Executive Coaching In India

Executive coaching in India

by

Santhosh Babu – Odalternatives

Executive coaching in India

Executive coaching in India is catching up and more and more organisations are using coaches to build a leadership pipeline faster. IBM has more than sixty certified coaches among its ranks worldwide and Microsoft has trained coaches in many locations. Scores of other major companies have made coaching a core part of executive development including Agilent, Nokia and Ericsson. The belief is that, under the right circumstances, one-on-one interaction with an objective qualified third party can provide a focus that other forms of organizational support simply cannot. There is a lot of confusion related to coaching, as this is relatively a new professional field. As the differentiating borders’ coaching has with mentoring, consulting and counseling can be narrow; ICF (International Coaches Federation) has come up with a definition. Here is what ICF says Professional Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses or organizations. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life. In each meeting, the client chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client into action. Coaching accelerates the client’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice. Coaching concentrates on where clients are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future, recognizing that results are a matter of the client’s intentions, choices and actions, supported by the coach’s efforts and application of the coaching process. In an Indian context coaching could help in three ways. 1.Post Training Coaching. Large number of Indian organisations spend huge amount of money in Leadership and skill development programs. These programs are usually outsourced to external agencies or top B schools in the country. Following up coaching after these trainings will increase the ROI on these trainings and help participants implement the learning’s at the workplace. Prof Kirkpatrick who studied evaluation of training programs created a four step model evaluation model essentially measure: Reaction of student – what they thought and felt about the training Learning – the resulting increase in knowledge or capability Behaviour – extent of behaviour and capability improvement and implementation/application Results – the effects on the business or environment resulting from the trainee’s performance Usually it is difficult to measure or most trainining initiatives at the moment do not measure the 3 and 4th levels- the behavioural change or Business Results. Post training coaching and help in translating learning into work place applications thus creating positive results. So, should you have a coach? And which managers in your sphere of responsibility might benefit from working with an outsider to help sharpen skills and overcome hurdles to better performance? The right approach to answering these questions still varies a great deal depending on whom you ask, but input from several dozen coaches, and executives who have undergone coaching, does provide a useful framework for how to think about the role of coaching 2. Coaching with a Problem Resolution Focus. This can be to help specific executives to improve certain competencies or skills that are not helping them to grow within the organization. I hear a story of a senior executive who was not selected for the CEO’s post of a large telecom company, as after repeated feedbacks he could not improve his interpersonal skills and sensitivity. An executive coach would have been an ideal solution in this case. I also remember working with a newly joined sales head of a pharma company helping him to cope with the new culture and the team. Most organisations do a training need analysis (TNA) and would find 2 people has a need to be more assertive, 3 people have a need to be more people oriented etc and they look for who could train them to improve these competencies. Coaching would be better option in these cases than training. 3. Coaching with a developmental Focus: Coaching is effective in developing leadership, supporting high potentials, and supporting senior management. This could be to enhance emotional intelligence, increase work life balance, adjust well in the new leadership role, managing the Board, managing ambiguity and business challenges etc. A large number of organisations provide coaches to their senior management with a developmental focus. We worked with a 12 member Executive Committee of a Telecome Circle coaching them for six months with a focus on supporting them in their business goals and work life balance. Who can be a Coach: The recent coach certification workshop we did had a CEO, two HR heads two Training heads, one Marketing head and bunch of consultants, facilitators and trainers. What we heard from them as reasons for entering into coaching were They like people and want to bring out the best in them They want to do something more fulfilling in their live. They want personal and financial freedom Their family, friends and colleagues previously turned to them for advice and help – they have natural ‘people’ skills Over and above, understanding complex human behavior, organizational dynamics, inter personal and intra personal dynamics and professional training in the process of coaching is essential to be a good coach. As India needs more Leadership talent, more CEOs and more skilled workforce Executive coaching in India is going to bloom and grow in the coming years. santosh Babu

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Executive coaching in India