Advance Praise

Hiring the right leadership coaches to guide an organization comes at a price,

often a high one. CEOs who don’t understand the myriad benefits that coaching
offers may shy away from spending those resources. While many authors are
content to have their books rest on store shelves while their readers take a passive
approach to reviewing them, Sraban Mukherjee takes a different tactic. As the
author cautions, “This book is a TO-DO guide for corporate coaching.” So, roll
up your sleeves and get ready to dig into this hands-on guide for success! In
Corporate Coaching, Mukherjee shows how to get an extraordinary return on
investment.
—Dr Marshall Goldsmith
Bestselling author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Dr Sraban Mukherjee has advanced the corporate coaching industry with his
immanently practical, yet strategically significant, processes, tools, and metrics. As
an experienced and certified coach as well as a former human resource executive,
Dr Mukherjee is an authority on leadership development and how psychometrics
and assessments can be leveraged to evaluate and support coaching engagements.
Dr Mukherjee even advises on best practices for building and sustaining internal
coaching capabilities and capacity. Sraban’s new book is the most complete
resource on corporate coaching I have seen to date.
—John Hoover, PhD
Co-author of The Coaching Connection
A great primer on the coaching field for leaders and coaches in India—and
beyond. It is filled with great examples of coaching scenarios. Brings nice clarity
to various aspects of the practice, such as the various types of coaching, tools used
by coaches, psychometric instruments, and methods of measuring coaching
impact.
—Dr Brian O. Underhill
Founder, CoachSource, USA, Co-author, “Executive Coaching for Results”
Dr Sraban Mukherjee lays out a solid foundation for anyone wanting to learn
about coaching. It is highly practical, whilst founded on evidence-based research
and his years of being at the top end of coaching.
In this book the reader will find the contemporary positioning of coaching, how
to do it, what to expect, and how to give professional standards. It is an excellent
book for anyone considering coaching as a career, or who wishes to improve their
coaching either internally, in an organization, or who wishes to set up a business
as a coach. It is also a good steer for those purchasers of coaching to know how to
manage coaches and the coaching process.
—Deborah Tom
Registered Coaching Psychologist, MD, Human Systems, UK
Dr Mukherjee’s book is a timely publication that adds to the Indian literature on
coaching. It is likely to give the beginners an overview, the experienced more
tools, and the thought leaders opportunity to intellectually challenge concepts and
experiences. I wish the book all success.
—Dr Santrupt B. Misra
CEO, Carbon Black Business & Director, Group HR, Aditya Birla Management
Corporation Pvt Ltd
Corporate Coaching
 Corporate Coaching
The Essential Guide

Sraban Mukherjee, CPC, PCC (ICF)

Copyright © Sraban Mukherjee, 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First published in 2014 by

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Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, Phototypeset in 11/13 Bembo by RECTO
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mukherjee, Sraban, 1956–
Corporate coaching : the essential guide / by Sraban Mukherjee.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Executive coaching. I. Title.
HD30.4.M847 658.4’07124—dc23 2014 2014001698

eISBN: 9789351504160

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This book is dedicated to the HR professionals and co-coaches, who are making difference in
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 Contents
Foreword by Libby Robinson
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Overview of Corporate Coaching
2. Executive Coaching: How It Works
3. Behavioral Coaching: Concept, Strategies, and Processes
4. Performance Coaching: A Performance Enhancement Tool
5. Developing Leadership Competencies through Leadership Coaching
6. Coaching for Talent Management
7. Internal Coaching: Developing Internal Coaching Capabilities
8. Corporate Coaching Power Tools
9. Psychometrics and Psychological Inventories in Corporate Coaching
10. 360-Degree Survey in Coaching Need Assessment
11. Measuring Corporate Coaching Effectiveness
Index
About the Author
 Foreword

I had the good fortune to meet Dr Sraban Mukherjee back in 2009 on one of my
first trips to India. Coaching, I think I can fairly say, was in its infancy in India at
that time, with there being a very few if any International Coach Federation
certified coaches, but lots of people calling themselves coaches. There was a type
of “wild west” feel about coaching at the time with everyone and everything
vying for an early credibility in a wide open market.
What you hold in your hands here is no small feat. Sraban has taken his trained
academic mind and created essentially an encyclopedia (or should I say Wikipedia
now?) of corporate coaching. This book provides a comprehensive guide for
anyone who needs to know the ins and outs of corporate coaching, when to use
it, how to use it and the many variations of coaching, assessments, and other tools.
This book is a must read for those who are charged with creating and
implementing a successful and measurable corporate coaching program. It is also a
useful guide to distinguish among the many hundreds of coaches out there
claiming to be experts, by giving insight into the quite a few of the different
schools of thought of coaching.
Finally, I think that Sraban has done a tremendous service to the field of
coaching by writing this very practical book. He clearly shifts the attitude around
coaching to one of a positive development tool versus a tool used to “fix” leaders.
With this book, corporate leaders in India have cases and practical examples of
how to use coaching to their company’s best advantage.
As India’s use of corporate coaching grows, those who have read this book will
be at a distinct advantage. And I imagine Sraban will no doubt be challenging
certain edges of the frontier even then …
Keep this book on the edge of your desk. You’ll find it amazingly useful.

Libby Robinson, MCC (ICF)

MA Organizational Development & Transformation
Managing Partner, Integral Leadership and Coaching, Paris
 Preface

I spent around three decades in large organizations at various roles and was
actively involved in developmental human resource function, wherein my major
role was continuously reengineering executive development programs in order to
build leadership pipeline in continual and sustainable basis. I am personally
involved in coaching profession, mainly in executive and leadership coaching, for
last 10 years. Over this period, I realized that many developmental HR initiatives
undertaken in organizations (including myself when I was heading Human
Resource function) were based on developmental needs or on bridging the
competency gaps of the executives. However, these were not as effective as should
have been.
This has compelled me to write a book on a different paradigm on coaching,
popularly known as positive psychology. I have seen many executives, whether at
front line or profit center head position, irrespective of whether they are from
brick and mortar companies or financial sector or service industries or not-for-
profit organizations, have made significant progress in their professional and
personal life when they have been exposed to coaching. Majority of organizations,
that have introduced coaching as developmental interventions, are focusing on
executive coaching for a selective few individuals and that also not on regular basis
for various reasons. Hence, my intention is to help a large number of executives,
working at various organizations, who can get exposed to coaching to make
progress in their career as well as make them more effective in their profession.
My primary objective of writing this book is to present a comprehensive
approach on how coaching can be helpful for all levels of management to improve
their personal effectiveness, which in turn impacts organizational performance.
Hence, this book on corporate coaching not only covers executive coaching but
also includes the other powerful coaching domain, viz., behavioral coaching,
performance coaching, coaching for talent development and leadership coaching.
This book also covers how to build the coaching capabilities within the
organization through internal coaching, which in turn helps in developing
coaching culture in the organization. This book looks at various relevant theories,
processes, techniques and the tools available to the coaching domain.
 Over the last decade, there are considerable researches in coaching on theory,
strategy, practice, and application. I am also involved actively in action research
areas of coaching. This book quotes from some of my reviewed research papers
related to corporate coaching, while discussing specific genre of coaching
practices. During the last five years, I have conducted several coaching skill
workshops for various organizations and around thousand managers, mostly as
departmental or functional heads, have attended these workshops. This book
covers some of my learnings on how coaching can be effectively used in routine
performance challenges of organizations.
This book is a TO-DO guide for corporate coaching. Hence, a lot of emphasis
has been given on performing aspects of coaching by giving hands-on tips and
case scenarios. Several caselets of coaching scenario that I have encountered in the
course of coaching practice in corporate sector in India have been presented, so
that the readers are able to correlate with similar coaching challenges they face in
their organizations.
This book mentions coach as a person, who is hired from outside the
organization, to deliver coaching to an executive, who may be at any level of
management. The coach and the executive may be of any gender. If this book
refers, in some places, to male executive or male coach, it also implies to female
coach and/or female executive. The coach in some situations may be internal
coach also. The words “employee,” “executive,” and “coachee” are used
interchangeably throughout this book, but it means primarily employee(s) of
corporations, whether for profit or non-profit in nature.

Audience for This Book

This book is targeted primarily for senior HR/L&D professionals and
CEOs/COOs of organizations, who are considering to introduce coaching for
their executives. This book will help them to make decisions on which specific
coaching, viz., leadership coaching or executive coaching or performance
coaching or coaching for talent management or behavioral coaching, will be
useful for their target executive or group of executives. This book will help them
to understand how coaching can help their executives, how to choose the right
coach, how the coaching process works and what are the roles they need to play
in the process. This book also helps the top management or decision makers of
coaching intervention on how to evaluate the return of coaching investment,
direct or indirect.
 This book will be helpful for those coaches who have just started coaching in
organizations. This book will help them to get into the details of the processes,
methodologies, and theories associated with corporate coaching practice. This
book will work as a resource book for corporate coaches, in terms of advanced
coaching tools, psychological inventories and its applications.
This book will also help those executives who are just introduced into coaching.
They will know what coaching is all about and what to expect in coaching
journey. This book will also be useful to leaders, who are contemplating to get
into coaching, but not sure how coaching will help them in improving their
managerial and leadership capabilities.

Overview of the Contents

Chapter 1 focuses on coaching basics. It covers “what is coaching,” “what is not
coaching” and different niches of coaching. It then defines “what is corporate
coaching” and why corporate coaching is beneficial not only for its employees’
growth but also for overall organizational performance improvement.
Chapters 2–6 cover the model, strategies, processes, and methodologies of
executive coaching, behavioral coaching, performance coaching, leadership
coaching, and coaching for talent development. Each chapter covers a detailed
roadmap of implementation, so that all stakeholders of coaching get clear
understanding of their roles at various stages of coaching journey. Several
coaching case-studies, supporting information, sample charts and formats are
added to help the readers to understand the coaching process.
Chapter 7 discusses the development of coaching capabilities within the
organization using internal coaching. This chapter dealt with the pros and cons of
this intervention, the processes of development of internal coaches and how to
make the process effective. It also covers how coaching skill development program
is to be designed.
Chapters 8–10 cover different coaching tools and inventories. Chapter 8 covers
some of the advanced coaching tools, which must be in the toolkit of corporate
coaches. Chapter 9 covers some of the important psychological and psychometric
tools used in corporate coaching domain. This chapter introduces each tool on
how to interpret these inventories and the potential areas of application. Chapter
10 covers 360-degree assessment tool for coaching needs’ identification. Besides
presenting different aspects of designing and using 360-degree assessment tools,
this chapter discusses in detail the two most popular 360-degree assessment tools,
namely, LSI and EQ 360.
Chapter 11 covers how to measure the effectiveness of coaching intervention.
Since, every coaching intervention requires high investment in terms of cost and
time, it is important for organizational leaders to assess the return of such high
investment.
 Acknowledgments

T his book is the culmination of my long years of experience of working in

various corporations in human resource function and then taking up
coaching as a profession. During my initial phase of coaching career, I came across
several books on coaching, did lots of browsing on Internet and went through
various research journals to get myself fully equipped on what works and what
does not work. I also understood how to address challenges of corporations in
coaching interventions and what differentiates coaching intervention in the
organizations from the other developmental strategies. Unfortunately, the process
was long, tedious but not of much of use. Then I started discussion with my
coaching mentors on the challenges faced by majority of executives in
corporations as they struggle to navigate their path in highly complex, polarized,
chaotic and uncertain environment. Sheri Boone and Jim Clarkson are two of my
mentors, who have always provided me new insights on coaching within an
organization.
I am deeply inspired by the seminal work of Dr Marshall Goldsmith and Sir
John Whitmore. I believe their contributions in coaching are immense and all
coaches get insights on how to address the critical issues of coaching corporate
clients. I am also influenced by the work of Martin Seligman and Mithaly
Csikszentmihalyi on positive psychology, which is reflected significantly
throughout this book.
I owe gratitude to Prabha, Vijay, Madhav, and Tapas, who were some of my
initial corporate coaching clients. They gave me different perspectives and new
insights. I owe my gratitude to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (a large public
sector enterprise in India), where I was involved in large-scale deployment of
internal coaching program. The participants of this program (i.e., manager-
coaches) have sown a seed of enquiry in me about what corporate coaching is all
about and distinguishing it from other niche of coaching. I am also indebted to
International Journal of Coaching in Organization, International Journal of Mentoring and
Coaching and International Journal of Evidence-based Coaching and Mentoring for
publishing my action-research papers, which reinforced some of the thesis on
coaching.
 My deepest gratitude is to all men and women from various organizations,
multinational to national corporations, large to small, profit to not-for profit, who
have shared their experiences, stories, challenges and dilemmas, while undergoing
coaching conversation with me.
I am grateful to Libby Robinson for writing the Foreword of this book. She was
the first person with whom I shared my idea on writing a book in this domain a
few years back. Deep gratitude is expressed for Dr Marshall Goldsmith, Dr John
Hoover, Dr Santrup Mishra, Deborah Tom, and Dr Brian O. Underhill for going
through the thick manuscript in spite of their busy schedule and providing me
their valuable inputs as well as endorsements for this book. It really meant a lot to
me personally. I am also thankful to my good friend Dr Gopal Mahapatra for
encouraging me to write the book on this subject and sharing his experiences.
I am thankful to SAGE publications for agreeing to publish this book. In
particular, I am thankful to R. Chandrasekhar, Associate Vice President,
Commissioning, who happens to be my key contact for my earlier book also.
Finally, I am grateful to my parents for sharing their compassion and affection, to
my wife, Urmi, for encouragement and support and my son, Neil, for pursing his
quest for excellence.
 CHAPTER 1
Overview of Corporate Coaching

C oaching is the fastest growing profession in the world today. Its origin can be
traced back to Aristotle, Socrates, the Gestalt theory, and ontology. Coaching
is a distinct process of helping people to fulfill their dreams and aspirations and
create a better life for themselves. Though it appeared in different forms till the
early 1990s, it only flourished much later. Coaching draws upon a wide range of
influences from various disciplines, viz., psychology, philosophy, sports, spirituality,
behavioral science, psychotherapy, counseling, ontology, and management
development.
Ten years back, no one in corporate India was paying serious attention to
coaching, though the concept of mentoring was very much in practice in Indian
organizations. However during the last decade, coaching became a well-established
profession in developed countries such as United States, Canada, some parts of
Europe and Asia-Pacific countries, namely, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
As it was reported a few years back, 69 percent corporations in USA were using
the services of executive coaching and more than 10,000 executive coaches were
practicing in USA alone. International Coach Federation (ICF), having its
headquarter in USA, is the largest association of coaches. It had around 19,000
professional coaches as members from different parts of the world in 2011.
Association for Coaching (AC) and European Mentoring and Coaching Council
(EMCC) are some other leading coaching associations, based in Europe. These
two associations had more than 5,000 coaches and mentors in 2011. There are
other associations of coaches such as Worldwide Association of Business Coaches
(WABC), The International Association of Coaching (IAC), International
Institute of Coaching (IIC), Asia-Pacific Association of Coaches, etc., actively
involved in coaching.
Around five years back (i.e., 2006–2007), when if I had mentioned to anyone
that I am a coach, the next question they would have asked me is what type of
coaching business I am in. Knowing very well what they were hinting at, I would
have said, I don’t conduct coaching classes for students aspiring for admission to
technical colleges. Their next response would have been generally, “Oh! You are
coaching budding sportspersons.” They would have further asked me then which
type of sport I am giving coaching. In India, cricket is considered as one sort of
religion. Here, every parent expects their child to be a Sachin Tendulkar in the
future. Hence, they are always looking for a good cricket coaching school or a
good cricket coach. I would have politely replied that “I am a corporate coach,’’
hence nothing to do with sports coaching as such. They finally would have got
disappointed and asked me, “what is that?”
Being in human resource profession for almost two decades, the story was not
much different with my corporate peers. I was working with a consulting and
training company in the National Capital Region of Delhi. Obviously when I
joined that organization (during 2005 and 2006), many colleagues from the
training division were introducing themselves as Voice Coaches (they were
actually trainers for BPO employees). During the initial phase of my induction in
the organization, some of them asked me what I was delivering different in
corporate coaching than what they were actually doing in the BPO sector. Due to
my limited knowledge of BPO industry at that time, I asked one such trainer
“How do you coach BPO employees?” She replied, “Well, I listen to the calls
made by an associate a couple of times, and then I point out to the associate the
mistakes made by him/her and the potential loss of the sales lead which had taken
place due to that.” Well, in my mind, I thought this is just negative feedback,
neither coaching nor even counseling. In organizations (mostly Indian), I might
have spent hours, during the early 2000s, to explain to some senior human
resource professionals that coaching and mentoring are not the same
interventions, even though both the terms “coaching” and “mentoring” are used
interchangeably in some organizations.
Another interesting point of view that I encountered once from one of my
knowledgeable friends in the corporate world (who always introduces himself as
Coach) is that coaching is used as a tool for performance improvement in sports
now being introduced in organizations to improve the poor performance of
employees, by quoting from Sir John Whitmore’s book Coaching for performance
and Timothy Galley’s book Inner game of tennis. It is an absolutely wrong concept
of coaching. Sir John Whitmore actually defined coaching as “unlocking a
person’s potential to maximize their performance.” He never mentioned that
coaching is only meant for poor performers. However, the scenario is quite
different now (say, from 2009 onwards). Coaching has become one of the
emerging thrust areas for human resource development function in corporate
India.
How Coaching Helps in Improving Organizational
Effectiveness
The role of managers, within an organization, is deploying limited resources to get
the job done efficiently. The “command and control” approach or “telling people
what to do and how to do” of managing people is not appropriate nowadays in
organizations. In command and control culture, also called as top-down culture,
the employees, in general, do not feel valued or recognized. The characteristics of
such organizations are weak in proactiveness, poor interpersonal communication,
and high reaction time to external demands. Though we find the emergence of
“flat structure,” “matrix organization,” “virtual organization,” and “cross-
functional team,” etc., it is still not uncommon to find “command and control”
style in management within many organizations, which resulted in low employee
motivation, less empowerment at the operating level, high employee turnover and
low employee productivity. The organizational leaders have started realizing
during the last two decades that organizations are not only like machines or
systems and processes, but rather it is a collection of individuals and human beings
with dreams, aspirations, and expectations. Hence traditional human resource
processes, systems, and tools are not sufficiently geared up to address the
expectations of all employees to a large extent.
The high-performing organizations have also realized that talent and human
capital are the key differentiators between their organization and the rest of other
organizations. The ability of an organization to learn faster than their competitors
gives only sustainable competitive advantage in the long run. The war for talent is
a never-ending reality in a high-performing organization. In the era of
downsizing, managers are promoted much faster to senior executive positions at a
very young age to handle much bigger roles in a flat organization structure. This
has resulted in lack of requisite skills amongst these managers. Creative ways of
retaining and inspiring talented employees are being found in the era of
downsizing, reengineering, merger, and acquisition. Competencies that proved to
be highly effective in the past have become outdated and new competencies need
to be acquired much faster to face the present-day realities and challenges.
There is growing interest in large Indian corporations to use coaching in
leadership capability development initiatives. Coaching is about nurturing
potential leaders within an organization and hence organizations are using
coaching to sharpen the skills of individuals who have been identified as future
organizational leaders. Organization realizes that skills and knowledge of
employees are not enough to bring about any outstanding performance. Thus,
there is an urgent need to create a motivating environment so that the individual
employee takes personal responsibility and ownership for improving one’s
performance while maintaining focus on the organization’s goals. Organizations
are transforming it into a learning organization, where the employees are praised,
encouraged, involved, and empowered by delegating responsibility with authority.
In this context, coaching is being deployed to transform leaders, managers, teams,
and the entire organization from good to great for enhancement of the
organizational performance by strengthening its essential competitive advantage:
Its people.
Indian organizations are now allocating higher budget in training and employee
development activities, since organizations are beginning to realize that the soft
skills/competencies such as “coaching and mentoring,” “development of
subordinates,” “people management,” “interpersonal relations,” “networking,” etc.,
are equally important skills as the technical or operational skills/competencies.
Most of the large corporations have developed competency framework for
leadership and managerial levels. They have conducted assessment centers for their
leaders and managers to identify developmental needs based on the gap identified
in the competencies they should have as per the organizational competency
framework. It is not very uncommon to notice that, “coaching” is one of the
skills/competencies that always occupy a prominent place in the list of
competencies, which most of the senior managers are lacking.
Coaching is about moving executives from dependence to interdependence and
seeing them through a Situational Leadership Journey, which raises their levels of
commitment and competence to a point where the executives no longer need the
direct guidance of their seniors. The Situational Leadership model of Blanchard
and Hersey suggests that competent and committed people are the ones to benefit
the most from coaching since they already possess major knowledge and skills.
Some organizations are putting more focus on “coaching” to ensure that their
managers coach their employees. But even with this new emphasis, development
and actual implementation of coaching skill within organizations is widely varied.
Those organizations that valued the development of these types of
skills/competencies previously are well ahead of the game, whereas many
organizations are still struggling on how to proceed.
The major reasons for which organizations are going for coaching are as follows:
 Developing executives, mostly senior executives, is a challenge since these
executives are having difficulties in getting feedback, acknowledging the
need for change and adapting new behavior, which is crucial for their
effectiveness in a new role.
Group training or public training, having participants at different hierarchical
levels, inhibits and restricts senior executives to participate fully or open up,
resulting in losing the much desired benefits from such investment.
After the managers undergo specific skill training or get exposed to new
technology, the managers encounter major hurdles during implementation of
new skills in their workplace. Coaching supports the managers to implement
new skills as per their individual learning style at their own pace and
internalize the learning.
Coaching helps executives, who are in career transition to leadership
position, in acquiring new behavior and improving dysfunctional behavior.

Then, What Is the Meaning of Coaching?

The ICF defines coaching as partnering with coachees in a thought-provoking
and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional
potential. Coaching honors the coachee as the expert in his/her life and work and
believes that every coachee is creative, resourceful and whole. Standing on these
foundations, the coach’s responsibility is to:

Discover, clarify, and align with what the coachee wants to achieve;
Encourage coachee self-discovery;
Elicit coachee-generated solutions and strategies; and
Hold the coachee responsible and accountable.

Timothy Gallwey, Harvard educationalist and tennis expert, defined coaching as,
“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance.
It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” Coaching is more focused
on helping coachee (employee) to learn and releasing his/her potential. Socrates
had voiced the same things some 2000 years earlier, but we have forgotten his
philosophy in corporations for many generations.
Witherspoon and White (1997) point out that the root meaning of the verb “to
coach” is to convey a valued person from where one was to where one wants to
be—such as an actual coach or carriage would take a passenger on a journey.
Coaching is a conversation about the future, rather than the past. Hence, the
coach works together with the coachee toward a compelling future, which pulls
them forward into action. Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership
that is designed to help the coachees produce fulfilling results in their personal
and professional lives. Coaches help the coachees improve their performances and
enhance the quality of their lives.
Coaches are trained to listen, to observe, and to customize their approach to
individual coachee needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the
coachee; they believe that the coachee is naturally creative and resourceful. The
coach’s job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity
that the coachee already has.
One way to understand what coaching is to rule out what it is not.

Coaching Is Not Mentoring

The coaching profession struggles to differentiate its offerings from that of
mentoring, since the interpretations of the concept vary largely between these
two professions. Mentoring is basically a system of semi-structured guidance
whereby one person shares his/her knowledge, skills, and experiences to assist
others to progress in their own lives and careers. Mentoring is a directive process
between a senior person (mentor) with knowledge or experience or skill in a
given field and a junior employee (mentee). A coach is generally not from the
same organization, but is hired from outside to support an employee, generally
from middle to senior level, while a mentor is from within the organization.
There are two types of assistance that mentors provide to their mentees. The first
assistance is for their career aspirations, which directly aid the mentees in career
advancement. This includes exposure, protection, sponsorship, skills, knowledge,
and providing challenging opportunities. The second type of assistance is more of
psychological support, which includes acceptance, confirmation, counseling, role
modeling, friendship as well as giving guidance.
Many large organizations, in both public and private sectors including multi-
national organizations, have well-structured mentoring schemes wherein new
entrants such as graduate engineering trainees, management trainees, etc., are
assigned with a mentor, generally a senior person, who provides professional and
organizational know-how, career support, and assistance during their initial phase
of induction in the organization. However, coaching relationship is a partnership
whereby the coach walks side by side with the coachee. The following points
broadly distinguish coaching from mentoring.

COACHING

Coaches seldom mentor.

Coaches help the coachee/employee to decide what they want to do.
Coaching focuses on a specific performance or behavioral issue.
Coaches teach how to complete a specific step in a process.
A coaching relationship is usually over when performance gets better or
improved.
“Coaching” is an event.

MENTORING

Mentors could be coaches.

Mentoring focuses on overall development of the mentee/employee.
Mentors teach the mentee/employee how to complete the overall process.
A mentoring relationship unfolds and strengthens over time and is usually for
a longer term.
“Mentoring” is a journey.

Coaching Is Not Training

Most conventional training and development activities within an organization
focus on teaching specific knowledge and skills, what employees need, to perform
their task. Hence, training is a teacher-centered approach, deployed for
improvement of knowledge or skills for which there is a performance gap.
Coaching, on the other hand, is an employee-centered approach that is most
suitable to address performance gaps that are to do with lack of motivation or lack
of commitment.
Classroom trainers, generally, carry out training activity for a group of employees
on a predefined course module designed based on the program objectives. During
training, the trainers transfer the knowledge and skills to employees using the
“telling and instructing” approach. The trainer is assumed to be master on the
subjects and have more knowledge and skills than the trainees. However, coaching
is a coachee-centered approach and coaches believe that the coachees/employees
are the experts in their field.

Coaching Is Not Consulting

A consultant usually is an expert in a given area. They are hired for their expertise
to give recommendations for solving a particular problem the individual is facing.
Once the problem is solved, the role of the consultant ceases. Usually, consultants
do not get involved in areas beyond their areas of specialization.
Coaching, however, uses a more holistic approach. The coach, along with the
coachee, examines the problem, creates a plan of action, and works side by side
with the coachee during implementation of the solution. The coach is not an
expert in the business of the coachee. The coach does not have the answers for
the problems the coachee is facing. The coach collaborates with the coachee to
create a solution using the coachee’s knowledge and expertise.

Counseling Is Not Coaching

Counseling is a highly skilled intervention focused on helping individuals address
psycho-social and work-related performance problems. Counseling is a solution-
focused intervention, which implies that there is a problem for which a solution
needs to be found to avoid reoccurrence. It is based on the past and focuses on
fixing a work-related problem of the coachee/employee. The role of counselor is
to understand the root cause of long-standing performance problems/issues at
work and find a solution for the coachee/employee. The relationship between
counselor and coachee/employee is always hierarchical.
Coaching, on the other hand, begins with the present and assists the
coachee/employee in setting goals that he/she wants to achieve in the future. In
coaching, discussion about the past with the coachee/employee is only to discover
what is blocking them from moving forward. Coaches are not necessarily experts
but more of a person with a set of skills they use to support the coachee to
achieve their goals. Coaching relationship is present- and future-based action
oriented and not hierarchical in nature.

Psychotherapy Is Not Coaching

Psychotherapy focuses on issues of pathology, healing, and unresolved
psychological issues of the past. Though both coaching and psychotherapy deal
with behavior, emotion, and cognition, corporate coaches have a broader
perspective than the psychotherapist. Corporate coaches are expected to know the
intricacies of management, understanding of the overall organizational context of
the coachee and the organization, in general. While in psychotherapy, information
is principally taken from the individual, in coaching, coaches gather information
not only from the coachee but also from all the stakeholders with whom the
coachee might have dealings during the coaching process. Psychotherapy tends to
be past-, present-, and future-oriented while coaching has a more present and
future orientation. In coaching there is a goal and action orientation, whereas the
psychotherapy process is more passive and reflective.
The primary interest area of psychotherapy is symptom reduction and character
problems, while in coaching the focus is on personal growth and self-
development. While coaching conversation can take place in the form of face-to-
face meeting, email, telephonic conversation, or group session, the psychotherapy
sessions are generally conducted in the therapist’s office.
A psychotherapist works with a dysfunctional person to make him functional.
Therapists generally work with the people who need help to become emotionally
healthy. They often deal with past issues and devise ways to overcome them.
Psychotherapy also tends to focus on feelings and experiences related to past
events.
A coach works with a functional person to help them in order to become a
magnificent person. Coaching does not generally rely much on past issues of the
coachee but rather focuses on where the coachee is right now and from there,
where they want to go and how to overcome the differences. Coaching is
oriented toward goal setting and encourages the coachee to move forward.
Let us now briefly discuss the different types of coaching that are commonly
being offered. There are several niche areas in coaching. However, the most
popular coaching niches are discussed in the following sections.

PERSONAL/LIFE COACHING
Grant (2001) defined life coaching as a solution-focused, result-oriented
systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of the coachee’s
life experience and performance in various domains (as determined by the
coachee), and fosters the self-directed learning and personal growth of the
coachee.
The personal/life coach helps individuals gain awareness and clarity of their
personal goals and priorities, have a better understanding of their thoughts,
feelings, and options, and take appropriate actions to change their lives, accomplish
their goals, and feel more fulfilled. It involves clarifying values and visions, setting
life goals, and preparing actions toward achieving their visions, goals, and desires
and bringing life-transforming experiences.
Life coaching normally takes place at the behest of an individual who wants
some help in resolving issues in his/her personal life. These issues could be
ranging from relationship issues to tackling significant turning points in the life of
the coachee.

CAREER COACHING
Career coaching has experienced an explosive growth in recent years. Career
coaching is all about equipping individuals with practical guidance on how to
move up, across in the organization, or into a completely new field altogether.
Career coaching helps individuals identify what they want and expect from their
career, what are the options available to make decisions of their career choices, and
to take actions needed to accomplish their career objectives in balance with the
other parts of their lives. The coachees for career coaching generally bring the
following issues for coaching:

Which career direction is right for me?

Should I stay in this job, or find another one?
Which job offer should I take?
Which career-building assignments should I be pursuing to fast-track my
career?
When should I take that career break or when I should take a big career
decision?
Whether I should take up corporate job or not?
Am I ready for career transition?
How to deal with expectations of employers?
Whether I should leave job and start entrepreneurial activity?
SPIRITUAL COACHING OR TRANSPERSONAL COACHING
Spiritual coaching taps into the power center of both within the coachee and
within the coach. Any coachee with any agenda can be coached with a spiritual
style, whether the coachee is a profit center head trying to improve their profit
margins or a parent talking about challenges with their teenage kids. A spiritual
coach is likely to coach with intuition as their default mode.
Spiritual coaching tries to harness the transformative power of “spirit” so that
the coachee is in touch with the “inner self ” and gets its guidance. Instead of
focusing on external factors of life, a spiritual coach focuses on the inner workings
of the coachee’s mind, body, and soul. A spiritual coach takes the help of spiritual
principles and spiritual ideals into the coaching discussion to help the coachee
overcome life’s troubles. A spiritual coach also assists the coachee to live from
consciousness so that the coachee can live a complete life. A spiritual coach helps
his/her coachees to improve certain areas of their life, such as determining their
spiritual path, how to proceed on their spiritual journey, and how to shrug off the
negative events that seem to occur daily.

BUSINESS COACHING
People come to business coaches for two reasons: inspiration and desperation.

Inspired people want a coach to help them do better.

Desperate people want a coach to help them get out of a jam-like situation.

The entry point in business coaching is usually a business issue. The coachee
may want to increase sales, promote better teamwork, enhance productivity,
reduce turnover, or improve quality. But the coaching relationship, once initiated,
invariably moves beyond the initial perceived needs of “fix my business,”
“expanding business,” “arranging finance,” etc., gradually and naturally into “fix
me.”
Business coaching can be applied to all types of businesses. Business coaching is
generally useful for entrepreneurs, owners, or managers of small companies, start-
up companies, professionals in private practice, individuals running business from
their homes, and someone who wishes to start one’s own enterprise. Business
coaches help the business owners/managers in small-scale organizations develop,
promote, and grow their businesses, and upgrade their employees as well as
themselves.

WELLNESS COACHING
Wellness coaching helps individuals improve all areas of wellness including fitness,
nutrition, weight, stress, health, and management of the life issues that impact
wellness. The wellness coaching field is fairly new, and began in the late 1990s. A
wellness coach works with coachees to encourage them to change certain aspects
of their lives that are unhealthy. This could include changing dietary habits,
changing lifestyles, going for fitness exercises/program, quitting smoking, etc.
Wellness coaching also focuses on the behavioral change that needs to occur.
The wellness coaching skills can be applied to all types of sport coaching, fitness
coaching as well as health coaching. The sports coaches not only teach the
coachees the specific skills but also guide them on specific lifestyles, diet plan, and
workout besides keeping them motivated. A naturopath can tell people what to
eat but also the need to understand what might have caused health problems in
the first place. Wellness coaches are highly sought-after professionals, as today’s
health-conscious generation focuses on prevention and work-life balance instead
of on traditional solutions.

EXECUTIVE COACHING
Executive coaching is an experiential and individualized executive development
process that builds an executive’s capability to achieve short- and long-term
organizational goals. It is conducted through one-to-one interactions, driven by
data from multiple perspectives and based on mutual trust and respect. The
organization, an executive, and the executive coach, all work in partnership to
achieve maximum impact ([Link], third edition,
January 2004, p. 19). The following two factors always distinguish executive
coaching from other types of coaching:

1. Executive coaching involves a partnership among executive, coach, and

organization.
2. The individual goals of an executive coaching engagement must always link
back and be subordinated to strategic organizational objectives.
ONTOLOGICAL COACHING
Ontology is the study of being. In ontological coaching, the coach observes and
works with key aspects of how coachee have structured their reality and the
nature of their existence so that the coach is able to develop a sound
understanding of what aspects of the coachee’s way of being, are generating an
unhelpful reality and support the coachee to develop a more constructive reality
that will lead to positive changes in the coachee’s world.
The ontological approach in coaching enables the coach to observe and work
constructively with three essential domains of human existence, i.e., language,
emotions, and body. The ontological coach becomes an acute observer of how:

1. The coachee uses language;

2. The emotional experiences of the coachee; and
3. The particular ways of language and emotion are configured in the coachee’s
body.

The role of the coach is to respectfully inquire with the coachee about how
shifts can occur in each domain of language, emotions, and body, to generate
constructive new perspectives that open new possibilities for effective action by
the coachee (Sieler, Alan, Ontology: A theoretical basis for professional coaching,
[Link]/articles/[Link]).

BEHAVIORAL COACHING
The goal of behavioral coaching is to effect sustained change in an executive’s
behavior that improves performance. However, any behavior change occurs over a
period of time. Behavioral coach assists the coachees to practice new behavior in a
structured way and supports them during the change process so that the coachee
does not revert to the old behavior.
Behavioral coaching, as defined by Skiffington and Zeus (2003), is a structured,
process-driven relationship between a trained professional coach and an individual
or team, which includes assessment, examining values and motivation, setting
measurable goals, defining focused action plans, and using validated tools and
techniques to help coachees develop competencies and remove blocks to achieve
valuable and sustainable changes in their personal and professional lives.

LEADERSHIP COACHING
Leadership coaching is useful for those individuals who are being groomed for
promotion or just promoted to leadership position. The goal of leadership
coaching is to clarify with the leader as to what are the key constituents of their
new role, the important responsibilities and deliverables in the first few months,
and how to integrate the team they will be leading.
Leadership coaching mainly focuses on development of leadership competencies,
viz., developing and communicating strategic vision, strategic planning, driving
cultural change initiatives, ambassadorship, leading executive teams, overcoming
isolation, interpersonal skills, communication, dealing effectively with colleagues,
etc. Leadership coaching is often initiated for large-scale leadership capability
development interventions, enhancing performance levels of high-potential
managers as well as aligning organizational goals and targets with that of
individuals.
There are a lot of commonalities between executive coaching and leadership
coaching niche, since both these terms are used interchangeably by coaching
practitioners. Broadly speaking, executive coaching is applicable for the population
of N or N-1 managers, i.e., functional heads or departmental heads levels.
Leadership coaching is offered to a broader population: all those who want to
grow in leadership or want to gain more awareness on the effects they generate
while leading others.

PERFORMANCE COACHING
Performance coaching is a step-by-step process, which, through skilful
questioning, active listening, and staying on the coachee’s agenda, helps the
executives, managers, and employees improve their performance and productivity,
by encouraging commitment and promoting a climate of motivation.
Performance coaches help employees at all levels to understand if there is any
gap in their current performance and opportunities to improve their performance.
Coaches help the employees understand the requirements of their jobs and the
competencies needed to perform their role.
Generally, performance coaching tools are a very useful resource for managers,
which help them develop strategies for their team to improve performance by
focusing on the gap and develop strategies for improving performance by
exploiting opportunities in keeping the coachee/employees engaged, motivated,
and focused.
DEVELOPMENTAL COACHING
Developmental coaches work with the high-potential managers, identified by
talent management process or succession planning process of the organization, to
develop key competencies. The coach works with the organization to develop the
potential of individuals who have been identified as a key resource to the
organization’s future or are part of the organization’s succession plan. Generally,
organizations use the assessment center approach to identify the competency gap
and develop individual development plans based on the assessment results.
Developmental coach works with the coachee to improve the identified
competencies through a structured process of developmental coaching.

SUCCESSION COACHING
Succession coaching helps organizations assess potential candidates for senior
management or leadership positions and prepares them for promotion to more
senior roles. This is done whenever these positions are to be filled up internally
due to separation or superannuation of the present incumbent. In this type of
coaching, assessment of employees and preparation of development plan are
prerequisites, before starting the coaching process.

TEAM COACHING
Team coaches work with the leader and members of a team to establish the team
mission, team strategies, and rules of engagement with each other. The team
coaches then work with the team collectively to develop team goals, plan of
actions, and defining the role each member has to play to achieve team goals. The
team leader and member may be coached individually or collectively to facilitate
the team members on how to enhance team effectiveness to achieve team goals.

Corporate Coaching: What It Is and How It Can Be

Used?
Let us start with the concept of coaching as it is today in most organizations.
Professional coaches are being brought inside the organization usually only for
individuals at a more senior level within the organization. The coaching
intervention is generally focused on addressing a performance issue or preparing
someone for a specific role. The “coach” in these cases is usually a professional
from outside, who is skilled and trained in coaching skills with relevant coaching
experience. Corporate human resource department is only interested in hiring the
services of external executive coaches for a selected few senior managers, since
hiring an external coach is quite expensive. Though the number of executive
coaching opportunities is limited within an organization, high compensation
makes executive coaching an attractive profession. This may be the reason we see
more number of executive coaches (at least in India, and may be true for many
countries including EU countries) than life or career coaches.
To me, executive coaching is one of the opportunities for an individual at a
senior level to improve self-awareness and achieve success in a business context
with the support of a coach. The exciting changes come when the skills learnt
through this process become ingrained and applied to bigger, global issues where
individuals go “beyond” themselves using a leadership approach. Hence leadership
coaching becomes more important for those who would like to develop authentic
leadership styles and behavior. When an employee grows within the organization,
either horizontally or vertically, it becomes essential for the employee to acquire
new skills and competencies, for being effective in the new role. Developmental
coaching helps them acquire new skills and competencies as per their own
individual needs and learning styles.
When any senior executive moves from a functional role to a profit center role,
he/she needs the support of a business coach to navigate the personal change
journey. In large organizations, it is impossible to bring a large number of external
coaches for large-scale organization development initiative or cultural change.
Internal coaching initiative, wherein managers are trained to be coaches, is most
effective for the development of a large number of managerial resources through
the coaching “ripple through” effect within the organization. When an
organization needs breakthrough performance or a particular team or teams need
to enhance performance significantly, performance coaching is the most powerful
tool for managers to improve team performance or productivity. When leaders
and high-performing managers become ineffective in managing their team due to
their dysfunctional behaviors, behavioral coaches assist these managers in
discarding dysfunctional behaviors and acquiring new effective behaviors for their
present role.
Hence, corporate coaching encompasses executive coaching, leadership
coaching, business coaching, performance coaching, ontological coaching,
performance coaching, career coaching, internal coaching, developmental
coaching, succession coaching, and team coaching for different levels of employees
to address different developmental needs in order to create a high-performing
organization through sustainable and continuous employee development efforts.
Corporate coaching can be used for a variety of purposes from enhancing specific
leadership skills, to creating effective teams, to assisting key managers in setting
priorities, to helping executives balance work-life concerns and to maximizing
performance to assist executives in transition. The purpose of corporate coaching
is to make highly effective people even more effective, but not to make weak
executives or low-performing executives improve their performance. Corporate
coaching helps executives polish their existing rough edges.
Corporate coaching has various forms of delivery. The most prevalent formats of
corporate coaching are one-on-one coaching, shadow coaching, and group or
team coaching. In shadow coaching, the corporate coach follows the executives at
their workplace, including attending review meeting, staff meeting, or customer
meeting and gives them feedback based on what is observed. In team coaching,
the coach assists all the members of the team collectively to enhance the team
performance and achieve the team goals.

Chapter Summary
After globalization and opening of Indian economy during the 1990s, many
organizations have started facing stiff challenges and competitions. And, therefore,
today to survive in the market, one has to keep oneself ahead of others in every
respect. For this purpose, we need outstanding performances from managers in
deploying limited resources judiciously, so as to get the job done most efficiently.
Thus, there is an urgent need to create a motivating environment so that an
individual employee takes personal responsibility and ownership for improving
one’s own performance.
In this regard, the organization has to take care of two factors, i.e., talent and
human capital; which are the main differentiating factors between two
organizations. It is also seen that in the present scenario, the traditional human
resource processes, systems, tools, etc., are not sufficiently geared up to address the
expectations of individual employees or of the team to achieve breakthrough
performance to face the challenges today. Also, the competencies that proved to be
effective in the past have become outdated and, therefore, new competencies need
to be acquired much faster to face the present day’s competition and challenges.
 In this regard corporate coaching has come to play a significant role in
overcoming the above challenges. Basically coaching is unlocking a person’s
potential to maximize his/her own performance. It is concerned about the future
rather than the past. It focuses on where the employee is right now and from
there where he/she wants to go and how to overcome the differences. Basically
coaching uses a more holistic approach and is deployed to transform leaders,
managers, team, and the entire organization from good to great and enhances
organizational performance by strengthening its essential competitive advantages:
Its people.
Lastly, during the last two decades the leaders in business have started realizing
that organizations are not like a machine or system or process but are a collection
of individuals and human beings with dreams, aspirations, and expectations. Thus,
if we want to fulfill our dreams, aspirations, and create a better life for ourselves in
the corporate world, then corporate coaching is the right answer to it. Because of
the above factors, corporate coaching has become one of the emerging areas for
human resource development function in Corporate India. Corporate coaching
makes highly effective people more effective by polishing their existing rough
edges. Corporate coaching adapts to employees’ needs in the corporation and
because corporate executives are in the different stages of their career and in
varied settings, corporate coaching represents a continuum of roles, which help
them learn, grow, and change.

References
Grant, A.M. (2001). Towards a psychology of coaching. Sydney: Coaching Psychology, University of Sydney.
Skiffington, S. & Zeus, P. (2003). Behavioral coaching: How to build sustainable personal and organizational strength.
New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Witherspoon, R. & White, R.P. (1997). Four essential ways that coaching can help executives. Greensboro, North
Carolina: Centre for Creative Leadership.
 CHAPTER 2
Executive Coaching

How It Works

Executive V was doing his own business for the last 15 years, and then joined an organization as Vice
President-Product Support, which was a new assignment to him and he is feeling tough to handle these
responsibilities. His major challenge was how to effectively handle his large team. Since he was too
overworked in his professional life, his personal life was getting disturbed. He therefore came to
coaching for getting help on how to delegate some of his responsibilities and improve his managerial
abilities.
Executive A was heading the spare parts division of an earth-moving equipment service station. He
was facing big challenges in achieving business targets and was getting stuck in taking decisions at the
operational level, which resulted in loss of business.
Executive K was working as Director with an exhibition design and fabricator company, and was
looking after marketing and operation of the domestic sector. His challenge was that he was not able to
effectively exploit the large market where opportunities existed. He was looking for help in strategizing
market penetration, business planning, and support during the implementation stage. His other
challenges were to exploit the full potential of existing team members, time management, and executive
presence.
Executive C was expat manager in India of a machine tool marketing company. Besides intercultural
issues that he was facing, he was looking for coaching help in how to solve daily operational issues,
manage his boss, and create a happy work environment.
Executive S was working at the middle level of management in a logistic company. He was facing
problem in influencing others including seniors in solving work-related problems, besides controlling
anger at workplace and maintaining his work-life balance. He also felt a need for better work planning
since he was always under pressure to meet deadlines.
Executive M was working in the telecom sector in the customer process department. He wanted to
improve his ability to effectively manage his team besides enhancing his impacting and influencing
skills. His self-confidence was low and he wanted to significantly improve his team’s engagement score.
Executive S was heading the Sales department of an automobile agency. He was under tremendous
stress in achieving business target in a highly competitive business scenario, which resulted in him losing
patience. He was also short tempered and thus his personal life was getting affected.

T hese are some of the examples of coaching challenges the executive coaches
encounter in corporations, whether large or small. However, this is not a
comprehensive list of coaching issues for executive coaches, but you might have
faced similar challenges at your workplace, whether you are a coach or an
executive in corporation.
Before proceeding further, let us understand “what is executive coaching?”
Webster dictionary defines executive as “a person who has administrative
authority over an organization or division of an organization; a manager,
supervisor or administrator at a high level within an organization.” Based on this
definition, this chapter deals with the executive coaching intervention, which is
restricted not only for senior executives within an organization but also for all
other executives having administrative authority, which includes senior managers,
middle managers, departmental or sectional heads as well as team leaders within
any organization.
In this book, we define executive coaching as
a helping relationship formed between an executive, who has managerial authority and responsibility in
an organization, and an external coach, who uses a wide variety of coaching skills and techniques, to help
the executive to achieve a mutually identified set of goals to improve his or her professional performance
and consequently contributing to the growth of the organization within a formally defined coaching
agreement.

The ultimate goal of executive coaching is to effect sustained change in an

executive’s behavior that impacts performance. The bottom line in any coaching
engagement is change. The “change” may be in a person’s actions, habits, or
competencies. It may be in their dreams and aspirations. It may be in the way they
feel in certain situations or about certain people. It may be change in how they
look at events at work or in life. Executive coaches typically work with executives
who are willing to make a sincere effort to change and those who believe that this
change will help them be more effective at their workplace.
Executives who are most receptive to coaching are usually in some type of
transition within the organization. If people are in certain degrees of pain, then
coaching can be quite helpful because it makes them more open to relief,
learning, and reflection. The greater the stakes and the pain, the higher the
motivation for achieving successful change (Cogner, 2005). Executive coaching is
effective for those executives who would say, “I want to reach there but not sure
how to reach there” (Goldsmith, 2005).
One of the biggest challenges many executives in organization face is level of
confidence, such as confidence to decide, confidence to challenge, confidence to
change, confidence to take risk, etc. However, it is a normal and expected reaction
of not knowing something. All of us in our life faced a lack of self-confidence in
some situations. But smart executives put themselves in learning situations to gain
self-confidence to face issues and challenges in life. The executive coach would
like to help those executives who are fighting for gaining self-confidence rather
than avoiding or fleeing for actions that could result in more confidence. Similar is
the case of fear and self-doubt. Again fear is normal and natural.
Many executives are afraid to make a decision for a variety of reasons, such as
what others will think, will I get blamed, if it does not work, etc. The journey of
executive coaching is not for exploring why the executive is facing lack of
confidence or having self-doubt, but creating opportunities so that the executives
develop confidence to move ahead.
Any executive coaching intervention in an organization goes through the
following broad steps:

Pre-coaching
Contracting
Assessment
Coaching agenda setting
Coaching process
Closure

This chapter covers each step of the executive coaching intervention, so that
whether you are a sponsor of the executive coaching intervention in your
organization or you are the executive identified for coaching or the reporting
officer of the executive undergoing coaching or you are the executive coach, you
will get clarity what are your roles vis-à-vis others in the executive coaching
program.

Pre-Coaching
The responsibility of the sponsor, which is normally HR in the organization or
someone at the senior level of management nominated by the organization, is to
identify coaches, select right coaches for the organization, set up contracts with
the coaches, ensure that the coaches understand the organizational context,
explain the role of the management and the expectations of management from
the coaching intervention. The sponsor also explains to the coaches the purpose,
objectives, processes, and expected outcomes from the executive coaching
intervention. It is almost important for the organization to identify the executives,
who have a genuine need for executive coaching and are willing as well as ready
to go through the coaching program.
For setting up an executive coaching program, the following tasks are to be
undertaken:

1. To create a pool of executive coaches

2. To identify the executives who need coaching
3. To match the coach and the executive according to coaching needs,
compatibility, and chemistry
4. To ensure that there is a clear purpose established and communicated to all
stakeholders

To create a pool of executive coaches, every organization follows its own process.
The most common approaches are contacting the coaching service provider firm
or contacting the executive coaches directly. In the first approach, the organization
contacts one or two firms who have a pool of approved executive coaches. The
organization then selects the coaches from the pool based on the coaching
credential, professional experience, and academic background. In the second
approach, the organization contacts the coaches directly from the available
databank or the coaches listed at various coaching forums, viz., International
Coaching Federation, Association of Coaching, etc.
The second important aspect of pre-coaching step is the identification of
executives who will be undergoing coaching and preparing them. The
organization articulates adequately within the organization why executive
coaching interventions are being undertaken and what are the long-term
expectations of the management. Each executive, who has been identified for
coaching, would definitely like to know why he has been selected and what are
the expectations of the management from him. It is also important for the
management to communicate to the peers of these selected executives as to why
they are not in the part of the interventions, the objectives of the intervention as
well as the selection criteria of the executive for the intervention.
The next action is to decide which coach will get associated with which
executive(s). Whatever the experiences and background of coaches may be, each
executive coach brings different competencies, styles, and approaches on the table.
Normally, organizations either arrange a brief meeting between the executive and
the executive coaches (two to three) or each executive is provided with details of
two to three coaches, so that they can choose one coach for themselves.
 The executive coaches and the sponsor then finalize logistics issues of scheduling
sessions, duration of session, mode of delivery, whether it would be face to face
and/or telephonic, session cancellation protocols, what to expect or what not to
expect from the coaching process, etc.

Contracting
After identifying the coaches to be engaged in the organization, the next step for
the sponsor is to decide with the coach what to do, which is called contracting.
The basic premise of contracting in executive coaching is to clarify goals and
processes so that there are productive outcomes at the end of the coaching
journey and there is no misunderstanding amongst all the stockholders, i.e., the
coach, the sponsor, and the executive.
There are mainly three components in contracting:

Clarifying the goals for coaching

Explaining the coaching process
Finalizing the broad coaching agenda, terms, deliverables, organizational
support, the role of the sponsor, etc.

Annexure 2.1 gives an example of a coaching engagement process outline of an

executive coaching program of an organization.
The initial meeting between the coach and the sponsor is aimed at clarifying the
sponsor’s goals and expectations from the coaching intervention for the executive,
who will be undergoing the coaching. It is also important to include other key
influencers, viz., reporting officer, departmental or functional head, head of
learning and development besides HR from the sponsor side, in the interaction.
From this interaction, the coach collects data of current performance level of the
executive from multiple sources and also the future developmental need of the
executive. Since each coach follows his/her unique process of coaching, it is
important for the sponsor to check that there is an alignment between the
processes the coach will typically follow with the defined or intended coaching
process of the organization. If there is a difference, then it is important to check
whether it is acceptable to the organization or not. The coach generally explains
how he will engage with the executives, what are the assessments tools that will be
used, what data supports are required from the organization, how the action plan
will be made, at which stages the sponsor will be briefed on the progress made,
and how and when the coaching effectiveness will be evaluated.
Finally, the coach and the sponsor jointly finalize the coaching contract, which
includes the following:

Objectives of coaching engagement

Timeline
Coaching fee
Number of coaching sessions and duration of each coaching session
Expected outcomes
Role of sponsors
Confidentiality agreement
Termination of coaching engagement

The coach then meets with the executive to understand the context of the
executive, i.e., his background, his role, what are his current challenges, what are
his key result areas, how he perceives his role in the organization, what are his
expectations from coaching, etc. The basic purpose of this meeting is to see if
there is chemistry between the coach and the executive. The coach, on the other
hand, explains to the executive as to what is coaching all about, what is his role as
a coach, what he expects from the executive during the engagement, the detailed
coaching process, the scope and objectives of the engagement, and how the
coaching results will be evaluated. The coach also answers to all the questions,
apprehensions, or doubts the executive may have. This is an opportunity for both
the coach and the executive to make personal assessment about each other. The
coach may explore in this meeting the following questions:
Am I the right coach for this executive?
Is the executive open, ready, reflective, curious, and motivated?
Annexure 2.2 gives an example of some of the ground rules of coaching
expectations.

Assessment
The purpose of the assessment is to collect relevant data of the executive, based on
which the coaching agenda and detailed development plan are to be developed. In
other words, the assessment phase of executive coaching is to understand where
the executive is at present. The assessment process varies widely depending on the
type of organization as well as the coaching objectives.
Before starting the assessment, the executive coach collects information about
the executive, e.g., his education and professional backgrounds, job responsibilities
and role, who are his team members, whom he reports to, who are his reportees,
etc. This information is generally available with the human resource department
of the organization. The coach then meets with the executive to understand from
him what are his dreams and aspirations, what are the important events that have
taken place in his life so far, how he perceives his role in the organization, what
are his work challenges, etc.
The next stage is conducting assessment. Executive coaches generally conduct a
formal 360-degree assessment or 360-degree interview with key stakeholders of
the executive concerned. While conducting the 360-degree assessment, it is
important for the coach to identify executives to be contacted for getting
feedback about this individual, the dimensions of assessment as well the process of
collecting information. It is preferred that the coachee (executive) is also involved
besides the sponsor of the program (generally human resource department) in
selecting the persons from whom the feedback will be collected. This helps the
executive not only accept feedback with a more open mind at a later stage but
also bring a sense of involvement from the executive from the beginning itself.
Some coaches ask the executive to contact potential interviewees for requesting
their participation, whereas other coaches contact the potential interviewees
either directly or through Human Resources, and inform them that the executive
has mentioned their name as potential interviewee. Though each coach will have
a different set of dimensions of assessment, the dimensions covered in 360-degree
assessment (or interview) are to identify what are the executive’s strengths and
developmental needs in key managerial competencies like interpersonal skills,
making decision, team handling ability, planning, managing performances,
workplace behavior, work-related skills, etc.
It is also essential that all the assessment data or one-to one interview data are
kept anonymous and the summary of assessment is prepared and shared with the
executive. Some organizations conduct 360-degree assessment periodically. In that
case, the coach may not conduct additional 360-degree assessment, provided the
last assessment was conducted not later than six months earlier.
The coach may also use various personality, behavioral, managerial, leadership
styles, or work preferences, inventories (details of such instruments are given in
Chapter 8), etc. The coach also looks into performance appraisal data of the
executive, mainly appraiser assessment of performance of the appraisee on the
areas of improvements, talent or succession planning data, employee engagement
score, assessment centre data, etc., if available. The aim of this process is to get
multiple perspectives of the executive from different sources in the organization.
Some executive coaches prefer to conduct direct observations of the executive at
the workplace for one to two days, i.e., shadow coaching.

Coaching Agenda Setting

By now, the coach has a complete understanding of the executive’s strengths, areas
requiring attention, the dreams and aspirations of the executives, the challenges
the executive is facing as well as blind spots of the executive. However, the
coaching agenda is to be set by the coachee and not by the coach. As the proverb
goes, “you can take the horse to river but cannot force him to drink water.” If the
horse is thirsty, then only he will drink water. Similar is the case in coaching. If
the executive would like to improve certain areas of his life, whether personal or
work life, and needs support of the coach, then the coaching journey will be
effective.
The coach presents his feedback/observations based on the data received from
multiple perspectives to the executive. Normally, executive coaches make
summary notes of his observations along with some evidence, while making his
observations absolutely anonymous and objective as far as possible. As the coach
and the executive discuss the feedback, the coach keeps in mind that whatever
data he has gathered and collated is not necessarily universal truth but collections
of perceptions based on displayed behavior and actions of the executive. The
purpose of the feedback session is for the executive to understand the messages
from the feedback, to make a sense out of it and reflect upon. Hence, the basic
objectives of sharing the feedback to the executive are as follows:

1. To identify issues emerging from the collective feedback

2. To identify the issues where the executive agrees with
3. To identify issues where the executive disagrees with
4. To identify issues where the executive needs more information or
clarification or is not sure what it meant to him
5. To check if there is a pattern
6. To see if there is any surprise for the executive
 The coach will ask the executive to reflect on the feedback and to draw his/her
own conclusions. The coach allows the executive to reflect on these observations
and ask the executive what are his perspectives on areas the executive feels
relevant and important for his self-growth and improvement of his effectiveness at
the workplace from both short-term and long-term perspectives. The feedback
from the coach gives an opportunity to the executive to have a clear picture of
who he is now and what he wants to be in the future. The executive may be
asked open-ended questions about his perceptions of his own strengths and
developmental needs, and encourages him to rank his developmental needs in
order of priority. It is a good idea if the coach gives a task to the executive to list
out what are his strength areas, what are his developmental needs, and what are
the areas he thinks he needs to change for betterment.

Coaching Process
People come to coaching for different reasons but ultimately they are looking for
change, whether to have more or less of something, from both personal and work
life. Therefore, whether it is executive coaching or life coaching or any other
niche areas of coaching, the bottom line is change. Coaching process is often like
peeling layers on an onion. The initial phase is peeling a few layers, one by one,
then as the process goes deeper, the process passes through peeling more and more
layers together.
Coaches typically follow their own coaching process, based on their own style of
coaching as well as the coaching agenda of the executive. “Models” or visual
representations are used by the coaches to illustrate what is done in a particular
process. Having a model, along with a written description of a process, supports
the coach to articulate what they will do. It also gives the executive a visual
framework to understand what the coaching process will look like. By having a
clearly defined model, the coach has an easier time explaining to the executive
what will take place during the coaching sessions. Through a coaching model, the
coach synthesizes tools, techniques, and frameworks from a range of approaches in
helping people initiate and sustain a journey on the goal-directed personal change.
Hence it is important to understand the change process so that coaches can
navigate with coachees in the change journey in a step-by-step process.
The Delta Coaching Model as seen in Figure 2.1 is a visual representation of a
change that happens as the executive undertakes the coaching journey with the
support of his or her coach. The Delta or triangle shape in mathematics represents
an increment or variation. In coaching, the coach is always looking for how the
coachee could move forward in his or her life journey, and how the coach can
facilitate the process to help that happen. The triangle or delta symbol represents
the total coaching process in two different ways: (1) each component or segment
is an integral part of the coaching process and (2) each component or segment
builds on the components or segments below them. In other words, without a
proper base or foundation and strong support structures, the ultimate success of
the coaching journey, i.e., the peak of the Delta, is far from reachable and likely
unsustainable. The coach maintains a focus on the coachee, the coaching process
as a whole, and the coachee’s context, and in response to what he or she observes
in relation to any or all of these elements the coach selects a way of working with
the coachee that seems appropriate and likely to be effective. The coaches can
navigate with coachees in the change journey in a step-by-step process, as
depicted in the Delta Coaching model. Let us now discuss each segment of the
model in the context of the coaching process.

During the coaching journey, the coach first creates a relationship with the
coachee. Relationship is the foundation of any coaching journey. As it is in any
building structure, if the foundation is not properly constructed, the building
cannot stand for long. The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is one such example of
unstable foundation. Hence, the coach takes utmost care in building a relationship
with the executive. The coaching relationship is built based on commitment,
mutual trust, and respect.
Figure 2.1 Delta Coaching Model of Change

The coaching relationship is not just chemistry between the coach and the
executive but much more delicate and sensitive. In executive coaching scenario,
the coach is brought inside the organization by Human Resource department and
the coachee is selected mostly by the organization. There is always in the mind of
the executive that the coach is more accountable to the sponsor of the
intervention for meeting their expectations than that of the executive. Therefore,
the coach makes extra effort to ensure that the executive understands that though
the coach is hired by the organization, the commitment of the coach is toward the
development of the executive, which in turn impacts the organization. Just saying
this to the executive does not suffice. The executive needs to feel and be
convinced that his coach is keen for his development and there is sincere
commitment from the coach for his growth and development.
The second important aspect of relationship is mutual trust. If there is no mutual
trust between the coach and the executive, there is no coaching relationship. Trust
is a delicate flower, it can flourish only when the coach can create the right
environment by displaying a high level of integrity, honesty, openness, fairness, and
respect. Sometimes, the coach inadvertently breaks his commitment to the
executive. For example, the coach promises the executive to send an email or to
call on a particular day or to get some material in the next session, but forget to
do so. The message goes to the executive that he is not important. Many times,
the executive notices that the coach does not “walk the talk,” viz., the coach
expects the executive to be on time for the session but the coach reaches late for
session for one or other reasons.
When the coach creates an atmosphere of trust and makes the executive feel
valued and competent, this in turn leads to self-motivation of the executive. One
simple principle I follow in every coaching engagement is I never discussed
anything about the executive and/or about the coaching journey of the executive
with any member of the organization, including his reporting officer and the
sponsor of the assignment, if the executive is not present in the meeting. The
exception is only during 360-degree assessment.
Similarly, respect is more a feeling than just mere words. The executives feel
respected when they are accepted as they are, not as they ought to be. Sometimes,
the coach breaks the confidentiality agreement and shares some of the issues
discussed in the coaching session with other members of the organization, which
the executive comes to know, then whatever trust developed painstakingly will be
destroyed immediately. Trust also comes from being authentic. For example, I
always openly share my own experiences, fears, passions, successes, and failures
with all of my coachees.
Transparency between the executive and the coach also contributes in building
relationship. The executive needs to be clear in his mind that there is no hidden
agenda from the coach’s side or the coach is not manipulating him to achieve the
agenda of the coaching. The more the coach gives opportunity to the executive
to discuss whatever issues the executive wishes to bring into coaching, the more
the executive feels comfortable with the coach. The executive coach creates a safe
space in which the executives can feel comfortable to reflect, share, and take risk
in developing themselves.
After establishing trust and intimacy with the coachee, the coach needs to connect
with the executive at the emotional level. A good communication starts with
active listening. A major part of any communication goes beyond the spoken
words; hence, the coach requires to pick up the message, intent, and feelings from
the coaching conversation. The executive needs to feel secure and comfortable
when he is discussing his personal issues with the coach.
Coaching conversation focuses on creating awareness within the executive of the
present state and its implication as well as reflecting on the way forward. In the
coaching conversation, both the coach and the executive think deeply each issue
together. The coach uses tools such as questioning, listening, probing, mirroring,
and framing perspectives so that the executive can get deeper insights.

After creating a proper foundation of the coaching journey, the role of the coach
is to create excitement within the executive. The coach assists the executives to
visualize successes and asks them to explore the consequences of not taking
actions. The visualization exercise could be asking the executive to imagine the
situation, where he has already reached, then think and feel how he will behave or
act in that situation. Many executives have limited capacity to look beyond, where
they need support from the coach. Sometimes, fear of taking actions, risk of
negative outcomes, past failure, or disappointments create a self-limiting belief in
the mind of the executive. In that situation, the coach enthuses the executive by
appreciating their inner talent, the journey the executive has taken so far, and their
ability to take actions in the past. Sometimes, the coach also shares some similar
success stories with the executive to create confidence in the mind of the
executive. Excitement starts happening in the mind of the executive when the
executive understands clearly what are the current realities, where he would like
to reach as well as how compelling is the destination. The coach presents
perspectives from higher levels than where the executive is now at present. The
role of the coach is just to frame perspectives and present a vision for the
executive but not to suggest or define the end-state for the executive. Taking the
example from the famous epic of Hindu mythology, Mahabharata, Krishna
showed Arjuna the consequences of going for the war, but Arjuna was to decide
whether he would like to go for war or not.
Self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci, 2000) claims that when the
following three human needs are satisfied, people are intrinsically motivated, able
to fulfill their potentialities, and able to seek out progressively greater challenges:

Autonomy: the need to choose what one is doing, being an agent of one’s life
Competence: the need to feel confident in doing what one is doing
Relatedness: the need to have human connections that are close and secure,
while still respecting autonomy and facilitating competence

In the coaching scenario, the coach ensures the executive’s autonomy by

allowing them to make their own decisions. The coach also supports the executive
to enhance their competence by discussing with them their strengths, inner talents
as well as their past accomplishments. The coach also sometimes discusses how
their strengths could be useful in the present situation and also gives examples of
similar situations, where other people like him have succeeded in similar
situations. Relatedness needs of the executive are addressed by the coach by
encouraging, enthusing, and acknowledging the executive all through the
coaching process by empathic listening, establishing trust, openness, and mutual
understanding.
Sharp (2011) proposes some examples of how one can create and enhance
positivity in the early stages of coaching with a view to increase the chances of
coachee’s (executive) achievement:

Actively and explicitly focus on positive experiences within the coachee’s

life, present and past.
 Quickly work toward helping the coachee identify his or her strengths,
specially looking for expressions of these strengths in past experiences and
discuss how best to utilize these in future situations.
Cultivate hope and optimism at every opportunity by reminding the coachee
of previous successes and achievements and by appropriately noting how
these experiences can be used to build more positivity in the future.
Make the coachees feel special and do what you can to make them believe
that the process of coaching is and will be a positive one.

Let us look into one such case…

Coachee C was born in Madrid but went to live in Venezuela with her mother. She was married twice
and divorced. After her second divorce, she started her own furniture rental business alone in Spain with
“no money.” After 18 years, having owned a showroom in Madrid and Barcelona and 23
coachee/employees, she sold the business and migrated to the United States. In the United States, she
started working as a personal assistant to a large real estate property owner, helping her boss in
managing her business.
During the coaching conversation, it emerged that she would like to plan an alternate future in Spain.
She was not sure about her future goals and she was expressing a sense of despair and helplessness
during coaching session. During subsequent sessions, the focus of coaching shifted to a value-based
goal-setting process. One of her goals was to go back to Spain and start a small venture. During the
process of identifying possible roadblocks and resources required to achieve the goal, she was not feeling
confident about herself in achieving this challenging goal and it was noticed that her self-efficacy was
very low.
The next stage in coaching (discovery) was focused on her self-efficacy. The coach helped her look
back on her accomplishments to date. Initially, she could not list even three major accomplishments. To
assist her in the reflection process, the coach shared with her what the coach had observed to be some of
her major accomplishments, such as starting a furniture rental business from nothing to having two
showrooms now, settling in the United States at the age of 54, and bringing up three children as a single
parent. With this feedback, she realized her strengths and started feeling confident about herself.
To continue this process, it was decided that she would ask ten acquaintances to relate good and
positive aspects about her, which they had observed. She was successful in getting eight responses out of
which four observations surprised her because she was not aware of those personal qualities that they
had noticed. She shared in the subsequent session how this process had helped her see herself in a
different perspective and how she had started feeling confident about herself.
The coaching conversation aims to create a picture of the end state so that the
executive can focus on the right target. The executive starts exploring how the
success of his coaching journey will look like, to clearly see and define the goal
post, and to explore alternate paths to reach the end state. The coach assists the
executive to develop self-awareness and to look into the bigger picture so that the
executive could see clearly where he would like to reach. Sometimes, it is difficult
for the executive to visualize the goal post. The executive may not see the
complete picture, what is possible, and what needs to happen.
The next coaching session is devoted on broad agenda setting. The executive
with the support of the coach will identify one or two major areas where the
executive feels the need for change for six to nine months. It could be on a
particular behavior that he would like to change, develop, or improve or one or
more managerial competencies he would like to develop or learn a new skill or
working on specific performance issues or achieving specific business results.
In some situations, the executive may not be clear of what they want in their life,
why they want something in life, and how they are going to achieve their goals,
whether professional, work-related, or personal goals. The reason could be the
executives are not aware of their values, since it remains hidden in the recesses of
their sub-conscious. In other words, they are not clear of what they want in their
life, why they want something in life, and how they are going to get their goals.
Even in some situations, the executives may be clear about their goals and how to
achieve these goals, there is a lack of commitment to follow the path of achieving
their goals. This happens when goals are not based on the values of the executive.
Values are like a beacon for an individual. One needs to keep their values in view
in order to remain focused and be in the right direction. The executive coach
assists the executive to get them clarity on what are their values first before going
for goal setting. Values play an important role in the executives’ life, since their
values inspire them for action, direct their lives, and influence the decision they
take. When the goals are developed that match with the executive’s interest and
that are congruent with the executive’s core values, the executive is generally
more positively oriented in taking actions.
According to cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957), there is a tendency
for an individual to seek consistency with their cognition. In value-based goal
setting process, cognitive dissonance may surface in the coaching process if there is
a misalignment of individual values with the goals the executive would like to
achieve or when more than one contrasting but attractive or compelling
perspective emerges (Mukherjee, 2008). An important consequence of the theory
of cognitive dissonance is that people are motivated to work at a level consistent
with their self-perceptions of competency toward the task they are undertaking.
Bandura (1994) quotes that self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think,
motivate themselves, and behave. A strong sense of efficacy enhances human
accomplishment and personal well-being in many ways. People with high
assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered
rather than as threats to be avoided. In contrast, people who doubt their
capabilities shy away from difficult tasks, which they view as personal threats. They
have low aspirations and weak commitments to the goals they choose to pursue.
Dissonance is the most powerful when it is about self-image. When the coach
encourages a feeling of competency in task areas as well as general feelings of
competency in the mind of the executive, the motivation to work toward the goal,
in general, is increased. Executives can be helped to develop a belief that they can
make a change. In that situation, the coach encourages the executives to reflect on
the major changes they have already undergone in life, thereby creating an
awareness of their inherent skills or talents Another approach the coach uses is to
enhance the self-efficacy of executives by improving their perception of self-
competency using strengths inventory assessment process or asking them to
remember situations when they had successfully accomplished similar tasks.
After defining the end state, the executive starts exploring various options and
alternatives to reach the goal. Typically the coaching conversation in this phase is
to brainstorm with the executive to identify as many as possible alternative actions
to achieve the target. For example, if the executive is working on coming to office
on time. So far what he is doing is not working for him. The purpose of
brainstorming with the executive is to identify what he could do differently so
that he will arrive in office on time. The executive may identify some of the
following possible options:

1. To start early from home

 2. To get up early in the morning
3. To go to sleep early
4. To change the mode of transport
5. To come along with another office colleague
6. To ask wife to make him leave home on time
7. To have a detailed plan for every morning
8. To shift his home near office
9. To make temporary arrangement to stay near office during weekdays
10. To skip one or two morning chores
11. To own vehicle
12. To come with office transport
13. To reach home on time
14. To avoid late-night engagement

After identifying all options, it may emerge that some options may not be
feasible for the executive. That is absolutely ok. After identifying all possible
options through brainstorming, the executive then evaluates each option one by
one and shortlists two or three options which the executive may feel feasible,
effective, and doable. The coach assists the executive to evaluate each alternative
one by one based on the feasibility and effectiveness of the alternative in achieving
results. Sometimes, the coach gives his perspectives during evaluation of each
option. After identifying the options, the executive also identifies obstacles,
roadblocks, and challenges in front of him. If all the obstacles are not identified,
the actions required to overcome the hurdles could not be identified. After
identifying the best options, the coach encourages the executive to decide a
detailed action plan with specific timelines. While developing action item, the
coach assists the executive to identify what are the supports required from others,
what resources he needs, and what are the milestones. It is also important to check
the commitment level of the executive of taking action in this stage by checking
with the executive that all agreed actions will be acted upon. This is important
since it is natural for people to get lazy after initiating the process. Each big action
needs to be broken into many small actions or baby steps with specific timelines,
so that the executive is clear of every step of the journey.
Coaching is largely a change process that leads toward a predetermined
destination of goal achievement. The coach’s job is to facilitate the executive
through the coaching process to support the executive moving into action to
achieve his or her goals. The coach creates a structure with the executive of a
follow-up plan and check-in opportunities. The role of the coach is to make the
executives excited about the first action they are going to take and assuring them
the coach will support them throughout the process. The executive needs
continuous acknowledgment from the coach while taking actions and the coach
lets the executive know that there is approval from the coach whatever actions the
executive takes.
Each coaching session starts with the review of progress of the action plan, what
could be achieved or not achieved, what actions are completed or not completed,
the exploration of what could be done in moving forward, and fine-tune the
action plan, milestones, and targets as appropriate. The coaching conversation
focuses on:

Reviewing what happened, both planned and unplanned

Reviewing what could not happen
Reviewing obstacles faced, challenges encountered, what actions didn’t work
Reexamining current realities, the commitments, and interest level of the
executives
Reviewing goals, actions, and targets
Discussing the way forward

Though it sometimes looks mundane, in my own experience in coaching I

observed that some of my very senior successful executive coaching clients are
very good in planning and follow-up for others but when it involves them in
person, they falter. Executives may commit that it is their journey, they have
accepted themselves to take actions, but if there is no strong accountability
partnership from the coach, the executive may not take all actions as planned. The
reasons could be many. Hence, the coach builds the robust review mechanism in
the planning stage so that both the executive and the coach have clarity of the
process. In fact, most of my coaching executives appreciated the rigor at later stage,
though they had some reluctance in the beginning for regular reviews. The coach
continuously acknowledges the executive on the actions the executive has taken
and done something, whether successful or unsuccessful during the review
conversation. The role of the coach is as cheerleader and supporter, so that the
executive feels good and encouraged.

One of the most important roles for the coach is to acknowledge, enthuse, and
recognize the executive of their achievement, whenever it occurs. The executive
may not be celebrating his accomplishment but the coach creates opportunity to
celebrate achievements/small win for the executive and encourages the executive
to enjoy the success and share his accomplishment with others. Many executives
are not in the habit of celebrating or comfortable in sharing success with others.
The more senior the executive, the less they celebrate their accomplishment; even
many of them feel uncomfortable to share their successes with their friends, peers,
and close family members. In coaching, it is not only the journey that is
important, but also enjoying the arrival of the and destination of the journey. It is
worth celebrating the small steps of successes in the coaching journey as the
executive moves to reach the major goals in life and workplace. While executives
celebrate their successes, whether small or big, it provides the opportunity for
other stockholders to participate in the accomplishment and allows the executive
to acknowledge them for what they have contributed for the success of the
executive. As a coach, I always insist that my executive coaching clients share
gratitude with those who helped them directly or indirectly, take the family for
outing or dinner, pray to God, indulge themselves on something they love to do
or what they have not done for a long time, or buy something special, since
celebration means different for every individual.

Closure
The closure phase of a coaching engagement happens when the coaching process
is ended with the executive. The sponsor would like to assess the coaching
process, the benefits achieved by the executive, and also to make decision about
the executive coach and future use of coaching interventions in the organization.
The measurement of impact of the coaching engagement is an important part in
this phase. Many organizations conduct dip-stick surveys with key stakeholders
after the end of the coaching journey to assess the progress of the coaching. Some
organizations conduct reviewing meetings among sponsor of the program,
reporting officer of the executive, the executive, and the coach at the mid of the
coaching process. During this meeting, the coaching agenda and the coaching
goals are reviewed. The other stakeholders in turn give their perspectives on the
changes they have observed or encountered in the skills, performance, or behavior
of the executive.
The next step of the closure phase is transitioning into a long-term development
journey. After completing the coaching engagement, the organization sponsor
plans whatever actions are necessary to ensure that the executive will be able to
continue his developmental journey as well as whatever gains were by the
coaching does not get lost over a period of time. The executive coach, the
reporting officer of the executive, sponsor of the engagement, and the executive
jointly formulate the long-term development plan based on identified specific
areas of focus, which include the areas where gaps exists or further work is
needed. This meeting will also deliberate the future action plan, identify the
process owner and the reviewing mechanism.

Chapter Summary
As defined earlier, executive coaching is an experiential and individualized
leadership development process to build leaders’ capacity to achieve short- and
long-term organizational goals. It is done through one-to-one interactions. It is
grounded in data from multiple perspectives and based on mutual trust and
respect. Executive coaching typically works with executives who are willing to
make a sincere effort to change.
 Executive coaching in organizations goes through broad steps such as pre-
coaching activities, contracting, assessment, coaching agenda setting, coaching
process, and closure.
Pre-coaching is the phase where the sponsors identify and select the right
coaches, identify executives with genuine need for coaching, and is ready to go
through the coaching process. At this stage sponsors ideally and necessarily with
the involvement of the executive decide which coach will get associated with
which executive. Executives are briefed about the objectives, methodology, and
methods of delivery of the coaching process.
In the contracting phase, the coach and sponsor jointly finalize the coaching
contract outlining the coaching agreement, timeline, coaching fee, number of
coaching sessions, expected outcomes, etc. The coach then meets with the
executive to gain clarity of his and organization’s needs and priorities. This
interaction also helps the coach and the executive to build chemistry for working
together.
During assessment phase, the coach with the help of executive and his
stakeholders in the organization understands the executive’s strengths, areas of
improvement, and leadership style. Coach may make use of different techniques
such as 360-degree assessment, interview, performance appraisal report, etc. to
gather information. The coach tries to get multiple perspectives about the
executive.
It is the executive with the help of the coach who sets the agenda. The coach
presents the feedback gathered in the course of assessment and encourages the
executive to reflect on them. Executive with assistance from coach identifies one
or two major areas for development to enhance his effectiveness. The next step
would be to develop a detailed action plan to achieve the goal.
Coaching process is like peeling layers and go deeper. The coach enables the
executive to navigate the change journey in a step-by-step process. It is also
important in building a coaching relationship with the executive based on
commitment, mutual trust, and respect. Coach needs to demonstrate this by action
and behavior to get the executive’s confidence and thereby build a coaching
relationship.
After establishing trust and intimacy with the executive, the coach needs to
connect with the executive at an emotional level. This happens with active
listening. Coach needs to pick up the message, intent, and feelings from the
coaching conversation. The executive needs to feel secured and comfortable. After
creating a proper foundation of the coaching journey, the coach needs to build
excitement in the executive. The coach assists the executive to develop goals in
line with the executive’s interest and in congruence with core values so that the
executive is more positively oriented in taking action for change. The coach
encourages the executive to decide a detailed action plan with a timeline.
Executive at times may falter to implement the action plan if there is no strong
accountability partnership from the coach. Hence the coach builds a strong review
mechanism.
The role of the coach is also that of a cheerleader and supporter, so that the
executive feels good and encouraged. Coach encourages the executive to celebrate
achievements small or big.
The closure phase of coaching engagement happens when the coaching process
is ended with the executive. During this phase coaching goals are reviewed. The
next step of the closure phase is transitioning into long-term development.

Annexure 2.1: A Sample Coaching Engagement Process Outline

Intention
Company M’s coaching program provides accelerated personal development for
engineers in demanding customer-facing roles. It has been designed to deliver the
developmental priorities of each engineer in an accelerated learning environment.
Through shadowing, the coach is able to witness the engineers’ performance in a
real-time environment and to customize the development effort as appropriate.
Highly integrated with the engineers’ regular workday, it will minimize the need
to take time out for personal development.

Program Summary
Each engineer will spend two days with an expert coach over a three months
period. This will include experiential coaching at the customer site, personal
coaching at Company M, and development planning with their manager. The
developmental agenda will be set by the line manager and contracted with the
engineer. All coaches bring a deep knowledge of the developmental challenges of
technical customer-facing roles combined with an expert understanding of
coaching for accelerated performance.

Program elements
Matching HR manager contacts Org X to discuss an engineer joining the coaching program. This Development
process conversation is typically 10–15 minutes long and will review development goals and the potential briefing
 fit of the coaching program.

Based on this, Org X will select the best coach for the assignment and brief this coach on the Coach
developmental objectives. matching
The assigned coach will organize a 10–15-minutes phone call where coach and engineer can
introduce each other and check for compatibility.

Coaching Engineer will complete coaching intake questions and (optional) submit previous performance Coaching
intake and development plans. Coaching guide provides on how to get the best out of the coaching. intake
This will ensure a common understanding of the coaching approach and ensure that the coach is questions
briefed on the broader background of the engineer. Coaching
A three-way meeting between the coach, engineer, and line manager to introduce development guide
goals from line manager, integrate engineer’s perspective, and develop a clear plan for the Three-way
coaching. contracting
Coaching
outcomes
plan

Shadow Four half-day coaching sessions with the engineer. Coaching

coaching The majority of these sessions will be organized around “live” situations including team meetings, recap process
presentations, issue management, executive meetings, and workshops. Coaching will generally
take place before and after these live situations.
At other times, the coach will be in observer mode, studying performance and identifying
opportunities for change that can be integrated into the coaching time.
There is also provision for some coaching sessions to take place at Company M’s office where the
development objectives make this preferable.
Following the coaching session, the engineer will complete a session recap process to identify key
learning and provide input to the coaching process.

IntegrationA three-way meeting between the coach, engineer, and line manager to review progress against Three-way
development goals and experience of the coaching work. review
Engineer completes feedback form on the coaching and the line manager forwards this to Org X Feedback
with their own comments added.

Annexure 2.2: A Sample of Coaching Expectations Sheet

What You Can Expect from Me
I believe that you are capable and resourceful and that you have your own answers,
even if you are not immediately aware of them or confident in your ability to
access them. My job is to listen with an open heart, ask provocative questions, and
offer tools, structures, ideas, inquiries, requests, and activities that will help you tap
into your inner source of wisdom.

1. I will always assume that you are doing your best.

2. I will be your champion, always holding a vision of your best self for you.
3. I will ask you to stretch.
4. I will ask you to think outside the box.
 5. I will ask you to have faith in Divine guidance, and to develop spiritual
practices that honor your personal spiritual path.
6. I will make powerful requests. The purpose of a powerful request is to assist
you in accomplishing your goals. You are free to accept, decline, or make a
counter offer. If you choose to decline a request, together we will find a way
that works better for you.
7. I will manage my own judgments and language rigorously.
8. I will take good care of myself so I can be my best for our work together.
9. I will continue to learn and grow through self-study, personal and
professional development training, and by working with my own professional
coach.
10. I will abide by our coaching agreement, by my Code of Ethics, and by the
Ethical Guidelines of the International Coach Federation
([Link]).
11. I will not take life or myself too seriously—and I will encourage you to do
the same!

What I Ask of You as My Executive

1. Do your best but don’t try to be perfect.
2. Communicate with me honestly and fully.
3. Be coach-able; partner with me to facilitate your process of living, learning
and growing
4. Take responsibility for your results, both the successes and the failures.
5. Have a positive mental attitude.
6. Come from a place of love and kindness.
7. Have a high level of honesty and integrity; be honest about your life and
your actions.
8. Be open and vulnerable. Risk showing the real you.
9. Do what you say you will do.

Annexure 2.3: A Sample Coaching Engagement Contract

1. The coach will use 360-degree assessment and EQI assessment report during
coaching, which is available with you. The coach may administer additional
psychometric assessment tools, such as MBTI, DISC, etc., as per requirement.
2. The coach will conduct face-to-face coaching and/or telephonic sessions for
you once in a month for 120 minutes duration. All the face-to-face sessions
will be at executive’s place.
3. The dates will be intimated to the executive by the coach in the beginning
of every month or at least 15 days before or at the end of each coaching
session.
4. Coaching sessions will be fixed based on mutual consent between executive
and coach and mode of coaching will be based on mutual convenience.
5. Each session (face-to-face or telephonic) will be of 120 minutes duration.
There will be 6 (six) sessions in total.
6. The executives will be responsible for ensuring their availability for the
sessions.
7. The coach will also conduct telephonic coaching as per the coaching agenda.
Executives will call the coach for the coaching session on his Skype/Phone
at the scheduled time, unless advised otherwise.
8. The coach and executive agree to provide each other with at least 24 hours
notice to reschedule an appointment, except in the case of unforeseeable
emergency. Both parties agree to meet promptly at the agreed time and to be
available for the entire duration of the session.
9. Between sessions, executive may email the coach anytime at xxx@[Link]
or call him at XXXX. If a response has been requested, the coach will
endeavor to do so within two business days (usually sooner). The only
exception will be when the coach is out of town or during a holiday.
However, the coach will let the executives know when he is unavailable.
Executive is expected to place a high priority on this intervention. It is
important for the integrity of the process that agreed-upon schedules are
kept to. The coach will try his best to accommodate minor changes in
timing. In case of emergencies, the timings will be worked around. The
coach will also try not to cancel appointments with the executive on a short
notice for business reasons, but may do so for personal reasons such as family
emergencies, though he will seek to avoid this.
a. The coaching will last for six months, depending on the coaching agenda,
which may be extended on mutually agreed terms, if required.
b. Broadly 70 percent of the coaching will be face-to-face and 30 percent will
be over the telephone.
 A review of coaching process may be conducted in the fourth and seventh
months, to assess the impact of coaching at the workplace. The executive’s
organization will re-administer 360-degree assessment and EQI as per the talent
management program plan.

References
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V.S. Ramachaudran (ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior, Vol. 4, pp. 71–81.
New York: Academic Press.
Cogner, J. (2005). Coaching leaders. In H. Morgan, P. Harkins, & M. Goldsmith (eds), The art and practice of
leadership coaching. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press.
Goldsmith, M. (2005). Changing leadership behavior. In H. Morgan, P. Harkins, & M. Goldsmith (eds), The art
and practice of leadership coaching, pp. 56–60. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Inc.
Mukherjee, S. (2008). Behavioral change process in coaching. IJCO, 2, pp. 87–100.
Ryan, R.M. & Deci, E.L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation and
well-being. American Psychologist, 55, pp. 68–78.
Sharp, T. (2011). The primacy of positivity—applications in a coaching context. Coaching: An International
Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 4 (1), pp. 42–49.
 CHAPTER 3
Behavioral Coaching
Concept, Strategies, and Processes

B efore dealing with the topic of behavioral coaching, let me briefly dwell on
the word, “behavior.” Behavior is basically goal oriented. The basic unit of
behavior is an activity, and in fact, all behaviors are a series of activities. Any
behavior is generally motivated by a desire to satisfy a need or set of needs.
Motives are the “whys” of behavior. Motives are concerned with the needs that
drive behavior. Motives may be conscious or subconscious. In coaching, the coach
encourages the executives to identify steps to be undertaken to achieve their goals.
The activities the executive undertakes to achieve the goals are the behaviors of
the executive.
All of us usually have two major questions in our life: “What we desire to
achieve” and “How we wish to achieve that.” The answers to these two questions
of “What” and “How” often result in a dilemma to decide between the two
opposing forces of life. We resolve the dilemma with the aid of the value we
cherish within the constraints of prevailing law and environment we live in. Our
individual values serve important determinants of our behavior. Values serve as
criteria for making decisions and determining priorities and help in explaining
our justification of our own actions.
Behavioral coaching is based on the principles of behavioral science. In order to
achieve genuine, lasting change in behavior, behavioral coaching capitalizes on
“strategies and processes” by focusing on the behavioral components of the
change program, i.e., on the behavior of the individual involved. It is important
for the executive to understand initially what are their dysfunctional current
behaviors and the impact of these behaviors—intended or unintended—on others
and how others perceive them. Understanding these behaviors and how to change
these behaviors involve exploring the dynamics of human interaction as well as
understanding the personal and organizational variables.
Effective changes in behavior are significantly difficult and time consuming. It is
not very uncommon to notice in organizations that the high-performing
executives have one or a few areas of their behavior that hamper their career
advancement or reduce their effectiveness. These could be abrasive behavior,
interpersonal skills, networking, communication skills, conflict management, and
lack of delegation or micro-management.
The following are some of the typical dysfunctional behaviors displayed by
leaders in the organizations:

Don’t listen, interrupt others while speaking including in meeting

Have got all answers
“I know it all”
Get abrasive to all including superior, colleague
Lead, follow or get out of the way, high ego
Procrastinate
Poor planning, firefighting, needs follow-up
Play favorites
Withhold information, knowledge
Too narrow in day-to-day working, do not predict future
Create boundaries, functional mindsets not business mindsets
Hesitate in discussing performance issue with subordinates
Always under stress, get angry at workplace, poor work-life balance
Take undue credit of subordinate work, do not project subordinates

Behavioral coaching is based on the following assumptions (Skiffington and

Zeus, 2003):

1. All behaviors result in positive or negative consequences for the individual

and those around him or her.
2. Behaviors that have positive consequences tend to be repeated.
3. Exploring and changing core values, motivation, beliefs and emotions can
result in significant behavioral change.
4. By carefully assessing the target behaviors, learning and reinforcing new
behaviors, conducting ongoing monitoring and evaluation, and maintaining
behavioral change, sustained personal and organizational growth can be
achieved.
5. Change involves learning and there are established laws of learning and
methods whereby learning can be transferred from one situation to another.
 6. Individuals are systems within systems, and each individual affects and is
affected by these systems and the constant changes they are undergoing.

The ultimate goal of behavioral coaching is to effect sustainable change in an

executive’s behavior that improves performance. The coach helps the executive to
practice new behaviors in a structured way and build up the skills gradually.
Interpersonal behavior of an executive, one such example, is as crucial as
performance.

Behavior Modification through Reinforcement

Techniques
Behavior is the only thing any manager can deal with it. Manager can see it when
it is bad, they can measure it and they can talk about it with their
executives/employees. Managers can observe when it changes and can also
measure it when it changes. Principles of behavior modification theory suggest
that a complex pattern of behavior can be modified by first breaking it down into
smaller behaviors. When the executive does goal setting, the coach encourages the
executives to break the large goals into subgoals, and identify activities or actions
or sub-activities to be undertaken to achieve subgoals or intermediate goals.
A reinforcer is simply any event that strengthens the behavior it follows. For
example, if a child is rewarded with a candy if he doesn’t disturb when his mother
cooks food, then he is more likely not to disturb his mother whenever she is busy
in cooking. Behaviors that are steps toward a final goal need to be reinforced and
established first, with rewards given for partial accomplishment, if necessary.
Reinforcement theory is based on the basic premise that consequences influence
behavior. If an executive wants to increase a behavior (say make it more frequent)
the coach may provide a positive consequence (or reward) when the behavior is
shown. Reinforcement could be negative also. If an executive/employee does
complete the assignment within time without mistake, the supervisor may ask him
not to do extra hours and can leave office early. In that case, his good behavior is
negatively reinforced.
Rewards can be extrinsic (like receiving praise and encouragement from the
coach or other people or receiving a gift) or intrinsic (like experiencing a feeling
of accomplishment or gratification from attaining a personal milestone). If the
coach is helping his executive in decreasing a particular behavior (make it less
frequent), the coach may provide a negative consequence or punishment, when
the behavior is shown. A behavioral coach may facilitate the executive to
extinguish a behavior by providing no consequence (ignoring the behavior) when
it is shown.
Behavior modification concept tells that “behavior that is followed by a positive
consequence will tend to repeat itself.” It suggests that people do the thing and
increase the frequency of doing the same things again and again, if a positive
consequence follows in each time they do that activity. However this principle
only works if:

1. The consequence is to the individual.

2. The consequence is positive.
3. The consequence occurs soon after the action.

Reinforcement is an event that, when presented after a behavior, causes the

behavior to increase or decrease in frequency. Anything that strengthens the
behavior is reinforcer (positive or negative). Any consequence that occurs after an
action and increases the frequency of that action is called a positive reinforcer.
Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.
Behavior that is followed by a negative consequence or a painful event will
decrease in frequency. Negative reinforcement refers to taking away something
unpleasant. Negative consequences have two major serious side effects. When
managers use negative reinforcer or create a painful event for the
executive/employee to reduce a particular behavior, the executive/employee
becomes apprehensive. Secondly, when executives/employees are subjected to
punishment or painful events, they may decrease the frequency of behavior that is
causing the painful consequence, but may also react aggressively by disruptive
actions or sabotaging work. Hence it is recommended that managers should direct
their attention toward increasing executive/employees’ those behaviors that they
want, instead of directing their energy in decreasing the executive/employees’
behavior that they do not want.
Extinction means if a person is not reinforced for a behavior that was previously
reinforced, he or she is less likely to act the same way when faced with a similar
situation. Extinction causes a particular behavior to lessen and finally cease to
occur. To strengthen new behavior, behavioral coach ensures that new behaviors
are positively reinforced on an intermittent basis, rather than every time it occurs.
Behavioral coaches understand the role of praise as a major source of
reinforcement of the behavioral change process.
 How do the coaches use reinforcement theory during the coaching process?
Acknowledgment, celebration, and enthusiastic responses to the executive are
some of the positive reinforcement techniques used by the coaches. On the
contrary, when the executive does not keep his commitment to turn up for
coaching on time, then the coach uses negative reinforcement to decrease the
late-coming behavior of the executive, maybe by closing the session at the
predetermined time instead of extending the coaching session. When the
executive tries to go into a trap about past experiences or frequently tells
unconnected stories to get undue advantage or praise from the coach, the coach
uses extinction technique by ignoring the behaviors demonstrated by the
executive. Normally, the situation of punishing a behavior may not arise in
coaching context.
The steps listed below may be followed in using reinforcement theory into
behavioral coaching scenario:

1. Select a specific behavior to be changed: The coach and the executive identify one
specific behavior that is either to be increased or decreased or adopted. For
example, an executive has a tendency to talk to his team members in meeting
in a louder voice and quite fast. He would like to decrease this dysfunctional
behavior.
2. Selection of a reinforcer: The coach and the executive choose a reinforcer that is
meaningful to the executive. The selection of the reinforcer is one preferably
that the executive is relatively deprived of. For example, the coach and the
executive decide to start practicing to speak slowly and not to raise their
voice in the coaching conversation. Whenever the executive does that the
coach will praise him immediately and add a coin to the credit of his
account, which entitles him for an additional session in exchange of a certain
number of coins.
3. Reinforcer is contingent for the specific behavior: Reinforcement should be given
contingent to a specific behavior not combined with other behaviors. For
example, an executive normally delays specific tasks assigned to him. His
supervisor may tell the executive that “whenever you submit tasks before
time, I will make sure that you leave office on those days on time and not
detained for urgent work.”

The following case study illustrates the application of reinforcement principle in

a coaching situation.
 Case Study
Executive M was working as Vice President (Operations) with a mid-sized company in India. During
one coaching session, he mentioned that People Management is one of the areas where he would like to
work on. In the subsequent session, the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation–Behavior
(FIRO-B) instrument was administered and the result highlighted that he had very low interpersonal
need. His inclusion score was very low, which is a typical characteristic of a “loner.”
Executive M reflected on the findings and commented that he would like to change his interpersonal
behavior in the workplace because he felt that his managerial effectiveness is largely dependent on his
interpersonal competency for the present role. To improve this competency, a detailed action plan was
drawn, mainly covering frequency of interactions with all his subordinates and peers, mode of
interactions, and areas of interactions (whether job-related or related to the well-being of his
subordinates).
After a week, the coach collected random feedback from his subordinates as to whether or not they
noticed any change in the behavior of their boss. If yes, what was the change and what difference had it
made to them. A majority of them noticed that Executive M tried to reach out to them and they felt good
about it. The coach shared these data with Executive M in the next coaching session. Executive M was
happy on this feedback. He also shared how he felt during these interactions and how seriously he tried
to change this behavior.

Behavioral coaches understand the importance of self-concept, self-efficacy, and

self-esteem of the executive. Self-esteem indicates the extent to which the
executive believes themselves to be capable, significant, successful, and worthy.
Hence, behavioral coaches focus on executives’ competencies, their strengths,
inner talent, and past accomplishments during the coaching journey to enhance
their self-efficacy.
The motivational interviewing approach, developed by Miller and Rollnick
(2002) from experiences in the treatment of problem drinker, is an important
approach in behavioral change process. Motivational interviewing approach
focuses on identifying, exploring, and resolving ambivalence about changing
behavior. It attempts to seek and to create awareness in the executive of the
potential problems of their behavior and to consider what might be gained
through the change. It also helps the executive examine the behavior that is not
consistent with their personal values or goals. The motivational interviewing
approach suggests that the ambivalence about decisions is resolved by conscious or
unconscious weighing of pros and cons of changing or not changing a particular
behavior. When behavioral coach uses the motivational interviewing concepts in
coaching, the following four general principles are followed:

Express empathy: Empathy involves seeing the world through the executive’s
eye, thinking about things as the executive thinks about them and feeling
 things as the executive feels them. Through empathic listening the coach
creates an environment where the executives are more likely to share their
experience honestly in an open and candid manner.
Develop discrepancy: The coach develops situations in which the executive
examines the discrepancies between their current behavior and future goals.
When the executives realize that their current behaviors are not leading to
achieving their goals, they become motivated to take up the change journey.
Roll with resistance: The coach does not discuss in depth on the executive
resistance but rolls with it. The coach encourages the executive to define the
problem, examine the various solutions to the problem, examine different
perspectives of the problems and finally develop their own solutions. In this
process, the executive experiences his freedom to choose actions.
Support self-efficacy: As discussed earlier, the coach keeps the executive
motivated by supporting the executive’s self-efficacy.

Cognitive Dissonance and Behavior Change

Cognitive dissonance refers to the state of tension that exists when a person holds
inconsistent beliefs or attitudes and is motivated to reduce the dissonance. Based
on the understanding of the executive’s self-concept, behavioral coach would
develop strategies to provide feedback to the executive and insists the executive to
get feedback from others so that the executive is able to reduce inconsistency.
Self-efficacy indicates the belief in our capability to organize and carry out the
actions necessary to manage prospective situations. Self-efficacy influences the
motivation of an individual. One will work harder and more persistently at tasks
the one believes he is good at it and vice versa.
In behavioral coaching, coaches often encourage the executives to explore their
own assumptions, since assumptions are at the core of behaviors; changing
assumptions can, therefore, open up opportunities to use behavioral change
techniques to adopt more effective behaviors.
According to cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957), there is a tendency
for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions. Cognition may be
thought of as “a piece of knowledge.” The knowledge may be about an attitude,
an emotion, a behavior, a value, and so on. Dissonance occurs most often in
situations where an individual must choose between two conflicting or
incompatible cognitions. The greatest dissonance is created when the two
alternative cognitions are equally attractive. Whenever there is cognitive
dissonance, there is an uncomfortable tension within the person, which needs to
be released either by changing his behavior or by justifying his behavior by
changing the conflicting cognition, or by justifying his behavior by adding new
cognitions. The following are some examples of how executives respond to
feedback that is inconsistent with their self-concept:

Discredit the source of feedback and/or the way feedback was collected
Start refuting or argue against the feedback
Make efforts to ensure better feedback next time
Try to justify that the feedback is irrelevant for him
Avoid discussing on the feedback

Another form of cognitive dissonance may surface in the coaching process if

there is misalignment of individual values with the goals an executive would like
to achieve or when more than one contrasting but attractive or compelling
perspective emerges while reframing. If the coach observes that the executive is
not taking action, or has lost interest in the goal they had chosen, it is important
to explore whether or not this is due to any cognitive dissonance and, if so, how
the dissonance can be reduced or removed. Executives then may either re-evaluate
their personal goals in the light of the new information or perspectives, or still
decide to continue to achieve their earlier set goals with more clarity even if there
is a misalignment with their own values.
The following case gives an example of value incongruence.

Executive T came for coaching to get help in taking decision regarding his career transition. He was a
middle-level manager of a large corporation, a talented individual, had reasonable good track record in
professional work and a strong self-belief on “Karma.”
He was not sure what should be his next career move. At that time, he had been working with his
present employer for more than a decade and he was not very satisfied about the nature of his job. He
asked his coach to facilitate him in choosing the right career. The coach elicited values of the executive
through value clarification exercise. The coach assisted the executive to identify different career choices
based on his background and opportunities available in the job market. After identifying the four
attractive career options by the executive, the coach asked the executive to check alignment of his values
with the four career options. Based on his values, the best career choice for him was to work with an
NGO. The executive told his coach that he had been working for several years for under-privileged and
made investment in terms of personal time and money. There was least alignment of his values with
corporate career. However, the executive decided to continue with his career with corporate world, since
he was in need of money to fulfill his family obligations.
 Force-field analysis (Lewin, 1951) is helpful while determining if there is any
discrepancy between what is actually happening and what the executive would
want to happen in a given situation. In other words, which factors are assisting in
the change effort (driving force) and which factors are blocking this effort
(restraining force). If the driving forces far outweigh the restraining forces, the
change efforts can often overpower the restraining forces. If the reverse is true,
there could be different choices. If the executive realizes that it is too difficult to
change, the change efforts may be given up. The change efforts may instead be
continued by changing each restraining force into driving force or somehow
immobilizing each of the restraining forces or focusing on driving forces and
simultaneously reducing or immobilizing restraining forces. Motivation for change
occurs when people perceive a discrepancy between where they are and where
they want to be (Miller et al., 1992). Coaches may like to develop situations
wherein the executive examines the discrepancy between their current behavior
and future goals. When the executives perceive that their current behavior is not
leading toward some important goals in life, they become more motivated to
make important life changes.
The coach brainstorms with the executive on the payoff or advantages or
disadvantages of how these new behaviors will be perceived and experienced by
others with whom he works and what could be the outcomes. That is, what is
driving the executive to change and what are the drivers not to change. Once
these two drivers are identified, the coach helps the executive to reflect upon the
reasons for change and the reasons for not to change, so that the executive
ultimately feels the “pull to change.”
Similarly during the goal-setting process, the coach encourages the executive to
identify what strengths or favorable factors the executives possess to achieve their
goals as well as the factors that may hinder executives from achieving their goals.
One of the most important aspects of any coaching process is to help the
executive move forward. The coach facilitates the executives in overcoming
restraining forces in the journey of achieving their goals using the force-field
analysis techniques.

Stages of Behavioral Change

Whitworth et al. (1998) quote, “people come to coaching because they want
things to be different. They are looking for change.” Whether it is executive
coaching, life coaching, or any other niche areas of coaching, the bottom line is
change. Hence, it is imperative to understand the behavioral change process in
coaching process so that the coaches can navigate the executives effectively in the
change journey. Kristine Vickers, a clinical psychologist at the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, New York, mentioned during an interview with The Wellness
Councils of America, “that behavior change is more complex than just telling
someone to behave differently or handing them a pamphlet. And that is why I
think coaching is going to be a very important part of bringing about lifestyle
change.” Perry Skiffington of the Graduate School of Master Coaches
(Skiffington, 2005) believes that for leaders to become or remain successful, it is
required that they are able to self-manage and change their behavior at one or
more of the following three levels:

1. Intrapersonal level
2. Interpersonal level
3. Organizational level

Conceptual models of change, based on over 20 years of research, suggest that

behavioral change does not happen in one single step. Rather, people tend to
progress through different stages on their way to successful and sustainable change.
The “Transtheoretical” or famous six “stages of change” model, as proposed by
Prochaska et al. (1992), was initially used in health sectors for smokers.
Prochaska et al. (1992) offer a useful change model for behavioral coaches who
assist their executives to undergo behavioral change process. According to them,
individuals experiencing health problems can be categorized into discrete
categories (stages) on the basis of their current and past efforts to change their
behavior and their intentions to change in the future. The “stages of change”
model includes:

1. Pre-contemplation: In this stage, people are not thinking seriously about a

change and are not interested in any kind of change of their behavior in the
near future. On the surface, it may look that they are resisting change, but
there could be several reasons for why they may be reluctant for change.
They may be uninformed about the consequences of their behavior, lack
confidence in their ability to change their behavior, and be defensive about
others wanting them to change. It may be that people do not see themselves
as having a problem. They may have tried to change on previous occasions,
but were unsuccessful.
 2. Contemplation: People in this stage acknowledge that there is a problem or an
issue exists, but not yet ready or sure about making a change or make
commitment to move ahead and change. They are aware of the benefits of
change and also aware about the negative consequences of not changing
their behavior, but procrastinate about making any move.
3. Preparation: People in this stage have committed to make a change and start
gathering information on what resources are needed, what strategies to work
on, etc. They are ready with a structured plan of action.
4. Action: People believe that they have the ability to change their behavior and
get actively involved in taking steps to change their behavior. They have
goals and action plans and have learned, practiced, and rehearsed skills and
strategies to put this in place. In this stage, change of behavior is measured
and evaluated.
5. Maintenance: The maintenance stage of change is most difficult, since many
behavioral changes are not sustained over a period of time, if no process is
put into place to ensure the maintenance of new behavior. To maintain the
new behavior by avoiding temptation to go back to old behavior, it is
important that the executive is encouraged by the coach to practice the new
behavior until the new behavior becomes the second nature.
6. Relapse: It refers to returning to an old behavior and abandoning the changed
behavior. Slipping back into an old behavior is very common, when there is
a long history. Lapses and slips are part of the inevitable journey of behavioral
change process. Understanding what leads to lapses and how to effectively
cope with minor setbacks so that the executive does not get discouraged or
disillusioned are the important issues to be handled by the coach with the
executive in this stage. Each such incident is not to be considered as failure
but a learning opportunity to take actions to avoid future relapse. Relapse
prevention training is arranged to provide the executive to prepare for and
deal with minor setbacks.

When any executive enters into a coaching relationship with a coach, the coach
assesses at what stage the executive is and initiates the coaching intervention on
the basis of the executive’s readiness and motivation to change. Let us take a
simple example of coaching intervention. When an executive is inducted into
coaching by the organization, the executive is at the pre-contemplation stage,
since he is not aware of any problem or that there is a need for change. When the
coach or the organization conducts 360-degree feedback survey and the executive
gets the survey feedback, the executive moves to the contemplation stage, wherein
the executive starts thinking whether he needs to change or not, based on the
feedback survey. If the executive decides that he needs to change, he is at the
preparation stage. The executive then starts discussing with his coach what are the
areas he needs to focus on, to improve his effectiveness, what are the options
available to him and how he is going to undertake the change journey. When the
executive starts taking action, he moves into action stage. After achieving success,
he plans actions so that the gains achieved are not slipped back, i.e., the
maintenance stage.
Table 3.1 summarizes all the concepts mentioned above within the coaching
context for taking a holistic view of coaching. The following two case studies
briefly illustrate the different stages of the change process.
Table 3.1 Stages of Change in Coaching
Stage of Coaching Context
Change
Pre- This is the discovery stage for the executive and focuses on the exploration of the executive’s life purpose,
contemplation values, and principles, where he is today, the overall satisfaction level of the executive at different aspects of
life, etc. Some of the tools used by the coach here are Value Clarification, Wheel of Life, 360-degree feedback,
and Questioning.
ContemplationThis is the awareness-building stage. The coaching focuses on what the executives would like to be different
about their life, the choices they have, what changes they are looking for, where they are stuck, etc. Tools used
by the coaches are Force-field analysis, Brainstorming, Visioning, Visualization, Gap analysis, Reframing, and
Listening.
Preparation In this stage, the executive collects information on what will be the benefits of changes, their own level of
preparedness, the strengths of their desire to change, clarifying the outcomes or the goals to achieve, what
strategies to be deployed, what resources are needed, what are the obstacles, and so on. The coaching tools
useful in this stage are Goal setting, Brainstorming, Visualization, Gap analysis, Strength Inventory
Assessment, Reframing, among others.
Action In this stage, the executive takes action toward achieving goals. The coach assists the executive in building a
system to monitor progress and take corrective actions. The tools used are Reinforcement techniques,
Reviewing, Celebration, Enthusing, among others.
Maintenance In this stage, the executive faces the challenge how to sustain the achievements or consolidate the gain or
retain new behaviors. The coach assists the executive by creating structure and providing support in
practicing new behavior to make it long lasting.
Relapse This stage focuses on identification of strategy to minimize lapses to old state, to avoid taking step backward,
to build self-management system and to sustain the gain without the support of the coach. The coach ends
the coaching relationship here.

Case Example 1
Executive V was the Vice President of service function of a large dealer of construction vehicle
manufacturer of India. He was managing this job for the last two years. However, he did not have any
formal education in automobile engineering. During the initial exploratory phase, it emerged that he
had a very high stress level, his work-life balance was exceptionally poor and he was highly concerned
about his job security. His family members were insisting that he quit the job. He was virtually working
12 hours a day, seven days a week.
During the coaching sessions, each issue was analyzed, different perspectives were examined, and small
steps were identified by Executive V. The progress was reasonably good, the stress level was reducing,
and the executive was positive about the benefits of coaching. He was in the pre-contemplation stage of
change. During subsequent sessions, it was decided that he would collect feedback from his key
subordinates on two simple topics: “what he should stop doing” and “what he should continue doing.”
V discussed the feedback he had received during the next coaching session. He focused on feedback
regarding “delegation.” While discussing the message he was getting from this feedback and how he felt
about it, V concluded that he was not sure how much delegation was required from his end. Though
discussion was focused on the impact of low delegation on his overall effectiveness and his role of
developing subordinates, V was not sure of why, whom and how much he should delegate. This was the
contemplation stage.
At that point, it was suggested by the coach whether he would like to have assessment of his managerial
style. He was open to this suggestion. The Managerial Transactional Style Inventory was administered.
The results from this assessment highlighted the Regulating Parent Ego state (i.e., prescriptive style) is
the dominant style and non-ok style score was much higher than the ok-style score. After this
intervention, followed by further enquiry and discovery, V was convinced that he was continuously
trying to be at the command of his function, trying to do many things himself. He was not to able to
focus on key issues due to the time constraint.
The coach explored with the executive on what he could do to reduce this dysfunctional behavior and
strategies were developed. This is the preparation stage. He agreed to take action by not to be
prescriptive to his subordinates about what to do in every situation but encourage them to find solutions
by themselves. Even if they approach him for solutions, he would try to resist giving solution at the first
instance. This was the action phase.

Case Example 2
Executive T was a middle-level HR executive with a large corporation in India, having 18 years of
professional experience. His professional growth was limited, and he came to coaching to get assistance
in making decisions regarding his career issues. During the discovery phase, value clarification, wheel of
life, and inquiry/questioning tools were used to clarify the issues on which the executive would like to
focus during the next four to six months at coaching sessions (this was the pre-contemplation phase of
change).
During the awareness phase, the coaching process was focused on visioning, gap analysis, and
reframing of perspectives, in which he was deeply engaged. Using force-field analysis techniques, the
executive was encouraged to reflect on his existing behaviors and its consequence against the future
vision he was formulating. The executive became aware that his existing way of life would not be enough
to reach anywhere near his vision. It also emerged during this process that he was lacking in self-belief,
had a fear of failure, and held a sense of complacency. He also acknowledged that procrastination was
another dysfunction behavior he could not eliminate, which resulted in general laziness in all of his
activities. There was visible commitment demonstrated by him to change the behavior of
procrastination (he was in the contemplation phase of the change process).
During the preparation process of change, the strength inventory assessment was deployed to create a
sense of self-efficacy. Value-based goals were formulated. A detailed action plan was drawn, which
included milestones as well as identification of resources that were needed. The goal-setting exercise was
more focused on specific actions up to the last details. One important action point was to have weekly
and daily “to do” lists.
 During the action phase, T took the steps that were decided in each session and shared the actions he
could take and could not take, as planned. In general, the performance level was around 60 percent. But,
the main focus on subsequent coaching discussion remained focused on “to do” lists, specially how to
improve on performance level as well as to explore whether there was a lack of planning or the action
plan was too stretched. Throughout the remaining period of coaching, planning and actions taken were
the focus of conversation – to ensure that this became part of his life. The executive commented at the
end of the coaching journey: “At another level, structured approach to coaching with emphasis on
actions enabled me to be more action oriented. I can see the visible gains as a result of this.”

Behavior Coaching Process

Observing behavior is a core component of the behavioral coaching intervention.
One of the principles of behavioral coaching is to identify which specific behavior
is to be changed, either to be increased or decreased or eliminated. Marshall
Goldsmith (2005) states,
All of the behavioral executives that I work with use the same general approach. We first get an
agreement with our coaching executives and their managers on two variables: (1) what are the key
behaviors that will make the biggest positive change in increased leadership effectiveness and (2) who are
the key stakeholders that should determine (one year later) if this change occurred.

The following broad process is followed by behavioral coaching intervention:

1. The coach conducts behavioral assessment using psychometric tools and/or

360-degree assessment either through survey or one-to-one interview, as
discussed in the executive coaching chapter. However, the most important
ingredient in the assessment tools is that the report should reflect the
feedback by the raters in behavioral form, by giving ample examples of actual
behavior observed or not observed. Normally, besides assessment of
behavioral competencies by raters, three specific questions, “Which behavior
he should continue,” “Which behavior he should stop,” and “Which
behavior he should reduce” are asked in 360-degree assessment. Without any
specific behavioral feedback, the executive will not understand which
behavioral competencies he needs to change.
2. The coach presents the feedback of assessment to executives in a constructive
and as a matter of facts basis, not interpreting the results of the assessment for
the executive. The coach encourages the executive to reflect the feedback
and assessment reports, so that he is able to identify which feedback matches
with his own self-concept or self-insights of his strengths and areas for
 developments and also there is gap between the feedback and the executive’s
own assessment.
3. The executive then identifies which behaviors he would like to work on
based on the reflections he had and define clearly what he needs to change
and by when. While identifying the behaviors to change, the coach
encourages the executive to identify at least one functional behavior of the
executive which the executive can leverage his strength while working on
one or two dysfunctional behaviors. The coach may use the behavioral force-
field analysis for identification of behaviors to change.
4. After identifying the behaviors to change, the coach assists the executive to
develop SMART goals as well as detailed manageable multiple action steps,
so that the executive is able to have quick wins in taking baby steps during
the initial phase of the journey.
5. The coach assesses the readiness of the executive in the change journey and
develops appropriate coaching strategies depending on whether the
executive is at contemplation or preparation or action stage of the change
process. As discussed earlier, the coach uses different coaching tools and skills
based on the readiness of the executive.
6. The coach facilitates the behavioral change journey of the executive by
providing emotional supports through enhancing their self-esteem,
strengthening their self-efficacy, acknowledging their accomplishments,
overcoming the barriers, monitoring the progress in the change progress,
providing reinforcers as and when required, and ensuring the commitment
level of the executive on the change journey.
7. When the executive is able to change his behaviors, the coach helps the
executive ensure that the changes are sustained over a period of time.
Assessment of change of behavior as viewed by supervisors, peers, and
subordinates at workplace is conducted to compare the result of pre-
coaching and post-coaching feedback.

In summary, behavioral coaching is based on the theory and practices of

behavioral science. Self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-image of the executive are
explored in behavioral coaching framework. The behavioral coaching
interventions involve a process of behavioral assessment of the executive, targeting
behaviors for change and measurement of behavior changes. The behavioral
change process is driven through various tools and techniques for behavioral
modification theories.
Chapter Summary
Lasting and effective changes in behavior are difficult to achieve and time
consuming. At the same time, such changes in behavior are important and
necessary also. It is a common knowledge that high-performing executives have
achieved success because of their strengths, in spite of having certain behavioral
flaws. These limiting behaviors if taken care, the executives can significantly
enhance their effectiveness.
This chapter highlights the importance of behavioral coaching intervention and
the techniques involved in carrying out behavioral changes to enhance executive
effectiveness. Behavioral Coaching follows certain principles, processes, and
strategies to enable the executive to achieve pre-determined behavioral changes. It
is important to understand the behavioral change process in the coaching process
so that the coach can influence the executive effectively in the change journey.
In a joint exercise, the coach and the executive with the feedback from other
stakeholders, decide which areas to focus on to improve effectiveness, what are the
options available to him, and how he is going to undertake the change journey.
The coach assesses at what stage of change the executive is and initiates the
coaching intervention on the basis of the executive’s readiness and motivation to
change. He applies reinforcement techniques for the executive’s behavior
modification. The coach understands various reinforcement techniques and makes
use of them to impact behavioral changes. Acknowledgments, celebrations,
enthuse, appreciations, etc., are some of the positive reinforcement techniques used
by the coaches. Similarly, coaches may use negative reinforcement techniques such
as extinction technique by ignoring the behavior demonstrated by the executive.
Based on the understanding of the executive’s self-concept, the behavioral coach
would develop strategies to provide feedback to the executive and insist the
executive to get feedback from others so that the executive is able to reduce
inconsistency or cognitive dissonance.
In behavioral coaching, coaches encourage the executive to explore his own
assumptions, since assumptions are the core of behaviors, changing assumptions
can therefore open up opportunities to adopt more effective behaviors. Applying
force-field analysis, the coach encourages the executive to identify what strengths
or favorable factors the executive possesses to achieve the goal as well as the
factors that may hinder the executive from achieving the goal. One of the most
important aspects of any coaching process is to help the executive to move
forward. Coach facilitates the executive in overcoming restraining forces in the
change journey. The coach facilitates the behavioral change journey of the
executive by providing emotional support through enhancing self-esteem,
strengthening self-efficacy, acknowledging the accomplishments, providing
reinforcements as and when required, and ensuring the commitment level of the
executive on the change journey.

References
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press.
Goldsmith, M. (2005). Changing leadership behavior. In H. Morgen, P. Harkins, & M. Goldsmith (eds), The art
and practice of leadership coaching, pp. 56–60. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social sciences. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Miller, R., Zweben, A., Diclemente, C.C., & Rychtarik, R.G. (1992). Motivational enhancement therapy manual:
A clinical research guide for therapist treating individual with alcohol abuse and dependence. Rockville, Maryland:
Department of Health and Health Services.
Miller, W.R. & Rollnick, S. (2002). Motivational interviewing: Preparing people for change, 2nd ed. New York:
Guilford Press.
Prochaska, J.O., Diclemente, C.C., & Norcross, J.C. (1992). In search of how people change: Applications to
addictive behavior. American Psychologist, 47, pp. 1102–1114.
Skiffington, P.Z. (2005). [Link]/Executive_life_Business_Coaching_kits.htm, accessed in
December 2005.
Skiffington, S. & Zeus, P. (2003). Behavioral coaching: How to build sustainable personal and organizational strength.
New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, H., & Sandahl, P. (1998). Co-active Coaching: New skills for coaching people towards
success in work and life. Palo Alto, CA: Davis-Black Publishing.
 CHAPTER 4
Performance Coaching
A Performance Enhancement Tool

P erformance, in simple word, means getting the job done. Performance is what
an executive/employee does and does not do. Organizations exist and grow,
when its employees perform. If employees in an organization do not perform at
the desired level, the organization does not survive. If employees perform at their
peak level, the organization thrives. The performance of employees depends on
various factors. However, we may broadly define performance as follows:

Employee performance = function (knowledge, skills, and

abilities) × motivation × resources

Every organization would like to be and remain as a performance-driven

organization. The role of managers in the corporation is not only putting right
people into the right job to exploit the potential of individual
executive/employee and provide necessary resources but also to create motivating
environment for the executives/employees, so that the executives/employees put
their best efforts to meet the expectation of the organization with respect to
organization performance. Organizations invest a lot of resources, energy, and
efforts in developing and implementing an effective performance management
system, so that the business objectives and goals are achieved through the
contributions of all executives/employees. Effective performance management
system in organizations encompasses the following key processes:

1. Performance planning or target setting

2. Performance evaluation, i.e., evaluating executive/employee performance
against set standards or periodic performance review
3. Performance feedback, wherein information is exchanged between
executive/employee and manager concerning the performance expected and
the performance delivered
 4. Performance counseling, if the performance is below the expectations

Figure 4.1 explains the performance cycle of a performance management system

of an organization.
Let us discuss briefly each activity one by one. Normal practice in an
organization in the performance planning phase is manager sets the targets of
executives/employees based on departmental goals and objectives. It is expected
that if all executives/employees work toward achieving the departmental
objectives, this in turn helps the organization achieve its strategic objectives and
business goals. Balanced Score Card, Key Performance Indicators, Management by
Objectives, Policy Deployment, etc., are some of the tools used in target setting
process. If we closely look at what actually happens in any organization during
performance planning phase, managers spent almost 95 percent of their time in
deciding what targets to be fixed and in convincing their executives/employees on
achieving these targets. In fact, negligible time is spent in discussing with
executives/employees how these targets will be achieved as well as in getting the
commitments from the executives/employees on the performance targets.

Figure 4.1 Performance Management Cycle

During performance evaluation or review phase, whether mid-term or end of

the performance year, the manager reviews and evaluates the executive/employee
performance against the performance plan. Hence, it is an analysis of past events
after 6 or 12 months and a judgment is made about executive/employee
performance based on the available performance data. Based on the evaluation of
performance of employee, the manager provides performance feedback to his/her
employees, so that the employees are able to know whether they are on track or
not. Again, the performance feedback is based on the evaluation of achievement
of performance targets against performance plan, not much on how to improve or
enhance performance. If any employee meets his/her targets, he/she is
acknowledged, else performance counseling is done if the performance is below
the expectation.
Generally, no significant conversation is undertaken by the manager with their
team members during the whole performance period on how the targets are to
be achieved, what are the obstacles, what are the possibilities, how the team
members are planning to overcome difficulties or obstacles, except during
performance review time, i.e., after 6 or 12 months.
One key role of any manager is to coach his/her team members to achieve their
best. An effective manager will typically help his team members to solve problems,
make better decisions, and learn new skills and progress in their career. If
performance coaching conversation is undertaken by managers throughout the
performance cycle, the managers can get the best performance from their team
member throughout the performance cycle (see Figure 4.1) by engaging with the
team in every step of performance.
Awareness and responsibility are the key principles of coaching. Whitmore
defined awareness as “knowing what is happening around you” while self-
awareness is “knowing what you are experiencing.” Responsibility is concerned
with personal choice and control. Choice implies freedom. If managers give
responsibility to their executives/employees, the executives/employees, in turn,
will try to put their best efforts. The goal of performance coaching is to transform
the business by transforming the person. The performance coach (manager)
supports their executives to attain a set of stretched goals. The emphasis of
performance coaching process is on creating a personalized plan of the executive
by helping the executive finds answers to the existing challenges, obstacles, and
dilemmas.
Let us look into another aspect of performance of employees. Every organization
conducts monthly performance review meetings, at business level, functional
levels, departmental levels, or team levels. These meetings are either conducted for
a whole day or for two to three hours in every month. If you are one of the
members of such meetings, you will agree with me that around 90 percent of
time is normally spent on reviewing what are not achieved and why not achieved,
which is just post-mortem. I am not, by any means, saying it is not important. It is
also important to estimate how much time we, the managers, are spending on
planning for the next month’s performance and discussing how the targets will be
achieved as compared to analyzing and reviewing last month’s performance
during these review meetings.
Whether you are sales manager or production manager, managing a team, one
proven performance coaching tool that can help you deal with performance issue
of your team member is the GROW model. GROW is an acronym standing for
Goal—Current Reality—Options—Will. The GROW model is a simple yet
powerful framework for structuring a performance coaching session. The GROW
model was originally developed by Graham Alexander in 1984 and popularized
by John Whitmore. The early practitioner of coaching used a similar process of
GROW more or less intuitively. The GROW model gives a certain sequence of
questioning at key stages of coaching conversation. The originators saw that, just
as in sport, many individuals were struggling to achieve their goals because they
were not learning from their own experiences and were not aware of the
knowledge they have within themselves that would help them.
The GROW model enables the manager to break down a major performance
issue into several sub-issues, which are easy to address in developing solutions. The
GROW model not only helps individual to take action but also shows how to
take action in the most effective way. The basic framework of the GROW model
is as follows:
– G—Goals > What do you want?
– R—Reality > What is happening now?
– O—Options > What could you do?
– W—Will > What will you do?
The principle behind the GROW process is rooted in the Inner Game theory
developed by Timothy Gallwey, a tennis coach who was frustrated by the
limitations of the conventional sports coaching methods. He noticed that he could
often see the faults in a player’s game, but that simply telling him what to do to
improve did not bring about lasting change.
For instance, if a player was not keeping his eye on the ball, most coaches would
give advice such as: “Keep your eye on the ball.” When a player received this sort
of instruction he would try to do what the coach was asking him and watch the
ball more closely. Unfortunately, no one can keep instructions in the front of their
minds for long. So the player usually slips back into his old habits and both the
coach and the player grow increasingly frustrated.
So one day, instead of giving an instruction, Gallwey asked: “Can you say
‘bounce’ out loud when the ball bounces and ‘hit’ out loud when you hit the
ball?”
In order to do this, the players had to keep their eyes on the ball but no longer
had a voice in their heads repeating the words “I must keep my eye on the ball.”
At this, their play started to improve markedly and the Inner Game method of
coaching was born. From then on, whenever Gallwey wanted a player to change,
he no longer gave instructions but would, instead, ask questions that would help
the player discover for himself what worked and what needed to change.
A number of principles have been developed out of Gallwey’s experience with
tennis players. While the Inner Game theory originated from sport, the same
principles are applied to business situations. The best learning happens when we
are focusing on the present and make discoveries as we go along. While the Inner
Game was developed in sport, the coaches using it realized that it could also be
applied in other learning situations.
Sir John Whitmore, bestselling author of the book Coaching for performance was
born in the UK in 1937, underwent his education in Military College and
Agricultural College. His initial passion was in motor sports, and he won the
European Car Championship. He left motor racing shortly after that, and started
running a large agribusiness, a product design business, and a Ford dealership.
Though he had material success both from racing and from business, he was not
satisfied. Sir John Whitmore was also deeply influenced by the Gallwey approach
and got himself trained by Gallwey in Inner Game and returned to the UK to
represent Inner Game in Europe.
Whitmore and a group of British coaches including Graham Alexander and
Caroline Harris set up The Inner Game Limited and ran courses in late 1979 and
early 1980 for tennis and skiing. However, enquiries from business world started
coming to Whitmore and his colleagues on the potential application of inner
game concept in the work environment. Since Whitmore viewed The Inner
Game as the purest basis of workplace coaching, he trained business executives on
Gallwey principles of coaching. As the concept of coaching was becoming
popular in the UK, Whitmore dropped the Inner Game name and started calling
coaching. He wrote a book on “Coaching for Performance,” which became
bestseller in the field. Whitmore believes that it is important to recognize and
eliminate our internal obstacles and fear is the greatest of those obstacles.
The word “Inner” was used by Timothy Gallwey as “the opponent within one’s
own head is more formidable than the one the other side of the net.” As per the
Inner Game theory, a person has two selves, Self One and Self Two.
 Self One, “the conscious teller,” is the internalized voice of our parents, teachers,
and those in authority. Self Two, “the unconscious doer,” is the whole human
being with all its potential and capacities including the “hard-wired” capacity to
learn. It is characterized by relaxed concentration, enjoyment, and trust. Self One
seeks to control Self Two and does not trust it. Self One is characterized by
tension, fear, doubts, and trying too hard.
The key to better anything, whether tennis or any other sport or performance at
workplace, lies in improving the relationship between Self One and Self Two.
Thinking activity of Self One creates interferences with the natural doing
processes of Self Two. One’s peak performance is achieved when the mind is quiet
and there is harmony between the two selves. Myles Downey, one of the disciples
of Timothy Gallwey, hence quoted, “Potential minus interference is equal to
performance.”
Gallwey claimed that if a coach can help a player remove or reduce the internal
obstacles to their performance, an unexpected natural ability will flow without the
need for input from the coach. Whitmore defined coaching based on the essence
of Gallwey as, “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own
performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”
Let us now explore how the GROW model can help managers deal with
performance issues at the workplace.
G is for Goal.
What does the executive really want?
In any coaching conversation, the performance coach (or manager) generally
starts the coaching session by asking the executive what he would like to focus on
during the coaching session. It is important for the coach to get clarity on what
the executive really wants. Normally, the executive may not be very clear at the
beginning what actually they want or what they would like to focus on in the
coaching session.
After getting clarity on the issues the executive would like to discuss with the
coach, the next important step for the coach is to find out from the executive the
outcomes or goals they want to achieve. If there is no clarity on the goals or
outcomes the executive wants to achieve, then the coaching conversation becomes
directionless. The goals are where the coaching actually begins. It is possible that
the executive may not be very clear of the goals or have difficulty in articulating
the goals they want to achieve. The coach assists the executive to decide what
they really want to achieve at their workplace or what is important for their
success and happiness in their life. It is important in life to know “where is the
goalpost.”
Sometimes, the end goal may be very big and far, but to achieve the end goal,
some important milestones require to be identified during this stage. Let us take
one example. One young executive of mine wanted to join the public services
and wanted to be minister in the state government of India in the coming five
years. One milestone identified during coaching was to be a member of legislative
state assembly by the next two years. To achieve this milestone, it emerged that he
should actively get involved with mainstream politics and try to get nomination
from a particular party for the state legislative election. However, the legislative
election was due only after three years, and he decided to keep one milestone of
getting a nomination and fighting election in the next three years.
Let me take another example. One of my executives, aged around 58 years, who
was working with a public sector company, came to coaching for planning post-
retirement career option. One of the issues that cropped up during one of the
coaching sessions was he was trying to reduce his weight for a long time but was
not successful. Not only was this issue bothering him quite a lot recently but he
also received strong medical advice to take action on this front. So, during the
coaching session he decided to reduce at least 5 kg in the next six months. During
further deliberation on this goal, he took target of reducing his weight by 2 kg
initially by January 1 (which was two and half months from that day), the target
date of achieving this milestone.
In some situations, the executives may not have full control of the result they are
aiming at, but to achieve the end goal, the executive is expected to take several
actions or activities. Each such activity or process will have the goals; achievement
of these process goals will make the executive move forward toward the end goals.
In the previous example, the executive did not have his control of winning the
election but he could take action of at least getting a nomination to fight election
by getting actively involved in political mainstream.
It is very common to find that most executives struggle at choosing clear,
specific and achievable goals for an agreed timeframe. Whether in life, career, or
workplace coaching issue, the role of the performance coach is to assist the
executive to clearly and specifically identify the goals that pull them. In fact, many
executives discover their goals during the coaching discussion. Performance coach
helps his/her coachee define a goal that is specific, measurable, and realistic.
There is a system to create goals. To just say we want something is not enough.
There is an acronym that is often used to describe powerful goals that assist the
coach and the executive to evaluate whether the goals are thoroughly thought
through. The goals should be S.M.A.R.T.E.R. It stands for:

Specific: Specific means the goals are concrete, detailed, focused, and well-defined.
Just saying we want to reduce wastage or reduce weight is not enough. We
need to be specific how much wastage percentage to be achieved or what is
the weight we should achieve.

Measurable: Goals must be measurable. If the goal is not measurable, then how it will be
known whether it is achieved or not achieved. Moreover, measurable goals
help the executive track the progress toward the goals. Measurement could
be quantitative as far as possible. We may measure the goal of wastage
reduction in terms of percentage of waste generated.

Achievable: Goals should be stretchable but achievable. If the goal is too far and out of
reach, then it will be difficult to keep the executive motivated and strive for
it. For example, if the present wastage level, say, is 6 percent and the
executive fixes the goal as 2 percent, which was never achieved at the recent
past, then it is not an achievable target.

Realistic: Goals should be realistic. Setting a goal may be realistic but there may be
different influencing factors for achieving the goal. For example, in the
example of waste reduction, though it may look like that 2 percent waste
level is achievable, there could be many influencing factors like product-mix,
production plan, and demand and process parameters.

Time bound: By when the goal has to be achieved? By one month, three months, or six
months? If the time horizon is too long, then the executive may lose focus.
If it is too short, then it could be difficult to achieve. Realistic time frame
creates the necessary urgency in the mind of the executive to take prompt
actions.

Exciting: The goal must be engaging for the individual. When the executive is excited
by the goal or the journey, they are more likely to engage themselves in the
achievement of the activity being discussed. In organization, some managers
just decide the team targets without much discussion and ask the team to
work for the target. Though it is the responsibility of team manager to set
team targets, the ownership of the targets only could be achieved if the team
members were involved during fixing goals.

Rewarding: Executives should know what it will mean to them, why it is important for
them, and what will be the results and personal benefits for them in
 achieving the goal.

The following useful questions are asked in setting goals:

What is the aim of discussion?

What do you want to achieve in the long term?
What does success look like?
How much personal control or influence do you have over your goal?
What would a milestone be on the way?
What is the short-term goal on the way?
By when do you want to achieve it ?
Is that possible, challenging, and attainable?
How will you measure it?
How will you know that you have achieved that goal?
How will you know the problem is solved?

The following points are to be kept in mind while fixing goals:

1. The goals are to be stated in the positive, instead of the negative. Remember
“The Law of Attraction.”
2. Turn the goals into positive affirmations.
3. The goals need to be agreed upon and recorded. If there is no buy-in by the
executives/employees or team members, then the executive/employee will
not take ownership and responsibility.

R is for Reality.
If the goal is the final destination, the reality is where the executive is currently
at. After defining goals, the next important phase of performance coaching is to
get clarity of the current situation, i.e., taking stock of where the executive is and
what he/she has. It means how far the executive is from the goals. No goals can
be achieved unless the current situation is known and understood. It should also
include all the resources the executive might have and they would like to use as
well as what are the obstacles they may face to achieve their goals. In corporations,
most of the reality questions are the facts and figures of present performance, past
occurrences, actions taken, resources available, the obstacles overcome, etc. Most
reality questions are asked by using “What,” “How much,” “When,” “Where,”
“Who,” etc.
In this stage of coaching conversation, ask your team members to describe their
current reality. This is a very important step. Too often, people try to solve a
problem without fully considering their starting point. Often they are missing
some of the information they need to solve the problem effectively.
The other part of the reality questions covers the resources, viz., skills,
equipment, money, contacts, supports, knowledge, expertise, etc., the executive
might use or they have at their disposal, even if the things that do not appear to be
useful at first sight. There will certainly be certain obstacles or road blocks that
may prevent the executive to move from where they are now to where they want
to be. It is also important to identify all the obstacles that stand in the way. The
purpose of questioning is not to find solutions to overcome the obstacles but
identify all possible obstacles in achieving their goals or resources the executive
does have and does not have.
Useful coaching questions include:

What is happening now?

(What, when, where, who, how much, how often)
Who is involved (directly and indirectly)?
What resources do you have?
What happens to the others directly involved?
What is the effect on others?
What have you done about this so far?
What is missing in the situation?
What is the affect or result of that?
What is stopping you?
What resources you do not have?
What could be roadblock?
Whom you can depend on?
What are the challenges you could foresee?

O is for Options.
The purpose of this stage is to create a list of as many as possible alternative
actions possible or available. The coach brainstorms with the executive so that the
executive is able to find many options to reach the milestones and end goals.
Some of the best breakthroughs will come from a totally fresh point of view.
Therefore, the quantity of options is important initially than the quality of each
option. Some options may be relevant to move forward, some may be to remove
obstacles, and some could be for turning the obstacles into assets. The coach
facilitates the process by providing a motivating environment to the executive so
that the executive thinks creatively for finding various options. Sometimes, the
executive may not come with new options after listing some options. It is quite
natural. The executive may list options that are most obvious choices but not
necessarily the best choices. Hence, the coach keeps patience during this process
and allows the executive to think for more options. The coach may give some
clues or asks some leading questions so that the executive may start thinking new
options, which he might have not thought earlier. To create options, the coach
may take each obstacle in turn and ask the executive what and how this obstacle
can be overcome.
The following are some questions that can be asked to create options:

What are the options you have?

What else could you do?
Anything else?
If you have enough Time, power, money, etc., what will you do?
Would you like to think another option?
What are the benefits and cost of each?
How will you tackle this constraint?
What are the benefits and downsides of this option?
What factors will you use to weigh up the options?
If this option does not work, what will you do?

When the coach is brainstorming with the executive, the executive may exhaust
ideas or not think in the most obvious direction. Sometime, the executive may ask
advice from coach or point of views of the coach. The coach is generally very
careful in providing their own opinion or advice. When I do performance
coaching with my coachees (who are not my subordinates), I will normally resist
to provide my point of view till no new idea is coming from the executive or the
executive gets stuck. I will offer my idea just as my opinion which the executive
may like to explore. I may start by saying like this, “… well, I may suggest couple
of alternatives which you may like to explore. However, it may or may not work
with you, but it worked in similar situations like this.” I will keep my suggestion
on the table for the executive to examine it with other alternatives and never get
attached to my suggestions. I insist on my coachee that my idea is just as a lead
and he needs to think more ideas for his situation.
W is for Will or Way Forward.
The last stage of GROW is identifying the Way Forward. The purpose of this
stage is to narrow down the options available to the executives, evaluate each
option, and then decide on the action plan to achieve the goals. By examining
current reality and options available, the executive will have a reasonable idea how
to move forward, as the executive selected different options that will achieve the
goal. The Way Forward step should be concrete, specific, and time bound so that
the executive is clear what the specific steps are to be taken to move toward their
goals.
In the final step in this stage, the role of the coach is to ensure that the executive
is committed to take specific actions. In doing so, the coach will help the
executive strengthen their will and motivation.
The following are examples of some questions, which may be asked in this stage:

Which option or options did you choose?

What are you going to do?
To what extent does this meet all your objectives?
What obstacles you might meet along the way?
What are your criteria and measurements for the success?
When precisely are you going to start and finish each step?
When are you going to take first step?
Will this action meet your goal?
What could hinder you in taking your first steps?
What personal resistance do you have, if any, to taking these steps?
What would you do to eliminate these external and internal factors?
Who needs to know what your plans are?
What support do you need and from whom?
What will you do to obtain that support and when?
What could I do to support you?
 Rate on a 1–10 scale that you are confident that you will take the agreed
actions.
What commitment on a 1–10 scale do you have to take these agreed actions?
What prevents this from being a 10?

Sometimes, the coach needs to explore with the coachee of each option
extensively before the executive is able to make their final choices of action. It is
possible to revisit sometimes the goals and/or obstacles, decided at previous steps,
to refine or realign the actions with the goals. It may require revising the goals
and/or milestones, revisit the resources needed, or check whether all obstacles
identified are relevant now.
The power of GROW model is that it is easy to understand, straightforward to
apply, and has a very thorough process of enquiry. In addition, once someone has
developed an understanding of how it works, it is possible to apply it to a variety
of work-related performance issues, even complex multi-faceted ones, in a very
effective way. It often enables individuals to make progress on issues even when
they have been stuck for a long time. For most managers, GROW offers an
excellent tool to engage in leadership activities in the process of achievement of
departmental objectives. The following two coaching case scenarios give some
idea of using the GROW model of performance coaching in the coaching
conversation.

Coaching Scenario 1
Coach: What would you like to discuss today?
Executive: I would like to discuss with you my performance target for this year. Our yearly sales
planning activity was just finished last week. My sales target has been doubled as compared to the last
year. I am thinking about what I should do.
Coach: Well, you would like to discuss what you should do to meet the higher sales target for the year.
Before going for that, let me understand whether this target is achievable.
Executive: The market opportunity is large, we are only catering a small part of it. It is possible to
achieve target but quite stretched for me to just double the number in twelve months.
Coach: Well, I hear that you are quite optimistic about your new challenge. Let us discuss what are the
targets you have fixed for yourself for coming four quarters.
Executive: I am thinking a lot about this. I am thinking to break the increased volume in the ratio of
[Link]. for four quarters.
Coach: Any specific reasons?
Executive: I need to work for additional target quite aggressively in the first quarter. I am not confident
that it will convert into sales in the first quarter, but definitely will reflect from second quarter onwards.
The peak business sessions in our business are always in the last two quarters i.e., the third quarter being
the festive season and the last quarter being winter time and the end of financial year of most
organizations. That is why I kept higher volume targets for the last two quarters.
Coach: To achieve your increased targets, what are the resources you have and what resources you
need?
Executive: We have strong database of potential customers. My management has promised me all
supports including additional sanction of sales promotion expenditure in my area. I need to submit
budget proposal for this by next week. Presently I have four members in my team who directly involved
in front-end sales and two employees at the back office. I am thinking to add two more people in my
team.
Coach: Do you have sanction to add two members in your team?
Executive: No.
Coach: To add two new members in your team what are the actions you need to take?
Executive: First, I need to get approval of increase of manpower from my boss, then send it to HR. If
there is any internal candidate who can be transferred, then it could be done fast else it will require at
least two weeks to add new member in my team.
Coach: What can be done to make it fast? As I am hearing from you, it may require four weeks at
minimum.
Executive: I will send the manpower requisition by tomorrow. I will speak to my counterparts in other
regions as well as Manager (HR) to find out in the meantime, if any internal candidate is possible. I
know some ex-employees of this organization, who wanted to join back this organization.
Coach: Great! You now have some important and urgent tasks in your hand. Assume you have your
additional resources by the next three weeks, what you are going to do different than what you normally
do to achieve your target.
Executive: I am thinking about entering into two new market segments, where our presence is
minimal. One is Real Estate and the other is Education. However, our present major focus on financial
sector will continue. My two new resources will only focus in these two new segments.
Coach: So you are looking for new resources who have some domain knowledge and experience.
Executive: Ideally, yes.
Coach: What are the obstacles you could visualize to enter in these new segments?
Executive: Since we are not significantly present in these segments, there will be some difficulty in
making entry. However, once we break the ice, I am confident that we can capture large businesses
based on our credentials in other sectors.
Coach: For making entry into these segments, what are actions required from your end?
Executive: First, I will ask our back office team to list potential customers based on their size, then I will
shortlist 40–50 such customers. After that our back office team will do further work on these customers
and fix appointments for us to make visit.
Coach: How long time is required to complete these work and start meeting customers in these new
segments ? Can you put a target date?
Executive: Well, I think by 20th of this month, we should open the door for at least five new customers.
Coach: What else could you do to meet the new targets?
Executive: We will try to increase the volume with our existing customers, though it is not very easy. I
will explore whether we can get some turnkey jobs.
Coach: Anything else can you think you could do?
Executive: I think my cup is full now. Lot of work is to be done in the next fifteen days.
Coach: I agree. I am thinking about government sector including public sector organizations.
Executive: Well, we have not done much in this segment though the opportunities are big but we need
to go through tendering process, which are generally long and tedious.
Coach: Would you like to explore this sector?
Executive: Not a bad idea.
Coach: What can be done in this segment?
 Executive: I will ask my back office team to scan through the tender announcement henceforth and
show me so that I can decide which tender we should participate.
Coach: Ok. Is there anything else you want to talk about now or are we finished for today?
Executive: Let me start taking actions what we discussed so far and then I will discuss further. Enough
is for today’s session. Thanks.

Coaching Scenario 2
Coach: What would you like to discuss today?
Executive: Well, I am reflecting on my life of wheel, I am fairly satisfied except two areas.
Coach: What are the two areas?
Executive: Fun and recreation, Money.
Coach: How can I help you?
Executive: I would like to discuss with you on the area of fun and recreation, which I was thinking
about quite a lot for the last seven days.
Coach: Well, I appreciate your commitment. Let me understand from you why fun and recreation is so
important for you now.
Executive: I want to be happy and cheerful both at my workplace and home. If I am happy and relaxed,
I can spread happiness all around through actions and words at workplace.
Coach: What do you want to achieve in short term and long term?
Executive: Well, I would like to achieve at least 8 out of 10 in the level of satisfaction index by the next
three months and 9 out of 10 by the next six months.
Coach: Where are you now?
Executive: I am at 6 or may be 6.5 now.
Coach: Great! Do you have any intermediate milestone?
Executive: I am thinking to keep it as 7.5.
Coach: Excellent! When do you want to achieve this milestone?
Executive: By the end of next month, i.e., the end of October, i.e., around 45 days from now.
Coach: Is it possible and attainable?
Executive: I think so, though it is difficult but I think I can achieve this.
Coach: What is happening now?
Executive: Because of paucity of time, I am not able to spend time in recreational activities, as I was to
do earlier.
Coach: Anything else is happening with you now?
Executive: The work culture as well as work environment in my present place of posting are not
conducive enough for me to have some free time.
Coach: So? How is it affecting you?
Executive: I am sometimes quite tense, which is affecting both of my work and personal life.
Coach: How are you going to manage your time?
Executive: I will manage time judiciously. I will try to leave my workplace everyday by 6 pm, except in
cases when some senior person visit site from HO and meeting continues after 6 pm. In that situation, I
will not have any control on my time.
Coach: How many times, on an average, it happens in a month?
Executive: Generally four to five times in a month.
Coach: How will you know you are managing time judiciously ?
Executive: By how many times in a week I punched out by 6.00 pm.
Coach: Nice. Do you think there is anything stops you in implementing this action?
Executive: Sometimes, unplanned events happen in my workplace like major breakdown or some
urgent information need to be sent to HO.
 Coach: How many times it happened in the last two months?
Executive: Twice.
Coach: What are others things you would like to do?
Executive: I would like to spend quality time with my family members.
Coach: What else you would like to do?
Executive: I will start appreciating even small things of others.
Coach: Like?
Executive: If my team member does good work or complete work without follow-up from me or able
to complete maintenance work before the time, etc. Even it could be at home also. I normally do not
appreciate my wife whatever she does.
Coach: Anything else you would like to do?
Executive: I will interact more with my relatives, friends and colleagues, whom I used to spend quite lot
of time. I will keep reading more books on management and self-help. I will read the book “Secret,”
which I heard a lot about it.
Coach: What strengths or resources do you have?
Executive: My strong desire and support of my family.
Coach: What is the first action you are going to take?
Executive: Appreciate small things. I will start from home first.
Coach: From when?
Executive: By today.
Coach: What second action you would like to take?
Executive: Manage my time efficiently. I think if I can effectively manage my time in my office, then I
will have enough personal time, so that I can pursue my hobbies, spend time with family and friend.
Coach: How much you are committed on both the actions? What could hinder you to take action?
Executive: I am quite passionate about both the actions. Distraction would not affect my resolve. I will
remain focused on both the actions.
Coach: What will you do when first milestone is achieved?
Executive: I will celebrate with my wife. She is going to be accountability partner for me in this.
Coach: What are you going to tell me in our next session after 15 days?
Executive: How many times I have reached home by 6 pm and how many appreciations I have given to
others.
Coach: It looks very exciting. All the best.

Chapter Summary
Every organization would like to develop performance-driven culture, wherein
each employee puts his best efforts in meeting performance expectations of the
organization, so that organizations strive in a competitive environment. In a
traditional performance management system, the manager is expected to set the
performance targets for their employees, review performance at the end of
performance cycle, and provide performance feedback to the employees. In
performance coaching, the manager assists their employees to decide the targets to
be achieved, identify the actions to be taken to achieve the targets, identify the
challenges or obstacles in the process, and how to overcome the challenges.
Performance coaching technique is based on Inner Game theory, postulated by
Timothy Gallwey, who claimed that if a coach can help a player remove or reduce
internal obstacles (the opponent within one’s own head) to their performance, an
unexpected natural ability will flow within the player to achieve the performance.
Sir John Whitmore believes that it is important to recognize and eliminate our
internal obstacles, fear being the greatest of internal obstacles. Performance
coaching emphasizes creating awareness and responsibility in the mind of the
employee. GROW (Goal, Reality, Option, and Way Forward) model of
performance coaching is an effective tool for managers to support their employees
to attain a set of stretched goals by helping them find their own answers to the
existing challenges, obstacles, or dilemmas, rather than directing, instructing, or
controlling their performance.
 CHAPTER 5
Developing Leadership
Competencies through Leadership
Coaching
What Is Leadership?

W hile there are many definitions of leadership in the literature, the most
common theme is that the role of leader is to propel others toward the
achievement of defined organizational goals. Hence, the effective leader should be
able to balance concern for task with the concern for people. Leadership is an
influencing process. Anytime you (leaders) are trying to influence the behavior of
someone toward some goal, you are engaging in leadership (Blanchard, 2005).
Leadership is also a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who
chose to follow (Kouzes, 2005). Leaders should have authenticity, i.e., displaying
authentic behavior, “Walk the talk.” Leaders should ask themselves—Who am I?
What is really important for me and for others? In other words, what are the
values, beliefs, attitude I carry to the work place. Credibility is the foundation of
leadership. Behaviorally, credibility is “Do what you say you will do” (Kouzes,
2005). Some leaders are not clear of their own values—what is really important
for them. They generally operate not in alignment with their personal values.
Majority of leaders as they reach a higher echelon of management, there is a
feeling of insecurity and loneliness as it becomes difficult for them to talk to
others about their issues and concerns. Loneliness and isolation are perhaps the
greatest challenges leaders face today. The greatest challenge for leaders of mid-
sized firms seems to be making the transitions from a do-it-all micro-manager to a
leader with productive followers. Effective leaders are always experimenting and
taking risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes
(Kouzes, 2005). Leaders need to be courageous to confront the dark corners
where so much of their dysfunction resides, and to become someone
fundamentally different in overcoming those handicaps (Siegal, 2005).
Transition from Managerial Role to Leadership Role
The major functions of leadership are strategic, looking business as a whole and
having a global mindset. These functions differentiate leaders from managers who
are primarily responsible for planning, organizing, and controlling of tasks. High-
performing managers in many organizations made rapid progress in their early
career due to their strong technical competencies or financial acumen, but hit the
corporate ceiling due to the lack of right skill sets, so essential once they go up
the corporate ladder. All managers eventually find that certain strengths that were
extremely valuable early in their careers can become powerful liabilities with a
rise in level and responsibility. At the same time, there are always one or two
weaknesses that become increasingly exposed and exaggerated (Conger, 2005).
The skills required at higher levels of management range from the ability to
handle interpersonal relationships, the ability to manage a team, how to delegate,
or manage change.
The leadership competencies they lack are:

Integrity and trust that showed up in whatever they do

Organizational agility and political savvy
Lack of passion
Inability to inspire others
Lonely at the top syndrome
Ability to think strategically and innovatively
Understanding organizational dynamics

Some of the typical functional behaviors the leader, more so for the manager,
who moves to leadership role, need to be acquired/enhanced are:

Focusing on macro-management
Visioning, looking beyond
Looking at business as a whole rather functional mindset
Exploiting best potential from their reportee
Influencing, motivating, challenging his team members
Strategic thinking, planning for future, anticipate futures
Commercial acumen, reading numbers, seeing trends
 Outward looking than inward looking
Networking with significant others, market/customer focused
Challenge conventional wisdom
Walk the talk

But how do organizations develop leaders? Traditional leadership development

programs have proved that the learning methods are limited, since development of
leadership competency requires a much more extensive action learning
environment, where the agenda is based on the issues the organizations are facing.
However, acquiring or developing new competencies of employees can be quite
challenging, more so at senior levels. Developing competencies in
executives/employees is much more than transferring knowledge or teaching job
skills to help them in performing their role effectively. It encompasses the
executive/employee’s ability to self-learn, create self-awareness, enhance his self-
esteem and self-confidence, and motivate to grow and excel. Leadership
development needs to focus on the need of the leader, so that an environment is
created for a safe space for reflection and learning, at his/her own pace and style.

What Leadership Coaching Does?

Leadership coaching is one of the most effective methods to build leadership
capabilities within an organization, besides helping leaders in achieving
breakthrough results in a challenging environment. Leadership coaching is for
highly achievement-oriented people, who are quite effective in their roles, but
want to improve their leadership skills. Today, leaders are much more eager to
learn new skills and competencies to face everyday challenges in an ever-changing
competitive global environment. These leaders are aware of their weaker areas, but
not sure of how to strengthen it. They would like to partner with leadership
coach from outside the organization in order to brainstorm critical decisions, to
receive feedback, and to get different perspectives with the coach.
Leadership coaching encompasses enhancing ability to develop trust, increasing
accountability within the organization, developing satisfactory relationship with
board, shareholders, and other stakeholders, enhancing credibility and influence as
an ambassador, increasing the ability to align employees to the company’s vision
and mission, navigating change management projects, enhancing managerial
competencies, and creating a culture of learning and development.
 Leadership coaching can help anyone, either already in leadership position or in
transition to leadership role, in building leadership capabilities, leveraging their
strengths, and assisting them in achieving their leadership objectives. Leadership
coaching is increasingly being used for individuals being groomed for promotion
or for an individual promoted in a new position to develop leadership
competencies to complement technical expertise, viz., developing competencies
on communicating strategic vision, strategic planning, culture change,
ambassadorship, leading executive teams, overcoming isolation, and interpersonal
skills.
Leadership coach helps the leaders to understand themselves more fully so that
they can draw on their strengths and use them more effectively and improve their
identified development needs. In the present time, senior managers in global
organizations are expected to provide leadership in increasingly diverse and
dynamic environments, since they face more demands to create, implement, and
manage changes effectively in a much shorter time span than it was just one
decade earlier. Leaders now are not continuously searching for innovative ways to
change, grow, and improve.
High-performing organizations undertake leadership coaching intervention to
develop leadership pipelines within the organization. The key questions these
organizations are constantly asking themselves are:

1. Do our current and high-potential leaders currently possess the core

leadership skills and competencies required to fulfill our organizational
strategic objectives?
2. How do we grow and strengthen the leadership pipeline within the
leadership framework in the organization?
3. To what extent our organization is committed to creating a culture that will
grow and sustain the required leadership competencies?

Leadership coaching focuses on both the transformational and transactional

challenges of the leader. Coaching leaders for transformational change involve
changing the very way they think, improving their ability to deal with ambiguity,
and enhancing their creativity. This increases the individual’s capacity to step back
and reflect on assumptions about such things as organizational culture, core values,
organizational objectives, and vision that were previously taken for granted. The
transactional challenges are in achieving the strategic objectives and business goals
in a highly unpredictable competitive market scenario by the leaders.
 Leadership coaching, therefore, addresses issues related to enhancement of
leadership competencies, styles, and behaviors as well as improving business results
in alignment with the strategic objectives of the organization. Hence, the
leadership coaching process is quite distinct from executive and performance
coaching processes discussed earlier in this book. The reasons being that
leadership coaching is deployed for a very few numbers of managers, who are
already high achievers in their functional domain and reached a significant higher
echelon of management hierarchy.

Leadership Coaching Process

Preparatory phase: When an organization initiates leadership coaching
intervention for their key executives, the organization takes utmost care in
selecting the right leadership coach for their executives and ensures that the
coach understands the expectations of the organization in the coaching
process, the context of the working of the executive, and there is proper
chemistry between the executive and the coach.
Assessment: Traditional 360-degree assessment (generally 360-degree
interview), shadow coaching, competency assessment centre data,
performance data, growth trajectories of the leader in the organization, and
executive/employee engagement index of the leader are some of the sources
of data for the leadership coach to understand where the leader is now. In
general, leadership coaches focus mostly on transformational issues of the
leaders, since these leaders are generally successful in their role and known as
achievers in their functional domain. Hence, the leadership coaching focuses
on development of leadership competencies, which encompass their
leadership styles and behavior. Leadership coach uses various psychometric
tools and inventories, viz., MBTI, VIA Inventory of Strengths, LEAD, LSI,
Value Clarification exercise, 360-degree assessment, EQ-i inventory, Hogen
Personality Inventory, etc., in the diagnostics process. During the initial phase
of assessment, the coach works with the executive to do the following:
Create a leadership map: It is a process of developing a full picture of a
person’s authentic leadership. In this stage, the executives get deeper
insight into their leadership journey to date by crystallizing personal
and professional defining moments to understand their greatest
strengths, their leadership potential and aspirations, and the path they
need to take to get there. An engaging discussion between the coach
and the executive helps the coach understand the evolution of the
executive as a leader, what they want to be, the goals they aspire to
achieve, and the strengths they have to leverage to get there. While
doing so, the coach helps the executive to define their purpose, vision,
values, strengths, and goals.
Value clarification: In a coaching scenario, the value clarification process
entails a type of Socratic dialogue in which a person is urged to reflect
on his life experiences and to clarify his own values. The following
steps are recommended in conducting the value clarification exercise
with the executive (Mukherjee, 2011):
Step 1: First the coach has to decide the appropriate time in the
coaching journey to take up this exercise. If the coach introduces this
exercise in the initial stage of coaching relationship, the executive may
not be ready for this exercise. It is also possible that the coach might
not have developed the desired trust level with the executive and/or
the coach may not have adequate opportunity to know the executive
with respect to where the executive is at present, what are his
challenges, his beliefs and assumptions, his life journey as well as his
past experiences. Proper rapport with the executive is a prerequisite
for an effective and meaningful value clarification exercise. It is
therefore advisable that the coach may take the value clarification
exercise when the coach has sufficient understanding about the
executive’s situation, sometime at the middle of the coaching journey,
say after six to eight coaching sessions.
Step 2: The next important step for the coach is to check whether the
executive is ready for clarifying his values by gauging the interest level
of the executive before starting the exercise. Some executives just do
the exercise as the coach has asked them to do, whereas others take
this exercise very seriously and do a lot of reflection before coming
out with their list of values. Their energy, their voice, and their
excitements in the subsequent coaching sessions reflect their
authenticity and sincerity. The executive is briefed by the coach about
the purpose of undertaking this exercise.
Step 3: When the executive is ready for this exercise, the coach gives
the executive the “Value Game” sheet, as given in Annexure 5.1. The
executive is asked initially to identify top ten values from the lists. It is
 important here to ensure that the list is not very long and each item in
the list is value, not motive, trait, or attitude.
Step 4: In the next coaching session, the coach facilitates the executive
to identify the top five values from the ten values identified in the
previous steps, by asking probing and clarifying question, and
discarding those that are not truly reflecting his values.
Step 5: The coach then takes up the value clarification process with
the executive. In the value clarification process, the coach facilitates
the executive to examine their lives from the past experiences or life
journey and share with the coach when the executive had honored or
not honored that particular value and the consequences thereon.
When the executive explores each value one by one from the list with
the coach in a safe yet courageous environment, the executive moves
back and forth in their life journey and tries to find the answer about
themselves who they are.
Step 6: Finally, executive identifies the most important five values they
have, by reflecting upon several high and low points of their life’s
journey, difficult and trying situations they have faced, and the
happiest moments of their life. After identification of the top five
values of the executive, the coach guides the executives to introspect
themselves inside out to explore what these values mean to them and
how they are going to honor them
Identification of developmental needs: After clarifying the values, the executive
with the assistance with the coach distills key insights from 360-degree
feedback and other assessments they completed prior to this phase. This helps
the executive refine their understanding of their leadership competencies,
styles, and behaviors, which impact in their current role as well as future role
inside the organization and other stakeholders. Based on the deeper
conversation with the coach and self-reflection, the executive is able to
identify their leadership developmental needs.

Finally, the coach develops a leadership development report that:

Summarizes the leadership profile and style of the executive

Articulates areas of strength to leverage against their leadership aspirations
Develops opportunities to work on to support their leadership growth
aspirations

The next phase of leadership coaching is the identification of leadership

growth areas. The executive articulates with his coach two or three priority
areas of leadership growth which will impact his leadership effectiveness
significantly. These two or three areas of leadership growth could be in the
area of behavior change or leadership competency development or specific
skill development, e.g., strategic planning or commercial acumen.
Goal setting: After identifying the leadership growth areas, the next stage is to
set the goal for each development area. It is important to understand here
that the goals can create different understandings for different people. Some
executives may think of a goal as achieving an ultimate objective, a behavior,
or an action. For example, some executives may say we would like to reduce
stress, want more top-line growth, would like to delegate more, have more
team engagement, etc. However, no goal setting is complete, unless and until
the executive is clear what is the ultimate value for them in achieving their
goals. Hence, the challenge for leadership coach is to create enough
opportunity for the executive to reflect on what these goals mean to them
and what are the rewards and pleasures associated with achieving a goal. If
the goals are aligned with their values, purpose, and vision of their life, then
only the goals are meaningful for them, else there will be dissonance. Hence
full exploration of each leadership goal by the executive with the help of
coach is essential so that the executive can connect with their goals
emotionally and can be much more motivated and excited to achieve their
goals. As compared to other niche of corporate coaching, leadership coach
helps the executive develop a deeper and a detailed vision of their future so
that they can be in touch with purpose and meaning of their future, which
ultimately lead to higher motivation and commitments in achieving their
leadership goals.
Action planning: Next, the leadership coach engages with the executive in the
leadership development process by helping them develop a detailed action
plan, assisting them in taking actions, discussing with them what are the
organizational challenges and brainstorm with them how to overcome them,
monitoring the progress of action plan, working as accountability partner in
the process and for their success.
 Coaching: Leadership coach works with the executive while the executive
starts taking actions as per plan, brainstorms with him the challenges and
roadblocks, and supports the executive throughout the coaching journey by
acknowledging, motivating, encouraging, and creating an environment of
learning and growth.

Chapter Summary
Leadership coaching is for high achievers, who are quite effective in their roles but
would like to enhance their leadership competencies or for those who are in
transition to leadership role from managerial role or for those who are being
groomed for leadership positions within the organization. Leadership coaching
focuses both on transactional and on transformational issues of the
executive/employee, besides encompassing areas such as the ability to develop
trust and authenticity within the organization, ability to develop satisfactory
relationship with board, shareholders, external world, ability to align
executives/employees to the organization’s vision and strategic objectives, and
ability to lead from the front. Leadership coaching helps successful leaders
understand themselves fully their own strengths, values, beliefs, and emotional
quotient.
High-performing organizations undertake leadership coaching not only to
enhance leadership competencies for a few selective leaders but also to create
leadership pipeline aligning with the organizational leadership framework so that
potential leaders are groomed appropriately to meet the strategic objectives of the
organization in sustainable fashion.
Leadership coaching starts with creating a leadership map of the executives so
that the executives get deeper insight of their life journey so far, defining
moments in the organization, their inner strengths, their beliefs and values, their
potential to grow, and aspirations so that they can decide the path they would like
to take in the leadership journey. Finally the leadership coach works with the
executive on enhancing leadership competencies as per the developmental need of
the executive/employee.

Annexure 5.1: The Value Game

Circle below 10 Values That You Use in Life
(You may combine two or three values as long as critical distinctions are not lost.
Example: Honesty/Integrity/Authenticity).

Acceptance Enlightenment Loyalty Self-expression

Accomplishment Excellence Magnificence Serenity
Accuracy Faith Mastery Service
Altruism Family Nurture Sincerity
Authenticity Feeling Orderliness Spirit
Beauty Forgiveness Originality Spirituality
Bravery Freedom Patience Strength
Candor Grace Peacefulness Superiority
Clarity Guidance Perfection Tenderness
Commitment Harmony Personal growth Thoughtfulness
Compassion Health Persuasion Trust
Completion Honesty Pleasure Truth
Conformity Honor Power Understanding
Contentment Imagination Prosperity Unity
Control Influence Quest Vision
Courage Information Realization Wholeness
Creativity Inspiration Recognition Will
Dedication Integration Refinement
Devotion Integrity Relationship
Discernment Intimacy Religious
Discovery Invention Responsibility
Elegance Justice Reverence
Empowerment Learning Satisfaction
Encouragement Love Security

Other values you consider important in your life:

…………………………………………………........................
…………………………………………………........................
…………………………………………………........................
…………………………………………………........................
…………………………………………………........................

Now select your five top values and define what each one means to you , by
reflecting as to when you have used or stuck to that value in difficult or trying
time or at cross-roads in your life journey. Write down the reasons for your
choosing this value:

1. My most important value is …………………………, because

………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
2. My next important value is ……………………….., because
………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………………....
3. My next important value is ……………………….., because
………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….................
…………
4. My next important value is ……………………….., because
………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………............
……
5. My next important value is ……………………….., because
………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………................
………

Discuss each value with your Coach in the next session. Before that, please go
through this list couple of times and reflect deeply on your life journey so far and
add, change or modify the reasons you have written or thoughts about against
each value or add one or two values where you may be having confusion. You
may like to discuss this value list with your close friends (whom you have long
relationship) and ask their opinions or views.

References
Blanchard, K. (2005). The servant leader as coach. In H. Morgan, P. Harkins, & M. Goldsmith (eds), The art
and practice of leadership coaching. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Cogner, J. (2005). Coaching leaders. In H. Morgan, P. Harkins, & M. Goldsmith (eds), The art and practice of
leadership coaching. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Kouzes, J. (2005). Coaching for credibility. In H. Morgan, P. Harkins, & M. Goldsmith (eds), The art and practice
of leadership coaching, pp. 80–82. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Mukherjee, S. (2011). Harnessing executive’s values in coaching. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching,
XII, pp. 86–94.
Siegal, K. (2005). Coaching leaders/behavioural coaching. In H. Morgan, P. Harkins, & M. Goldsmith (eds),
The art and practice of leadership coaching. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
 CHAPTER 6
Coaching for Talent Management
What Is Talent Management?

T he Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) defines talent

“as of those individuals, who can make a difference to organizational
performance either through their immediate contribution or, in the longer term,
by demonstrating the highest levels of potential.” CIPD defines talent
management as, “… the systematic attraction, identification, development,
engagement, retention and deployment of those individuals who are of particular
value to an organization, either in view of their ‘high potential’ for the future or
because they are fulfilling business/operation-critical roles.” According to
American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), “Talent management is
a holistic approach to optimizing human capital, which enables an organization to
derive short and long-term results by building culture, engagement, capability and
capacity through integrated talent acquisition, development and deployment
processes that are aligned to business goals.” There are four aspects of talent
management. Hence, these are identifying, attracting, developing, and retaining
talent.

Challenges in Talent Management Programs

Organizations are being forced by circumstances to have effective talent
management programs to keep their talented employees within the organization
and develop them for future leadership role. Attracting and retaining talent are
immensely challenging issues for human resource department, since top talent is
always in short supply. Conaty and Charan (2010) quote,
Talent will be the big differentiator between companies that succeed and those that don’t. Those
companies that win will be led by people who can adapt their organizations to change, make the right
strategic bets, take calculated risks, conceive and execute new value-creating opportunities, and build and
rebuild competitive advantage.
 Human resource function of every organization faces the problem of availability
of a limited number of talented employees within organizations who could be
groomed for leadership roles. Other challenges for human resource department
are that organizations spend a lot of time and money in recruiting talents at the
entry level of management. These new recruits undergo a structured and
comprehensive development program for twelve to eighteen months (nowadays it
is a few months to maximum one year). After these employees get inducted
within an organization at different functions or roles after the induction program,
they get lost in the crowd. There is actually no system to keep track on exploiting
their potential in continual basis and keeping them engaged and motivated.
Even if organizations could retain some of their emerging talents for a longer
period of time, there is no effective compensation management system to
differentiate the reward structure for these groups of employees from others. Some
of these talented employees are well aware of their privileged positions in the
organization and they would like to take maximum benefits, financial and
otherwise, from the organization. Hence, organizations are continuously
reengineering their human resource policy so that the talent management
program is kept in pace with that of the other organizations, so that retention of
talent is possible.
It was observed during the last two decades that human resource function was
more focused on attracting individuals with high potential in the organizations. In
the area of attracting talent, organization focuses on creating an employer brand so
that the potential employee would like to join the organization. Organizations are
also putting their best efforts in selecting the right talent for the organization.
Traditional recruitment processes and practices have undergone substantial
changes. Organizations have, of late, started using psychometric tools in the
selection process. Some organizations are also using competency-based selection,
wherein assessment centers are being conducted to select candidates based on
competency requirements of the organization.
But now, the focus of the organizations is shifted more toward developing,
managing, and retaining talent as an important part of human resource
management strategy in alignment with the overall business strategy.
Organizations are of people; people make the difference in creating the values in
the organization through business processes and systems. Rightly so, talent
management has become one of the most important buzzwords in corporate
human resource function.
Talent Management Process
Let us now briefly discuss the talent management process in an organization. It
consists of the following broad steps:
Critical competencies analysis: Each organization requires a set of
competencies to meet its business objectives. Hence each organization identifies
key organizational competencies, which all its managerial resources must have, and
a set of functional or role competencies, which are essential for the role holders to
possess to perform their responsibilities. The first step in talent management
process is to take stock of competencies. In this step, organization undertakes the
following broad activities:

Identify critical roles in the organization for the next five to ten years based
on the strategic plan of the organization.
Identify competencies required for the critical roles.
Identify competency gaps, which are in urgent need and which are required
in medium to long term.

Talent identification: After identifying critical competencies, it is important to

identify how many employees are available within the organization to take up the
future roles and responsibilities. To do that, large organizations have structured
talent management schemes. In this scheme, organizations prepare a talent list
once in a year or once in two years, based on the specific criteria of selection.
Generally the selection criteria include qualification, experience, age, potential to
grow, and performance during the last two to three years. Generally,
departmental/functional leaders, besides other sectional managers, are involved in
identification of emerging talents in their functional areas.
The role of functional leaders is to identify potential leaders from the existing
manpower resources they have. It is not only their technical competencies and
performance track records but their values, their workplace behavior, their ability
to influence others, early leadership signs, extraordinary talent displayed, etc. These
are some of the important areas the functional leaders look in preparation of the
potential talent list. Some organizations prefer conducting interviews of each
member of the potential talent list to ensure that the identified employees meet
the criteria of talent selection. Each department or function generally identifies
10–15 percent of the total strength of the department, as potential talent. Finally,
the human resource department in consultation with functional heads finalize the
talent list for the organization.
Some organizations prefer that each employee undergoes structured assessment
process before preparing a potential talent list for the organization. For that,
assessment centre approach is deployed to assess the competencies of the
executives against the organizational or role competencies. Based on the
assessment center data, organization finalizes the talent list for the organization.
Some organizations conduct 360-degree multi-rater assessment technique to
evaluate the competency level of existing employees.
One challenge human resource department faces is whether to announce the
talent list in public or keep it confidential. If the talent list is not announced or
declared by the organization, then how the identified employee will know that
they are in the talent list of the organization and the organization is going to put
additional efforts in their development. Talent development cannot be done in
secret within any organization. On the other hand, the high-performing
employees, who are not in the potential talent list, may get de-motivated and may
like to leave the organization. Hence, proper articulation and company-wide
communication of talent management scheme, i.e., the process of identification of
talent as well as the growth prospect of the employees who are not in the talent
list are undertaken by the human resource department.
Talent review: Talent review is a yearly exercise for most of the organizations,
wherein the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) takes stock of the talent required vis-
à-vis that available in the organization. Besides the CEO, all functional heads and
Head HR are generally the members of talent review meeting. The agenda of
talent review meeting are:

To review business priorities with specific reference to key competencies

required
To review present and proposed organizational structures
To anticipate vacancy at leadership levels due to expected separations for the
coming one year
To review talent on readiness to take up positions in short and medium time
frame
To review the development plan of each executive/employee in the talent list
To decide on what actions to be taken where no internal talent is available
 Talent attraction: In some situations, the organization may not have people
with the required competencies or it may not be possible to develop the
competencies internally. In such cases, the organization undertakes competency-
based recruitment system to induct talent from outside. However, attracting talent
is a very difficult process for any organization broadly for two reasons. First, the
availability of talent in the marketplace is limited, for which the organization puts
efforts in building the best employer brand in the marketplace and creates
conducive employment conditions in the organization so that new employees get
integrated with the organizational culture and systems. Second, when talent is
inducted from outside, new employees bring with them their value sets and
cultural ethos, which sometimes may not be aligned with the existing
organizational culture and ethos. Hence, inducting new employees (including
experienced professional) and integrating them with the organizational processes
and systems is an important task for the human resource department. After
recruiting talent from outside, the human resource department also identifies the
developmental needs of these employees and how to integrate these employees
with the existing talent development program of the organization.
Talent development: Development of talent is a continuous process. Talent
review meeting finalizes the developmental plan for each employee in the talent
list. The developmental plan may include on-the-job training, training for new
skills, sponsoring for development programs conducting internally or externally,
self-learning, working with a mentor for acquiring hard skill, working with a
coach for enhancement of soft skill, or behavior change or improvement of
performance, job rotation, job enhancement, involvement in special taskforce or
assignment, deputation to other function or department for short period, etc. The
following are major talent developmental strategies:
1. Training program
Training programs are the most common method used by organizations in talent
development for enhancement of skills, abilities, and knowledge. Normally,
employers sponsor employees to attend external or internal training programs.
These programs provide the employees an opportunity for reflection during
group problem-solving sessions and learning from others. The training programs
also provide them with opportunities to hear how people from other professions,
departments, or organizations approach certain situations. Such experiences and
the training itself help employees to face and deal with real organizational
problems.
2. Reading and sharing
Another strategy for the development of talent is encouraging employees to read
books related to the particular subject or self-help books or watching
management development videos or related movie clips from YouTube
([Link]). Employees may be asked to prepare a summary of the book
or video, key learning points, and the ideas that can be implemented at the
personal level or at workplace. This summary can be shared with peers by making
presentations in the organization. The concept of study circle can also be
implemented by organizations, wherein the employees are encouraged to share
their learning. They are encouraged to present the summary of books read or to
organize discussions. These study circles are informal groups of 20–30 employees,
which voluntarily meet every week or fortnight for one to two hours.
3. Mentoring under an expert
Traditionally, training programs are very generic and cover the needs of wide-
ranging participants, whereas mentoring programs allow a flexible, adaptive, and
individual-centric skill development environment. Mentoring is a one-to-one
activity, focusing purely on acquiring new skills or getting new work-related
knowledge by facilitative support of the mentor. If a particular skill needs to be
developed, then the executive is assigned a mentor, who is a known expert in that
skill. The executive is advised to observe his mentor’s actions or talk to him for
advice and/or meet him at regular intervals to discuss his/her developmental
needs and draw a plan of action. The mentor facilitates the employee to
implement his/her developmental action plans to improve skill under his
mentorship.
4. Job rotation or membership in cross-functional team
Job rotation is a very potent approach for developing specific competencies within
employees through hands-on experience. In a very rare and genuine circumstance,
when someone cannot be spared from an existing assignment for job rotation,
nominating the executive for a project team or cross-functional team (CFT) could
be considered. Essentially, CFTs provide the employee a multi-disciplinary
perspective of problems that overlap in terms of department boundaries.
Participating in a CFT and/or working on a special project team could be a useful
option to get hands-on exposure to new fields.
5. Job enrichment/job enlargement
Existing jobs may hold tremendous potential for development, depending on their
challenges. This may be done by adding challenging activities to the current job
in order to promote development of a particular skill. Job enlargement, which is
providing additional responsibility to what is currently handled, could be an
option with the aim of development of the individual.
6. Coaching
Coaching is a one-to-one process in which the coach encourages the
commitment of the employee to enhance performance and promote a climate of
motivation. The coach–buddy relationship is one of mutual trust where the coach
helps the employee discover himself. The focus is on helping the employee
prepare an action plan for improvement of a few chosen crucial behaviors or skills
or to tackle performance issues. Coaching is advisable when the executive meets
the threshold levels of knowledge and skills but needs strengthening on one or
two competencies or of some behaviors that may be most important for his
growth.

Coaching Process for Talent Development

Briefly the coaching for talent development follows the following processes,
which are customized based on the specific organizational requirements:

1. Normally, organizations will have an individual talent development plan for

identified talents. Not all of them need coaching intervention. Hence, the
first step is to identify the employees need coaching and what are the
expectations from the coaching intervention. Sometimes, individual
employees may need mentoring for acquiring specific job-related skills, but
coaching has been recommended instead of mentoring.
2. The human resource department then identifies a pool of external coaches
for talent development. Generally, most of the employees in the talent list are
at the middle level of management or front line managers having leadership
potential. Hence, the external coaches should be able to address both the
transactional and transformational agenda of the employees. Many times, the
organization hires C-level coaches for talent management program at very
high cost, which may not be appropriate for these levels of executives. Some
 organizations prefer to have internal coaches, generally from the human
resource department, to optimize cost but these internal coaches are not
appropriately trained on coaching skills and have limited diversified
organizational experiences. Hence, selection of coaches is an important step
in talent management programs.
3. Each coach brings with them specific expertise, domain knowledge,
experience, and coaching approach. Hence, it is advisable that the employee
and coach matching is done based on the developmental needs of the
executive. For example, one employee may need coaching on marketing
planning area, the other employee may require coaching in improving his
interpersonal skills, some employees may need coaching on commercial
acumen or customer handling skill, and so on. Hence, selection of the coach
will depend on whether the coach has familiarity or some experience in
dealing with such issues.
4. Coaching for talent development is focused on specific developmental needs
identified by the management. Hence, the coach will focus on only one or
two developmental needs that require coaching intervention. It is therefore
different than executive coaching, where assessment is done by the coach to
identify the coaching agenda. The role of the coach is first to understand
from the management on what are the expectations on the deliverable of the
coaching, timeline, monitoring mechanism, evaluation process, and role of
management. The management also shares with the coach the details of the
employee, which include his strengths, areas of development, performance
records, experiences, etc.
5. The coach then meets with the employees to understand from them what
are their work challenges, their background, their journey so far, who are
their peers, customers (internal and external), suppliers as well as their career
aspiration.
6. After developing an initial rapport with the executive, the coach helps the
executive to develop developmental goals for the identified areas of
development and facilitates the process of goal setting and action planning.
For action planning, the GROW model of performance coaching can be
effectively used with the executive/employee, so that the executive/employee
can develop an action plan in a systematic manner. The coach then helps the
executives/employees to achieve their goals following the process of
executive coaching as mentioned in the previous chapter.
 Talent retention: Finally, retention of talent is the most critical component in
talent management program of any organization. Organization spends millions of
dollars in development of talent pool of the organization, but if such
executives/employees are not retained with the organization, then the total
investment goes as a waste. Organizations hence implement a structured
development process for the potential talents as well as reward them differently
from the rest of the executives/employees, based on the unique contribution
made by these executives/employees and specific skill-sets they possess. This
ultimately helps the organization for long-term benefits, by retaining these
executives/employees.

Chapter Summary
In the twenty-first century, organizations are facing greater complexities and
challenges in the area of talent management. The conventional and well-
established skill-building or capability-building techniques used in talent
management are not sufficient. After inducting talent in the organization, there
exists different ways of grooming fresh talent or new incumbents into
organizations. There are mainly four areas of talent management: attracting talent,
developing talent, managing talent, and finally retaining talent. Organizations first
identify critical competencies required among its key human resources to meet
the strategic objectives of the organization as well as to maintain its competitive
advantages. Based on the skills and competencies required in the short and
medium terms, organization conducts annual talent review process to identify
what talents are available within their organization or could be developed by the
organization and what are the resources to be recruited. Development of talent is
a continuous process. Organization first develops an individual talent
developmental plan for identified talents, so that the available talents are ready to
meet the organizational requirements in short to medium terms. Since each
talented executive/employee has a specific developmental need, coaching has
become one of the powerful and effective tools in the development of talents
within the organization. Coaches work with individual executive/employee to
ensure that each talent works with his/her own developmental plan, as decided by
the organization. The coach assists the executive/employee to define
developmental goals, decide the strategies to meet the developmental goals, and
finally help them frame action plans to achieve the goals. The coach facilitates the
executives/employees to achieve their development goals by keeping them
focused on the developmental agenda and arranges necessary organization
resources and supports so that the talent management program objectives are
achieved.

Reference
Conaty, B. & Charan, R. (2010). The talent masters: Why smart leaders put people before numbers. London:
Random House Business Books.
 CHAPTER 7
Internal Coaching
Developing Internal Coaching Capabilities

What Does Internal Coaching Mean?

E xecutive coaching is increasingly used as a strategy for developing human

capital within the organization. According to the Hay Group study, 25–40
percent of Fortune 500 companies used executive coaches for increasing
performance, employee satisfaction, and business results. However, in difficult
economic climates, the organizations face budgetary constraints to implement
large-scale executive coaching interventions to address urgent needs of developing
a large number of executives to face organizational challenges. The emerging
trend in executive coaching is, therefore, on developing a pool of coaches within
the organization from the existing resources, either from human resource function
or from the other functional areas and from those working at leadership positions,
who can take additional responsibility of coaching one or more executives in the
same organization. This is known as Internal Coaching in coaching domain.
Frisch (2001) offers the following definition of internal coaching:
Internal Coaching is a one-on-one departmental intervention supported by the organization and
provided by a colleague of those coached who is trusted to shape and deliver a program yielding
individual professional growth.

Why Internal Coaching?

In many organizations the responsibility of employee development shifted from
the human resource department to line managers over a period of time. The role
of the human resource department is now shifted from taking ownership of
employee development to facilitating the process. The reason behind such a shift
is that it is not possible for the human resource department alone to undertake
development agenda of a large number of executives/employees within the
organization. Therefore, organizations have started using the services of line
managers, who have better executive/employee development skills and are
interested in developing their subordinates, in employee development and skill-
building efforts.
Internal coaching is deployed within the organizations for various purposes. The
major purpose for organizations is to impart coaching for a large number of
executives/employees in a shorter period of time. Such organizations believe that
when senior managers and leaders are trained for coaching skills and they impart
coaching to other executives/employees (mostly junior to them), a coaching
culture slowly develops within the organization.
The quality of leadership is widely accepted as critical in the success of a
business enterprise. Organizations rise and fall on how effectively they use their
human resources. Many organizations use internal coaching intervention to
develop leadership pipeline within the organization. These organizations train
managers and leaders, who would be imparting internal coaching, to develop their
coaching skills and competencies, so that they can provide internal coaching to
other employees with confidence. For example, Lockheed Martin, a Fortune 100
company, developed an extensive internal coach certification program so that the
certified coaches could optimally support executives in high-potential executive
development program. When Lockheed Martin turned to the question of how to
best grow and strengthen its leaders within its leadership models and
organizational commitments, the important strategic direction for the
organization was to establish an internal coach certification program. Oil and
National Gas Corporation, a navaratna public sector undertaking in oil and gas
exploration business in India, introduced an internal coaching certification
program for senior managers to develop internal coaching capabilities so that the
large number of potential leaders and high-performing managers can be coached
for preparing them to take leadership positions in medium- to long-term time
horizon.
In internal coaching, when the coach is a leader, coaching other
executive/employees in the organization has a dual advantage. Here, not only the
person being coached benefits from the relationship but also the leader, who is
coaching, gets several direct and indirect benefits from the coaching experience.
Moreover, the development of internal coaching capabilities in sustainable ways
helps the organization to address the cost pressure.

Internal Coaching for Coaching Culture Building

Organizations are facing two major challenges in people front. It is becoming
difficult to induct right talent at the leadership level. On the other hand, retention
of talent for longer term within the organization, mostly at the middle level, is
another challenge. It is not very uncommon to find that high-performing
managers in an organization have made rapid progress in their early career due to
their strong technical competencies or financial acumen, but hit the corporate
ceiling due to the lack of right skill sets, so essential once they go up the
corporate ladder. It is a standard trend in the industry to promote people who
have excellent technical expertise. These new managers suddenly find themselves
in a position where they have to manage subordinates, “believe in them,”
“encourage them,” “share with them,” and “trust them.” They are assigned the
added responsibility of developing their subordinates, besides looking after
productivity, morale, and job satisfaction, with no guidance on how to coach
them. They are expected to contribute in developing a “Learning Culture” in the
organization. These new managers continue to mentor subordinates on their
technical skills rather than leading, encouraging, and appreciating them. The result
is dissatisfied and de-motivated subordinates who quit at the first available
opportunity.
The skills required at higher levels of management range from the ability to
handle interpersonal relationships, the ability to manage a team, how to delegate,
or manage change. When a technical manager undergoes a transition to a
significantly more senior role, where the role requires different competencies, they
need to learn new ways of working and add new skills with regard to the ability
to handle interpersonal relationships, ability to manage team, strategic planning,
change management, etc. Coaching helps these managers acquire new skills and
competencies, so that they can effectively manage their team members and allow
the potential leaders to grow under them. It is important for the mangers at a
higher level of management to move from “command and control” style of
managing to “supporting and facilitating” role. Moreover, the following values and
behaviors need to be displayed by managers, who reached to senior management
positions:

1. Showing respect for the person vs. “I’m the boss”

2. Asking and inquiring vs. “Telling and directing”
3. Exploring at a deeper level vs. Being judgmental with curiosity
4. Displaying personal integrity vs. Do as I say, not as I do
5. Giving and receiving feedback vs. Being pretentious
 6. 4. ncouraging growth and vs. Penalizing for failures learning
7. Partnering and collaborating vs. “I’m the expert”
8. Solution-focused vs. Problem-focused
9. Empowering and guiding vs. Managing and controlling
10. Giving constructive feedback vs. Criticizing and invalidating

However, when a large number of managers and leaders in organizations display

the opposite behaviors, a culture of mediocrity within the organization is created
along with low motivation levels amongst a large percentage of
executives/employees. This is partly because of the perceived time constraints of
the managers and the pressure of delivering bottom-line results. The perceived
role of a solution provider by many of these managers contributes to why they
prefer to just tell and direct rather than ask and inquire. To promote a coaching
culture within organizations, the managers need to use more of an inquiry and
questioning approach to help their subordinates learn to think for themselves
rather than a telling and directing approach. One of the main functions of a
manager is to influence their subordinates for the achievement of work objectives.
These managers, in influencing roles, not only solve problems and help their
subordinates, but also have an impact on others’ ability to solve future problems.
They are also responsible for the growth of their subordinates, instead of making
them dependent on them.
It is, therefore, strongly recommended that organizations should start realizing
that investing resources in developing internal coaching is far more beneficial for
the organization than any other development initiatives, since there is a long-term
benefit of the enhanced capability of their managers, which in turn helps
organizations in building skills on a continual basis rather than one of activity.

External Executive Coaching vis-à-vis Internal Executive

Coaching
Generally, organizations prefer to hire external coaches to drive efforts toward
building a coaching culture. Hiring external coaches for a large number of
executives/employees and deploying them in large numbers for longer period is
not an easy task. Besides cost factors, building the coaching culture within the
organization requires the involvement of a high percentage of
executives/employees in the change effort. Organization needs to weigh the
benefits and costs of hiring external coaches against developing their own cadre of
internal coaches or using some combination of internal and external resources.
One of the obvious benefits of internal coaching is that it is far less expensive than
hiring external coaches. The second advantage of internal coaching is the
coaching initiative is not necessarily restricted to a few executives at senior levels
but a large number of executives in the middle-management level get involved in
the coaching intervention. Internal coaches, generally, have the advantage of
understanding the organization’s business issues and internal dynamics. The
internal coaches are aware of the executive’s context and they speak the language
of the organization. Since internal coaches are part of the organization, they are
easily accessible to the executives and they are available whenever the need arises.
Internal coaches, sometimes, go out of the way to organize resources or get
support from their colleagues, if their executives have a specific need that is not
available with the coach. Internal coaches are also much aware of what are
possible and not possible, what resources are available, or could be organized
within the organization. Hence, they can develop pragmatic but practical
developmental plans as compared to external coaches. If the internal coaches are
successful managers in leadership positions, then the coaches may find it easier to
gain respect of the executives and build rapport, as compared to external coaches.
In internal coaching, when the coach is a manager, senior manager, or leader,
coaching other executives/employees in the organization has a dual advantage.
Here, not only the person being coached but also the internal coach who is
coaching benefits from the relationship. Teaching managers to coach is not only
cost-effective for sustainable long-term organizational benefits, but there are great
benefits to internal coaches in terms of their personal and professional gains.
In general, the internal coaches have less coaching and cross-organizational
experience compared to the external coaches. Internal coaches usually have less
experience in coaching, since they have a fewer opportunities to hone their
coaching skills. Owing to their lack of cross-organization exposure, they may have
limited understanding on the whole gamut of executive coaching skills,
experiences, and opportunities. The issue of confidentiality is a concern with
internal coaching as compared to external coaching, since the internal coaches are
not generally very senior managers and they have much more interaction with
other members of the organization than that of external coaches. The credibility
of external coaches is generally higher than that of internal coaches in the
executives’ mind; hence, trust and confidentiality are perceived more by the
executives with the external coaches. Hence, the internal coaches take additional
care in maintaining confidentiality of their executives to ensure their own
credibility as a coach. Finally, internal coaches have other responsibilities within
the organization, which may sometimes affect the coaching outcomes, whereas
the external coaches have only one responsibility, i.e., coaching in the
organization.
Some organizations prefer hiring external executive coaches for executives at
very senior levels of the organization and internal coaching is limited to middle
levels of the management only. However, whether to have external coaches or
internal coaches or both depends on the following criteria:

1. Level of executives/employees under coaching intervention

2. Cost of coaching
3. Duration of coaching
4. Nature of interventions, i.e., primarily on transactional or transformational
issues for coaching
5. Availability of right coaches, with required skills and related experience in
coaching in similar context
6. In-depth understanding of business and the industry

Implementation of Internal Coaching Program

Within an organizational context, coaching is often discussed in the same vein as
mentoring, because coaching and mentoring share common elements (Smith et
al., 2009). Hence, before implementing an internal coaching program, it is
important to understand “what” of internal coaching, i.e., what are the goals of
the interventions, what it is, and what it is not. Internal coaching program only
becomes effective if it is clearly defined, the process is standardized, and it is
articulated well throughout the organization.
Cross and Lynch (1988) put forward “The Smart Performance Pyramid” model,
which integrates performance through hierarchy of the organization. Leedham
(2005) adopted this model for coaching context, as the Coaching Benefits
Pyramid Model. The model is based on the principle that in order to be fully
effective, a coaching relationship (which includes internal coaching) must be built
on four key factors:

1. The skills of the coach (listening, questioning, giving clear feedback,

establishing rapport, and providing support)
 2. The personal attributes of the coach (knowledge, experience, qualifications,
ability to inspire, and belief in the executive’s potential)
3. The coaching process (clearly structured and disciplined, providing mental
challenge, and growth opportunities for the executive)
4. The coaching environment (a safe, supportive place to discuss confidential
and sensitive issues, providing time and space for the executive to think and
reflect)

Skills of the coach: To develop the necessary coaching skills within the potential
internal coach managers, it is important the coaching skill program is designed
carefully so that the skills components of the program are covered in-depth. It is
important here to note that “Coaching for Manager” is not sufficient enough for
development of internal coaches. Generic program on “Coaching for Manager” is
primarily focused on creating awareness of the role of coaching in managing and
leading executive/employee, so that the manager may use coaching besides
mentoring, leading, and managing their subordinates. However, “Internal
Coaching Skill” training is designed to impart basic coaching skills to potential
internal coaches, so that they can effectively deploy the coaching skills while
imparting coaching to their executives.
The internal coach skill training program is generally designed and conducted
by a senior executive coach, generally external coach, so that the participants of
the program get familiarized with the challenges the coaches face during
coaching, the issues to be confronted while imparting coaching, as well as how to
handle difficult coaching situations. Coaching is a skill-based intervention. Hence
short two- or three-day coaching skill training is not sufficient for imparting
necessary skills to the internal coaches. Learning to coach is like learning to drive.
After initial training, these coaches are supported with additional inputs and
additional skills to refine their existing skills as they practice their skills in real-
time coaching. Input on communication skills, interpersonal skills, feedback skills,
and understanding executive/employee’s transactional and managerial styles is also
included in the internal coach skill training program.
The coach: Some organizations prefer to develop internal coaches from the
existing human resource professionals, which include L&D, OD professional,
because of their inherent strengths of in-depth understanding of the
organizational priorities in terms of developmental agenda of the organization,
and they are trained on specialized skills of people management. However, the
coaching skills are quite different from people management skills, interpersonal
skills, or leadership training. Majority of human resource professionals are from
operational HR role or working in L&D function as trainers on a specialized
domain or doing administrative functions. It is important to identify successful
managers, including human resource managers, who have high credibility within
the organization for their performance, their leadership capability, their level of
commitment in developing their second line, and their interest in development of
their team members. Though the qualification, training, and professional
background of the managers of the potential internal coach are not important, it is
important that they are working at senior managerial levels in the organization.
Therefore, the selection of potential coaches is to be based on their personal
attributes, their people management skills, their past achievements, their credibility
within the organization as well as their willingness to get involved in the process.
However, when human resource professionals are trained as internal coach, the
skills of HR professionals are enhanced, which results in more effective role of
these professionals in the development process of the organization. Hence,
selection of managers as internal coaches is a very important component for
effective coaching intervention.
Frisch (2001) suggests twelve competencies that an effective internal coach
should

Build trusting relationship

Understand and execute the specified coaching model
Possess psychological curiosity
Articulate observations in simple and useful terminology
Understand how executives/employees develop and change over times
Have an innovative and creative approach to their work
Have expertise in management issues
Have good listening skills
Balance commitment both to executives/employees and to the organization
Be open to continuous learning opportunities
Seek and accept help when issues arise that are beyond their expertise
Gain satisfaction from helping executives/employees and seeing the
organization develop
 The coaching process: Each organization has its own objectives to initiate internal
coaching interventions. It could be for developing leadership pipeline or
improving and imparting soft skills for selected executive/employees on continual
basis or supporting managers in transitions or on-boarding of new
executives/employees or using for the talent management process. Hence, the
organization identifies a specific coaching model that will be effective for them to
achieve the internal coaching objectives and goals. The coaching model helps the
organization define clearly the coaching process to be followed. The Delta
Coaching Model discussed in Chapter 2 of this book is one such example.
Another important part of the coaching process is matching of executives with
the coaches. It is a normal practice in internal coaching that the internal coaches
do not take up coaching of their subordinates, i.e., the coach should not be the
reporting officer, directly or indirectly, of the executives. In large organizations, it
is possible to match the coaches with the executives, who have not worked with
them directly, are not from the same functional domain, and the executives are at
least one step lower in the hierarchy than that of the internal coach.
The next step is deciding the duration of each coaching session, the total
number of coaching sessions, how the coaching agenda is to be fixed, what data,
viz., performance data, engagement data, etc., will be made available to internal
coaches, how the effectiveness of coaching will be monitored, etc. Compared to
external executive coaching, internal coaches generally have one or two
executives and the duration of coaching is around six months, whereas the
external coaches are generally engaged for nine months to twenty-four months.
The coaching environment: Before implementing internal coaching in the
organization, the following factors are to be considered in creating the right
coaching environment:

The perceptions and expectations of all stakeholders in the organization,

which include the business leaders, human resources, functional heads, and
executives/employees in general, for the interventions are to be understood
and defined.
Sometimes there is skepticism or negative story with coaching or coaching
initiatives undertaken earlier. If yes, appropriate strategy is to be framed to
address the issues upfront before starting the process.
How continuous feedbacks from all the stakeholders are to be collected to
increase the effectiveness of the program.
 The internal coaches are expected to focus on the changing mindset of
managing, directing to one of helping and facilitating their executive for self-
learning and self-awareness. One of the critical parameters of success of any
internal coaching is the trust level between the internal coach and the
executive/employee. Trust is a delicate flower, it can flourish only when the coach
can create the right environment by displaying a high level of integrity, honesty,
openness, fairness, and respect. The coach, therefore, ensures that the coaching is
conducted in an environment where the executive feels comfortable to share and
discuss with the coach on their challenges and get motivated to a learning process.
It is advisable that the coaching is conducted not in the office of the internal
coach during normal working hours, but to identify a relaxing and comfortable
place where the coach and the executive can discuss without any distractions.

Case Example
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation limited is the largest oil and gas exploration public sector company in
India, ranked 357 in Fortune 500 companies. ONGC had embarked upon an internal coaching initiative
during 2008–2010. The objectives of the coaching initiative as identified by ONGC were as follows:

To develop an internal coaching program, which will be custom designed by an independent

agency (external executive coaching firm) to meet ONGC’s needs and goals, keeping in view
the organizational culture, the specific nature of its business, and diverse working conditions.
To train the internal team members (Executive Director, Senior General Managers and
General Managers) as internal coach to ensure long-term continuity in coaching initiative and
development of in-house competency.

The role of internal coaches was defined by the organization in consultation with the external executive
coaching firm as follows:
1. ONGC Internal Coaches will give the middle-managers (senior managers and deputy general
managers) a clear understanding of their leadership behavior, style and impact; focuses on their core
strengths, limitations, and developmental needs.
2. These coaches will help in identifying challenges in the executives “current and emerging roles and
explores possible gaps between their skills and those challenges.”
3. They will facilitate the executives’ to focus on their developments over the next few months to
increase their effectiveness.
4. They will handhold the executives in developing self-development plans, assist them in
implementation of development plans, and translating them into new behavior at the workplace.
To develop internal coach, ONGC identified 45 leaders for this initiative. The author of this book was
the project leader of this initiative on behalf of the external coaching firm. The brief process followed is
given below:

All identified leaders underwent three-day Internal Coaching Development Workshop.

During the three-day workshops, the workshop leader explained the concept of coaching to
 the participants, focusing on the history of coaching, difference between Coaching,
Consulting, Mentoring, Counseling, and Therapy, role of leaders as internal coach, etc. The
participants were explained the coaching process through simulated coaching practice
sessions and self-awareness through assessments. The participants also underwent extensive
sessions on the skills of power listening, asking powerful questions and providing feedback
during coaching sessions. Program design is given in Annexure 7.1.
The coaches were given a Coach Diary and three Coachee Diaries each on the final day of the
Coaching Skill Workshop to record the details of the coaching sessions and to guide them
during their sessions.
Coaching manual for the Coaches and Coachees was prepared explaining the coaching model,
process, what are expected from them as coach/executive, and possible challenges of the
process. These manuals were handed over to all participants at the end of the workshop.
The coaches were provided with coaching tools and instruments to use during the coaching
sessions to assist them in the coaching process. Some of the tools given to them were: The
Wheel of Life, Visioning Exercise, set of Powerful Questions, GROW model of Performance
Coaching, SPIRO-M Instrument, etc.
The coaches were briefed on the ONGC coaching process and the accreditation process. At
the end of the workshop, the coaches were asked to select 3 executives (coachees) each from
their locations of work. The coaches were advised not to select executives from their own
discipline and subordinates working under them. It was suggested that those who are
identified as good performers are to be considered as executives. The coaches, who were
unable to select executives on their own, were assigned coachees by the HR department. It has
been observed that the coaching process started very fast and the effectiveness of coaching was
very high, where the coaches selected the executives on their own after discussion with their
peers and reporting officers.
During the coaching journey, the coaches were in contact with Project Leader (external coach)
regularly to get guidance, share their experiences, clarify the process, and also get more
additional resources. Accordingly, the external coach handheld the trained internal coaches
during the coaching journey and provided some of them with articles and videos on coaching.
Their queries were resolved through phone calls and emails.
The coaches were given guidelines on how to embark on their coaching journey. Some of the
guidelines given to them include:

i. Before the First Session

1. Before the first session, go through the material provided in this diary.
2. Meet your executive and the executive’s manager.
3. Give the Coachee’s Diary to the executive.
4. Ask the executive to go through the material contained in his/her diary and fill up the forms as
mentioned. Ask him/her to send the completed Information forms back to you at least one day
before the first session.
5. Fix the date, time, and place for the first session. Always ensure the executive’s convenience before
setting a date. Ideally, the session should be fixed in the first half of the day, as both you and your
executive will be fresh at this time of the day.
6. Sessions should be face-to-face and of minimum 60 minutes each.
7. You should determine the date of session based on both yours and the executive’s convenience.

ii. During the First Session

1. Ensure that the coaching environment is private, comfortable, and undisturbed by external
interruptions.
2. Have your coaching diary handy, and allow a moment or two before the scheduled time to get
centered and review how you are going to run and manage the session.
3. Make every attempt to be available on time for every session. However, if you are getting delayed or
need to cancel any session, inform the executive well in advance and fix the date and time for the
next session.
4. During the first session, go through the forms filled by the executive and discuss each point one by
one with him/her.
5. Discuss and try to understand your coachee’s challenges at his/her workplace in terms of his/her:

Performance
Dealing with peers
Interpersonal issues
Managing performance of subordinates
Meeting expectations of reporting manager, etc.

iii. The Second Session

1. Between the first and second sessions, it is a good idea to spend 15–20 minutes talking to the
executive’s manager to understand:

Areas the executive is good at

Areas of improvement
Performance issues affecting his/her performance.

2. Also conduct a personal SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) for
the executive in this session. This will help him/her to identify:

Strengths in current job competencies

Areas of competence/knowledge that are weak and need development
Opportunities for future career aspirations and
Identify any threats that may prevent achieving these

3. Sessions 1 and 2 are discovery sessions. By the end of the discovery sessions, the executive should
identify the following, with the coach’s help:

1–2 areas to work on for the next 3–4 months

Develop goals for the action areas, measure, and time plans to achieve them.

iv. Subsequent Sessions

 1. Once the areas of improvement and goals are identified, your prime task is to help the executive
develop new or improved capabilities/competencies. These could be the skills, knowledge, and
attitudes executives need, to reach their important career and life goals.
2. Spend time during subsequent sessions in reviewing the action points of the previous sessions.
3. Also spend the first few minutes of each session discussing major events that have taken place since
the last session, successes, and setbacks, if any.
4. Continue discussing on specific goals/action areas identified.
5. Conclude the session and review the action points for coaching.

Chapter Summary
Development of subordinates is emerging as a major role for managers in order to
transform the work environment as a learning environment, wherein the
employees are supported by their superiors in self-learning. In large organizations,
where attracting and retaining scarce talent at middle management level is
becoming difficult, there is emerging need to groom talent internally for
developing leadership pipeline within the organization. Executive coaching is one
of the approaches in developing competencies for emerging talent and managerial
resources in transition. Since executive coaching intervention is very costly, the
internal coaching in combination with executive coaching is now an emerging
trend in corporate coaching domain. In internal coaching, the coach is a fellow
employee of the same organization as the executive.
For development of internal coaching capability within organization, the
selection of managers to be trained as potential coach is an important parameter
for the success of the program. There is an advantage for human resource
professional to take up the internal coaching role, but other successful managers
having strong people developmental orientation and having high credibility
within the organizations are also to be included in the program. Since coaching is
a skill and quite different from mentoring or teaching, the coach training focuses
on skill building and reinforcement of additional skills as managers practice
coaching. Trust and confidentiality are important concerns in internal coaching;
hence, the coaching process and coaching environment are critical components in
the effective delivery of internal coaching within an organization.
In large organizations, when leaders are engaged in coaching their managers, a
coaching capability is slowly built into the organization through cascading effects.
The fact is, internal coaching is not only highly cost-effective, but the
organizations derive significant sustainable benefits when the internal coaching
process is deployed for the development of competencies in potential leaders.
However, internal coaching will not be deployed in all coaching opportunities,
especially considering organizational complexity, confidentiality, and other factors;
it is a robust offshoot of executive coaching world and becoming popular in
corporate coaching.

Annexure 7.1: Program Design of Internal Coach Development

Workshop
Duration: Three days
DAY 1
1st Half
What is coaching?
History of coaching
Difference between coaching, consulting, mentoring, counseling, and therapy
Coaching in organizations
Role of manager as an internal coach

2nd Half
Coaching process
Self-awareness through assessment of managerial styles (SPIRO-M)
The wheel of life
Coaching practice session on the wheel of life

DAY 2
1st Half
2nd Half
Coaching for performance
GROW model of performance coaching
Coaching practice session on GROW model.
The characteristics of powerful questions
Using questions
How to ask questions
Powerful questions
Coaching practice session on questions

DAY 3
1st Half
2nd Half
Effective listening, active listening, power listening
Role plays on listening
Practice session on effective listening
Effective feedback
Importance of feedback in coaching
How and when to give feedback
Difference between coaching feedback and performance feedback
Coaching skills practice sessions
Psychometric tools in coaching
Integration and review of coaching skills
 Internal coaching program, evaluation, accreditation
Feedback and closing

References
Cross, K.F. & Lynch, R.L. (1988). The SMART way to sustain and define success. National Productivity Review,
8 (1), pp. 23–33.
Frisch, M. (2001). The emerging role of the executive coach. Consulting Psychology Journal: Research and Practice,
53 (4), pp. 24–25.
Leedham, M. (2005). The coaching scorecard: A holistic approach to evaluating the benefits of business
coaching. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 3 (2), pp. 30–44.
Smith, M.L., Oosten, E.B.V., & Boyatzis, R.E. (2009). Coaching for desired change. Research in Organizational
Change and Development, 17, pp. 145–173.
 CHAPTER 8
Corporate Coaching Power Tools

C orporate coaches use various coaching tools during the coaching process,
whether it is performance coaching, behavioral coaching, executive
coaching, or internal coaching. Some of the coaching tools are briefly referred in
previous chapters. Effective use of coaching tool is an art that each coach masters
over a period of time. This chapter covers some of the basic coaching tools that
are commonly used by the coaches in any coaching engagement. The objective of
this chapter is to provide an overview of some of the important coaching tools, so
that these tools become a part of the coaching toolkit for corporate coaches. The
basic coaching tools discussed in this chapter are power listening, reframing
perspectives, powerful questioning, feedback, mirroring, and paraphrasing.

Listening
The best way to understand people is to listen to them. (Ralph Nichols)

Listening is an essential skill for managers but a very few in organizations have
mastered this skill. It is not uncommon in organization to notice that managers
are mostly used to talking and telling to their subordinates at workplace, rather
than listening and learning. This is because they have strong belief of command
and control style of managing, and their management style is directive. Listening is
so important in organizations that it has been called by some as a primary skill in
managing, leading, and problem-solving. By listening to subordinates in the
workplace, the manager is saying, “I am not going to take over your problem. I
believe you are capable of solving it.” When the manager succeeds in
communicating these messages through skillful listening, the employees are often
willing to examine the issues more openly. The manager through listening
conveys he cares about what the employee thinks and feels.
Most of us think that we listen, yet we do not always attend to the person
speaking to us. We are too busy doing other things, or thinking about things,
while someone is speaking to us. Sometimes, even we are composing reply in our
head, i.e., how we will reply to them, while the other person is speaking to us, not
hearing what actually is being said to us. Hearing and listening are not the same
thing.
These are some important facts regarding listening:

We listen at 125–250 words per minute, but think at 1,000–3,000 words per
minute.
That 85 percent of what we know, we have learned through listening.
We usually recall only 50 percent of what we have heard immediately after
listening to someone talk.
We allow five seconds to our discussion partner to answer to our question.

We may be born with the ability to listen, but listening effectively is a skill that
must be mastered. Whether you are a corporate coach or a manager coaching
your team member, it is much more important to develop skill of listening. The
essence of listening is being able to focus on what another person is saying
without being distracted. When someone speaks, they want to feel heard; this
need is ingrained in all of us. When we feel that we’re not being listened to, it
affects that most basic part of ourselves—our self-esteem.
Hearing is the first stage of listening. Hearing is the physiological process in
which our ears pick up sound waves, which are then transported to our brain.
Listening, on the other hand, is an active process that constructs meaning to it.
There are six stages of the listening process:

1. Hearing: It refers to the responses caused by sound waves stimulating the

sensory receptors of the ear.
2. Attention: Our brain screens stimuli and permits only a select few to come
into focus. These selective perceptions are known as attention.
3. Understanding: The listener analyzes the meaning of the stimuli to understand
the intended meaning and the context assumed by the sender.
4. Remembering: It means that an individual has not only received and
interpreted a message but has also added it to his memory.
5. Evaluating: It is a stage in which the listener weighs evidence, sorts out facts
from opinions, and determines the presence or absence of bias or prejudice
in a message.
6. Responding: In this stage, the listener completes the process through verbal
and/or nonverbal feedback.
 Listening is not simply passive hearing. Listening involves more than what the
executive client is speaking. Not only the coach hears the words the executive is
speaking but also the tone, the pace, the body posture, expression, and the feelings
being expressed. When a coach listens to his executive client, the coach also
notices the energy level of the executive, i.e., whether it is low, flat, fluctuating,
high, or sparking. The coach notices all that is coming to him in the form of
information. Then the coach chooses when and what to respond and how to
respond. The coach then notices the impact of his responses on the executive.
Listening is simply to take in the information from the executive and deal with it
and see how it lands on the executive.
Active listening is one of the communication techniques that is very useful for
managers in day-to-day work while dealing with their subordinates. Active
listening requires that the listener is to give feedback on what he hears from the
speaker, by way of restating or paraphrasing what he has heard in his own words,
to confirm what he has heard. The term active listening actually means the ability
to pick up, define, and respond accurately to the feeling expressed by the other
person.
In active listening, the manager (coach) tries to understand what his employee is
feeling and what the employee’s (executive client) message actually means. Then
the manager puts his understanding of the message into his own words and repeats
to the employee for verification. Hence active listening has two components:

1. Identification of feelings expressed

2. Feedback of content of message

Feelings emerge in the emotional tone that the speaker (employee/executive

client) expresses, such as anger, joy, frustration, fear, surprise, disillusion, etc.,
whereas contents refer to ideas, reasons, assumptions, descriptions, etc., i.e., the
substance of the speaker’s message. When a manager is using active listening
skillfully, the employee perceives that he is being understood. This perception frees
the executive/employee to explore his own feelings and to express his own ideas.
Let us look an example of active listening:

Executive Client (Employee): I just don’t know how I am going to complete all the pending work on
my desk before close of the month, especially since I am not sure how to deal with all these complex
issues, pending for so long for one reason or the other.
Coach (Manager): You are feeling frustrated and stuck with all the pending tasks as you do not know
how to do and you are worried that you may not able to deal with them before close of the month.
 In many conversations, the employee expresses troublesome feelings. In such
occasions, just verbalizing these feelings clears the air and the employee feels at
ease. In general, when a manager uses active listening, the executive/employee
feels encouraged to think for oneself to diagnose the underlying causes and
discover solutions by themselves.
Active listening is a powerful communication technique that prevents
deterioration of self-esteem of the executive/employee and acts as a diffuser in
emotional exchange. The active listening process can have threefold advantages:

1. It can increase the listener’s understanding of the other person.

2. It can help clarify the thoughts and feelings of the speaker.
3. It can reassure the speaker that someone is willing to attend to their points of
view and willing to help.

Here are some tips on what a manager (or coach) can do to listen to his
employees (or executive client):

1. Remain silent when your employee is speaking. It is extremely difficult to

receive information when there is noise or distraction. Active listening is
attending to and tuning in to what the employee is talking.
2. Give the employee your undivided attention and acknowledge the message.
Show your employee that you are listening. You may nod occasionally or
encourage your employee to continue speaking with verbal cues, like “yes,”
“ok,” etc. The manager needs to be centered in the present moment so that
he can pay attention to what is being said.
3. To test your understanding of what you heard, restate the message in your
own words. However, it is important to know exactly how and when to
paraphrase. It is important to paraphrase major points in the conversation.
Paraphrasing is a reflection of what has been said. The manager may do
paraphrasing by saying, “What I am hearing is …” More details on
paraphrasing are given in this chapter.
4. Check your perceptions whether you could capture the emotional
component in the conversation. Many a times, we miss the feelings expressed
by the employee, since we are too focused on the contents of the message.
The coach may check the perceptions of feelings by saying: “It sounds as if
you are really upset on what happened yesterday in the meeting.”
 5. Pause for a few seconds before replying to what the employee has just said.
So often we jump to react to what we have just heard not ensuring whether
the executive/employee is finished. There is an acronym that corporate
coaches sometimes use to remind themselves to wait. It stands for “Why Am
I Talking (WAIT)?” Sometimes, an extended pause may prompt the
employee to think more about the issue compose their thoughts and share
more details on the issue.
6. Don’t judge your employee immediately. We may think that we know best
what our employee should do, but the truth is it may not be true all the time.
Our judgments and opinion may impair our listening, and hence we may
pick up parts of conversation that are personally interesting and tune out
parts that we deem boring or repetitive, which ultimately may become a very
important piece of the conversation.

A corporate coach makes a conscious effort to hear not only the words what the
executive is saying but, more importantly, try to understand the complete message
being sent. The coach responds to the executive in a way that will encourage him
or her to continue speaking, so that the coach can get the information they need
in the coaching journey. The coach gives acknowledgment to the executive by
simply a nod of the head or a simple “uh huh.” While nodding or saying “uh
huh,” the coach communicates the message to the executive that he is interested
and trying to understand the message well. The coach may not necessarily agree
everything with the executive is saying, but simply indicating to the executive that
he is being listened to. Using body language and other signs of acknowledgment,
the coach normally tunes in to what the executive is saying and not to get
distracted by whatever else may be going on around.
A coach listens for what the executive is saying, what they are not saying, how
they are saying, what feelings or emotions are being expressed, what excites them,
what are their stories, and what keeps them going or blocking them. A coach
discovers in coaching conversation, through listening, how the executive is feeling,
what the executive is really trying to say, which emotions are genuine, and what is
really happening with the executive at that moment. A good coach is able to listen
to the executive to a deeper level as to what is being felt by the executive.
Sometimes, the coach is required to listen to what’s behind the words being said
by the executive. Words describe our reality, what we interpret our world as being
like, although it may not be immediately apparent. True listening can provide the
insight to the coach when help is needed to the executive to shift perspectives
that may be harming them. The central purpose of listening is to understand
someone’s point of view, how they think and feel, and how they move through
the world. The coach also listens for what would fulfill their dreams and hopes,
and for what may be getting on the way of reaching their dreams.
When the coach listens from the heart, not merely words the executive is saying,
the coach also gets sensation in his own body. The coach then listens to their own
body, takes notices of the sensation in their body to check what it is telling about
the executive. It is important for the coaches to share these messages, feelings, or
sensations with the executive to check what exactly the executive is telling and
feeling.
To ensure that the coach understood what the executive is saying, the coach may
ask interruptive questions like, “I need to understand what you are saying.” “Tell
me more….” or “Can you elaborate?” or “Is there anything else you want to say
about this?” The coach may also say, “Let me see if I have got it right. You said
that … Is that what you are saying?”
Whitworth et al. (2004) presented a model of three levels of listening. These
three levels of listening give the coach an enormous range and, ultimately, a
greater capacity for listening.

LEVEL 1: INTERNAL LISTENING

At level 1, the focus is on oneself and the own thoughts of the listener rather than
the speaker. As the speaker is talking, the coach interprets what he hears in terms
of what it means to him. The conversation is listened to and interpreted in terms
of what it means to the listener. Here the focus is on listening selectively on the
content of the messages, which are relevant to the listener.
Level 1 listening is all about ourselves and what’s going around us. Executives are
usually at level 1. It is their thoughts, their judgment, and their conclusions. Level
1 is normal everyday conversation, where it is natural for the listener to gather
information to form opinions and make decisions. While listening at this level, the
self-talk is very active.
There are many situations where level 1 listening is appropriate. You, as manager,
are attending presentation by a third-party supplier or attending review meeting
with other colleagues. All the attention of yours is on yourself. You are thinking
about what information is being shared in the meeting, what are the issues
relevant to you, how you will deal with data available with you, or how you are
going to respond if some questions are raised or what question you will ask or
may be what additional details need to be collected.
However, a coach will not be listening at this level; after all, a coaching session is
not about the coach; it is about the executive and their needs. However, there are
times when it may be appropriate, e.g., when the coach wants to decide a
convenient time for the next coaching session. In this instance, the coach may
need to take into account his own availability and make a judgment in order to
agree on a mutually convenient time. The self-talk might be saying, do not fit the
session in, if it is not possible for you to adjust it.

LEVEL 2: FOCUSED LISTENING

As a listener operating at level 2, the coach is focusing totally on the speaker,
listening to their words, tone of voice, and body language and is not distracted by
his/her own thoughts and feelings. Energy and information come from the
executive and they are reflected back. The coach is like a mirror: what comes
from the executive is returned back. Occasionally, we may see people engrossed in
a conversation, when the listener is leaning forward, fully attentive. All the
messages, verbal and nonverbal, being conveyed to the coach are being noticed.
The executive will feel understood and the coach’s own thoughts will not
influence the coaching session.
By listening at level 2, if you are a manager, you can get a real understanding of
where the employee is “coming from.” You not only hear the words but also
notice the tone, the pace, the feelings expressed. You hear their voice, their
expressions, their emotions, their energy, their excitement, or disappointment.
Active listening skill, discussed earlier in this chapter, will be most useful at level 2.
You notice not only what they are saying but also how they are saying.
At this level, corporate coaches are unattached to self, their agenda, their
thoughts, or their judgments. Corporate coach will be using this level of listening
in the coaching sessions, with all the focus on the executive and the mind being
concentrated on the words, tone, and body language of the executive. The coach’s
attention is what to say next, or what powerful question to pose to the executive,
and when.

LEVEL 3: GLOBAL LISTENING

Listening at level 3 involves when the listener is focusing on the speaker and
picking up more than what is being said. When coaching, the corporate coach
will be listening to everything available using intuition, picking up emotion, and
sensing signals from the executive’s body language. It involves “listening at 360
degrees” to everything available, i.e., outside stimuli, feelings, emotions, and
sensing signals. The coach trusts his senses, “goes with the flow,” and responds that
seems appropriate. The coach can gauge the energy of the executive and their
emotions as well as picking up what they are not saying. The coach will
understand what they are thinking and feeling, and trusting their own senses, he
can be extremely responsive to the needs of the executive, knowing what question
to ask next.
At level 3, intuition is very important. The coach will respond based on his/her
intuitions. Then the coach will notice how his/her responses land on the
executive. What is the impact of the responses on the executive? The key to
listening at level 3 is to take information as it comes, use owns intuitions, play
with it, and notice what emerges.
If you are a corporate trainer, you might have used level 3 listening. When you
take training session, you are able to instantly read the impact you have created in
a room by your delivery or presentation and adjust your behavior accordingly.
Successful leaders master their listening skill at level 3 so that they can influence
their executives/employees and make an impact.
Listening is one of the most important skills for corporate coaches. Listening is
the entry point for any coaching process, through which all coaching passes.
However, in some situations, some executives might talk continuously, repeating
their stories again and again or try not to address the issues being discussed, or go
on long discourse. Sometimes it seems irrelevant but can be a roundabout way of
the executive to say what they need to say. A coach may decide to interrupt his
executive or keep silent over a long period of time.
Finally, the objective of coaching is moving into action. As the coach listens, he
makes choices on the directions and focus of coaching. However, only listening to
the executive and giving them time and space of being heard are not enough, if
there is no action after discussion, since it is not coaching at all.
Successful leaders know the importance of listening in managing their team.
They listen more than they speak. They listen deeply and intently to the executive
speaking to them. Their executives normally say, “My boss really took me
seriously…. I felt as if I was the only person in the room in whom he is
interested…. Those few minutes, I felt valued, appreciated and the center of
attraction.”
Reframing
Framing normally means a structure, a border, or a case for enclosing something.
Take the example of a window frame or a photo frame, where the window or the
photo is given support and protection by a frame. Reframing literarily means to
frame it again.
All of us are only able to perceive or see a tiny part of the world around us. We
develop our views, perspectives, beliefs, and assumptions based on limited
experience and knowledge of the world. This perception then leads us to
subscribe different meanings to different situations, as we encounter. Our feelings
and behaviors then accordingly determine how to deal with a situation. If we
change the way we view a situation, then we can view different situations from
different viewpoints or perspectives.
In the coaching context, a frame is the current or present perspective the
executive may have. Here we need to see framing, as how the executive provides
structure and support to his/her current thoughts, beliefs, perceptions,
perspectives, and actions. Reframing, therefore, helps the executive to see that
there could be different perspectives, thoughts, or beliefs, which may be more
appropriate, empowering, or relevant in the given situation. Reframing gives the
executives the leverage to explore different options they might have.
The executives are entitled to new perspectives or point of view, review their
own behavior, action, or assumptions. They can check their own beliefs, resources,
or assets they have or do not have and then identify the more empowering ones,
which make the executive move forward. These new perspectives, thoughts,
beliefs, perceptions, or realizations are required to be framed. This needs adequate
support and protection in the way they deal with different situations.
One of the important roles of a coach is to help the executive get clarity on
their current perspectives. The coach helps them see whether the current
perspective is working for them or not. If the current perspective is not working
for the executive, then the coach enthuses the executive to look at the situation
from a different perspective or viewpoint and identify which perspective is more
empowering than the perspective that he/she currently holds. When the
executives identify a new perspective, then the coach helps the executives to
develop a framework or a structure to direct their behaviors and actions in
alignment with the new perspective. When we identify a new perspective to deal
with a situation, then our behaviors, actions, and feelings originate from the
reframed perspective.
 It is important to note that while the coach is reframing, the situation does not
change, but the perspective or way of looking at the situation only changes. It is
also not necessary that in all situations the mindset or paradigm will change in
reframing, but it may facilitate the process. As long as the executive is reframing or
examining his or her own perspectives, the executive feels empowered while
exploring.
Some of the reframing questions could be:

1. Can you understand this from another person’s perspective?

2. Have you tried to see this situation from another or a completely opposite
point of view?
3. What is the worst thing that could happen in this situation?
4. What will it take to reach this particular objective/idea?
5. If you were up for a breakthrough, what would you do?
6. What is missing here, that if included would make this situation look like?
7. What could you do that will make you “go where no one has gone before”?
8. How could this be fun?
9. What are the most enjoyable aspects about this?
10. What perspective could you take now that could empower you to solve it?
11. Let’s look at this in a different light to understand this situation better.
12. In what way can the current situation be made perfect?
13. What can you do better?
14. If you had a choice, what would you do?
15. What will you do if it does not work?

Powerful Questions
A question can be a coach’s most valuable tool in assisting executives to think
clearly and solve problems. Questions help in the problem-solving process.
Powerful questions “dig in” deeper and open our thoughts to explore ideas even
further. Coaches, who encourage the executives to elaborate on and explain their
thinking through the use of probing questions, promote learning because such
questions push executives to think more deeply about what they are dealing with
in their life.
Thinking critically involves a process of reason and discernment through a set of
questions. By responding to questions, we discern a set of answers. When the trail
leads to the answer, we can uncover more truths by searching each answer to see if
it presents a new set of questions. This question-and-answer methodology for
discerning truth is nothing new. It is commonly referred to as the “Socrates
Method” and derives its name from the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates. He
would constantly pose questions to his listeners to trigger thinking in the right
direction. Questioning continued until the listeners provided the most logical
answer to a particular problem and discovery followed.
Probing questions, such as, “Why?” “Can you elaborate?” “What evidence can
you present to support your answer?,” etc., encourage the executives to “unpack”
their thinking and show how they have reached particular conclusions. This
process can be viewed as peeling an onion with each question unwrapping a new
layer. Coaches use probing questions to encourage their executives to consider
and weigh diverse evidences. It also allows the executive to examine the validity
of their own deductive and inductive ways of thinking.
Probing questions are used for the executives to extend their knowledge beyond
factual recall, to apply what is known, what is unknown, and to elaborate on what
is known. By “peeling the onion” and getting to the heart of a matter, executives
are more likely to find their own “truths,” which help them develop their goals
that are aligned with these truths and act on these goals.
If a corporate coach wants his executive to reflect further on a problem or view
it from a different angle, some of the most powerful questions are:

1. “How can I best coach you in this situation?”

2. “What would be the best question to ask you right now to help you think
clearly about this situation?”
3. “What is the lesson here?”
4. “What do you need to do now?”

If you think someone is holding back through fear or insecurity, some of the
best questions to ask are:

1. “What are you resisting?”

2. “Have you been here before?”
3. “Are you holding on to something you need to let go off perhaps?”
4. “What are you not telling me?”

OPEN- AND CLOSE-ENDED QUESTIONS

A close-ended question is one in which there are a limited number of acceptable
answers, usually, “yes” or “no.” Examples of close-ended questions are:

1. “Did you have a good week?”

2. “Did you do your fieldwork?”

An open-ended question is one in which there are many acceptable answers,

thus providing an opportunity for the executive to elaborate. Examples of open-
ended questions are:

1. “Tell me about your week?”

2. “What was your experience with the fieldwork?”

For coaching conversation to continue and to ensure that the coaching is

executive-centered, the coaches ask generally open-ended questions. It is also
important that after asking a question to the executive, the coach needs to have
patience till the executive responds. If the coach does not allow enough time
between asking a question and expecting an answer, then the coach is not
effectively questioning. Unless the coach leaves sufficient wait time when an
executive ceases speaking, then the coach is not listening effectively and the
quality of the information the coach gets back will reflect that. Similarly, the
coach may be met with silence from the executives when the coach asks a
question—this could be because the executives have not understood the question
or they are thinking through the question the coach has asked. Some coaches get
tempted to ask another question or rephrase the first question, which is not
desirable in coaching conversation. After asking thought-provoking question to
the executives, silence gives the executives the space to think through their
responses they would give. In a normal conversation, a period of silence is usually
uncomfortable. In a coaching conversation, silence is natural—there is no pressure
on the coach, since he is there to listen to his executive.
Silence could be a golden moment in coaching session. An effective coach
creates golden moments by recognizing when silence is better than asking further
questions. An ineffective coach rushes with follow-up questions, not giving
enough pause or time to think for the executive for reflection. During the time to
think, i.e., pause or silence between two questions, the executive gets the
opportunity to reflect deeply what are being discussed, what he just said or not
said, what to do next, etc.
 Finally, questioning is really just an extension of listening. Questioning only
occurs in response to what the executive is saying. Questions are tools that need
to be used strategically and purposefully by the coach to support the executive on
their learning journey. However, each executive’s journey will be unique. The
coach’s overall goal is to move the dialog in a direction that assists the executive to
meet his or her goals. Annexure 8.1 gives a list of powerful questions, which a
coach can use in coaching conversation.

Effective Feedback
Each one of us wants real feedback from those who are important in our life. It is
true in coaching too. The executives want their coaches to point out things they
are overlooking or missing. The coach sees what the executives are not able to see.
Giving constructive feedback to the executive can be an extremely valuable
component in coaching, if it is done properly. Effective feedback creates a kind of
awareness that makes a difference in how the executive sees things. Feedback in
coaching helps the executives increase their awareness on what they are doing,
how they are doing, and the impact of their behavior on others. 360-degree
feedback is one such tool that generally captures these aspects of the executive.
When the coach gives feedback effectively, it fuels motivation to the executive to
improve performance.
Feedback is neither positive nor negative. Feedback is always neutral and
objective. Feedback in coaching is the statement from the coach on how a coach
observes, sees, or notices things as it happens. It is just mirroring it back to the
executive the way the coach notices it. This means that the feedback is just
information, free of value judgments. While giving feedback to the executives, the
coaches do not offer their opinions, judgment, or beliefs but just give the
executives an insight they may need. When giving feedback, the greatest challenge
one can have is to really make a contribution that benefits the executive. It
involves giving up judgments, opinions, and even beliefs about something or
someone.
The ultimate purpose of feedback in coaching is to empower the executive for
further actions and growth. If an executive shares a situation, the coach can offer
to provide feedback by saying: “Would you like a different perspective?” or “Can I
share with you what I am getting from that?” Hence, feedback is simply about
sharing an observation without judgment or opinion. An opinion sounds more
like this: “Well let me tell you what I think about that!”
The following points are important in giving feedback during coaching:

1. The coach always asks permission before giving feedback to the executive by
asking, “May I offer you some feedback,” “Would you like me to give some
feedback,” etc. When the executive grants permission to the coach for giving
feedback, the executive will be more receptive to listen what the coach is
saying. It is also important for the executive to know that the feedback is
only from the coach’s perspectives.
2. The coach should be honest, truthful, and humble while giving feedback to
the executive. The coach shares truthfully his/her own experiences as an
example from which to learn from.
3. The coaches are sensitive to the feelings and emotions of the executive. The
coach imagines how he would have felt if he were at the receiving end.
4. Effective feedback involves a proper structure, proper choice of words, the
manner, tone, and pace of delivery. Giving feedback, which will make the
biggest difference to the executive, requires a lot of practice.
5. The timing of the feedback in the coaching is also important. The coach
waits for appropriate moments for giving feedback to the executive, when
the executive is ready for feedback. An effective coach will give very few
feedbacks during the coaching process, but each feedback is quality feedback,
well thought-of and specific so that the executive gets benefitted from the
coach’s feedback.
6. Coaches own the power of their words. They are quite responsible for what
and how they provide feedback. For instance, to declare how the coach feels
about something, the coach may say, “When you said that, I felt sad because
…”
7. Coaches are aware of their opinions and judgments and then let them go.
The viewpoint of the coach will not always make the biggest difference to
the executives because their point of view may be different from that of the
coachee’s.
8. It is possible that the executive may sometimes ignore the feedback given by
their coach. It does not mean that the coach will not give feedback or their
feedback is not making any impact. The coach actually plants seeds in the
executive’s mind that takes time to sprout. Sometimes, the coach needs to
share what he notices, so the executive can think about it and take action.
 However, giving performance feedback to executives/employees by their
manager is quite different from what corporate coach gives feedback to their
executives. Performance feedback is the ongoing communication process between
executive/employee and manager where information is exchanged concerning
the performance expected and the performance exhibited. Feedback is an essential
part of improving performance, regardless of current performance levels of their
employees. Only through performance feedback, the employees become aware
whether they are on track and doing the right thing. Performance feedback is not
only provided to the employees when the performance is off the track but also to
give recognition to the employees on their accomplishment. However giving
effective performance feedback is an important skill and not something that is
“natural” to every manager. Giving employees honest feedback on their
performance can be one of the toughest jobs a manager can do. Many managers
often shy away from delivering honest feedback to their executives/employees
because it is uncomfortable and can seem overwhelming to deal with. Yet without
good feedback the employees cannot grow and learn. Some managers use the
performance feedback as an opportunity only to highlight negative performance
or to be used as a platform to criticize their employees or just to clear the air. It is
not desirable. It creates a de-motivating environment for the employees. The
performance feedback is given to employees only for improving the performance
of the employees. If it is not so, then managers should avoid giving performance
feedback.
The following tips are helpful for managers while giving performance feedback
to their employees:
Create the right setting: All performance feedback sessions should be conducted in
a private, one-on-one setting, behind a closed door, without interruptions. Never
give feedback to an executive/employee in a setting where other
executives/employees may overhear the conversation. Feedback on the employee’s
performance should be a private discussion between the manager and the
executive/employee to whom it concerns. This is a simple rule, but many
managers underestimate the value of privacy in dealing with their
executives/employees and risk of damaging the trust of the employee–manager
relationship. If a manager does not give his employee complete and undivided
attention, a clear signal is conveyed to the employee that this conversation is not
all that important.
Address performance problems honestly and directly: The manager needs to address
performance problems honestly and directly. The performance feedback should be
as specific as possible. The manager must describe the situation with facts and
figures, which the executive/employee is aware of. If a manager has not observed a
performance problem directly, it should not be addressed in performance
feedback. While presenting the performance problem to the employee, the
manager should focus on facts, not on the person. Feedback is most effective
when manager writes down the feedback he is going to give to the
executive/employee, before meeting the executive/employee.
Ask the employee: The manager should get the employee’s point of view of the
situation and how it can be improved. When employees are given a chance to
comment on their own behavior and productivity, the employees are likely to be
tougher on themselves and they will also work harder to improve in the areas they
commit personally. The manager also needs to be open to listen to the views of
the employee and may need to change his own perception or opinion, if need be.
Communicate expectations clearly: Performance expectations need to be delivered
in a concise, clear manner, without questionable interpretations, especially when
there is a problem. Numbers, dates, productivity units, metrics, and standards are
helpful to include when communicating specific performance expectations to an
executive/employee. The more specific the manager is, the less misinterpretation
by the employee is likely to occur.
Include the positives: Employees need encouragement and to be told when they
are doing well. Many managers are so concerned about correcting their
executives’/employees’ mistakes that they tend to overlook their positive
achievements altogether. It is important to recognize employees for their
accomplishments to keep them motivated. Another common mistake is to
overwhelm employees with a long laundry list of areas to improve. A better
approach is to identify two or three of the most critical areas to improve, and
allow the employee to focus on improving these.
Develop an action plan to resolve the situation: The managers and the employees
should finally decide what actions the employees are going to take, what help is
required from the managers, and how the follow-up will be done.

Mirroring
The function of a mirror is reflection. All of us look into a mirror to see what we
are projecting ourselves to others and how they are seeing us. Therefore
mirroring, in simple terms, is reflecting what the executive is doing or saying
while communicating with the coach. When the coach acts as a mirror, he plays a
role of reflecting back to the executive what his realities are. Normally, the coach
displays the same expression, same words, same tone of voice, etc., as an executive
exhibits while communicating with the coach. It could be the facial expression,
the physical positions, the body postures, mannerism, or verbal communication
style.
Examples:
1. The executive is tense and speaking slowly, taking time between sentences,
breathing heavily while conversing with the coach. The coach mirrors back
the same, speaks slowly, and gives pauses during the conversation.
2. The executive uses the word “you see” quite frequently. The coach mirrors
back the same by using word “I see” frequently instead of “I hear” or “I
understand.”
The purpose of mirroring is to build rapport with an executive. When a coach
subtly mirrors the executive, the executive tends to become friendlier and open
toward the coach. In a sense, the executives view the coach as their own mirror.
During coaching, the coach mirrors their executive to give the message to the
executive that he is hearing him. This helps the coach present an objective reality
of the situation.
The mirroring technique can also be used effectively by a coach when the coach
would like to reflect back the executive’s words, stories, emotions, etc. so that they
can become aware or bring attention to what they are saying and thinking so that
they have choices to revalidate their perspectives.
Sometimes, the executive makes some judgmental statement about how they
view themselves or how they judge themselves without giving sufficient thoughts
or introspection. Then, the coach mirrors back exactly all the words what he
heard from the executive, without adding or changing any word, with a tone of
questioning. When the executive hears it back from the coach, then they explore
whether that is what they really meant. This leads to creating awareness within the
executive of something they want to change, reflect, or introspect. The mirroring
by the coach also provides an opportunity for the executives to articulate their
own perspectives or mindset.
Sometimes, mirroring by the coach triggers an immediate response from the
executive. The executive may explain what he actually meant through examples of
situations. This process of mirroring provides a safe environment to the executive,
wherein they revalidate their own judgments or perspective or what they have just
said. They also revalidate its relevance whether for a specific to a context or a
situation or in general.
 To sum up, in the mirroring process, the executive gets an opportunity to
explore his perspective. It is important to mention here that mirroring is not
mimicking, but is a skill that needs to be acquired.

Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing means to state the understanding coaches acquire from executives in
their own words. Hence, paraphrasing involves editing and summarizing the words
being said by the executive to the coach. To begin paraphrasing, the coach might
start by saying “what I hear you saying is …,” or “what I understood is …” or “let
me see if I have understood you properly …” or “from what you said, I gather
that …,” etc.
The benefit of paraphrasing is to communicate to the executive that his message
is getting across to the coach. The executives also appreciate the fact that they are
being understood by their coach. It also prevents any misunderstanding between
the coach and the executive. There is a sense of comfort and easiness in all the
subsequent conversations between the coach and the executive.
Paraphrasing is an important part in active listening process of coaching. Active
listening has mainly two components: what is being said or not said, i.e., content
of the communication and identification of the feelings, as expressed by the
executive while communicating.
In active listening, the coach tries to understand what the executive is feeling
internally or what the executive’s message really meant. The coach’s active
listening response is then putting his own understanding of the message into his
own words and communicating back to the executive for verification, which is
actually paraphrasing. An active listening response provides a sense of comfort to
the executive that he is being fully understood including his feelings and emotions
involved in this situation.
Mirroring by coach is done to help executives understand or examine their own
perspectives and, if necessary, to reframe their perspective so that they can move in
the direction they want to be. In contrast, paraphrasing by coach does not create
an opportunity for the executives to reframe their perspective, but are able to
create an enabling climate for coaching.

Chapter Summary
While communicating with an executive, coaches use different communication
techniques like active listening, giving feedback, power listening, and powerful
questioning. These tools are used to build rapport, to create mutual understanding,
to understand the perspectives and issues an executive is facing, and also to create
an environment conducive for coaching.
Listening is an important tool for managers. When managers listen to their
executives/employees skillfully, they convey a message to them that they care
about them. Listening is not hearing. Listening happens through six distinct
processes: hearing, attending, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and
responding. While listening to their executive, the coaches not only hear the
words the executive is speaking, but also pay attention to the tone, the body
posture, expressions, energy, and the feelings expressed. Active listening is an
important skill for managers in dealing with their subordinates. In active listening,
managers try to understand the content of the message what their
executives/employees are trying to communicate and the feelings being expressed
by the executives/employees. Then they restate what they have heard in their own
words to confirm their understanding. This helps the manager send a message to
his executives/employees he is trying to understand their points of views or issues,
which act as diffuser in emotional exchange between the manager and the
subordinates as well as prevent deterioration of self-esteem of the
executives/employees. In coaching, the listening happens at three levels: Internal
listening, focused listening and global listening. At the level of internal listening,
the coach interprets what he hears in terms of what means to him, i.e., focus is
not on the executive. At the level of focused listening, the coach is focusing totally
on the speaker, listening to the words, tone of voice, and body language of the
executive. Here, the coach works like a mirror, what comes from the executive is
reflected back to the executive. During global listening, the coach listens at 360
degree (i.e., listening more than what is being said). The coach also picks up
emotions and sensing signals from the body of the coachee. Deep coaching
conversation happens at level 2 and level 3 of listening.
Reframing in coaching refers to giving new or different perspective to
executives by their coach. Reframing helps the executive explore that there could
be different perspectives, thoughts, or points of view for a given situation, which
may be more appropriate or empowering for them. During coaching, the coaches
encourage their executives whether their own perspective is working for them or
not. If not, the coach enthuses the executives to examine the situation from a
different perspective or viewpoint, so that they can leverage different options they
might have.
Powerful questions help the coach assist their executive to think clearly and solve
their problems by their own answer. Coach asks probing but powerful questions
during coaching to ensure that the executives think more deeply on the issues
they are facing. The Socratic method of questioning is the most powerful tool in
coaching, in which he would constantly pose questions to his disciple after each
answer until they provide the most logical answer to a particular problem.
Feedback in coaching means mirroring it back to executives what the coach
observes, sees, or notices things as they happen, without any opinion or judgment
from the coach. Coaching executives want their coach to give them feedback so
that they are able to see what they are missing or overlooking. The objective of
giving effective feedback in coaching is to empower executives for their further
action and growth. In organizations, managers are expected to give performance
feedback to their subordinates. However, giving performance feedback is a skill
that needs to be learnt and mastered.
Mirroring and paraphrasing are other important communication tools for
coaching. Mirroring is reflecting back to the executives what the coach observes
so that they can examine the current reality of their situation. In paraphrasing,
coaches state in their own words what they acquire from the executive in the
conversation to create a proper understanding of the executive’s situation as well
as an enabling environment for coaching.

Annexure 8.1: 150+ Powerful Questions

1. What are the possibilities?
2. If you had your choice, what would you do?
3. What are the possible solutions?
4. What if you do and what if you do not?
5. What do you make of it all?
6. What do you think? (is the best?)
7. How does it look to you?
8. How do you feel about it?
9. What led up to __________?
10. What have you tried so far?
11. What do you make of it all?
12. What do you mean?
13. What does it look/sound/feel like?
14. What seems to confuse you?
15. What was it like?
16. What happened?
17. Then what?
18. In what way?
19. How does this fit with your plans/ways of life/values?
20. What do you think?
21. For instance?
22. Like what?
23. Such as?
24. What else?
25. What other ideas do you have about it?
26. What if it does not work out the way you wish?
27. What if that does not work?
28. And if that fails, what will you do?
29. How do you want it to be?
30. If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?
31. If it were you, what would you have done?
32. How else could a person handle this?
33. If you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?
34. What seems to be the trouble?
35. What seems to be the main obstacle?
36. What is stopping you?
37. What concerns you most about ________?
38. What will you have to do to get the job done?
39. What support do you need to accomplish ________?
40. What will you do?
41. By when will you do it?
42. What information do you need before you decide?
43. What do you know about it now?
44. How do you suppose you can find out more about it?
45. What kind of picture do you have right now?
46. How do you explain this to yourself?
47. What was the lesson/learning?
48. How can you lock it (the learning) in?
49. How would you pull all this together?
50. What was your part in this?
51. How do you fit into the picture?
52. What were you responsible for?
53. If you had free choice in the matter, what would you do?
54. If the same thing came up again, what would you do?
55. If we could wipe the slate clean, what would you do?
56. If you had it to do over again, what would you do?
57. What would you like to focus on today?
58. What would you like coaching on today?
59. What would you like to explore today?
60. What do you want?
61. What is your desired outcome?
62. If you got it, what would you have?
63. How will you know you have accomplished it?
64. When you are 95 years old, what will you want to say about your life?
65. What would you like to be doing five years from now?
66. What is your life purpose?
67. In the bigger scheme of things, how important is this?
68. What do you plan to do about it?
69. What is your game plan?
70. What kind of plan do you need to create?
71. How do you suppose you could improve the situation?
72. How do you suppose it will all work out?
73. What will that get you?
74 Where will this lead?
75. What are the chances of success?
76. If you do this, how will it affect ______?
77. What impact will that have on balance/values?
78. How does this affect the whole picture?
79. What else do you need to take into consideration?
80. What action will you take? And after that?
81. What will you do? When?
82. Where do you go from here? When will you do that?
83. What are your next steps? By when?
84. How is this working? How is this going?
85. How would you describe this?
86. What do you think this all amounts to?
87. How would you summarize the work/effort so far?
88. How could this be fun?
89. What is most enjoyable about this?
90. What have you accomplished in your life?
91. What to be coached on? How can I help? How can I support you?
92. What will make a big difference in your life?
93. What is the number one thing you would like most to have in your life?
94. What you wanted to have, not got it?
95. What motivates you?
96. What have you done about this so far?
97. What is missing in the situation?
98. What is holding you back?
99. What is really going on (Intuition)?
100. What you did for which you are proud of?
101. How you had dealt with similar situations before?
102. What talent you have so that you can make that happen?
103. What is preventing you?
104. What is the number one thing you got of this session?
105. Why that is important to you?
106. How this situation could be perfect?
107. What can you change?
108. How other people may look at this situation differently?
109. What meaning/different meaning you can attach to it?
110. What you want to walk out today evening?
111. Can you understand this from another person’s perspective?
112. Have you tried to see this situation from another or a completely opposite
point of view?
113. What is the worst thing that could happen in this situation?
114. What will it take to reach this particular objective/idea?
115. If you were up for a breakthrough, what would you do?
116. What is missing here, which if included would make this situation look
like?
117. What could you do that will make you “go where no one has gone
before?”
118. How could this be fun?
119. What are the most enjoyable aspects about this?
120. What perspective could you take now that could empower you to solve it?
121. Let’s look at this in a different light to understand this situation better?
122. In what way can the current situation be made perfect?
123. What can you do better?
124. If you had a choice, what would you do?
125. What will you do if it does not work?
126. What structure you can put in place that you are in motion?
127. What are some personal boundaries you would like to have?
128. What steps will you take to ensure that your new perspectives are aligned
with your values?
129. What would help you to find the first step?
130. How can you get the information/knowledge you need?
131. What could you do now if you knew you could not fall?
132. Is it the right time to make a commitment to achieve these goals?
133. What would you have to do to get the job done?
134. How would you know that you have accomplished it?
135. What is your game plan?
136. What do you consider to be your greatest strengths?
137. What do you consider to be your greatest weaknesses?
138. What kinds of activities/goals/situations make you feel most
motivated/confident and/or happy?
139. What have I learned about myself from others?
140. What you expect from the coach to do for you?
141. What are the challenges you are facing now or what you think you are
stuck in?
142. What are the issues you would like to discuss in the next two or three
sessions?
143. Anything else you would like your coach should know about you?
144. If you were to fully live your life, what is the first change you would start to
make?
145. What could we work on now that would make the biggest difference to
your life?
146. What are you tolerating/putting up with?
147. What do you want more of in your life?
148. What you want less of in your life?
149. What are the three things you are doing regularly that don’t serve or
support you?
150. What do you love?
151. What do you hate?
 152. What’s the one thing you would love to do before?
153. What is the aim of discussion?
154. What does success look like?
155. Is that possible, challenging, attainable?

Reference
Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, H., & Sandahl, P. (2004). Co-active coaching; new skills for coaching people towards
success in work and life. Palo Alto, California: Davis-Black Publishing.
 CHAPTER 9
Psychometrics and Psychological
Inventories in Corporate Coaching

P sychometrics is the science of measuring behavior and ability adhering to the

four psychometric principles, i.e., reliability, validity, standardization, and
freedom from bias. Wikipedia defines psychometrics as
the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which
includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational
measurement. The field is primarily concerned with the construction and validation of measurement
instruments such as questionnaires, tests and personality assessments.

There is widespread use of psychometric tools in recruitment and selection,

assessment center, and leadership development. Corporate coaches are increasingly
using psychometric instruments in coaching with the permission of the
executives. The reasons for using psychometrics tools in coaching are varied but
most of the coaches use psychometric instruments to enable themselves to adjust
their coaching style based on their own strengths, styles, or preferences vis-à-vis
those of the executive. Psychometric instruments are also used to gather additional
data and perspectives of the executive, so that coaches can structure their coaching
process accordingly. On the other hand, the psychometric data help executives to
get awareness on who they are, what gift they have, what are their styles or
preferences, and what are their developmental needs. Good psychological
instruments, if used appropriately by the coaches, can be useful tools to support
the corporate coaching executives in building awareness through self-exploration
and understanding.
This chapter gives an overview of some, not all, of the common psychometric
instruments being used in coaching. All the psychometric instruments covered in
this chapter have strong evidence of psychometric properties including high
reliability and validity. New coaches are advised to see the eligibility criteria of test
administration and interpretation from the test publisher, since there are strict
ethical guidelines for administration and interpretation. Users of these inventories
are advised to get themselves trained and certified for administration and
interpretation as well get themselves informed and knowledgeable about the
limitations and capabilities of each test they might like to use.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a self-report questionnaire designed
to identify variable differences between normal and healthy people. It is based on
psychological type theory developed by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung. Jung
observed that the differences in behavior result from people’s inborn tendencies to
use their minds in different ways. As people act on these tendencies, they develop
specific patterns of behavior. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly
random variation in behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, due to basic
differences in the way individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.
Perception involves all the ways of becoming aware of things, people, happenings,
or ideas. Judgment involves all the ways of coming to conclusion about what has
been perceived. If people differ systematically in what they perceive and in how
they reach conclusions, then it is only reasonable for them to differ
correspondingly in their interests, reactions, values, motivations, and skills (Myers
et al., 1998). Jung believed that people are innately different in what they prefer,
and identified eight mental processes, called type preferences. Katharine Briggs
and Isabel Myers’ interpretation of the Jung idea of type preferences led to the
development of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators personality inventory.
The dynamic character specified by type theory involves the interaction of a
person’s four basic preferences (Myers et al., 1998). The MBTI theory focuses on
the preferences on four dichotomies, each consisting of two opposite poles. It
indicates that the differences in people result from the following:

1. When people prefer to focus their attention and get energy (extroversion, E,
or introversion, I)
2. The way they prefer to take information (sensing, S, or intuition, N)
3. The way they prefer to make decisions (thinking, T or feeling, F)
4. How they orient themselves to the external world (judging, J, or perceiving,
P)

Myers et al. (1998) note that a preference for one alternative of each dichotomy
does not mean that the opposite, less-preferred alternative is never used. Both the
theory and practical observations describe individuals as using each of the eight
preference categories at least some of the time. The combination of four
dichotomies yield 16 possible combinations, called Type, as given in Figure 9.1.
It is also important to understand that the type theories postulate that each type
stands for a complex set of dynamic relationships among the functions (S, N, T,
and F), the attitude (E and I), and the orientation to the outer world (J and P).
Based on the Jungian basis of type dynamics, Myers and Briggs assumed the
following:

1. For each type, one function (from S, N, T, and F) will be dominant. People of
each type will mainly use their dominant function in their favorite attitude
(E and I), i.e., extraverts use the dominant function in the outer world of
extraversion.
2. In addition to the dominant function, the auxiliary function is developed to
provide balance. For extraverts, the dominant function will be extraverted
and the auxiliary function will typically be used in the inner world of
introversion.
3. Extraverts show their best function, i.e., dominant function to the outside
world, whereas introverts show their second-best function to the outer
world.
4. The function opposed to dominant function is typically the least-developed
or inferior function. The inferior function tends to be used in the less-
preferred attitude (extraversion or introversion).
5. The function contrary to auxiliary function is called tertiary function and is
used in the less-preferred attitude.

For example, ESTJ type will have Thinking (T) as dominant extroverted
function and Sensing (S) will be auxiliary, introverted function. Hence, Feeling (F)
is an inferior, introverted function (since it is opposite of Thinking, T). Intuition
(N) is the tertiary function. Therefore, ESTJs take an objective approach to
problem solving and are tough when the situation requires toughness. They use
their Thinking primarily externally to organize their lives and work. They focus
on the present what is real and actual. They apply and adapt relevant past
experience to deal with problems, and they prefer jobs where results are
immediate, visible, and tangible. They are likely to be:

1. Logical, analytical, and objectively critical

2. Decisive, clear, and assertive
 3. Practical, realistic, and matter-of-fact

It is natural for ESTJs to give less attention to their non-preferred Feeling and
Intuitive parts. They may:

1. Remain logical even when emotions and impacts on people need prime
consideration
2. Not be able to see the wider ramifications of a seemingly simple, direct
action
3. Fail to respond to others’ needs for emotional intimacy and processing of
feelings of others

Understanding type dynamics is important in MBTI. Since it is not possible to

discuss the type dynamics for all types of MBTI, the coaches are recommended to
refer the MBTI Manual, published by CPP Inc., for further understanding.
Executives having the following combinations in their type may show the
following characteristics at their workplace:
TJ: They are analytical and decisive leaders. They make decisions based on principle and systems, overall
impacts, and rational assessment of outcomes and can be tough-minded in implementing decisions.

TP: They lead by examples. They value and display technical expertise and create orderly frameworks for
working. They are objective, skeptical, and curious. They will change course as new information comes
in.

FP: They are warm, flexible, and encouraging leaders. They support individual work styles and like to
involve others in decision. They prefer collegial relationships, shared rewards, and consensus in decisions.
They could be good internal coaches.

FJ: They are warm, decisive leaders. They make decisions based on their personal values and empathy
with others. They strive for harmony, consensus, and a supportive environment.

Since each type has its own strengths and areas of developments, the coach
assesses the executives from 16 personality type perspectives on what behavior is
normal, comfortable, and valued and what is difficult, uncomfortable, and trivial
for the executive. The coach gives the executives a sense of worth and dignity
based on the gift they have, which they need to exploit further to achieve growth
and excellence.

ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ

ISTP ISFP INFP INTP

 ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP

ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ

Source: Myers et al. (1998).

Figure 9.1 Sixteen Personality Types of MBTI

In coaching, the executive may focus on developing on tertiary and inferior

functions. The experienced coach, having a complete understanding of MBTI,
will instead encourage the executive to use dominant and auxiliary functions to
strengthen the less-secure and more-inexperienced tertiary and inferior functions.
The coach can help their executive identify their less-preferred functions and
their level of discomfort with these functions and then make conscious use of
tertiary and inferior functions through practice.

Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-

Behavior (FIRO-B)
FIRO-B has been widely used in the fields of human relation since it was
introduced in 1958 by Dr Will Schutz. Dr Will Schutz was called by US Navy
during the Korean War and was given the task of creating a method for
constructing effective teams. In the course of performing experiments to predict
team compatibility, he devised the FIRO theory and the FIRO-B instrument.
FIRO-B was designed to predict the level of interaction between two people.
The theory postulates that “people need people.” People, being social beings,
have interpersonal needs that may be satisfied through the attainment of a
satisfactory relation with other people. The FIRO theory focuses on three major
levels—behavior, feelings, and self-concept. FIRO-B is one such instrument on
behavior. FIRO-B, a 54-item questionnaire, measures the behavioral aspects of the
three dimensions of interpersonal relations; these are inclusion, control, and
affection, which explain most of the human interactions. The FIRO-B theory
assumes that the above three dimensions are fundamental in understanding and
predicting interpersonal behavior. The scores on affection reflect the degree to
which a person becomes emotionally connected with others. Inclusion assesses
the degree to which a person associates himself/herself with others. Control
measures the extent to which a person assumes responsibility, makes decisions, or
dominates people. Schutz (1958) defines three interpersonal needs as follows:
Inclusion: Inclusion is defined behaviorally as the need to establish and maintain a
satisfactory relation with people with respect to interaction and association. High
expressed inclusion scores reflect people would like to get associated, interact,
mingle, belong, involve, look for companion, would like to join group or parties,
outgoing, like to start conversation with strangers, and look for recognition. Low
scores reflect that these people prefer exclusion, prefer to be alone, generally
withdrawn or reserved, and they generally do not start conversation with others.

Control: Control is defined behaviorally as the need to establish and maintain a

satisfactory relation with respect to control and power. High expressed control
score reflects that they are comfortable when they are in charge. High expressed
scores also mean they would like to have authority, dominance, rule, or bossing
over others. Low score reflects that they prefer not to have control over others,
they would prefer to be follower, or may not like to have responsibilities. It also
reflects sometimes in rebellion or resistance or submissive attitudes.

Affection: Affection is defined as the need to establish and maintain a warm or emotional
connection with others. They prefer to be close with others, develop personal
relationship with others, be affectionate with others, give a feeling of intimacy,
etc. Low expressed scores reflect that they prefer to remain cool, distance
themselves, not get emotionally involved, etc. They will prefer to keep the
relationship impersonal, avoid being open with people, and prefer to have
acquaintances rather than a few close friends.
Table 9.1 FIRO-B Scales (0–9)
Inclusion Control Affection
Expressed behavior I initiate interaction with I control people I act close and personal with
people people
Wanted behavior I want to be included I want people to control me I want people to get close and
personal with me

FIRO-B measures each dimension in two scales: expressed and wanted. The
expressed score represents the manifested behavior, i.e., the observed behavior.
The expressed behavior points to the level of behavior people are most
comfortable in demonstrating toward others to bring people together, to get their
way, and to be close to others. The wanted score represents what the person wants
from other people. The Wanted aspect of each dimension points to the behavior
people want or prefer others to do in their attempts to get together with them.
Therefore, FIRO-B provides feedback on six aspects of interpersonal behavior, as
given in Table 9.1.
The scores in each dimension range from 0 to 9. For the purpose of
interpretation, scores of 0–3 are considered as low, 4–6 as moderate, and 7–9 as
high. It is not possible to discuss how to interpret FIRO-B scores in details in this
chapter. However, one case example is presented in this chapter so that the
coaches can get an idea of how FIRO-B instrument can be used in corporate
coaching for predicting interpersonal behavior of the executives.

Case Example: Executive R is working as head of marketing in an MNC organization. He is known as a

strong team manager, and an ambitious and committed executive. His FIRO-B scores are as follows
(Table 9.2):

Table 9.2 FIRO-B Scores

Inclusion Control Affection
Expressed 5 1 6
Wanted 6 3 8

The overall interpersonal need scores are calculated by totaling all the numbers. It is 29 out of
maximum possible 54. It can be concluded that this executive has moderate interpersonal needs. The
overall strength of interpersonal need shows how much he believes that interaction with others can help
him attain his goals and personal satisfaction.
His total scores on expressed behavior and wanted behaviors (rows and columns total) are 12 and 17,
respectively. The total expressed behaviors score represents how much initiative he takes in approaching
others to fulfill his three interpersonal needs, i.e., inclusion, control, and affection. Total wanted
behavior score reflects how much he depends on others to get what he needs. Both these scores are in
medium range; hence, his behaviors are moderate. However his wanted behavior score is higher than the
expressed behavior, which indicates that he prefers to wait and see what others will do before initiating
his actions. He may be hesitant being proactive, whereas he may be expecting that others should act
toward him or waiting for others to act toward him.
Now if we calculate the total of each column, it emerges that the highest score is in the area of affection
followed by inclusion and then control. It reflects that he would be more comfortable in building
relationship and trust with others in a new situation before taking any action.
Now let us analyze his scores separately in three areas of interpersonal needs. His expressed score in
inclusion is 5, whereas in wanted inclusion is 6. This score suggests that he is socially flexible,
comfortable both in large groups or being alone. He does not have strong urge to move toward or away
from people. His overall inclusion need strength is moderately high.
His low scores on control reflect that he generally avoids making decisions and taking responsibilities
and most comfortable when others do not try to control them. Neither he is dependent nor he is
inadequate but has doubts about their abilities to handle new areas of responsibilities, where he doesn’t
have prior experience. He will take charge of new areas of responsibilities in his own pace. He will
normally not push others too much and avoid telling them what to do.
His affection score is high both in expressed and in wanted behavior. It reflects that he not only
initiates warm and intimate relationships with others but also is very comfortable when others do that
toward him. Since he seeks very high amount of affection from others, he may frequently get
disappointed. However he is optimistic; hence, he will put efforts to get love and affection when his need
is not getting satisfied.
 Looking into a detailed analysis of FIRO-B, the coach will get an overall picture
of the interpersonal need of this executive and may further explore the pros and
cons of his interpersonal behaviors with the executive on the following areas:

1. Difference between expressed and wanted scores

2. Low scores on control
3. High scores on affection

Since, FIRO-B deals with the behavior of executive, the executive can identify
what behavior he needs to change to improve his interpersonal effectiveness at his
workplace, so that the corporate coach can facilitate the change process using
behavioral coaching methodology.
Over the years, Schutz revised and expanded the FIRO theory and developed
additional instruments. FIRO element B instrument, developed from FIRO-B,
focuses on three interpersonal contents area—inclusion, control, and openness
(affection in FIRO-B instrument). Element B measures expressed (what I do),
received (what I receive), perceived (what I see), and wanted (what I want)
behaviors. As a result, FIRO Element B gives 12 scores as compared to six scores
of FIRO-B, as explained in Table 9.3.

Table 9.3 FIRO Element B Scales

Perceived (See) Wanted (Want)
Expressed (Do) Inclusion I include people I want to include people
Expressed (Do) Control I control people I want to control people
Expressed (Do) Openness I am open with people I want to be open with people
Received (Get) Inclusion People include me I want people to include me
Received (Get) Control People control me I want people to control me
Received (Get) Openness People are open with me I want people to be open with
me

FIRO Element B also calculates “Dissatisfaction” scores besides scores on 12

elements. Dissatisfaction scores are defined as “I don’t have what I want”—the
difference between the scores of “What I Want” and “What I Get.” It may be
interpreted in two ways:

1. Unhappiness: Let us look into one example. Let us assume the executive score
on “People include me” is 3, whereas the score on “I want people to include
 me” is 8. This difference of 5 may be a source of great dissatisfaction in an
executive’s life and lead to unhappiness.
2. Recognition: Alternatively, this difference may simply be recognition of the
state the executive is at the present. He may recognize that things are not the
way he wants them to be.

In both the situations, the Dissatisfaction score opens a coaching opportunity for
the executive and the coach can explore further, if any action is required.

Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0)

The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0) was developed by Dr Reuven
Bar-On, a clinical psychologist, to assess emotional-social intelligence based on
the EQ-i 2.0 model. The EQ-i is a self-report measure of emotionally and socially
intelligent behavior that provides an estimate of emotional-social intelligence. In
this model, emotional intelligence is defined as a set of emotional and social skills
that collectively establish how well one perceives and expresses oneself, develops,
and maintains social relationships, copes with challenges, and uses emotional
information in an effective and meaningful way.
The EQ-i 2.0 inventory consists of 133 items in the form of short sentences and
employs a 5-point response scale with a textual response format. It takes
approximately 30 minutes to complete. It gives an overall EQ score as well as
scores for the five composite scales and 15 subscales. Five composite scales are self-
perception, self-expression, interpersonal, decision making, and stress management.
EQ-i 2.0 report also gives the well-being indicator, i.e., Happiness score, which
is a reflection of feeling of satisfaction, contentment, and the ability to enjoy the
many aspects of one’s life. Annexure 9.1 gives one sample EQ-i 2.0 report.
Self-perception composite scale pertains to the assessment of the inner self, i.e.,
self-regard, self-actualization, and emotional self-awareness. Self-regard subscale
indicates how accurately they perceive, understand, and accept themselves. It is
extremely important for individuals to have confidence in their skills and abilities.
Individuals who are assured of themselves generally have a positive outlook, are
able to express themselves with confidence, and are happier in their life. They are
aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Self-actualization is the willingness to
persistently try to improve oneself and engage in the pursuits of personally
relevant and meaningful objectives that lead to a rich and enjoyable life.
Emotional Self-awareness indicates how much individuals are effective in
recognizing and understanding their own feelings and emotions. Being aware of
emotions is critical when interacting with others at the workplace and is essential
to work performance.
Emotional expression, a subscale of Self-expression, reflects how openly one
expresses one’s feelings verbally and non-verbally. Assertiveness subscale measures
the ability to express one’s feelings, convictions, and opinions in a constructive
manner. It is important for individuals to be able to express their ideas clearly and
confidently to coworkers at the workplace. Independence measures the ability to
be self-reliant and self-directed in one’s thinking and actions as well as free of
emotional dependence on others. Independence subscale measures the ability to
be self-directed and free from emotional dependence from others. Decision-
making, planning, and daily tasks are completed autonomously.
Interpersonal composite scale deals with the ability to develop and maintain
relationships based on trust and compassion, articulate an understanding of
another’s perspective, and act responsibly while showing concerns for others.
Interpersonal relationships subscale reflects the ability to develop and maintain
mutually satisfying relationships that are characterized by trust and compassion.
Empathy subcomponent measures an individual’s ability to be aware of,
understand, and appreciate how other people feel. Social responsibility
subcomponent indicates how effectively any individual can identify one’s social
group and cooperate with other individuals or groups within the organization.
Decision-making scale reflects how well one understands the impacts emotions
have on decision making, including the ability to resist or delay impulses and
remains objective. Problem-solving subscale deals with how effectively personal
and interpersonal problems are solved, where emotions are involved. Reality
testing subscale deals with the validation of one’s feelings and thinking with
external realities objectively. Impulse control reflects the ability to resist or delay
an impulse, drive or temptation to act, and involves rash behavior and decision
making.
Stress management component consists of flexibility, stress tolerance, and
optimism. Stress tolerance is defined as the ability to effectively manage one’s
emotions and the emotions of others in order to positively cope with stress.
Flexibility subscale measures how one adopts and adjusts one’s feelings and
thinking to new situations. Optimism subscale measures the ability to maintain a
positive attitude even when faced with adversity.
EQ-i 2.0 generates two reports, one for the executive, known as Workplace
Report, and the other for Coach. The standard report begins with graphical
display of the results of Total EI, the 5 composite scales and the 15 subscales, in
three ranges, viz., low range, mid-range and high range. The average range score is
100 with standard deviation of 15. The total EI score indicates how effective they
are in overall emotional and social functioning. EQ-i 2.0 norms are based on a
sample of 4,000 people from North America, comprising equal representation of
gender and age groups. Three types of norms, i.e., general population, age/gender,
and professional norms, are available for EQ-i 2.0 inventory. In the balancing EI
section of each subscale report, it gives the related subscale that has significant
difference of 10 and more. In the coach report, it gives for three related subscales,
whereas it is only the highest difference between that subscale and fifteen other
subscales, presented with details of its implication in the executive report. In the
coach report, additional information on responses of each item, response
distribution, inconsistency index, and positive and negative impression are
provided besides follow-up questions for each subscale.
EQ-i 2.0 assessment report is designed to provide the executive awareness with
regard to their emotional and social functioning at work. Corporate coaches help
the executive determine the areas that are critical and important for their job
success. After identifying the developmental area(s), the coach supports the
executive to develop strategies for behavioral change with a detailed action plan
and how to acquire new behavior. EQ-i 2.0 report also suggests various
developmental strategies for all subscales, so that executives can choose appropriate
action based on their development needs.

DISC Instrument
DISC instrument is an instrument developed based on the theory of Dr William
Marston. Dr Marston intended to explain how normal human emotions lead to
differences in behavioral reactions among people to a particular work
environment. It also addresses why there is a change in a person’s behavior from
time to time. DISC instrument measures the surface traits or characteristic ways of
behaving in a particular situation, not to describe human characteristics that are
not readily observable by others. He postulated a theory of human behavior as a
function of two bipolar dimensions, one external and the other internal. The
external environment can be described in terms of a continuum with opposing
poles: antagonistic and favorable. The internal reaction of individuals can be
described along a continuum from opposing poles, activity to passivity. These two
dimensions provide a matrix from which the individual’s typical pattern of
interaction could be described through four characteristics—Dominance (D),
Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Conscientiousness (C). He claimed that people
would generally display one or more of these characteristics in the working
environment.
Dominance: Dominance is the factor of directness, assertiveness, and control.
People who score high on D are described as demanding, forceful, strong-willed,
competitive, ambitious, determined, aggressive, independent-minded, motivated to
succeed, and effective at getting their way. Low D people are described as cautious,
mild, modest, peaceful, cooperative, conservative, undemanding, and low keyed.
People who have D as prominent in their profile often try to maintain authority
and power over others, and in general, on the environment they work. They seem
to take challenges and rarely back away from difficult situations.
Influence: People with high I scores are described as influencing, friendly,
extroverted, sociable, warm, and open to others. They are characterized as
convincing, persuasive, trusting, optimistic, and demonstrative. They are guided
more by their feelings, highly communicative, and socially confident. Person with
low I are described as reflective, skeptical, calculative, critical, logical, and matter of
fact person.
Steadiness: People who show a high level of S score are patient, undemanding,
sympathetic listener, calm, relaxed, stable, consistent, persistent, and power of
concentration allow them to work steadily.. They do not like sudden change but
prefer to work in predictable and constant environment. People with low S score
prefer to have change and variety. They are restless, demonstrative, impulsive, and
impatient.
Compliance: People with high C score are structured, detailed oriented,
systematic, cautious, adhere to rules and procedures, and display high level in
precision and accuracy in their work. They would like to do quality work and do
it right. Individuals with low S scores are described as unsystematic, stubborn,
independent-minded, and may challenge established rules and procedures. In
extremely difficult situations, people with high C scores delay actions till the last
moment in order to find possible solutions.
DISC instrument forces respondents to choose the words most and the least
describing himself or herself out of four choices in each of the 24 questions. By
charting these choices scientifically, DISC instrument provides an insight into how
this person copes with the environment and in turn gives a key to his/her present
attitudes and possible performance.
 It takes approximately 10–15 minutes to complete the instrument and the DISC
profile is generated through software. Other most popular instruments based on
the DISC theory are DISCUS, Thomas Profiling, DISC Classic, Personal Profile
System, etc.
DISC instrument gives the DISC profile of the executive, which in fact gives the
general characteristics of the work profile, their motivation, permanent traits,
potential traits, transient traits, behavioral adaption, communication style, decision
making, organization and planning, management style, etc., of the executive. Role
Behavior analysis gives the behavioral competency required for the role, the
executive is at present, or would like to move on. A comparison of DISC Role
Behavior Analysis and DISC profile gives a list of the behavioral competencies
that are to be developed or changed for the executive.

SPIRO-M Instrument
A person influences other persons with whom he/she interacts. In some roles,
influence is a central function. One of the main functions of a role holder in an
organization is to influence others for the achievement of work objectives. Those
in influencing roles not only solve problems and help others, but also make an
impact on others’ ability to solve future problems. Another managerial function is
to help one’s subordinates to develop.
The Styles Profile of Interaction Roles in Organization for managers (SPIRO-
M) instrument developed by Pareek (1997) to obtain a profile of managing styles
—low or high frequency or intensity along specific dimensions. Each person
involved in transactions with others has three ego states:

1. The Parent, which regulates behavior (through prescriptions and sanctions)

2. The Adult, which collects information and processes it
3. The Child, which is primarily concerned with (a) creativity, curiosity, (b)
reactions to others, and (c) adjusting to others’ demand

Each ego state is important in managerial role. The functional or dysfunctional

roles of these ego states depend on the life position a manager takes. Harries(1969)
has conceptualized four life positions: I’m OK-you’re OK; I’m not OK-you’re
OK; I’m OK-You’re not OK; and I’m not OK-You’re not OK. James (1975) has
suggested that, in general, the concepts of OK and not OK can be used to
understand how managers behave. As James (1975) and Avery (1980) suggested,
the six ego states can be combined with the two life positions (OK and not OK),
hence there are 12 influencing styles (Table 9.4).
The SPIRO-M is a self-report instrument containing 36 statements. Responses
are collected on a five-point scale. The SPIRO-M report gives the dominant and
supporting influential styles, under-developed ego state, if any, and the operating
effectiveness indices of six ego states, which show how effectively the OK
dimension of a particular ego state is being used.

Table 9.4 Twelve Influence Styles

Styles in Two Life Positions
Ego States Not OK OK
Nurturing parent Rescuing Supportive
Regulating parent Prescriptive Normative
Adult Task obsessive Problem solving
Creative child Innovative Bohemian
Reactive child Aggressive Confronting
Adaptive child Sulking Resilient

The Operating Effectiveness Quotient (OEQ) of each ego style indicates how
effectively the respondents are using that style in their managerial role. If the OK
score is higher than the not-OK score on that style, it means that he is effective in
that style. However, if the not-OK score is higher than the OK score, he is not
effective on that style. OEQ is calculated using the formula: (OK – 3) × 100/(
OK + not-OK – 6). Managers may show several of these behaviors mentioned
above. However, they use one style more frequently than the others. If the
dominant behavior is from OK dimension, then there will be higher effective
interpersonal relationship in the coaching process. Let me explain through one
example. One middle-level operation manager of a large corporation was
administered this instrument. Based on his responses, it emerged that his
regulating parent function has low OEQ, based on the norms. This reflects that he
tends to prescribe his subordinated what he think should be done in order to
establish norms. This resulted in his subordinates not developing self-regulating
behavior and the norms are not followed, when he is not present at the workplace.
The manager may do the following to improve his OEQ index of regulating
parent function:

Instead of giving clear instructions to his team on what should or should not
be done (which is kind of imposing his norms on others), he should
 encourage his team to explore what should or should not be done, and why.
Instead of prescribing standards or practices to be followed (which may be
seen as imposition), he may evolve the objectives to be achieved with his
team and then develop norms and practices that will help him achieve the
objectives. He should encourage his team to self-regulate and self-monitor,
review with them from time to time how things are progressing, and what
can be done to promote effectiveness.
Instead of admonishing his team members for not acting according to his
instruction on most occasions, he may like to explore why they could not do
so.

VIA Inventory of Strengths and Strength Finders

Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) quote that “the time has arrived for a
positive psychology, our message is to remind our field that psychology is not just
the study of pathology, weakness and damage; it is also the study of strength and
virtue. Treatment is not just fixing what is broken; it is nurturing what is best.”
They further quote, “No longer do the dominant theories (psychological) view
individual as a passive vessel responding to stimuli; rather, individuals are now seen
as decision makers, with choices, preferences and the possibility of becoming
masterful, efficacious …”
Martin Seligman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Ed Diener developed the
foundation of positive psychology in early 2000. Martin Seligman suggested that
we study what is right about people and explore what is best about human being,
instead of focusing on human failures and shortcomings. Based on the work of
Seligman, Values in Action Institute of Character (VIA), founded by Dr Neal H.
Mayerson, D. Manuel, and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, introduced VIA
classification and VIA Inventory of Strengths Survey (IS), based on three years’
research and input from scores of experts from various disciplines.
Peterson and Seligman (2004) developed a 240-item self-report questionnaire to
assess 24 strengths of characters, each categorized within six virtues. Virtues are
defined as “the core characteristics valued by moral philosophers and religious
thinkers” where character strengths are “the psychological ingredients—i.e.,
processes and mechanism—that define the virtues” (Peterson and Seligman, 2004).
Six virtues are “Wisdom and Knowledge,” “Courage,” “Humanity,” “Justice,”
“Temperance,” and “Transcendence.”
 VIA offers free survey report to those who would like to know their five
“signature strengths,” those strengths that are most core to who they are (for
further details, please visit [Link]). VIA Me! Pathway (paid report) is 19+
page report providing a detailed description of each of the signature strengths,
including benefits of the strengths and other information to help on how to apply
strengths in life.
Source: Pareek (1997).

Besides this, the VIA PRO report offers an in-depth and detailed exploration of
“signature strengths,” a summary of what research evidences on each signature
strengths, issues related to underuse and overuse of the signature strengths, and a
look at the balance of strengths on a continuum of head/heart and self/others. It
also gives recommendation for building each of the 24 strengths.
When the executive takes the assessment, the coach assists the executive on how
to access their strengths. The strength inventory results help the executive to
increase their self-efficacy, which leads them to work for challenging goals with
enthusiasm and confidence. The coach guides the executives on how to use their
strengths in achieving their goals during the action planning stage. Sometimes, the
coach asks their executive how they have used their strengths in the past in their
work life either in achieving their success or in removing obstacles, so that the
executives get insights on how they can access their strengths.
StrengthsFinder 2.0 is another tool developed by Gallup by a team of researchers
led by Donald O. Clifton. Gallup believed, based on their 40 years of study, that
people have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy in
developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies. Initial
assessment tool, known as Clifton Strengths Finder assessment, created a language
of the 34 most common themes for talent. Strengths Finder actually is a measure
of talent, not strengths. The 34 themes represent Gallup attempts at creating a
common language or classification of talents. After completing the
StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment, the report gives the following:

1. Top five theme report, built around the Strengths Insight descriptions
2. Fifty ideas for action (ten for each of top five themes)
3. Strengths Discovery Interview to help on how experience, skills, and
knowledge can be used to build strengths
4. A strength-based action plan
 Readers can read more about this tool from the book of Tom Rath on
StrengthsFinder 2.0, published by Gallup Press or website
[Link].

Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ/OPQ32)

The Occupational Personality Questionnaire (commonly referred to as “OPQ” or
“OPQ32”) was launched in 1984 by SHL (Saville and Holdsworth). It is a
globally well-known tool extensively used in the selection, development,
succession, and transition of potential and current executives/employees in both
public and private sector organizations across a range of job levels. The OPQ32
model proposes that current and future behaviors are influenced by the
personality of individuals and work groups. Reports from OPQ32 provide
information on how dispositions are likely to influence the present or future
manifestation of desired behaviors in a given organizational or role context. The
dimensions assessed are centered upon three personality areas, namely the thinking
domain, the relating domain, and the feeling domain. The thinking domain covers
traits such as abstract thinking, and practical and detailed consciousness. The
relating domain covers traits of social relationships. The feeling domain includes
traits such as anxiety, tough-mindedness, and emotional control.
There is a normative version (OPQ32n) and an ipsative version (OPQ32i) of
OPQ32. Both are designed to measure 32 facets of personality that are relevant to
occupational uses such as selection, promotion, counseling, development, team
building, organizational change and audits, training needs analysis, and research.
The 32 facets of personality are grouped into three domains, further divided into
subdomains. The three domains are relationships with people, thinking style, and
feelings and emotions.
The newly launched OPQ32r is a significantly improved OPQ32 and
revolutionized workplace personality assessment tool by using the latest
techniques to make it faster, easier to use, more powerful, and more precise.

Sixteen Personality Factors (16 PF)

English-born US psychologist Raymond Cattell constructed the Sixteen
Personality Factor (16 PF) instrument in early 1956. There are different
definitions of personality defined by psychologists. However, Cattell mentioned
that personality “… enables us to predict what a person will do in real life
situations.” Hence, Catell’s 16 PF questionnaire is based on the assumption that
personality is described by 16 traits, including dimensions such as outgoingness,
social boldness, conscientiousness, tough-mindedness, and openness to change.
The 16 primary personality factors were derived by successive reductions, using
factor analysis of 17,953 personality traits. The test has been refined and extended
but has not changed fundamentally in nature. The personality factors measured by
16 PF instrument are not just unique to the test but rest within the context of a
general personality theory. These are essentially independent.
The 16 PF questionnaire measures 16 primary bipolar dimensions of personality
traits, named Factors A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. In
addition to these, at least five second-order dimensions, which are broader traits,
are calculated from the primary factor scores.
There are different versions of the 16 PF questionnaire, requiring 30–60 minutes
for administration. The 16 PF answer sheet is scored manually using stencil or
through computer. The raw scores are calculated from the responses to the
questionnaire and then the raw score is converted to sten scores (the term comes
from standard ten) using norm table available for a similar defined population.
Computer scoring interpretive reports are being used more frequently to reduce
errors and save time.
Multidimensional measures of personality are particularly helpful in the
coaching relationship to build the executives’ awareness of their preferred styles of
thinking and behaving across situations. This kind of assessment can help explain
why some people are well suited to some kinds of work environments or
situations while others are not. It can also help explain why some situations or
tasks are more stressful than others (Passmore, 2008).
Many researchers felt that Catell’s theory was too complex. As a result, the big
five-factor theory evolved to describe the basic traits that serve as the building
block of personality. Measures of the five-factor model of personality are based on
the accepted premise that all personality attributes are represented in five core,
broadband attributes, commonly referred to as the “Big five” (Goldberg,1990).
While there is a significant body of literature supporting this five-factor model of
personality, researchers do not always agree on the exact labels for each dimension.
However, these five categories are usually described as follows:

1. Extraversion: This trait includes characteristics such as excitability, fun loving,

friendly, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and high amounts of emotional
expressiveness.
 2. Agreeableness: This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust,
altruism, kindness, affection, flexible, generous, and other pro-social
behaviors.
3. Conscientiousness: Common features of this dimension include high levels of
thoughtfulness, careful, reliable, with good impulse control, and goal-directed
behaviors. Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful
of details.
4. Emotional stability: Individuals high in this trait tend to experience emotional
instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness.
5. Openness to experience: This trait features characteristics such as original,
creative, curious, imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also
tend to have a broad range of interests.

It is important to note that each of the five personality factors represents a range
between two extremes. For example, extraversion represents a continuum between
extreme extraversion and extreme introversion. In the real world, most people lie
somewhere in between the two polar ends of each dimension.

Chapter Summary
Corporate coach uses a wide range of psychological tools and inventories, having
tested for psychometric properties, in coaching for creating self-awareness of the
executive, in order to help them to understand who they are, what gifts they have,
what strengths they can leverage on, and what are the preferred styles and
preferences so that they can pursue their developmental journey with better
awareness on self. Though there are a variety of tools available in the market, it is
advisable to check reliability and validity data of individual tests as well as refer the
appropriate norm, applicable to the executive undergoing coaching.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tool provides a categorization of
personality typology into sixteen different types, reflecting on broad differences in
attitudes and orientations. Each type defines a specific set of behavioral tendencies,
due to basic differences the way individual prefers to use their perception and
judgment. Sixteen personality Factor (16 PF) is a multi-dimensional measurement
of personality. Big Five Factor personality assessment is based on the premise that
all personality attributes are represented in five broad factors of personality. These
are Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and
Openness to Experience. The Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) 32
model proposes that the current and future work behavior is influenced by the
personality of individuals.
Values in Action (VIA) inventory and Strength Finders are two important
coaching instruments for coaches who have strong conviction on positive
psychology. These two inventories allow the executives to develop their awareness
on their strengths so that they can leverage it for their growth.
The FIRO-B inventory measures interpersonal relationship orientation of
individuals, which allows predicting their interpersonal behavior at the workplace
and helps executives to understand self vis-à-vis in developing healthy relationship.
DISC predicts the behavior of individual at the workplace based on specific
characteristics displayed by them. EQ-i 2.0 measures emotional and social
intelligence in five composite scales and fifteen subscales, which ultimately impact
the leadership competencies.
Finally, each tool mentioned in this chapter has specific use in the coaching
context. Hence, corporate coaches take conscious decision on which tool is
appropriate for the context of the executive, their developmental agenda based on
a proper understanding of interpreting the results.

Annexure 9.1: Overview of EQ-i 2.0 Result

 References
Avery, B. (1980). Ego states: Manifestation of psychic organs. Transactional Analysis Journal, 10 (4), pp. 291–294.
Goldberg, L.R. (1990). An alternative ‘description of personality’: A big-five factor structure. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 59, pp. 1216–1229.
James, M. (1975). The OK boss. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
Myers, I.B., McCaully, M.H., Quenk, N.L., & Hammer, A.L. (1998). MBTI manual: A guide to the development
and use of the myers-briggs type indicator, 3rd ed. California: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.
The Occupational Personality Questionnaire, [Link]/assests/resources/[Link] accessed on
October 1, 2013.
Pareek, U. (1997). Training instruments for human resource development. New Delhi: Tata Mcgraw-Hill Publishing.
Passmore, J. (2008). Psychometrics in coaching, using psychological and psychometric tools for development. London:
Kogen Page.
Peterson, C. & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Washington,
D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Schutz, W. (1958). FIRO: A three-dimensional theory of interpersonal behavior. New York: Rinehart.
Seligman, M. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologists, 55
(1), pp. 5–14.
 CHAPTER 10
360-Degree Survey in Coaching
Need Assessment

O ne tool that has predominantly gained popularity in corporations of India is

360-degree feedback survey. This is because organizational leaders realized
that it is necessary to get multiple perspectives, instead of single assessment of
reporting officer, for objective evaluation of competencies (mostly soft skills) of
employees, which ultimately lead to performance. Though the 360-degree
feedback survey is not a new tool, many organizations conduct yearly 360-degree
feedback survey for their employees as a part of their performance and
development management program. Organizations feel that 360-degree feedback
survey is a very useful tool for identifying developmental needs of their executives.
Many Fortune 500 companies world over and large corporations in India are
using 360-degree evaluation in one form or the other.
360-Degree feedback survey is a formalized and structured process whereby an
employee receives feedback on his performance, competencies, and behavior from
multiple individuals or raters, who regularly interact with the executive as well as
self-assessment by the executive/employee. The raters typically represent the
executive/employee’s boss, peers, subordinates, customers, or suppliers who are
credible and familiar with the executive’s working. 360-degree feedback generally
measures “How” not “What,” i.e., the focus is on process rather than on content.
In corporate coaching domain, 360-feedback survey is being used as the starting
point of corporate coaching journey.
The purpose of conducting 360-degree feedback survey is to provide their
employees with feedback on their performance, behaviors, and skills and their
potential as observed by the raters, so that the executive gets an opportunity to
understand and improve any gap or issues that may exist between his performance,
skill, competency, or behavior as perceived by themselves and other stakeholders
in the organization.
Broadly, 360-degree feedback survey does the following things:
 1. It provides multi-source, multi-rater objective assessment of the executive’s
competencies (knowledge, skills, and behavior), working styles, personal
qualities, and its impact on others.
2. It provides feedback that is more acceptable to the executive.
3. It reduces individual biases, which are very common in single-rater
assessment, such as performance appraisal.
4. It includes feedback from external stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers,
etc. Self-appraisal is also an important component of 360-degree feedback
survey.
5. It provides insight of strong and weak areas of the executive. Identification of
the development needs for the executive is crucial for executive’s
performance and growth. Leveraging on the area of strength helps executives
to further improve their performance.
6. It provides an opportunity for developmental planning for the executive.

360-Degree feedback survey is highly effective if the organization culture is

conducive for such intervention and a high amount of preparatory work is
undertaken before introduction. If there is no cohesiveness, trust, and respect
among employees, it may happen that the raters may not give their opinion
honestly or they may form a collusion of rating each other high or develop
retaliatory behavior toward others. In those situations, 360-degree feedback survey
is not an appropriate tool for the organizations.
While introducing the 360-degree assessment for coaching, the following broad
steps are undertaken:
Preparation stage: The most important questions of any 360-degree evaluation are
what are the criteria on which evaluation needs to be done and whether to use
standardized, packaged assessment tool available in the marketplace or not. There
are many standard and validated 360 assessment tools available in the market, and
each tool measures specific sets of skills, behaviors, and competencies. The most
commonly used tools in coaching are EQ360, LSI (lifestyles inventory), Campbell
leadership index, Benchmark, Hogan Development Survey, etc. Using standardized
tool is always preferable than developing new tools, since all standardized tools are
tested for psychometric properties and norms are available. Moreover, each
standardized tool gives comprehensive analysis of results as well as broad
developmental planning guidelines.
The limitations of standardized tools are that each tool evaluates specific sets of
behaviors or competencies, which may not be aligned with the unique
competencies of the organization or the competencies required for the position
holders to achieve the organizational goals and strategies. In some situations,
organization may decide specific developmental areas the executives need to
strengthen for their existing role or future roles, which may not be covered in the
off-the-self assessment tools. Most of the standard assessment tools give
quantitative evaluations (e.g., 1–5 or 1–10 scale) but focus less on behavioral issues.
A good 360-degree feedback questionnaire should include the behaviors, skills,
and competencies that are relevant for the executive and the raters are able to
choose responses based on what behaviors the raters actually observed or noticed
the application of such behavior rather than guessing it.
If the 360-degree feedback questionnaire is designed based on the organizational
requirements or on specific coaching requirements, then the questionnaire is
required to be pre-tested for reliability and validity within a small representative
sample. A sample 360-degree feedback survey designed and administered for the
leadership team at a manufacturing-based organization by the author is given in
Annexure 10.1 for reference.
While designing the questionnaire, it is important to keep in mind that there is
enough opportunity for raters to justify their ratings with evidences, which
ultimately help the executive at a later stage in interpretation of the results. After
finalizing the instrument, the next step is to identify the raters. Normally, the
coach, the executive, and the representative from the human resource department
jointly decide 8–10 raters from superior officers, peers, subordinates, customers, or
vendors, having at least 3 from each group of raters, except for the superior
category. Sometimes, it is difficult to find 8–10 raters who know the individual
well enough to give insightful feedback. It is may be due to frequent
organizational changes or the rater identified may have not worked with him for a
considerable period of time or some rater may be new to the organization. It is
important that all the identified raters necessarily interact with the
executive/employee for a minimum six months. Another problem arises when
one rater is rating many individuals, then after one or two feedbacks, the attitude
of the rater becomes just completing the work within the time constraints, not
giving enough thoughts in each feedback. In that situation, care is taken that any
rater should not rate more than three ratees in a short period of time, say within a
week.
After identifying the raters, organization sends communication to all the raters
explaining the objectives and purposes of this exercise, what is expected from
them, and how much their honest and objective inputs are important in this
process. Some organizations conduct training sessions or communication meeting
for all the raters, so that they get familiarized on the process, which in turn gets all
the raters enrolled in the exercise.
Administration stage: Organizations then decide when to start the evaluation, the
time period during which the data are to be collected, who will be the process
owner, and the mode of administration of the survey. With easy availability of
technology, most of the 360-degree feedback surveys nowadays are administered
online to keep the feedback confidential, to cover a large number of
executives/employees working at various locations, and to make the analysis
simpler.
Analysis stage: If standardized test is administered, then comprehensive analysis is
available to the coach and the executive. If the instrument is designed by the
coach, then the coach decides what are the analysis to be done, how the data are
to be presented, what sort of comparisons are to be incorporated, how the
qualitative and behavioral data are to be compiled, etc. The feedback survey report
generally contains a brief on how to read the report, developmental planning
work-sheet, and guidelines for further actions. Figure 10.1 gives a snapshot of
summary of 360-degree feedback survey result. Annexure 10.2 gives an example
of a part of the detailed feedback report.
Figure 10.1 A Sample of Overall Score Overview

Feedback stage: This is the most sensitive stage in 360-degree feedback for the
executive. The coach helps the executive on how to read the report in the right
perspectives so that the executive is able to identify his developmental needs. In
some cases, the feedback affirms the areas the executives are aware of themselves as
well as matches with their perceptions, but it will also identify a few areas that
need their immediate attention. In some cases, the feedback report may be hard-
hitting, a total surprise for the executive and may even be de-motivating. Here the
coach assists the executives to examine the feedback from their work perspectives
and their work context so that they can identify if there are any clear messages
that they agree on or disagree with. Debriefing 360-degree feedback to the
executive is a skill. Corporate coaches are generally trained on how to debrief the
feedback survey results to coaching executives.
Debriefing is done based on the 3A’s model of change: Awareness, Acceptance,
and Action. First one or two sessions of debriefing is primarily focused on
creating an awareness of assessment tools, its assumptions, what it measures, its
limitations, etc. After creating awareness on the 360-degree assessment tool, the
coach assists the executive to create an understanding of what are the results of the
survey, i.e., what are the messages for him. While going through the feedback
results, the executive may experience surprise, confusion, dissonance, denial, or
rejection. Hence it requires time for the executive to accept the feedback by
reflecting on it over a period of time. So the coach requests the executive to
reflect on the results till the next coaching session. After a gap of 15 days to one
month, the action stage comes when the executive has got time to interpret the
results in his own perspectives and accept the feedback to a reasonable extent.
The coach may ask the executive to do the following in the acceptance phase,
while reading the report:

1. Identify three to four areas of strengths based on the ratings received from all
the raters.
2. Identify three to four areas of development based on ratings received.
3. Identify three to four areas where there are major gaps between self-rating
and overall ratings from raters.
4. Identify three to four areas that surprised him/her, whether it is his/her
strength areas or areas of development.
5. Identify areas where there are major differences in ratings of different rater
groups.

It is not necessary for the executive to agree with the feedback report
completely. The objective of debriefing is the executive should be able to identify
key strengths she/he possesses, key developmental opportunities, and the areas
where there is major perception gap of his/her own assessment vis-à-vis others, as
a whole or a group of raters, viz., peers, bosses, subordinates, etc. The coach assists
the executive to examine the perception gaps and helps the executive explore why
there is a major perception gap. The coaches are trained on how to analyze the
data and how to present feedback to the executive/employee, so that the ultimate
objectives of 360-degree feedback are achieved. The coach encourages the
executive/employee to reflect on the common themes or messages that the raters
are making vis-à-vis their own self-assessment. When the executive/employee
observes a consistent pattern in feedback from different sources, the
executive/employee finds the feedback as important for his growth and
effectiveness. When executives/employees accept the message from the feedback,
there is a high possibility that they would like to undertake behavior change or
improve skills.
The coach sometimes encourages the executive to do the following:

1. Go back to the people who participated and thank them for their inputs and
time. This is because these people gave their time, thoughts, and inputs,
which are important for his/her growth.
2. Tell the people one or two things she/he learned from 360-degree feedback
results, which are important for him/her.
3. Tell the people what are their plans and in what way they can help or
support him/her.

Developmental action planning: In the developmental planning stage, the coach

suggests the executive to focus on the following, while selecting the
developmental areas:

1. Identification of one strength area to capitalize on

2. Identification of one mid-range area of development, which needs to be
made stronger
3. Identification of one development area having the lowest score

The coach then helps the executive define developmental goal for each area so
that the detailed action plan can be developed to achieve the developmental goal.
While developing the action plan, the executives also identify the resources they
may need and what could be the obstacles. A specimen action planning sheet,
given in Annexure 10.3, can be used for developmental planning.
Finally, giving feedback to the executive/employee is not a simple task. While
positive feedback helps the executive/employee to reinforce behavior and higher
motivation, negative impact of the feedback can be observed when the
executive/employee displays behavior of withdrawal, defensiveness, mistrust, and a
decreased level of commitment to change, or even in coaching. Sometime, 360-
degree feedback can be damaging to some executives/employees, if the coach
does not handle it properly. They may lose self-esteem, their egos may be hurt,
their self-efficacy may reduce, or it may impact them emotionally.
The two most commonly used 360-degree feedback tools in corporate coaching
are briefly discussed below.
Life Styles Inventory
The Life Styles Inventory (LSI), a 360-degree feedback tool, was developed by
clinical psychologist Dr J. Clayton Lafferty, founder of Human Synergistic
International during the early 1970s. The LSI assesses and provides feedback on
thinking and behavioral patterns that people can change to develop themselves
along multiple dimensions, including their ability to understand and manage their
emotions.
Lafferty postulated that individuals’ self-images are shaped by their patterns of
thinking, including their perceptions about how others see them, their own self-
image, and their perceptions of what they are vis-à-vis what they should be. Those
who have a positive self-image will have a healthy relationship with others and
strive toward self-actualization by realizing and exploiting their true potential.
However, those who have an unhealthy interpersonal relationship with others
have unrealistic expectations of what they should be and self-defeating beliefs
about themselves create a negative self-image, resulting in underutilization of their
potential. LSI, therefore, helps individuals in monitoring and modifying their
personal thinking styles for growth, development and realization of their true
potential.
The LSI measures personal orientations toward different thinking and behavioral
styles based on one’s needs and interests. It measures twelve distinct thinking and
behavioral styles that are distinguished by their orientations toward task versus
people and higher-order needs for satisfaction and growth versus lower needs for
security and safety. The 12 Personal Managerial or Leadership Styles are as
follows:

1. Humanistic-encouraging (1 o’clock): People with humanistic-encouraging style

are interested in growth and development of people and have a high positive
regard for others. They are empathetic, compassionate, thoughtful,
considerate, and encourage others.
2. Affiliative (2 o’clock): People with affiliative style are friendly and cooperative
with others. They are interested in developing sustainable relationship with
others and make others feel as a part of them. They like people and enjoy
people’s interaction.
3. Approval (3 o’clock): The approval style reflects a need to be accepted by
others. They try hard to please others, be agreeable, and obedient. Fear of
 rejection limits them to confront others assumptions, thinking, and actions.
Their self-efficacy is dependent on other’s acceptance of them.
4. Conventional (4 o’clock): People high on this style prefer to follow established
rules, procedures, and systems, like status quo and prefer a stable, predictable
work environment. They are conformists, follow tried and tested techniques
rather than trying new things, and lack flexibility and creativity in general.
5. Dependent (5 o’clock): People high on this style have a need of others to take
charge of the situations, to make decisions for them, depend on others to
help them in every occasion, since they have a belief that they do not have
direct control over events or actions and they cannot make difference to
others.
6. Avoidance (6 o’clock): People high on this style have a strong apprehension, a
need for self-protection, “play it safe” attitude, and shy away from group
activities. They lack true emotional and psychological engagement with
others, because of fear of disapproval from others.
7. Oppositional (7 o’clock): Oppositional style reflects a strong need of security
that is manifested in tough questioning, critical and cynical, at times. They
ask questions to others, blame others for their own mistake, use criticism to
gain attention of others, and are judgmental of others. Their behavior
generally erodes relationship and trust.
8. Power (8 o’clock): This style reflects a need to control and influence others.
They generally dictate other actions, try to do every activity by themselves,
and treat others in aggressive and forceful manners.
9. Competitive (9 o’clock): People high on this scale motivate and drive others to
operate in a win-lose situation, outperform their peers, and do anything
necessary to look good.
10. Perfectionist (10 o’clock): This style reflects a need to set unrealistically high
goals, stay on top of every detail, and work long hours to attain narrowly
defined objectives.
11. Achievement (11 o’clock): People high on this scale motivate and encourage
others to set challenging but realistic goals, establish plans to reach those
goals, and pursue them with enthusiasm.
12. Self-actualizing (12 o’clock): This style reflects a need to gain enjoyment from
their work, develop them professionally, and approach problems with interest,
creativity, and integrity.

These 12 thinking and behavioral styles are organized into three general clusters:
 1. Constructive styles: Achievement, self-actualizing, affiliative, and humanistic-
encouraging.
2. Passive/defensive styles: Approval, conventional, dependent, and avoidance.
3. Aggressive/defensive styles: Oppositional, power, competitive, and
perfectionistic.

The LSI comprises two inventories: LSI 1 and LSI 2. The LSI 1 is a self-
assessment inventory of one’s thinking styles and self-concept. The LSI 2 is
completed by other associates up to 12 in number to get their perceptions about
the individual. Both the inventories have 240 items and responses are collected in
the following three options:

2: Like me/this person most of the time

1: Like me/this person quite often
0: Essentially unlike me/this person

Results are plotted in the Circumplex model of Dr Laffery, which is normed

against 14,000 individuals (the details of the model can be viewed at :
[Link]). The raw scores are converted into percentile or
normed scores. There are five concentric circles on the profile representing the
10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 99th percentiles.

EQ 360 Assessment Tool

EQ 360 assessment tool is based on the EQ-i 2.0 model described earlier in the
coaching instrument chapter. It measures the emotional and social skills of the
EQ-i 2.0 model from various perspectives:

1. His or her self-perspective

2. His or her reporting manager’s perspective
3. His or her direct report’s perspective
4. His or her peer’s perspective
5. Where appropriate, his or her friend’s and family’s, customers’, executives’
perspective, etc.

While selecting raters for this assessment, the ratee chooses the raters broadly
based on the following criteria, so that an overall picture of the ratee can be
obtained from a variety of raters:

1. A mix of people including those who know the ratee for a long time and
those who know for a less time
2. Those who know the ratee well and those who know the ratee less well
3. Raters who trust the ratee and do not feel pressured into responding in a
given way

There should be minimum three raters in each rater group except in the
Manager group. If there is less than three raters in any category, then it is clubbed
into “Other” category.
EQ 360 feedback assessment has the same 133 questions as in EQ-i 2.0, only the
language of questions is changed for the raters. There is an option to choose up to
five open-ended questions from the database or the test administrators can create
their own. All verbatim responses of these open-ended questions are listed by the
rater group, e.g., Direct Report 1, Direct Report 2, etc.
The report provides details of how many raters in each group responded as well
as the details of responses for the following questions:

1. How long the rater has known the ratee being assessed?
2. How often the rater interacted with the ratee?
3. How well she/he knows the ratee being assessed?

The responses are normed against 3,200 samples, based on overall population,
gender, and rater type, i.e., direct report, peers, etc. The report gives a summary
report of five composite scales, overall EI, and fifteen subscales as rated by the
executive as well as ratings given by different categories of raters. If the difference
between self-rating and rating by any category of raters is more than 10, then “*”
is marked against the score.
The profile gap analysis of the report gives a visual representation of an
individual’s self-rating in the y-axis and the level of agreement between the self-
report and the other raters in the x-axis. Any subscale appearing in the “allied
strength” quadrant represents that the self-rating is above 100 and the rater groups
are in agreement with this score. Any subscale appearing in the reinforced
opportunities reveals that the ratee has rated self as low and that the rater groups
are in the agreement with the self-rating of the ratee. It means that there is a
developmental need of the rate in this subscale and the self-perception has been
confirmed by the other raters. Any subscale appearing in the right lower quadrant
reflects that there is “Disconnect,” meaning the self-assessment score is less than
100, whereas other raters do not agree with the self-rating score. The subscale
appearing in the blind spot reflects that there is a gap between how the ratee sees
himself or herself and how others see him or her.
Subscale pages of the report also highlights the gaps in each area where there is
at least a 10 point difference between self-rating and a particular rater group
rating. The closer agreement text is provided only if there is less than a 10-point
gap between self-rating and rating of a specific rater group. It also provides one
related subscale having the largest difference in Balancing EI section. However, in
the coach report three related subscales comparisons are provided. In the coach
report, follow-up questions for each subscale are also provided.

Chapter Summary
360-Degree assessment tool is an important tool for the coach, if it is effectively
used to collect data for the executive from the raters. If raters do not participate in
the process honestly and give objective assessment, a little will be gained from the
exercise. While undertaking 360-degree assessment in coaching, a conscious
decision is made whether to use standardized off-the-shelf tool or to design
assessment tool based on specific organizational needs. Selection of raters,
articulation within the organization, the purpose of undertaking 360 assessment
tool, and planning before introduction of assessment are critical for obtaining
meaningful input for the executive to identify their developmental needs. The role
of the coach is to assist the executive/employee in interpreting the feedback
report and to assist the executive/employee in identifying areas to be developed,
so that an effective developmental plan can be developed.

Annexure 10.1: Sample 360-Degree Feedback Tool

360-degree feedback for:

Please give your feedback as (Please  in the appropriate box.)

Self

Superior
Peer

Subordinate

Instructions:

1. The questionnaire is divided in two parts.

Part I: Based on your own experience, you are requested to indicate
the extent to which you agree or disagree with the given statements,
which are accurate descriptions of the executive. Only if you believe,
you do not have enough experience or information to respond to a
particular statement, choose the “N/A” to indicate “no
opinion/insufficient information to reply.” However this option shall
be opted only as an exception.
Part II: You are requested to specify your suggestions on the
executive’s leadership style/trait.
2. The questionnaire will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.
3. Your frank and honest feedback will be extremely valuable to the concerned
individual for his/her self-development. Please give your spontaneous,
natural, and truthful responses.

Feedback PART–I:
 Feedback PART–II:
(Not to be filled by assessee for Self)
 CONTINUE Three things you appreciate about the appraisee’s leadership
and managerial style, which he/she should continue doing
for enhancing Business Performance
1
2
3

STOP Three things you do not like about the appraisee’s

leadership and managerial style, which he/she should stop
doing for enhancing Business Performance
1
2
3

START Three things you feel about the appraisee’s leadership and
managerial style, which he/she should start doing for
enhancing Business Performance
1
2
3

Annexure 10.2: A Sample Report of 360 Feedback: Item-wise

Summary Result
II. LEADING AND MANAGING PEOPLE
II.d. Performance Orientation

Overall Average Score (out of 6)

Average Scores
Statements Self Superiors Peer/Int. Cust. Subordinates All
Observers
Monitors performance of 6.00 4.50 4.86 5.00 4.83
subordinates against
agreed targets and
encourages them to take
corrective actions
Proactively ensures that 6.00 3.50 4.63 5.33 4.62
people improve their
performance
6.00 4.50 4.63 4.67 4.62
Facilitates people to
perform as per role
expectation
Recognizes people’s 6.00 4.50 5.00 5.33 5.00
performance achievement
when they do well.

Annexure 10.3: A Sample Developmental Planning Worksheet

Specific developmental goal:

Expected Outcome

What will be different?

How will my organization or work group benefit?

What will I gain by achieving the goal and participation in the process?

Strategies for Development

Strategies Specific Actions

Obstacles I might face while implementing the strategies

What I will have to give up?

What obstacles or difficulties may exist? How will I manage them?

 CHAPTER 11
Measuring Corporate Coaching
Effectiveness

W hen a corporate coach undertakes coaching assignment in an organization,

there are certain broad deliverables decided jointly by the organization
and the corporate coach. In the beginning of coaching journey, the coach and the
executive jointly identify the developmental agenda that are important for the
executive. Though it is not generally only on areas of improvement in bottom
lines or workplace performance improvement, it is expected that any change of
behavior or improvement of skills or change of perspectives of the executive
would impact the performance of the executive, which in turn would impact
organizational performance. At the end of the coaching, the Human Resource
department would like to know whether the deliverables of coaching are achieved
as decided before the coaching. They would also like to know how the
effectiveness of the individual coach is to be assessed. Coaching effectiveness
measurement is therefore essential not only for assessing the impact of any
corporate coaching initiative but also the evaluation of individual coaches
involved in the intervention.
Any corporate coaching intervention, whether it is executive coaching or
behavioral coaching or even internal coaching program, runs for a minimum of
nine months to several months. It costs to the organization anything between `3
lakhs and 20 lakhs ($6,000 to $40,000) per executive/employee. It is quite obvious
that organizations would like to know whether such expenses are justified and the
coaching has achieved what it was expected to achieve. In other words,
organizations would like to know what are the reasonable returns of their
investment, directly or indirectly. Hence, it is important to measure the
effectiveness of coaching to justify that the investment made in coaching is not
only worth but also most effective for the organization as compared to other
developmental initiatives.
It is an already established fact that corporate coaching intervention not only
benefits the individual who undergoes coaching but also the organization, which
gets direct and indirect benefits in terms of improvement of performance in the
workplace of the executives. Whether it is executive coaching or performance
coaching or behavioral coaching, the ultimate objective of measuring effectiveness
of any corporate coaching initiative is how the change is impacting the
organizational performance.
McGovern et al. (2001) postulate that:

1. Coaching translates into doing.

2. Doing translates into impacting the business.
3. This impact can be quantified and maximized.

However, there are many challenges in measuring the effectiveness of corporate

coaching interventions. The foremost being there is no clarity at the beginning of
the coaching journey on what are the deliverables expected from the coaching.
This is because the agenda of the coaching (i.e., personal developmental plan of
the executive) is very sketchy or abstract, which gets clarified as the coaching
progresses. Sometimes it is not easy to convert intangible expectations from the
coaching into tangible goals in corporate coaching. It also takes quite a lot of time
and effort for the coach to understand where the executive is now, where he
would like to reach, and how this change can be quantified.
Second, the coaching is delivered typically over a long period of time, generally
one year or more. By that time, many changes happen in the business, in the
organization as well as in the context of the executive. It becomes difficult to
isolate external factors in the measurement of outcomes from the coaching.
Third, the most important challenge in the measurement of coaching
effectiveness is that coaching deals both with transactional and transformational
issues (or it could be tangible and intangible outcomes) of the
executive/employee. Though proper measurement matrices can be developed to
measure improvement in transactional parameters, it is difficult to develop
measurement criteria of transformational issues of the executive, since these issues
are quite complex and abstract. For example, issues such as delegation, change of
attitudes or perspective, improvement of work-life balance, etc., are some of the
areas where difficulties are faced in developing measurement matrices.
The next challenge is that the coaching outcomes are dependent on the
coachability of the executive/employee. The role of the coach is only to facilitate
the process and help the executive in the change process. The final coaching
outcomes will depend on how much the executive is ready to change and there is
a will to change. Now, the coachability of each executive/employee is difficult to
factor in the measurement of coaching effectiveness.
Finally each coaching assignment is different, each coach follows his/her unique
style and approach as well as each executive/employee brings unique coaching
challenges in the journey. Now, we discuss how the coaching effectiveness
measurement takes into considerations of all these variables.
Donald Kirkpatrick developed the training evaluation model in 1959, known as
Kirkpatrick’s Model of Evaluation. The Kirkpatrick model is widely used in
evaluating the effectiveness of training and development programs in organizations
to assess the impact of training on the final outcomes at the workplace in terms of
learning, transfer of learning in the work area as well as its impact on the results.
In the Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation, there are four levels of evaluation
(Kirkpatrick, 1983). These are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Level 1 evaluation is known as “Reaction,” i.e., it measures the reactions of the
participants immediately after the program. The participants’ thoughts and feelings
about the training or learning experience just after attending the program are
collected. It is also called a “Smile Sheet” or “Happy Sheet” feedback. It covers
how participants felt about the trainers, the subject matter, the facilities, the food,
logistics arrangements, training infrastructure and environment, etc.
Level 2 evaluation focuses on the “Learning.” Learning can be defined as
attitudes and/or behaviors that were changed, and knowledge and skills that were
learned. It does not include application of learning at workplace. Level 2
evaluation aims at the assessment of what the participants learned from the
training. Did the participants learn anything? Did the program meet the learning
objectives? Whether there is any increase in knowledge, skills, or abilities or
change in attitudes or behavior of the participants resulted after attending the
training program? Can this be objectively verified by evaluation before and after
the training event? Does the participant demonstrate mastery of the subject as
intended by the learning objectives after attending the program? This evaluation is
done based on criterion-referenced testing. However, it is still not clear whether
the participants are using their new learning at their place of work.
Level 3 evaluation focuses on transfer of knowledge, skills, and attitudes from
classroom to the job. Five requirements must be met for change of behavior to
occur (Kirkpatrick, 1987):

1. Desire to change
2. Knowhow of what to do and how to do it
 3. The right job climate
4. Help in applying the classroom learning
5. Rewards for changing behavior

There are several approaches for level 3 evaluation. One approach could be to
observe or test the executive/employee after six months or one year to see to
what extent the executives/employees are applying their learned skills at their
workplace. In the case of change of attitude or behavior change, 360-degree
feedback is an important assessment tool.
Level 4 evaluation focuses on results. The impact of any training program can be
stated in terms of results such as improvement of productivity, less rejection,
improvement of quality, improvement of customer satisfaction, reduction of
employee turnover, etc. It actually measures the bottom-line impact on the
organization after six months to one year after the employee attended the training
program. Since there are many complicating factors in the measurement of results,
it is difficult to measure business results accurately. Some of the skill-oriented
programs are easy to measure as compared to change of attitudes and behaviors
and its impact in the business result.
Philips (1997) introduced the level 5 of evaluation, which is Return on
Investment (ROI). It measures the relationship of the monetary value of the
results and the cost incurred directly or indirectly for the training initiative. ROI is
calculated as follows:
ROI = (Benefits–Cost) × 100/Cost
Kirkpatrick’s model of training evaluation can be used in measuring the
effectiveness of corporate coaching intervention.
Level 1: What are the immediate reactions of the executive/employee just
completing the coaching journey? What they liked or did not like? What he felt
about the coach?
Annexure 11.1 gives one such evaluation format, which can be administered to
the executive at the end of the coaching journey.
Level 2: What are new things the executive/employee learnt from the coaching?
What are skills he learned, what new perspectives he acquired, or what new
knowledge he acquired during the coaching journey?
Annexure 11.2 gives an example of evaluation of coaching effectiveness at the
learning level.
Level 3: What new skills, knowledge, new perspectives, or attitudes gained from
the coaching have been applied by the executive/ employee at his/her personal
life and work-life? What are the evidences available to measure that the employee
is deploying new skills or new behavior in effective and meaningful ways? One
approach could be to conduct 360-degree feedback assessment before and after
the coaching using the same questionnaire.
Annexure 11.3 presents a simple format that can be used to assess if there is any
change observed at the workplace of the executive after the executive has
undergone the coaching program. This assessment can be done by the reporting
officer of the executive and/or peers.
Level 4: How the coaching has impacted the business result? What measurement
matrices can be used to measure the impact of coaching in improving business
results and can be attributed only to coaching and not to other parameters.
Examples given in the following case examples are useful in level 4 evaluation. It
is important here to note that many external factors are responsible for business
results. Therefore, specific metrics need to be identified on which coaching
effectiveness on results will be evaluated. Some of the examples could be sales
number, new customer added, productivity index, manufacturing cost, downtime
reduction, employee satisfaction index or engagement score, customer satisfaction
index, employee turnover percentage, etc.
Some examples of measurement of corporate coaching effectiveness are given
below.

Case Example 1
In early 2001, Manchester Consulting Inc. conducted level 4 assessment of 100 executives from Fortune
1,000 companies, who underwent coaching and reported the following tangible improvement for the
companies (McGovern et al., 2001) by the frequency of responses of impact reported by executives:

1. Productivity (reported by 53 percent executives)

2. Quality (48 percent)
3. Organizational strength (48 percent)
4. Customer service (39 percent)
5. Reducing customer complaints (34 percent)
6. Retaining executives who received coaching (32 percent)
7. Cost reductions (23 percent)
8. Bottom-line profitability (22 percent)
Intangible benefits reported are:
9. Improved working relationship with direct reports (77 percent executives)
10. Improved working relationship with immediate supervisors (71 percent)
11. Improved teamwork (67 percent)
12. Improved working relationship with peers (63 percent)
 13. Improved job satisfaction (61 percent)
14. Reduced conflict (52 percent)
15. Increased organizational commitment (44 percent)
16. Improved working relationship with executives (37 percent)
17. Other intangibles (31 percent)

Case Example 2
Executive M was working in a multinational organization, based at Europe and posted at India
operation as General Manager. He was number two in the organizational hierarchy in India operation.
Before coming to India, he was working in system department at headquarter, not having much
exposure in international operation.
He was identified by the group as high-potential manager. This organization initiated a talent
development program for high-potential managers across various locations across the world. In the
talent development program, each participant underwent classroom sessions once in a quarter for four
quarters at the headquarter, besides working on specific projects. To measure coaching effectiveness,
this organization used two psychometric tools. One was 360-degree feedback survey and the other was
EQ-i. Both the tools were administrated to each participant before the coaching journey and at the end
of the coaching journey.
As a part of the talent management program, each participant was assigned an executive coach, who
worked with the executive on a one-to-one basis for nine months on the developmental areas emerged
from the assessment tools.
Table 11.1 gives the comparison of EQ-i score before and after coaching sessions of one such executive.
This table reflects clearly that coaching helped this executive improve his emotional and social skills.

Table 11.1 Coaching Effectiveness Assessment through EQ-i

Scores
Score Summary Before Coaching After Coaching
Total EQ 91 98
INTRAPERSONAL 90 98
Self-regard 85 88
Emotional self-awareness 77 80
Assertiveness 104 115
Independence 96 109
Self-actualization 100 112
INTERPERSONAL 78 84
Empathy 72 76
Social responsibility 69 75
Interpersonal relationship 94 94
 STRESS MANAGEMENT 96 103
Stress tolerance 97 103
Impulse control 96 101

ADAPTABILITY 101 102

Reality testing 95 96
Flexibility 92 98
Problem solving 117 114
GENERAL MOOD 101 103
Optimism 97 108
Happiness 105 101

Level 5: Recently, some organizations started exploring the measurement of

coaching effectiveness in terms of Return on Investment (ROI) of coaching, since
the investment in some cases go to many million dollars. In ROI calculation, there
are two components: Benefits and Cost. Benefits, i.e., the results, are calculated in
financial terms by the organization. However, it is very difficult to measure
benefits, which are only from coaching not from other factors. McGovern et al.
(2001) are the first to undertake a study to measure the impact of executive
coaching using ROI. To isolate the effects of coaching from other factors, benefits
estimates were multiplied by the percent of the improvement that the executive
attributed to coaching, called the isolation factor. To adjust the potential errors in
estimation, benefit estimates were multiplied by the executive confidence level in
their benefits (results) estimated. Based on adjusted benefits, ROI is then
calculated.
The cost includes expenses on payment to coaches, assessment charges, and
other administrative expenses for the delivery of coaching. A very few
organizations are evaluating coaching effectiveness using ROI as of now.

Chapter Summary
Measurement of corporate coaching effectiveness is one of the critical areas of
coaching, since organizations spent considerable amount of money for coaching
interventions, besides time and efforts. Organizations are therefore interested to
know what are the impacts of such investment and how it can be established that
the coaching had delivered what it is expected to deliver. The Kirkpatrick model
of training evaluation can be used to measure coaching effectiveness. Level 1
evaluation measures the reaction of executives just after they complete the
coaching. Level 2 evaluation focuses on learning of the executive during the
coaching journey. Level 3 evaluation looks for evidence to ensure that the
executives have deployed their learning in the workplace. Level 4 evaluation of
coaching effectiveness measures the impact of coaching on the results derived by
the organization.

Annexure 11.1: Coaching Effectiveness Evaluation (Level 1)

Your Name: Coach Name:
Dates during which Number of Coaching
you got coaching: sessions:

1. How do you rate the overall coaching program?

a. Excellent
b. Very good
c. Good
d. Average
e. Poor
2. To what extent this coaching will help you?
a. To a large extent
b. To some extent
c. Very little
3. How you will rate your coach?
a. Excellent
b. Very good
c. Good
d. Average
e. Poor
4. How much you could achieve your coaching goals?
a. To a large extent
b. To some extent
c. Not at all
5. Do you think the coaching will help you in improvement of your
leadership/managerial/supervisory skills?
a. To a large extent
b. To some extent
c. Not much
 6. What you think this coaching will help you in improvement of performance
at your work area?
a. To a large extent
b. To some extent
c. Not much
d. Not sure
7. Does coaching help you gain new perspectives/ideas/thoughts?
a. Yes
b. No
8. How do you rate your satisfaction from the coaching experience?
a. Very much satisfied
b. Satisfied
c. Satisfied to some extent
d. Not satisfied

Annexure 11.2: Coaching Effectiveness Evaluation (Level 2)

Your Name: Coach Name:
Dates during which Number of Coaching
you got coaching: sessions:

1. Coaching helped me gain new knowledge, skills, and abilities.

a. Strongly agree
b. Agree to a large extent
c. Agree
d. Disagree to some extent
e. Strongly disagree

If your answer to previous question is (a) to (c), please reply the following
questions:

1. Please identify in which areas you have gained your knowledge, which will
be helpful in your work.
2. Please identify at least two work-related skills you have gained as a result of
coaching.
3. Please identify new perspective/insight you have got from the coaching.
4. What are the areas you could transfer your new knowledge, skills, or insights?
Please identify at least two areas of transfer.
5. How you rate your overall learning as a result of coaching?
a. Excellent
b. Very good
 c. Good
d. Fair
e. Poor

Annexure 11.3: Coaching Effectiveness Evaluation (Level 3)

Name of the Executive Duration of Coaching:
(Executive):
Your Name: Your Relationship
with Executive:
Please give your feedback on what are the changes you have observed after this
executive underwent coaching:
Areas Significant Good Visible Moderate Some Change No Change
Change Change Change
Dealing with subordinates
Dealing with seniors
Dealing with peers
Ability to manage team
Ability to manage
performance
Ability to communicate and
listen
Ability to manage himself
Ability to meet performance
expectations

References
Kirkpatrick, D. (1987). Evaluation. In R.L. Craig (ed.), Training and development handbook , pp. 301–319. New
York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Kirkpatrick, D.L. (1983). Four steps to measuring training effectiveness. Personnel Administrators , 28 (11), pp.
19–25.
McGovern, J., Lindermann, M., Vengara, M., Murphy, S., Barker, L., & Warrenfeltz, R. (2001). Maximizing the
impact of executive coaching: Behavioral change, organizational outcomes and returns of investment. The
Manchester Review , 6 (1), pp. 1–9.
Philips, J.J. (1997). Return on investment in training and performance improvement programs . Houston, Texas: Gulf
Publishing Company.
 Index
360-degree assessment, 31–32, 75, 119. See also 360-degree feedback survey
360-degree feedback survey, 162, 205–206
administration stage, 208–209
analysis stage, 209, 230
debriefing of feedback survey, 210–212
acceptance in, 210–211
awareness in, 210
and developmental action planning, 212, 231
feedback stage, 210
preparation stage, 207–208, 219–229
purpose of, 206
sample, 219–229
self-appraisal in, 206
tools used in
EQ 360 assessment tool, 216–217
Life Styles Inventory (LSI), 212–215
active listening, 150–152. See also listening
Alexander, Graham, 83, 85
American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), 115
Asia-Pacific Association of Coaches, 2
Association for Coaching (AC), 1–2
autonomy, 40
awarenes, 83
Bar-On, Reuven, 188. See also Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0)
behavior, 58. See also behavioral coaching
changes in, 59
dysfunctional, example of, 59
motives and, 58
behavioral coaching, 16–17, 20, 58–59
assumptions in, 60
on behavioral science principles, 58
cognitive dissonance and, 66–68
definition of, 17
goal of, 60
observing behavior in, 75
process of, 75–77
reinforcement techniques in, 60–65
stages of change in, 69–74
action, 70, 72
contemplation, 70, 72
maintenance, 70, 72
pre-contemplation, 70, 72
preparation, 70, 72
relapse, 71, 72
behavior modification theory, 60–62
brainstorming, purpose of, 44
Briggs, Katharine, 180
business coaching, 14
career coaching, 12–13
Cattell, Raymond, 199
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), on talent management, 115
Clifton, Donald O., 197
coach
and mentor, difference between, 8
personal/life, 12
responsibility of, 6–7
coaching, 1–3
associations involved in, 1–2
behavioral, 16–17
business, 14
career, 12–13
as change process, 26, 34, 45
consulting and, 10
corporate, 19–21
counseling and, 10–11
in developed countries, 1
developmental, 18
executive, 15
ICF definition of, 6
leadership, 17
for leadership development, 4–5
life, 12
meaning of, 6–7
and mentoring, distinction between, 3, 7–9
ontological, 16
for organizational effectiveness, 3–6
origin of, 1
performance, 18
psychotherapy and, 11–12
reasons for, 6, 34
spiritual, 13–14
succession, 19
team, 19
training and, 9–10
in USA, 1
wellness, 14–15
Coaching Benefits Pyramid Model, 135. See also internal coaching
coaching effectiveness measurement, 232
challenges in, 233–234
examples of, 237–239
importance of, 232–233
Kirkpatrick’s Model of Evaluation, 234, 236
level 1 evaluation in, 234–235, 236, 241–242
level 2 evaluation in, 235, 236, 243
level 3 evaluation in, 235, 236–237, 244
level 4 evaluation in, 236, 237–239
Return on Investment (ROI), calulation of, 236, 239–240
Coaching for performance (John Whitmore), 3, 85
coaching model, use of, 34
coaching tools, 147. See also under performance coaching
feedback, 162–166
listening, 147–156
mirroring, 166–168
paraphrasing, 168–169
questioning, 159–161, 172–176
reframing, 157–158
cognitive dissonance, 43
and behavior change, 66–68
command and control culture, 3–4, 147
competence, 40
consultant, and coach, 10
contracting, in executive coaching, 29–31
corporate coaches, 11
corporate coaching, 19–21
formats of, 21
purpose of, 21
use of, 21
counseling, and coaching, 10–11
critical competencies analysis, 117–118
cross-functional team (CFT), 122
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 196
developmental coaching, 18
Diener, Ed, 196
DISC instrument, 191–193
Downey, Myles, 86
Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0), 188–191, 203
empathy, 65
EQ 360 assessment tool, 216–217
EQ-i 2.0. See Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0)
European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), 1–2
executive coaching, 15, 20, 25, 128
assessment in, 31–32
360-degree assessment, 31–32
performance appraisal data, 31–32
purpose of, 31
shadow coaching, 31–32
for bringing change, 26
closure phase in, 48
coaching engagement impact, measurement of, 48
long-term development plan, formulation of, 48
coaching agenda setting, 33–34
by coachee, 33
feedback session, 33–34
coaching process in, 34–47
action plan, development of, 45
agenda setting in, 42
brainstorming in, 44
celebrating achievements in, 47
communication, role and tools of, 38
Delta Coaching Model, 35, 36
excitement, creation of, 39–42
follow-up plan in, 45–46
models/visual representations in, 34
relationship, building of, 35–38
contracting in, 29–31
coach and executive, meeting of, 30–31
coaching contract, finalization of, 30
coaching engagement contract, sample of, 55–56
coaching engagement process outline, 51–52
coaching expectations sheet, sample of, 53–54
coaching process, explaining of, 30
goals for coaching, clarifying of, 29
definition of, 25–26
for gaining self-confidence, 26
goal of, 26
leadership coaching and, 17
pre-coaching step in, 27–29
coach and executive, matching of, 28–29
executives, identification of, 28
logistics issues, finalization of, 29
pool of executive coaches, creation of, 28
sponsor, responsibility of, 27
steps in, 27
executive, definition of, 25
feedback, in coaching, 162–166
delivering of, considerations while, 162–164
performance, 164–166
purpose of, 162
FIRO element B instrument, 187
force-field analysis, 68
Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B), 183–188
Gallwey, Timothy, 7, 83, 86. See also Inner Game theory, of coaching
goal setting process, value-based, 43
Goldsmith, Marshall, 75
GROW model, of performance coaching, 83–84, 124. See also Inner Game theory, of coaching;
performance coaching
“Happy Sheet” feedback, 235
Harris, Caroline, 85
Hay Group study, 128
hearing, and listening, 148, 149
The Inner Game Limited, 85
Inner game of tennis (Timothy Galley), 3
Inner Game theory, of coaching, 83–84, 86
internal coaching, 128
benefits of, 133
for coaching culture building, 130–132
definition of, 129
external coaching and, 132–134
ONGC, case example of, 139–143, 146
program implementation, 134–143
Coaching Benefits Pyramid Model and, 135
coaching environment, 138–139
coaching process, 137–138
coach, selection and competencies of, 136–137
skills of coach, 135–136
purposes of, 129–130
internal coaching initiative, 20
internal coach skill training program, 135–136
The International Association of Coaching (IAC), 2
International Coach Federation (ICF), 1
International Institute of Coaching (IIC), 2
interpersonal needs
affection, 184
control, 184
inclusion, 184
job enlargement, 122
job rotation, 122
Jung, Carl G., 179
Kirkpatrick, Donald, 234
Lafferty, J. Clayton, 212. See also Life Styles Inventory (LSI)
leadership, 101
and challenges, 102
credibility and, 101
development of, 103–104 (see also leadership coaching)
functions of, 102
management to, transition from, 102–104
leadership coaching, 17, 20, 104
and executive coaching, 17
focus of, 17
goal of, 17
by high-performing organizations, 105
process of
action planning, 110
assessment, 106–109
developmental needs, identification of, 109
goal setting, 110
growth areas, identification of, 109
leadership development report, 109
leadership map, creation of, 107
preparatory phase, 106
value clarification exercise, 107–109
Value Game sheet in, use of, 108, 112–113
works with executive, 110–111
tools and inventories used in, 106–107
transactional challenges in, 105–106
for transformational change, 105
use of, 104–105
learning culture, development of, 131
life coaching, 12
Life Styles Inventory (LSI), 212–215
LSI 1, 215
LSI 2, 215
thinking and behavioral styles in, measurement of, 213
achievement, 215
affiliative, 213
approval, 213–214
avoidance, 214
competitive, 214
conventional, 214
dependent, 214
humanistic-encouraging, 213
oppositional, 214
perfectionist, 214
power, 214
self-actualizing, 215
listening, 147–148
active, 150–152
central purpose of, 153
focused, 154–155
global, 155–156
hearing and, 148, 149
internal, 154
levels of, 153–156
process of, stages in
attention, 149
evaluating, 149
hearing, 149
remembering, 149
responding, 149
understanding, 149
skill of, development of, 148
Lockheed Martin, 129
managers, role of, in organization, 3–4
Manuel, D., 196
Marston, William, 191
Mayerson, Neal H., 196
MBTI. See Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
mentee, 8
mentor, 8
mentoring, 7–8, 121–122
and coaching, distinction between, 3, 7–9
concept of, in India, 1
mirroring technique, 166–168
examples, 166–167
purpose of, 167
use of, 166–167
motivational interviewing approach, 64–65
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), 179–183
Myers, Isabel, 180
negative consequences, side effects of, 62
Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ/OPQ32), 198–199
Oil and National Gas Corporation, 130, 139–143, 146
one-on-one coaching, 21
ontological coaching, 16
open-ended questions, 34
paraphrasing, 168–169
in active listening, 168
benefit of, 168
enabling climate for coaching by, creation of, 169
meaning of, 168
performance
coaching conversation, 82 (see also performance coaching)
evaluation/review phase, 82
feedback, 82
management system, 80
cycle of, 80
processes in, 80
meaning and definition of, 80
planning phase, 81–82
performance coaching, 18, 20, 82. See also performance
awareness and responsibility in, 83
goal of, 83
GROW model, 83–84, 86
goal in, 86–90
options in, creation of, 92–93
reality in, 90–91
use of, 94–99
Way Forward step in, 93–94
tools, 18
performance feedback, 164–166
performance review meetings, monthly, 83
positive reinforcement techniques, 62
praise, role of, 62
probing questions, 159
psychometrics, 178
definition of, 178
instruments
DISC instrument, 191–193
EQ-i 2.0 inventory, 188–191, 203
FIRO-B instrument, 183–188
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, 179–183
Occupational Personality Questionnaire, 198–199
Sixteen Personality Factors, 199–201
SPIRO-M instrument, 193–195
use of, 178–179
VIA inventory, 196–198
psychotherapy, and coaching, 11–12
questions
close-ended, 160
follow-up, 161
open-ended, 160
powerful, 159–161, 172–176
probing, 159
use of, in problem-solving process, 159
reality questions, 91
recruitment practices, 117
reframing, in coaching, 157–158
reinforcement, and behavior frequency, 62
reinforcement techniques, for behavior modification, 60–65
reinforcer, 61, 62
negative, 62
positive, 62
relapse prevention training, 71
relatedness, 40
Return on Investment (ROI), 236, 239–240
review meetings, 83
rewards, 61
Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, 196
“ripple through” effect, 20
ROI. See Return on Investment (ROI)
Schutz, Will, 183. See also Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B)
self-awareness, 83
development of, 42
self-concept, 64, 66–67
self-determination theory, 39–40
self-efficacy, 64, 65, 66
beliefs, 43
enhancement of, 43–44
self-esteem, 64
Self One and Self Two, relationship between, 86
Seligman, Martin, 196
shadow coaching, 21
signature strengths, 196
Situational Leadership model, 4–5
Sixteen Personality Factor (16 PF), 199–201
Skiffington, Perry, 69
“The Smart Performance Pyramid” model, 135
“Smile Sheet” feedback, 235
Socrates, 1, 7
“Socrates Method,” of questioning, 159
spiritual coaching, 13–14
“stages of change” model, 69–71
StrengthsFinder 2.0, 197–198
study circle, concept of, 121
Styles Profile of Interaction Roles in Organization for managers (SPIRO-M) instrument, 193–195
succession coaching, 19
success stories, use of, 39
talent developmental strategies, 120
coaching, 122
job enlargement, 122
job rotation, 122
mentoring programs, 121–122
reading and sharing, 121
training programs, 120–121
talent list, preparation of, 118–119
talent management, 115
challenges in, 116–117
coaching for talent development, 123–124
definition of, 115
steps in process of, 117, 119
critical competencies analysis, 117–118
talent attraction, 120
talent development, 120–122
talent identification, 118–119
talent review, 119
talent retention in, 124–125
talent management schemes, 118
talent review meeting, 119, 120
team coaching, 19, 21
“telling and instructing” approach, 9
top-down culture. See command and control culture
training, and coaching, 9–10
transpersonal coaching, 13–14
type preferences, 180. See also Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Values in Action Institute of Character (VIA), 196
values, role of, 43, 58
VIA Inventory, 196–198
Vickers, Kristine, 69
virtues, 196
visualization exercise, 39
Voice Coaches, 2
wellness coaching, 14–15
Whitmore, John, 83, 85, 86. See also Inner Game theory, of coaching
Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (WABC), 2
 About the Author
Sraban Mukherjee, CPC, PCC (ICF) is an executive coach who specializes in
the area of behavioral coaching. Dr Mukherjee splits his professional time between
executive coaching and strategic human resources. He has around 30 years of
professional experience in large corporations in India where he headed the
Human Resource function, and handled various critical HR assignments at
business and corporate strategic level. He specializes in people development
interventions, OD, and leadership skill enhancement domain and deals with both
transactional and transformational issues in coaching process.
Dr Mukherjee has worked closely with board level and leadership level
executives on coaching and development areas. He has coached clients across the
globe ranging from business issues to breakthrough performance issues and
leadership effectiveness areas. His clients include senior executives and high
potential managers of ONGC, NTPC, ONIDA, Alcatel-Lucent, Seco Tools,
Thomson Press, Insta Group, National Hydro-Power Corporation, Grasim
Industries, JSW Steels, Shree Cement, and other organizations.
He has also conducted several competency development centers for senior and
middle management, internal coach development program, coaching skill training
and leadership development interventions for large corporations.
Dr Mukherjee is an engineer by basic education and PhD from the Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi. He graduated in Coaching from ACTP program of
ICF. In his coaching practice, he has emphasized the use of behavioral
methodologies including methods used by Marshall Goldsmith. He is a trained
assessor for individual and organizational assessment, and qualified for the
administration of MBTI. He is licensed for the administration of DISC. He is also
certified for EQ-I 2.0 and EQ360 (Emotional intelligence) tools.
Dr Mukherjee has published several action research papers in peer reviewed
sections of leading international coaching journals, viz., International Journal of
Evidence based Coaching and Mentoring, European Journal of Mentoring and Coaching,
International Journal of Coaching in Organization, etc. He is a member of
International Editorial Board of International Journal of Coaching: Theory, Research
and Practice. His coaching model, the Delta Coaching Model, was reported at
Canada and Australia. He has been quoted several times by leading newspapers
and magazines in coaching- and HR-related articles. He is a Professional Certified
Coach (PCC) of ICF, USA.
Dr Mukherjee believes that every coaching relation results into change of
behavior and hence his coaching primarily focuses on behavioral change during
coaching journey. His coaching niche is in corporate and business coaching.