Coaching Experience - Essay Example

Coaching I selected a senior executive who lived nearby and lucky enough he had some troubles managing some issues in the company. This was an opportunity to test my skills. I approached him and discussed my current project, and he was happy to assist me. He decided to tell me one of his management issues. The senior executive was undertaking a change program which he found very challenging. According to him, the staffs were disengaged with the change program he was leading, and they were not supportive. I will call him Joshua in this report. I had to attempt a formal approach to meeting the senior executive even though he was a neighbour. I, therefore, decided to draw a short term coaching contract which required his approval and signature. To my surprise, I was told to negotiate coaching schedules with his personal assistant. I finally did that and managed to get four meetings as we agreed on my first approach to him. The first day when I went to Mr. Joshua’s office, I was kept waiting at the reception in front of the building before being moved to wait further outside his office. I remember the details of being kept waiting because of what Mr. Joshua told me. He said that he had a program to implement and the staffs were giving him a hard time. He felt that he had an ‘open door policy’ that should make it easy for the staff to inform him of any problems. He was very surprised and irritated at the same time at the staff’s response to his leadership with the change program. He believed he was very accessible. He wanted to get the team on board to make the necessary changes for the business’ success. From my experience at the reception, and before entering his office and having to deal with his personal assistant even for his four time coaching. I had already gathered some important information about his shortcomings. He already told me his aim, and from my experience I had already identified one of the main sources of his problem. He perceived that he was accessible yet in reality, his accessibility was questionable. Since Mr. Joshua had stated his aim, I decided to begin the next session with giving him the feedback of the first meeting and how we would deal with the situation. In order to make progress, it was important to inform Mr. Joshua about his source of weakness. He had to be reminded that leadership and employee job satisfaction influences the employees’ motivation and dedication. This formed the beginning of our training. According to Naficy and Isabella (2008), Snowden (2002), and Gardner (2005), the main coaching element for management executives is for them improve their skills and effectiveness. This means honest self-knowledge, increased self awareness, knowledge about personality capacities, awareness of one’s motives and personality values. All these can be improved through coaching and can lead to effective leadership (Caldwell, 2009). One of the main problems with CEOs and other executives is that their egos and lack of self awareness get the better part of them. This makes them fail in developing important relationships for the success of the business. This is exactly the case with Mr. Joshua. He is not aware of himself, and this creates a barrier between himself and the staff (Adebowale, 2013). The coaching, therefore, focused on how Joshua could appreciate the importance of self awareness in his situation. I used the FUEL model of coaching (Ramakrishnan, 2013). I informed Mr. Joshua of my approach, and we came to an understanding. I had to explain to Mr. Joshua that the main source of hindrance to change was the poor relationship between him and his employees. I got to understand more about employee relationships from some articles (Carstens & Barnes, 2006; Sosik & Megerian, 1999; Nicol & Sparrow, 2010). He also understood that this was the source of the problem. I reviewed the relationship between leadership style and employee engagement and motivation. From this perspective, I made it clear that his leadership style was the source of the problem. I had to make him realize the importance of other people’s perspectives of his leadership style. He had the perception that he had created an ‘open door policy’, and was easily accessible. He, therefore, believed that the employees should relate well with him. He was, however, unaware of the reality about himself. Self awareness and the ability to deal with other people’s perspectives is necessary for successful leadership (Walesa, 2002). I made this clear, and the moved to the next step. Understanding the current state was not hard since the first impression in the office during the first meeting had already provided enough information. I, however, asked Mr. Joshua to tell me what he thought about the current situation he was in, and the contributing factors to the situation. He was positive and accepted to explore my point of view. He wanted to learn how to be aware of himself. The next step was to present to him how to achieve self-awareness, and how he would change later to ensure improved relationship with the employees. We worked on how he would communicate with the employees to save the current situation. How he would achieve self awareness, and he will continue assessing his skills as a senior executive officer. These were all laid out in a plan to guide implementation. Information on how to achieve self awareness was obtained from (Barbutoa & Burbacha, 2006; and Gardner & Stough, 2002). Self awareness is when a leader is conscious of what he is good at and acknowledging that he still has to learn. This requires a leader to recognize his weaknesses and work towards building a positive relationship with others irrespective of them. A leader has to know his strengths and limits of such strengths. The strengths may be placed out to his disadvantage (Naficy & Isabella, 2008). Mr. Joshua’s strengths led him to his current position, but to be an effective leader, he has to acknowledge that he still needs to become better. It is not easy to make this step, but it is very important in change management. During the second session, we agreed that Mr. Joshua should provide a chance for the employees to give feedback on his behaviour, but under anonymous identity. From this feedback, he was to develop a transparent approach to solving problems and decision making. This way, he would understand the employees more and encourage feedback on his behaviour. He would then later model habits of self awareness that would encourage others to think about self awareness. The organization would have a culture of transparency that is important in change management. This will make it easy for a leader to know of the sources of conflict, and the reasons behind such resistance. It would also be easy for a leader to communicate well with the employees and solve problems (Alimo-Metcalfe, 1998). The leader should be able to listen without justifying any of his actions. This move encourages feedback from people but if the leader defends his actions, he discourages people from giving him feedback (Axmith, 2004). In the third meeting, I assessed what Mr. Joshua had achieved. He already had an idea about people’s perception about his behaviour and had developed a communication channel to ensure every disagreement and agreements about his decisions reached him. He had also initiated a small project to improve his relationship with the employees. He still had his personal assistant doing most of his work, but there was a slight change. Effective communication and humility were evident. The personal assistant showed a lot of concern to whoever wanted to see him, explained reasons for any delay, and gave the impression that Mr. Joshua valued everybody. I made my conclusions through this that the employees were motivated, and I could see some important changes. My fourth visit confirmed that Mr. Joshua had implemented what we had agreed on during our second meeting. He was still working on his projects, but had implemented a strategy through which he received feedback about him and his employees. He no longer complained about the employee’s resistance. From this coaching, I have learnt that having a structure guiding a coach’s actions is very important. Had I just walked into Mr. Joshua’s office without any model in mind, I may not have even recognized the source of his problem. Since I had decided on using the FUEL model of coaching, I was able to notice the source of the problem with Mr. Joshua since I set my mind to it. In coaching, even with a guiding structure, one still needs relevant information about how to deal with a situation. Mr. Joshua’s is a case in point. Self awareness has been recognized as a major source of barrier to effective leadership, but one still needs to research and learn about how to make a leader be aware of it. There were so many teaching methods, and information, but a coach has to select just one. This was challenging because almost all the methods seemed right and would be successful. References Adebowale, V. (2013). Victor Adebowale: Leadership Is About Self-Awareness Not Pushiness. Health Service Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.hsj.co.uk/leadership/victor-adebowale-leadership-is-about-self-awareness-not-pushiness/5065895.article#.U3012nKSz3U Alimo-Metcalfe, B. (1998). 360 Degree Feedback and Leadership Development. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 6(1): 35–44. Axmith, M. (2004). Executive Coaching: A Catalyst For Personal Growth And Corporate Change. Ivey Business Journal. Retrieved from: http://iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/governance/executive-coaching-a-catalyst-for-personal-growth-and-corporate-change Barbutoa, J. E and Burbacha, M. E. (2006). The Emotional Intelligence of Transformational Leaders: A Field Study of Elected Officials. The Journal of Social Psychology, 146(1): 51-64. Caldwell, C. (2009). Identity, Self-Awareness, and Self-Deception: Ethical Implications for Leaders and Organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 90(3): 393-406. Carstens, F. J. and Barnes, N. (2006). The Quality Of Leader/Employee Relationship In Business Performance. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 4 (2): 10-19. Gardner, L. and Stough, C. (2002). Examining The Relationship Between Leadership And Emotional Intelligence In Senior Level Managers. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 23(2):68-78. Gardner W. L. (2005). “Can You See the Real Me?” A Self-Based Model of Authentic Leader and Follower Development. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3): 343–372. Naficy, K. and Isabella, L. (2008). How Executive Coaching Can Fuel Professional and Personal Growth. OD PRACTITIONER, 40(1). Nicol, J. and Sparrow, P. (2010). Powerful Leadership: The Importance Of Self- Awareness In Extending Range. Thought Leadership Series 2010-01. Ramakrishnan, S. (2013). Coaching Models: FUEL and GROW. Retrieved from: http://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2013/october/coaching-models-fuel-and-grow.aspx Snowden, D. (2002). Complex Acts of Knowing: Paradox and Descriptive Self-Awareness. Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(2): 100-111. Sosik, J. J. and Megerian, L. E. (1999). Understanding Leader Emotional Intelligence and Performance The Role of Self-Other Agreement on Transformational Leadership Perceptions. Group Organization Management, 24(3): 367-390. Walesa, S. (2002). Why coaching? Journal of Change Management, 3(3): 275-282. Read More