Background
The organisation had reached a point where the emphasis was moving
from research and development into implementation as the organisation
took its major new product to market. As a result, the roles of several
senior members of the management team would be changing and they would
have new responsibilities to attend to.
What we were asked to do
HRM Coaching was asked to assist by coaching three directors on a
one-to-one basis to:
- Identify their own strengths and weaknesses
- Develop their own leadership style which would be appropriate to the new structure
- Improve communications and working relationships between the directors
- Improve their own time management and delegation
- Improve their effectiveness in meetings
What we did
We started with an in-depth interview with the managing director to
ensure that we fully understood the situation. We established the
aims and objectives of the coaching programmes.
The first person to receive coaching was the managing director. Before the coaching began, we conducted an anonymous 360 degree appraisal and data was gathered electronically. The people asked to appraise him were the senior directors, their direct reports, and several external contacts. It was important to him to understand whether he was perceived differently by people inside and outside of the organisation.
The results were shared with the managing director in a private coaching session where we talked through the scores. Most of the feedback was as expected but the appraisal also highlighted areas for improvement that he was not aware of. In particular it showed how perceptions were indeed different depending on whether the appraiser was internal or external to the organisation.
He set some goals for himself and the coaching programme began. Over a period of approximately 6 months, the managing director had regular coaching sessions - some face to face and some on the telephone. As he was eager to learn more about different leadership styles, we used our own diagnostic tools and models with him to help him to decide for himself what type of leader he wanted to be. We were also able to recommend books and other resources for him to read which he said that he found useful and inspirational.
While we had originally intended to repeat the 360 degree appraisal at the end of the coaching programme, the managing director no longer felt that this was necessary as he had received verbal feedback from several sources to indicate that he had made the desired changes and achieved the goals that he had set out to achieve. It was agreed that the tool would be used at the outset with the other coachees, but not at the end of the coaching programme.
At this point, he requested that we repeat the process with the other senior directors, which we did in a similar fashion.
The outcomes
At the end of the coaching programmes, we gathered feedback from each
of the coachees and had a number of discussions with the managing
director. It was considered by the organisation that the process had
been a success and had achieved the outcomes defined at the start.
Whilst there had not been quantifiable outcomes that could be directly
attributed to coaching alone*, it was felt that each person had improved
their soft skills and the atmosphere in the organisation had changed
for the better. Each person saw considerable value in having time
to think and reflect on a regular basis and commented that it had
helped them to make better decisions and interact in a more honest
way.
* Because the organisation was in the midst of a restructure and a major product launch, it would have been misleading to attribute the successful restructure and achievement of sales targets to coaching alone.