Coaching Next Generation Of Leaders For A Digital-Driven Workplace

Case study of developing the readiness of future leaders

The history of coaching can be traced as far back as to Socrates (427 BC to 347 BC), who suggested that people learn best when they take personal responsibility and ownership of a given situation. The word “coach,” however, originates from “Kocs,” a village in Hungary, where high-quality carriages were produced.

Coaching first appeared in management literature in the 1950s. Managers began using coaching because it was understood that a manager had a responsibility to improve subordinates’ performance through a sort of master-apprentice relationship. Coaching, at that time, often took the form of the manager supporting the development of their employees. In the mid-1970s, sports coaching was starting to make its way and being translated into the managerial situation. Since the 1980s, coaching has been presented as a training technique in the context of management development (Bawany 2020).

Coaching and mentoring are inter-related and both leverage effective communication skills such as active listening and questioning, however, at their foundation, they are distinct in their focus.

A professional coach’s primary attention is to tap into the client’s (also known as the “coachee”) own vision, wisdom and directed action in service of the client’s self-identified agenda, which often focuses on their professional endeavors. Whereas, a mentor’s primary role is to help the mentee to learn, much of which is enabled by the mentor guiding the mentee into learning situations and then helping them to reflect on and consolidate the learning.

According to the Centre for Executive Education (CEE), “managerial coaching is about developing and maximizing an individual employee’s potential which will consequently impact positively on the organization's performance. It is about more inquiry (ask) and less advocacy (tell) which means helping that individual to learn rather than teaching. Managerial coaching is delivered by a manager or team leader which sets out to embrace the employee as an individual and understands the organizational context in which the employee operates. It seeks to achieve alignment between the individual employee, team and organizational goals” (Bawany 2015).

Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximize their performance. It is about raising awareness and responsibility—helping them to learn rather than teaching them. The GROW Model (See Figure 1) is an elegantly simple way of structuring an effective coaching conversation and, as such, has become one of the best-loved models of coaching:

“G” is the “Goal” that the managerial coach is helping the coachee (person or team member being coached) to articulate what he or she is seeking to achieve;

“R” is the “Realities,” where the coachee describes his current situation in consideration of the context of the challenge to be resolved or decision to be made; and

“O” is the “Options” open to the coachee through a brainstorming process with the managerial coach.

“W” is the “Will” where the coachee identifies and selects one or more options explored in the pre-ceding phase and demonstrates the will or desire to implement the action plan based on the chosen option. (Whitmore 2002).

For the managerial coach, the key to using GROW successfully is first to spend sufficient time exploring “G” until the coachee sets a goal that is both inspirational and stretching for them, and then to move flexibly through the sequence, and revisiting the goal if needed.
 

Executive coaching is one of the fastest-growing and most misunderstood professions of this decade. Coaching used to be an “executive perk” for senior executives of large companies to help them make better business decisions. Today, coaching is rapidly being recognized as one of the best strategic weapons a company can have in its arsenal. Executive coaching focuses on developing a top executive’s full potential by coaching them to think and act beyond existing limits and paradigms (Bawany 2020).

The strength of executive coaching lies in the fact that it is almost exclusively an executive development strategy that builds leadership and management strength because it is ultimately concerned with understanding where the executive is, where it is that they want to go, and the things that they would have to do to get there.

Executive coaching can be defined as a confidential, highly personal learning process, involving action learning and working in partnership, combining an executive coach’s observations and capabilities with an executive’s expertise. The result is that the executive achieves better and faster results-oriented outcomes.

Savvy organizations acknowledge that executive coaching is a proven effective leadership intervention tool of choice for developing next-generation (future) leaders, including high potentials, for the continuous development of their leadership skills, and is critical to organization-wide success (Bawany 2019).

The following Case Study illustrates how the ADAM™ coaching methodology developed by the Centre for Executive Education (CEE), has been successfully applied in the development of a high potential employee that has been appointed as a team leader for a mission-critical organization-wide digital transformation project which has significant implications for the organization’s global clients.

The ADAM™ coaching methodology is a structured approach to coaching as an organisation development intervention which consists of a four-step process that is firmly grounded in leadership development best practices (See Figure 2).
 

 

The coachee is a high potential (HiPO) manager who has been with the organization (a global leader in pharmaceutical) for over 20 years. He has a solid record of success in his previous roles where a hands-on, controlling style with staff direct reports was an effective managerial tool.

His immediate manager, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) believed that the primary challenge would be to develop the relevant skills and competencies to address the HiPO’s communication style was soon found to be confrontational and abrasive which could prevent him from building trusting relationships with his newly formed project management team to drive the digital transformation project.

The CTO in consultation with the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) agreed that external development support by an executive coach will be a useful resource toward addressing the managerial challenges faced by the HiPO manager. The CTO also agrees to set aside an hour weekly to provide managerial coaching support to augment the executive coaching engagement. He wanted to ensure the HiPO’s managerial success but most importantly achieving the corporation’s strategic objectives in the successful implementation of the digital transformation project. Not counting the loss of productivity, the potential loss of the crucial digital talent and their replacement costs alone are expected to be substantial.

Upon reviewing the results of the 360-degree feedback assessment, a developmental plan was written by the HiPO manager and reviewed with his executive coach to address gaps in areas of communication, collaboration, developing others, relationship management (social skills), empathy, conflict management and strategic leadership.

The CTO as the immediate manager of the HiPO leveraged on the GROW model during the managerial coaching conversations that he conducted weekly.

The manager was better able to communicate with and facilitate information transfer among his project team and he was able to transform them into a high-performance team by adopting the SCORE™ framework for high-performing teams. A follow-up 360-degree leadership assessment was conducted where a positive change in the manager’s leadership and communication style was perceived by the various stakeholders.

Executive and managerial coaching along with mentoring, action learning workplace projects, leader-ship masterclass training, stretch assignments, executive education has been proven to be effective in the development of these high potential leaders into ‘disruptive digital leaders’ which is crucial towards leading the successful digital transformation initiatives at the workplace (Bawany 2020).

Reference