for each specific coaching meeting. This agenda setting, along with a clear understanding of the roles and relationships involved, are what make up the coaching 'contract'.
The complexities of this contract were examined by Charlotte Sills in the second article of this series . Issues such as whether the coachee or the organisation is the client, need to be addressed at the outset by the coach.
Clear contracts where specific goals are set, the number of coaching sessions agreed at the start and where confidentiality limits and the nature of any reporting arrangements are clearly understood, all help the coaching relationship to flourish.
However, some coaches may be concerned that having too formal contracts and arrangements with the organisation will stifle the evolution of a creative, safe and personal relationship. It is important the coach's approach is non-judgmental, and the coaching relationship is based on trust. Only within the context of such a relationship can a coach help the client to be truly innovative and creative, as Bill Critchley explained in the third article of this series .
It is generally advisable to separate social and professional roles and to allow only one relationship - the professional relationship of coach and client. Most coaches decline social invitations to keep this boundary clear.
Confidentiality
Individuals expect coaching to be focused on their specific requirements, to be outcome-oriented and flexible in terms of their time. It is also expected to be entirely confidential and offers a safe place to acknowledge self-doubts and explore options.
Most executive coaches would acknowledge that although organisations have the right to expect results, they do not have the right to know how these were obtained. A sense that your coach is 'on your side' is essential - although challenges should be expected as well as support.
Executive coaches generally offer a clear guarantee that they will not talk about the client or share data with anyone else (including the sponsor, boss or HR manager) without the client's specific permission to do so. Although the organisation pays the coach, the data collected and information shared belong to the individual.
Many executive coaches encourage their clients to be open and share their development goals and plans. By doing this, they model such behaviour to others and show themselves to be leaders in fostering positive change.
But what happens if there is resistance to change or over-dependency on the coaching relationship?
Dependency
Writers attempting to explore the nature of executive coaching have pointed to the dangers of dependency and how some people experience real difficulty in ending a coaching contract. For this reason, some writers and researchers recommend that all coaching should be done by fully- trained psychologists or therapists, but the best coaches are well aware of the dangers of dependency.
High-quality coaching
An Ashridge research project into executive coaching identified a number of key areas that distinguished great coaches from truly excellent ones.
The first was their training, qualifications and background. The coaches studied came from a variety of backgrounds, and it did not seem that there was one formal method of training that guaranteed excellent coaches. However, what was more interesting, was that the excellent coaches had never stopped developing themselves. They were constantly looking for new things they could engage in to enable them to coach even more effectively.
Excellent coaches were much more eclectic in their approach. They worked with a wide variety of ideas, theories and models that seemed to be appropriate to particular individuals. They also continuously develop their thinking and practice, reflecting on their current experiences and learning new ways of working with individuals.
Executive coaches need to seek out and discover new training and development opportunities that will provide them with the knowledge and insight to understand their client's organisation and business situations. An excellent executive coach knows enough about business strategy, the core business processes and typical management issues to be able to identify with their client's context and to be able to challenge appropriately.
One of the ways of ensuring continuous professional development is through supervision. It is a concept widely developed and practised in the fields of psychology, counselling and therapy, and in other professions such as social work.
Supervision in executive coaching means taking time either individually or in a small group to describe your coaching work and examine the actual approaches used, the relationships established, dynamics created and the impact, results and outcomes reached. In this way, executive coaches can reflect on their current levels of skill and with appropriate support, challenge and feedback. They can understand where they might adapt and develop their coaching to better help and support the individual.
For coaches faced with potentially difficult issues such as dependency, supervision of their practice provides an important failsafe procedure to ensure that contracts are monitored and endings managed effectively.
Evaluation of coaching
As with any other approach to learning and development, the coaching process is not complete until it has been evaluated. A typical evaluation is done through a questionnaire, which attempts to identify how committed the coach has been to the development of the individual. Bearing in mind that coaches can play a wide variety of roles - including counsellor, adviser, mentor, go-between and devil's advocate - we need to establish ways of understanding the type of help and support the individual has received from the coach.
The results often show the original goals and objectives were not the ones that emerged as important during the coaching process, and the final evaluation demonstrates a greater number of positive outcomes than was anticipated at the start of the process.
We can learn a great deal on the impact of executive coaching from the consulting world. Some of the most useful qualitative measures for evaluating the full impact of executive coaching are described by Peter Block in his book, Flawless Consulting.
He suggests we look at the optimism and self-sufficiency left behind after the consultant has gone, and recognise that true consultancy is fundamentally an educational and capacity-building function. Real success is when the client feels more accountable for their own systems and more able to learn, more powerful and more confident in creating their organisations.
References: Learner-Centred Psychological Principles (1995); The Coaching & Mentoring Conference proceedings, Bristol & West plc (1999); Flawless Consulting, (Peter Block, 2000); Transference,Countertransference and Mentoring, the Ghost in the Process, MJ McAuley, British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, (2003); States of Excellence, V Wark, Ashridge research report.
Coaching for consultants
