Workforce energy - releasing potential through coaching

Should business be worried about this? Absolutely! A recent McKinsey war for talent survey² research indicates that a high performer generates from about 50% to 70% more than an average performer. Also research shows³ that of those who are highly engaged 59% intend to stay and 31% are open to offers whereas amongst those who are disengaged just 24% intend to stay and a worrying 39% are open to offers. So how can firms ensure they attract and retain their top performers and access their discretionary effort?

There are many answers - from how you select, recruit and train to the quality of your buildings and the food in your canteen. However, when it comes to increasing the engagement and commitment of employees one approach above all others is increasing in dominance - executive coaching. It's highly focused, personalised development tailored to the needs of each individual. When done well it's an approach that goes deeper than skills training - it addresses not just skills and behaviours but also also the most significant obstacles to performance which are often mental - relating to issues of attitude, belief and self image.

Decade of the mind

In 1990 Congress declared the nineties the decade of the mind. According to Lewis L. Judd, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health: “The pace of progress in neurosciences is so great that 90 percent of all we know about the brain we learned in the last 10 years.”

In sports it is increasingly recognised that the mind has a powerful influence on performance - recently it enabled Cape Town's Lewis Gordon Pugh to master his fears to swim a kilometre in freezing, killer-whale infested waters of the North Pole - a feat previously thought impossible. In medicine doctors recognise the power of the mind to heal disease through the placebo effect caused by the mere suggestion that a patient is receiving a drug - even when all they are getting is an inert sugar tablet.

This understanding of the power of the mind is now starting to be taken into business through executive coaching. For example, a major global pharmaceutical company approached business coach, Ron Hyams, Managing Partner of the executive coaching firm, Praesta, to develop a programme for their sales reps. Says Hyams: “They didn't need to input more technical skills training - rather they wanted an approach that would develop emotional intelligence and draw out more of the self responsibility, and good ideas that they knew was already in their young top performers - they wanted the focus to be less on teaching and more on learning.”

Hyams started by asking their existing managers what distinguished their best managers. Interestingly, the answer was not just about technical skills. Rather it was about having a combination of hard technical competence and soft skills - emotional intelligence, pro-activity, ability to build relationships.

Key principles

There are a number or key principles that underpin the programme:

• The belief that everyone has more potential than they realise.
• The recognition that the biggest obstacles to our potential are often mental - and that we can transform these obstacles by understanding the beliefs that shape our self-image.
• To fully engage people at work you have to consider the whole person - and find the right balance between home and work.

Over a series of workshops the participants learn models and techniques to coach each other. In between workshops they also receive one to one coaching from Hyams and his team enabling participants to address highly individual development challenges and to understand and re-shape limiting mental programming.

For example, a coloured woman - the first in her family to get into higher education - struggling to break the mould and fully step into her power. Or the young Afrikaans woman with a strong work ethic who had to let go of her perfectionism pattern and realise that as you get more senior and your job gets bigger you can't actually be in control of everything. Paradoxically, she realised that sometimes you have to let go to get on.

And does the coaching approach work? Well, the programme is now in its second year and the results are starting to come through. Those on the programme are delivering outstanding business results - the programme includes two Rep of the Year award winners. A high percentage of participants have moved, or are about to move, up into management. And those who have made the move are well regarded as leaders.

External coach or new style of leadership

Businesses seeking to introduce coaching can proceed in a number of ways: coaching can be delivered by an external coach and/or the skills can be developed internally as a new predominant style of leadership - which, ideally, means putting managers through a structured and long term process of coaching skills training from an accredited training organisation. When coaching is a primary management style then people can expect the following benefits:

• an opportunity to do what they do best
• recognition and praise
• care for them as a person
• encouragement of them as a person
• opportunities to learn and grow

Significantly, Gallup research with millions of employees indicates that these are precisely the sorts of factors that are consistently found to motivate people. Indeed, it is not primarily pay, company culture or working conditions that cause people to stay or leave a company - but rather the quality and style of the manager.

So coaching is an approach whose time may well have come. Coaching is particularly in tune with the values and aspirations of today's Generation Y workforce (born 1981 to current). Gen Y's approach to work can be summarised as “what can you do for me?” They don't want to be told what to do and will resist a more traditional authoritarian ‘tell' style culture. Coaching appeals because the questioning approach encourages self responsibility and this resonates with Gen Y values including:

• Growth and development opportunities
• Individual contribution
• Doing it your way
• No rules

Perhaps the best sign of success of coaching programmes is when managers further up the organisation start to ask for coaching. Coaching is a trend that is not going to go away. It's a new industry - and whilst there are undoubtably cowboys operating - it's also clear that - when done well - coaching works. Business people may not be entirely sure what coaching involves - but they like the impact it is having on those being coached in terms of performance, clarity of direction, emotional maturity, confidence and receptivity to change.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ron Hyams is Managing Partner of Praesta, South Africa. Praesta (www.praesta.com) is a global coaching and leadership development organisation with offices in 14 countries - the firm recently won the European Mentoring and Coaching Council award for quality in coaching. Ron coaches senior leaders, teams and high potentials - and trains managers in coaching skills. Contact Ron on +27 82 923 0774 or


REFERENCES
¹ Enterprise IG 2004
² McKinsey War for Talent survey
³ Towers Perrin Workforce study 2005

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