Coaching for Leadership

Writings on Leadership from the World's Greatest Coaches

Marshall Goldsmith, Laurence S. Lyons, Sarah McArthur

• Publisher: Pfeiffer
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780470947746
• eBook ISBN: 9781118235317
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

THE THIRD EDITION of the classic book Coaching for Leadership is written for today's coaches who are challenged with the task of combining concepts from various disciplines in order to help their clients, especially high-potential leaders, learn and succeed. In this sense, coaches have to become discriminating eclectics, developing a keen sense of judgment to select which ideas are best woven into their coaching method and which concepts are best to ignore. Coaching for Leadership is intended to be a cherished companion in that learning journey presented by the world's greatest coaches, including: Marshall Goldsmith, Paul Hersey, Beverly Kaye, Dave Ulrich, and many more.

This comprehensive resource offers a wealth of material for established and novice coaches including proven coaching techniques, key principles, and important learning points. The book offers a concise overview of the foundations of coaching and reveals

• What it takes to coach for engagement and retention
• Why mentoring is circular
• How to build a team without wasting time
• What it means to be a purposeful leader
• How to write like a leader
• The right stuff of leadership
• What is needed to lead across national boundaries
• How to coach high potential women
• Why coaching is empowerment
• How to influence decision makers
• Why you should double your value
• The ten suggestions for successful peer coaching
• The coaching tools for the leadership journey
• How to coach executives for succession

Coaching for Leadership is a proven resource that offers best practices, sample scenarios, case studies, and practical tools.

PART I

FOUNDATIONS OF COACHING

Part I, Foundations of Coaching, sets the stage for coaching as an approach to successful leadership. This section is comprised of foundational pieces, “classics” if you will, that explain how and why leadership coaching is relevant, valid, and necessary in today’s post-management business arena. We begin our book with an updated version of Marshall Goldsmith’s article, “Coaching for Behavioral Change,” in which Marshall describes his proven process for behavioral change and explains the importance of integrating a practical, behavioral change mechanism as a vital foundation element that must be at the root of successful coaching. In order to flourish within an enterprise or nonprofit organization, coaching must support the creation of core value in delivering genuine measurable economic business results. Chapter Two, “Coaching at the Heart of Strategy” by Laurence S. Lyons, introduces a new and broader way of thinking about strategy to incorporate the ambitions of the individual as well as the work team and organization. We see this idea of mutual strategy as one of the foundations of coaching, and in describing this important connection, this chapter provides invaluable direction for coaches, individuals, teams, and organizations. Chapter Three, “Situational Leadership and Performance Coaching” by Paul Hersey and Roger Chevalier, reminds us once again that coaching is situational. In their article, they reveal how Situational Leadership® provides the necessary structure to guide executive coaches in working with their clients. In his article, “Coaching and Consultation Revisited: Are They the Same?” Edgar H. Schein raises and answers fundamental questions about the purpose and nature of coaching and shows how it can be regarded as a branch of process consulting. Setting forth critical descriptions of each, he compares the two and defines their differences. Finally, Dave Ulrich and Jessica K. Johnson demystify coaching in their article, “Demystifying the Coaching Mystique.” With explanations of the various types, needs for, and methods of coaching, Dave and Jessica’s article is a must-read for established and potential coaches and those looking to work with a coach for whatever reason.

CHAPTER ONE

COACHING FOR BEHAVIORAL CHANGE

By Marshall Goldsmith

My mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive, long-term, measurable change in behavior: for themselves, their people, and their teams. When the steps in the coaching process described below are followed, leaders almost always see positive behavioral change—not as judged by themselves, but as judged by preselected, key stakeholders. This process has been used around the world with great success—by both external coaches and internal coaches.1

Our “Pay for Results” Executive Coaching Process

Our coaching network (Marshall Goldsmith Group) provides coaches for leaders from around the world. All of the coaches in our network use the same proven process. We first get an agreement with our coaching clients and their managers on two key 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 can determine (six to eighteen months later) if these changes have occurred.

We then get paid only after our coaching clients have achieved positive change in key leadership behaviors—and become more effective leaders—as determined by their key stakeholders.

I believe that many leadership coaches are paid for the wrong reasons. Their income is a largely a function of “How much do my clients like me?” and “How much time did I spend in coaching?” Neither of these is a good metric for achieving a positive, long-term change in behavior.

In terms of liking the coach—I have never seen a study that showed that clients’ love of a coach was highly correlated with their change in behavior. In fact, if coaches become too concerned with being loved by their clients, they may not provide honest feedback when it is needed.

In terms of spending clients’ time—my personal coaching clients are all executives whose decisions have an impact on billions of dollars—their time is more valuable than mine. I try to spend as little of their time as necessary to achieve the desired results. The last thing they need is for me to waste their time!

Qualifying the Coaching Client

Because we use a “pay only for results” coaching process, we have had to learn to qualify our coaching clients. This means that we only work with clients who we believe will greatly benefit from our coaching process.

Knowing When Behavioral Coaching Won’t Help

We do not work with leaders who are not really motivated to change. Have you ever tried to change the behavior of a successful adult that had no interest in changing? How much luck did you have? Probably none! We only work with executives who are willing to make a sincere effort to change and who believe that this change will help them become better leaders. Our most successful coaching clients are executives who are committed to being great role models for leadership development and for living their company’s values.

I have personally worked with several of the world’s leading CEOs. One reason that they are so effective in leading people is that they are always trying to improve themselves—not just asking everyone else to improve. Our best coaching clients are dedicated to be great role models in consistently working to improve themselves.

Some large corporations “write people off.” Rather than just fire them, they engage in a pseudo-behavioral coaching process that is more “seek and destroy” than “help people get better.” We only work with leaders who are seen as potentially having a great future in the corporation. We only work with people who will be given a fair chance by their management. We do not work with leaders who have been “written off” by senior management.

There are several different types of coaching. We only do behavioral coaching for successful executives—not strategic coaching, life planning, or organizational change. I have the highest respect for the coaches who do this kind of work. That is just not what our coaches do. Therefore, we only focus on changing leadership behavior. If our clients have other needs, we refer them to other coaches.

Finally, I would never choose to work with a client who has an integrity violation. We believe that people with integrity violations should be fired, not coached.

When will our approach to behavioral coaching work? If the issue is leadership behavior, the coaching clients are given a fair chance and they are motivated to improve, the process described in this article will almost always work. If these conditions do not exist, this process should not be used.

Involving Key Stakeholders

In my work as a behavioral coach, I have gone through three distinct phases.

In phase one—I believed that my clients would become better because of me. I thought that the coach was the key variable in behavioral change. I was wrong. We have published research on leadership development that involved input from over 86,000 respondents.2 In our research we have learned that the key variable for successful change in leadership behavior is not the coach, teacher, or advisor. The key variables that will determine long-term progress are the leaders being coached and their coworkers.

I learned this lesson in a very humbling way. The client that I spent the most amount of time with did not improve and I did not get paid! This was a painful reminder to me that I was not the key variable in my clients’ improvement.

The client that I spent the least amount of time with improved more than anyone I ever coached—and he was great to start with! He was later recognized as the CEO of the Year in the United States.

When I asked my “most improved” client, what I could learn about coaching from him, he taught me a great lesson. He told me that I needed to: (1) pick the right clients and (2) keep the focus of my coaching on my clients and their teams (not my own ego and need to prove how smart I was).

In phase two—I spent most of my time focusing on my coaching clients. I slowly learned that a motivated, hard-working client was more important than a brilliant coach! I learned that their ongoing efforts meant more than my clever ideas. My results improved!

In phase three (where I am now)—I spend most of my time not with my coaching client but with the key stakeholders around my client. I focus on helping my clients learn from everyone around them. By making this change, my clients’ results have improved even more dramatically.3

How do I involve key stakeholders? I ask them to help the person that I am coaching in four critically important ways:

Let go of the past. When we continually bring up the past, we demoralize the people who are trying to change. Whatever happened in the past happened. It cannot be changed. By focusing on a future that can get better (as opposed to a past that cannot), the key stakeholders can help my clients improve. (We call this process feedforward, instead of feedback.4)

Be helpful and supportive, not cynical, sarcastic, or judgmental. As part of our coaching process, my clients involve key coworkers and ask them for help. If my clients reach out to key stakeholders and feel punished for trying to improve, they will generally quit trying. I don’t blame them! Why should any of us work hard to build relationships with people who won’t give us a chance? If my clients’ coworkers are helpful and supportive, my clients’ experience increased motivation and are much more likely to improve.

Tell the truth. I do not want to work with a client, have him or her get a glowing report from key stakeholders, and later hear that one of the stakeholders said, “He didn’t really get better, we just said that.” This is not fair to my client, to the company, or to me.

Pick something to improve yourself. My clients are very open with key stakeholders about what they are going to change. As part of our process, our clients ask for ongoing suggestions. I also ask the stakeholders to pick something to improve and to ask my client for suggestions. This makes the entire process “two-way” instead of “one-way.” It helps the stakeholders act as “fellow travelers” who are trying to improve, not “judges” who are pointing their fingers at my client. It also greatly expands the value gained by the corporation in the entire process.5 In one of my most successful case studies, I was asked to coach one top executive—and about two hundred people ended up improving.

Steps in the Leadership Coaching Process

The following steps describe the basics of our behavioral coaching process. Every coach in our network has to agree to implement the following steps. If the coach will follow these basic steps, our clients almost always achieve positive change!

1. Involve the leaders being coached in determining the desired behavior in their leadership roles. Leaders cannot be expected to change behavior if they don’t have a clear understanding of what desired behavior looks like. The people that we coach (in agreement with their managers, if they are not the CEO) work with us to determine desired leadership behavior.

2. Involve the leaders being coached in determining key stakeholders. Not only do clients need to be clear on desired behaviors, they need to be clear (again in agreement with their managers, if they are not the CEO) on key stakeholders. There are two major reasons why people deny the validity of feedback—wrong items or wrong raters. By having our clients and their managers agree on the desired behaviors and key stakeholders in advance, we help ensure their “buy-in” to the process.

3. Collect feedback. In my coaching practic...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Dedication
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• Acknowledgments
• About the Editors
• Part I: Foundations of Coaching
• Part II: Portrait of A Leader
• Part III: Challenges and Forces of Change
• Part IV: Recognizing and Developing High-Potentials
• Part V: Into Action
• Part VI: Coaching Models and Tools
• Part VII: Coaching For Leadership—Premium Web Content
• Index