Category Archives: Coaching
Do executive coaches add value? (IO Psychology)
Topic: Coaching
Publication: Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice (2012)
Article: The effect from external executive coaching
Authors: Frode Moen & Roger Andre Federici
Reviewed By: Scott Charles Sitrin, M.A.
According to a 2009 article in the Harvard Business Review the median hourly salary of an executive coach is $500. This makes me wonder why I am getting a degree in Psychology, but that is neither here nor there. If we assume that you hire the coach for 10 sessions to help one of your executives, is she worth it at a total cost of $5,000? Well, let’s see. What is the salary of your executive? $250,000 per year? So, is it worth it to spend $5,000 to protect a $250,000 investment? Ultimately, that may depend on the efficacy of the coach. According to Moen and Roger, when compared to a control group, 20 executives from a Norwegian Fortune 500 company who received coaching had improved goal-setting skills, higher levels of self-efficacy, and better casual attributions. So, at least in this setting, the coaching did seem to add value, and at $500 an hour, it’s a relative bargain.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
source for picture: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Business_People_g201-Employer_Signing_The_Contract_p66423.html
A Breath of Fresh AER for Leadership Development! (IO Psychology)
Topic: Leadership, Coaching, Personality
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology (SEP 2012)
Article: A Quasi-Experimental Study of After-Event Reviews and Leadership
Development
Authors: D.S. DeRue, J.D. Nahrgang, J.R. Hollenbeck, K. Workman
Reviewed By: Ben Sher
How can we train people to become better leaders? New research by DeRue, et al.
(2012) has identified the benefits of a strategy called after-event reviews, or AERs.
What are AERs, and when will they work best?
The authors explain that leadership is difficult because it involves high pressure and
high uncertainty. Even in hindsight, complex situations make it difficult to know if
leaders performed well or made good decisions. In order to improve leadership skills,
leaders must reflect on what happened, and analyze their decisions and the outcomes
that they led to. An AER is a technique that provides structure for this kind of analysis.
An AER has three steps. In the first step, leaders must explain what they did and
how this contributed to the outcome. This is called self-explanation. In the second
step, called data verification, leaders consider other possible explanations for how
their decisions led to the outcome. Finally, leaders provide themselves with a type of
feedback by considering how changes in their behavior can lead to future improvement.
The authors conducted a quasi-experiment involving emerging leaders in a
business school and found that using the AER technique led to improved leadership
development. This is because AERs provide needed structure to the reflection process,
and force leaders to truly deconstruct and consider their actions. Generic reflection
processes are not as effective because they allow people to reflect in an automatic and
superficial way.
When do AERs work best? The authors found that several different types of people
gain more from AERs. People who are conscientious benefit more from AERs, as
do people who are emotionally-stable, and people who are open to new experiences.
If you think about it, this makes sense. These kinds of people will be more likely
to dutifully, objectively, or readily consider alternative explanations that may prove
useful to their development. The authors also found that people who have already
experienced some kind of leadership development gain more from AERs than people
without this past experience.
What does this all mean? First, AERs are a great way to provide needed structure to
the leadership development process. They are cheap, easy, and they work! Second,
the authors explain that leadership coaching is great way to improve and develop
leaders. But the presence of a coach is not a cure-all. Coaches will be most successful
when they utilize strategies that are supported by research.
DeRue, D.S., Nahrgang, J.D., Hollenbeck, J.R., & Workman, K. (2012). A quasi-
experimental study of after-event reviews and leadership development. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 97(5), 997-1015.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
Line managers adopting coaching behaviors? It could improve your organization’s performance (IO Psychology)
Topic: Coaching
Publication: International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring (FEB 2011)
Article: How does the adoption of coaching behaviors by line managers contribute to the achievement of organizational goals?
Authors: L. Wheeler
Reviewed By: Jailza Pauly
Providing excellent customer service is critical to succeeding in today’s competitive environment. Interestingly, line managers who rely on facilitative and empowering techniques in their interactions with front-line staff, as opposed to directive and prescriptive ones, might be better positioned to help their reports improve performance against organizational goals.
Wheeler (2011) investigated whether informal coaching delivered by trained front-line managers would improve customer service. She conducted interviews and examined organizational documents a year after organizational goals had been set, and front-line staff and their managers had received training on coaching skills.
Wheeler concluded that, to varying degrees, the managers were practicing the following coaching behaviors one year after they received training: helping staff through information and resource provision, encouraging staff to take ownership of performance, modeling excellent customer service or facilitating role modeling through the observation of high performing staff members, and utilizing various coaching dialoguing techniques (e.g., soliciting and providing feedback, holding back answers allowing employees to identify solutions, and utilizing question framing and perspective broadening/change). More interestingly, she found that sites with managers who were adopting dialoguing techniques had higher sales performance than sites with little or no evidence of these coaching behaviors.
Due to the qualitative nature of the study these findings are indicative rather than conclusive. However, they suggest that when it comes to coaching behaviors and customer service, we may be on to something. For those on the front-line, coaching behaviors – particularly dialoguing techniques – may just become part of the toolkit for customer service improvement.
Line managers adopting coaching behaviors? It could improve your organization’s performance.
Topic: Coaching
Publication: International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring (FEB 2011)
Article: How does the adoption of coaching behaviors by line managers contribute to the achievement of organizational goals?
Authors: L. Wheeler
Reviewed By: Jailza Pauly
Providing excellent customer service is critical to succeeding in today’s competitive environment. Interestingly, line managers who rely on facilitative and empowering techniques in their interactions with front-line staff, as opposed to directive and prescriptive ones, might be better positioned to help their reports improve performance against organizational goals.
Wheeler (2011) investigated whether informal coaching delivered by trained front-line managers would improve customer service. She conducted interviews and examined organizational documents a year after organizational goals had been set, and front-line staff and their managers had received training on coaching skills.
Wheeler concluded that, to varying degrees, the managers were practicing the following coaching behaviors one year after they received training: helping staff through information and resource provision, encouraging staff to take ownership of performance, modeling excellent customer service or facilitating role modeling through the observation of high performing staff members, and utilizing various coaching dialoguing techniques (e.g., soliciting and providing feedback, holding back answers allowing employees to identify solutions, and utilizing question framing and perspective broadening/change). More interestingly, she found that sites with managers who were adopting dialoguing techniques had higher sales performance than sites with little or no evidence of these coaching behaviors.
Want to Accelerate Transition Into New Leadership Roles? Try this Five-Action Step Intervention
Topic: Coaching, Leadership, Teams
Publication: Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research (MAR 2010)
Article: New leader assimilation process: Accelerating new role-related transitions.
Authors: I.M. Levin
Reviewed By: Jailza Pauly
The first 90 to 100 days are crucial for those moving into new leadership roles. But why is this period so important? Leaders in new roles are more likely to make errors such as acting too quickly without the necessary information and failing to build relationships and credibility. To ensure accelerated assimilation and effectiveness into new roles, organizations can help their new leaders experience successful role transitions.
Levin recently proposed a five step structured intervention that combines executive coaching and team development. Its purpose is to address two tasks that are critical to success in new leadership roles: information seeking about the context and challenges of the new role and relationship building with the new team of direct reports and peers.
Step 1 – Launch
A contracting process between a qualified coach (e.g., Levin recommends a consulting psychologist), the new leader, and key stakeholders outlining substantive task-related and socio-emotional issues associated with the transition into the new role.
Step 2 – Leader Preparation and Team interviews
A parallel process of data collection through individual interviews with direct reports and peers, as well as ongoing analysis of responses (conducted by the consulting psychologist).
Coaching: An Essential Element of Managing Your Employees
Topic: Coaching, Training
Publication: Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice Article: Employee Coaching Relationships: Enhancing Construct Clarity and Measurement
Authors: J.B. Gregory, P.E. Levy
Reviewed by: Mary Alice Crowe-Taylor
Executive coaching has been the subject of much academic research. Employee coaching is distinctly different, as defined and measured by Gregory and Levy. These researchers argue that employee coaching is the coaching of subordinates by their supervisors. You may ask, “Isn’t that just synonymous with managing employees?” No! Coaching is only part of the managing that superiors do. And how well it is done can make all the difference in managing effectively.
To assess the quality of a supervisor’s coaching, these researchers created the Perceived Quality Employee Coaching Relationship (PQECR) scale using two employee samples. It captures subordinates’ views on their bosses’ coaching along the four dimensions of: genuineness; effective communication; comfort with the relationship; and facilitating development of the employee. It can be used to help managers and supervisors develop their coaching ability.
These researchers do advise third party administration of the PQECR so that supervisors can get honest responses from their employees. By defining employee coaching and providing the PQECR, Gregory and Levy hope to increase the scientific rigor of the domain of employee coaching and provide another tool for the manager’s toolbox.
J. B. Gregory & P. E. Levy (2010). Employee coaching relationships: Enhancing construct clarity and measurement. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice, 3(2), 109-123.
How Can You Be A Better Executive Coach?
Topic: Coaching
Publication: Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice (SEP 2009)
Article: Hidden in Plain Sight: The Active Ingredients of Executive Coaching
Authors: D.D. McKenna and S.L. Davis
Reviewed by: Samantha Paustian-Underdahl
Nowadays, executive coaching is a “must-have” for leaders in corporate America, and I/O psychologists are not the only professionals filling this need. With everyone from retired football coaches to former CEOs practicing executive coaching, what is the most effective way to coach? Is there a single, most effective, way to coach? McKenna and Davis (2009) recommend applying the “active ingredients” commonly seen in effective psychotherapy sessions to executive coaching. So how can executive coaches, who have little or no training in clinical psychology, apply principles of therapy successfully? The authors believe that the processes of coaching and psychotherapy are quite similar: both attempt to facilitate psychological and behavioral change through the one-on-one relationship between a trained professional and a motivated client. McKenna and Davis suggest these four factors are the “active ingredients” of successful psychotherapy:
Client/Extra-therapeutic factors - The characteristics of the client and his or her environment outside of therapy account for the greatest differences in therapy outcomes. The authors suggest that clients must be ready and willing to change in order to have a successful coaching experience. The extra-therapeutic factors that affect the quality of development include the client’s work environment (e.g., will he be accountable for making changes?), culture (e.g., will she break unwritten rules by taking a new approach?), and resources. These help the client to apply the changes made in therapy to the workplace.
The therapeutic relationship - The quality of the relationship between the therapist and the client is the second most powerful ingredient in psychotherapy, explaining 30% of the variance in client outcomes. Coaches can be most effective by focusing on the goals and topics that are important to the client, approaching the learning in a way that makes sense to the client, and being prepared to modify goals and tasks as the client or the relationship changes.
Expectancy, hope, and placebo effects - The client’s desire to change accounts for 15% of psychotherapy outcomes. Executive coaches can activate their client’s expectations and confidence by building their own credibility with the client; if the client knows the coach has been effective in the past, the client is more likely to have confidence in his or her own growth and success.
Theory and techniques – The thoughts, perspectives, and framework the psychotherapist uses in developing the client explain the final 15% of psychotherapy outcomes. Coaches should rely on methods, models, tools, and techniques they believe in. But, those techniques must relate to the client’s own way of thinking and dealing with problems in order to be effective.
Review of article commentaries: There were two major premises within the commentaries that McKenna and Davis received about this article. The first is that executive coaches can benefit by applying these “active ingredients” to their practices. The next argument is that the differences between psychotherapy and executive coaching are too great to draw any parallels between their practices.
Frisch and Lee agree with McKenna and Davis in their commentary. They believe that developing some training in clinical or counseling psychology can benefit executive coaches by increasing their knowledge of individual growth and developmental interventions. Another commentary suggests that the most vital client-centered training approach used in psychotherapy may be empathy. The practice of being empathetic – identifying with the individual needs and challenges of each client – is a necessary part of successful coaching and is typically not taught to I/O psychologists and other types of coaches (Fontaine & Schmidt).
The next premise is critical of the focal article – that the differences between executive coaching and psychotherapy are too great to apply the “active ingredients” of one to the other. Both comments by Hollenbeck, Segers and Vloeberghs point out that the main purpose of executive coaching is for the high-functioning executive to improve his or her own performance which will subsequently impact the organization’s performance. Conversely, patients of psychotherapists are typically low-functioning, dealing with serious adjustment problems, and are looking for remediation.
The take-away messages are:
· Although there are clear differences between psychotherapy and executive coaching, I/O psychologists and other executive coaches can learn from decades of psychotherapy research.
· The most important “ingredient” to consider is the client-centered, empathetic approach, which can strengthen the relationship between the client and coach in order to foster greater growth and learning.
· Finally, I/O psychologists should use resources from their own root discipline of psychology to leverage their skills and knowledge as a competitive advantage in the executive coaching industry.
McKenna, D.D. & Davis, S.L. (2009). Hidden in plain sight: The active ingredients of
executive coaching. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives onScience
and Practice, 2 (3) 244-260.
Commentaries:
Fontaine, D. & Schmidt. (2009) The Practice of Executive Coaching Requires Practice: A Clarification and Challenge to Our Field. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 2 (3) 277-279.
Frisch, M.H. & Lee, R.J. (2009). More Hidden but More Useful Than We Realize. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 2 (3) 261-265.
Hollenbeck, G.P. (2009).The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 2 (3) 266-267.Segers, J. & Vloeberghs, D. (2009). Do Theory and Techniques in Executive Coaching Matter More Than in Therapy? Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 2 (3) 280-283.
The Muddy Waters of Measuring Executive Coaching
Topic: Coaching, Measurement, Training
Publication: Consulting Psychology Journal (JUN 2009)
Article: Measuring and Maximizing the Business Impact of Executive Coaching
Author: A. Levenson
Reviewed by: Lit Digger
Given the amount of money organizations invest in executive coaching programs, it would be refreshing if someone could come up with a reliable and fool-proof way to measure their effectiveness.
Organizations are complex entities, so developing a measurement tool like this would be a notable challenge. Levenson (2009) explored a dozen coach-coachee pairs to contribute to this ongoing conversation and shed some light on this measurement puzzle. Given the constraints of the study, Levenson cautioned that we should interpret his findings lightly.
To recap, studies already exist measuring coaching’s effect on:
· The executive’s actual changes in behavior
· The degree to which those around the executive perceive increased effectiveness of the executive
· Changes in what Levenson calls “hard” performance measures (e.g., unit productivity, number of tasks completed, ability to meet goals, etc.)
But how can we measure business impact of executive coaching? Levenson suggests that we should “start with the organization’s strategy” (p.110). He recommends that we should determine whether the business impact we care to measure most is strategic or financial. For example, if a company has a strategic aim to increase sales to a certain demographic group, then the outcome should be designed to target that strategy – not a more distal, less-related financial goal.
Levenson also warns that we should consider the complexity of the executive’s job in relationship to the functioning of the organization. Take the above sales example for instance. If the executive’s primary role is to make decisions and cultivate a productive working environment, then he/she may not actually have all that much impact on increasing sales to the target demographic group. It would be difficult to evaluate the business impact of coaching if the executive’s role has little business impact to begin with.
Levenson reminds us that if other needed training programs or selection systems are being implemented around the time that executive coaching takes place, then you will be much more likely to see organizational changes in the direction desired. Systemic changes often will have more business impact than executive coaching alone.
Finally, is executive coaching always the answer to our organizational problems? No! Levenson cautions that the intervention needed will depend on the issue at hand. An executive might be better off gaining critical skills from a stretch assignment if the key issue is professional development. Or if team performance is slacking, perhaps a team building activity would be best.
You’re more likely to see bang for your buck if the interventions you select are targeted appropriately. Now we just need to figure out how to effectively measure the “bang”.
Keeping the Fires Lit
Topic: Coaching, Leadership, Training
Publication: Personnel Psychology
Article: An empirical examination of posttraining on the job supplements for enhancing the effectiveness of interpersonal skills training.
Blogger: Katie Bachman
The nagging question for anyone who has ever led a training session has to be: “Did they get it?” In the quest to make training more meaningful, researchers in Personnel Psychology evaluated how supplemental training materials given out after the usual training session effected progress. Managers learning interpersonal skills were put into one of four quasi-experimental groups. While some received no follow-up to the standard training session, others were given upward feedback (i.e. notes from their subordinates on their progress), a workbook of self-coaching follow-up activities, or both.
Surprise, surprise – participants in the follow-up groups showed more progress with the training. Also, having both supplemental materials was better than having just self-coaching materials, although those with both or with just feedback had the same level of performance. That’s pretty good news for trainers. There certainly are ways to make your message stick a little longer. It means some extra work past training time, but it may benefit your organization to keep a little fire going under trainees by noting their progress, giving feedback, and providing supplements aimed at helping them achieve their goals.
