Category Archives: *Consulting Psychology Journal

Want to Accelerate Transition Into New Leadership Roles? Try this Five-Action Step Intervention

Reply

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).

Continue reading →

The Muddy Waters of Measuring Executive Coaching

1

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”.

Levenson, A. (2009). Measuring and maximizing the business impact of executive coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal, 61 (2), 103-121.