How to Attain Mastery in Coaching

I have often reflected on this - is there one, and only one true model of coaching that really, really works? Especially so because, in nearly all my client interventions over my last eight years as a coach, I have believed in experimenting with a wide variety of tools and approaches to enable client's to successfully achieve their goals. I have debated on the merits of this approach with other coaches in several coaching forums and I have realized that opinions seems fairly divided between two schools - the Fundamentalists and the Evolutionists. The Fundamentalists are usually graduates of coaching schools who believe that only the model or the approach they have been trained in, is the best. In the case of Business coaches, Fundamentalist come from particular specialization who believe that only their expertise area is the one that will work for a business client. For instance, somebody coming from a finance background would tend to believe that a business coach’s job is to increase the cash flow of the business from operations and nothing more. While profits are the lifeblood of every successful business, the success of strategic planning systems such as the Balanced Scorecard suggests that financial goals are achieved from a seamless integration of several other perspectives as well. On the other hand, there are the Evolutionists - liberals and experienced (self-taught) coaches who believe that one's coaching model needs to evolve and develop with the individual coach's experience. Diane Lennard, author of Coaching Models: A Cultural Perspective supports this Evolutionist school of thought. She believes that in coaching, just as no two clients are the same, no two coaches or coaching approaches can be exactly the same. She is a proponent of the belief  that coaches apply their cultural backgrounds, interests, and experiences to their coaching and factor in their own insights, experiences, successes and learning to support the client. This, says Lennard, can result in stronger and more authentic coaching interventions.

As an Evolutionist, I have always believed that a coach needs to continuously improve on his coaching approaches by experimenting with different models. I have personally constructed several models based on various behavioural, cognitive and management (both business and self) theories and incorporated them into my coaching in the light of my personal experiences. In addition, I have a whole bunch of assessments and graphic aids, all designed to help clients achieve their goals in a manner suited their needs, expectations and capabilities. I am therefore of the view that coaching is a craft, which requires to be worked on constantly to attain mastery.

So, how can we raise what we do as coaches from a mere mechanical process, to the level of a craft? To do this, we must first understand what exactly constitutes craftwork.

 What defines Craftwork?

Howard Becker , an American sociologist known for his studies on occupations, identified three criteria for an occupation to be termed as craftwork:

1. Craftwork should produce a useful product or service.
2. Craftwork should be done for, or on behalf of someone else to fulfil that person's need for a useful product or service
3. Craftwork in addition to function and focus on the end user, should involve innovation 

Let us explore each of these criteria individually;

1. Craftwork should produce a useful product or service: Becker defines this dimension as a "body of knowledge and skill that can be used to produce useful objects." For practitioners, examples of craftwork could be of park construction to provide aesthetic experiences and opportunities for physical activity and supplying clean drinking water efficiently.

For coaches to elevate their coaching to a craft would require acquiring and perfecting a body of knowledge and skill which can be used to produce successful client interventions.

         

2. Craftwork is done for, or on behalf of someone else to fulfil that person's need for a useful   product or service: Becker describes this as consisting of the ability to perform in a useful way to suit individual needs..

In coaching, the clients are diverse and the perception of usefulness of the coaching intervention depends on the coachees'  goals and different notions of how to achieve their goals. A coach is required to make a diverse set of  people and groups identify a not the, strategic goal and move them toward, and implement it successfully.
Secondly, according to Becker, for an activity to be called craftwork, requires it's usefulness to  be          evaluated externally - by     individuals and groups of people.

For coaches to raise their work to a craft would require them to explore different ways and means to successfully guide their clients toward achievement of their goals. Positive client feedback should be the only measure of the coach's success.

3. In addition to function and focus on the end user the work should involve innovation: Many years are required to master the physical skills and mental discipline of a first-class practitioner. An expert, or one who has mastered the skills is one who:

• has great control over the crafts material, can do anything with them,
• can work with speed and agility,
• can do with ease the things that ordinary, less expert craftsmen find difficult or impossible.

To elevate their coaching to a craft, coaches have to acquire an extraordinary control of material and techniques and be able not only to do things better than most others, but also to do more things.

Now that we have understood what a coach requires to do to raise the level of his coaching to a craft, let us see how he can go about doing it.

The Road to Coaching Mastery 
The following is a suggested 3 step process to transform your coaching approach from a mechanical process into a craft, and attain mastery of it.

Three Steps to Coaching Mastery 

Step 1

Follow the Rules:  Begin by choosing a coaching model - either the one you have been trained in by your coaching school, or one of your choice. Follow and practice this model thoughtfully and rigorously. After each coaching intervention, check with clients on the benefits they have derived from the session and reflect on the  clients' as well as your own experience. Study the method in the light of this new found understanding and factor the knowledge into your subsequent coaching interventions.

Step 2
Break the Rules: Over a period of time with rigorous use and observation of the results of the practice of the chosen coaching model, you will begin to build up a body of understanding of what works and what needs to be improved further. Factor the insights and experiences into your subsequent coaching interventions and carefully monitor the success of your improved model of coaching. Keep a close watch on the impact made on clients by constantly taking their feedback.

Step 3
Ignore the Rules: To recap, you began with your chosen coaching model, progressed to factoring your insights and experiences into your modified version of the coaching model, and continulusly validated its impact. You have have now arrived at a point where you can start ignoring the rules. So rather than relying on someone else's method, you can now confidently begin to incorporate your individual perspectives, skills, knowledge, experiences into devloping your own coaching model/s. You could also start to explore ways of incorporating the knowledge and understanding of your culture to influence your coaching orientation.

For instance, the Indian cultural dynamics are quite different from that of the the West (see my blogpiece Decoding the Desi Dynamics). You can begin to examine how you can factor these into your own coaching model. As an Indian, it would be also be useful to look at using Krishna as a useful model of a coach, mentor and facilitator.

Apart from using your model with your client, you could also use it as a personalized tool for reflecting on your coaching process and practice. This should facilitate continuous learning and improvement of your coaching effectiveness.

Decoding the Desi Dynamic

With more and more Indian executives being posted abroad - especially in booming sectors such as IT, Pharma and FMCG, Indian companies have felt an increasing need for the chosen people to be trained in the culture and the ways of the country of posting. This has meant the rise of a new breed of trainers in culture and special classes for country specific culture training to help such executives fit smoothly into their new roles.

But have we ever stopped to think about the Indian manager who is about to take up a position outside his native state? Have we ever thought of the need for training such individuals to quickly settle down into their new roles they are about to take up? Why do I say this? Hear what some expat CEOs have to say. Kwon of Samsung believes serving in India is like serving in many countries. Michael Bonham, who is the Ford India CEO supports this view. When he shifted to Delhi after spending nearly three years in Chennai, he actually thought he had shifted to a "different country."  So how does one go about learning about these countries within a country and our cultural traits and attitudes?  How does one go about decoding what the Economic Times calls the desi dynamic? Learn from the experiences of expat CEOs posted on Indian shores. Why? Because they notice things which we as Indians don't and they put a light on attitudes which we take for granted.

For many of us our attitudes and beliefs about different communities are the cultural stereotypes handed down to us from our parents and friends, (the Bong is sentimental, the North Indian is aggressive etc). And these become the drivers influencing our behavior and responses to people from these communities which can come in the growth path of executives who aspire for leadership roles. For, as Jacques Challes the Managing Director of L'Oreal puts it, "India is about the future of business." Moreover Challes believes that in India "you are constantly building" unlike his own country France, where everything is static. Since the business of business is primarily about managing people, and the Indian environment is one of constant change, where do we begin? With one of Challes observations.

Challes has observed that the power distance between the field staff and the highly educated managers at headquarters, is so big, that they are not able to communicate effectively. The loss in translation is the reason why strategies created at the top are often not executed efficiently in the field.

The Indian manager has a unique set of attitudes, knowing which, can help us grow quickly in our leadership roles

So how can managers cut this loss in translation? How can s/he improve execution of his or her painstakingly planned strategies? The learning about the desi dynamic of the expat CEO trying to settle down into his leadership role in India, holds important lessons for us. 

Yves Martinez of Legrand has discovered that its not enough to set targets and issue instructions to his managers you have to take time to convince the internal teams. "...people want to understand what they are doing, they want to take time over it." 

Benoit Lecuyer, the MD of Hager Electro believes that management in India is more personal and therefore managers have to make people the centrepiece of business and life. Instead of calling large meetings with 50 people, they should call the managers for one-to-one discussions. This  helps the manager and his senior to get to know one another better.

Kiminobu Tokuyama CEO of Nissan Motors seconds this view when he observes that Indian managers are rich with ideas and views but in business meetings, they do not express any disagreement with their bosses. "My constant effort," he says. " is to create an atmosphere of mutual respect, trust, confidence and fearlessness and thereby enable free flow of honest opinion from all."

A very important insight comes from Neil Mills, CEO of Spicejet. He calls for dealing with people as individuals and not as members of a community. He believes that there is no such thing as a common Indian culture, for instance, a person with a south Indian name could be more north Indian, because he has lived in Delhi all his life. This means one has to tailor the way instructions are given to people based on their divergent backgrounds and not as a Marwari, Tamilian, Bengali etc.

So there you have it - the desi dynamic decoded. Now to set about internalizing and validating the observations in our corporate lives and leadership roles.

Salaam Salamat

Salamat Irani owned the City Bakery at M.G. Road, Pune. My visit to his
bakery was prompted by a desire to buy Pune’s famous Shrewsbury biscuits 

from the Kayani Bakery. My cousin instead recommended Salamat’s bakery, 

which he claimed baked cashew biscuits to die for. So down we drove to the 

City Bakery on Main Street, a place with shelves and bottles redolent of an 

old world charm. The wall behind the old style counter at the bakery had a 

black board that had a humorous quotable quote written in chalk (changed 

every day).Salamat, the curly-haired, friendly and very talkative owner, 

welcomed my cousin (his school buddy) cheerily and on his introducing us, 

chided him saying, ‘what are you doing Rahul, you are starving your guests!’ 

So saying, he opened a packet of his famous cashew biscuits and laid it on 

the counter for us to eat (and of course sample!). Salamat, I discovered, 

knew all his regular customers and made it a point to address them by their 
names, (‘Good afternoon Mr. Joshi, what can I do for you today?’). It was 
highly entertaining and educative to see how Salamat treated his customers
and so I decided to hang around for some more time to watch him in action.
  

To Mrs. Joshi, who wanted to buy buns, he said mischievously, ‘ only three
buns Mrs. Joshi, you must be starving your family! And what can I pack for
your friend over here?’ (Mrs. Joshi’s friend smiled and shook his head, but
you can be sure he is going to drop in again!) An aged Parsi customer 

doddered in looking for kharis and realizing they were not in stock, turned 

to go away,‘chaalo, paisa bachi gayo!’ smiled Salamat cheekily, eliciting a 

smile from the Parsi gentleman. The next gentleman who walked in was 

looking for jam tarts, which were out of stock, Salamat assured him with,

a 'Sorry Mr Fernandes, but you can get those tarts at 4 pm tomorrow 

evening. They will be waiting for you.’
  

In the mean time a lady at the counter asked him for a bill, ‘That will be 
only fifty dollars, Mrs. Sharma, why don’t you buy some more?’

To a customer who was peering down the glass counter at the trays of 
biscuits, Salamat said naughtily, ‘who are you looking for Mrs. Andrews, 
have you found him yet?’ ‘Oh! Just biscuits, is it? I thought it was 
somebody else!’ To every one of his customers, Salamat seemed to have 

something to say which would make them smile – and of course buy more 

than what they originally intended to buy!!
  

Quite apart from the great goodwill and customer satisfaction generated 
by Salamat, what struck me was the way he seemed to 
actually enjoy what he did.

Salamat, the baker and graduate in law seemed to have a great  time 

doing his work! And his highly infectious joy in what he did clearly
rubbed off on his customers, who seemed to keep coming in for more 
– keeping his cash register clicking merrily!

Elementary eh, my dear Holmes?

Lie to Me was a TV show on Star World that I loved to watch! It was about Cal Lightman, a genius psychologist  and founder of the Lightman group, who uses unusual techniques to arrive at the truth. One of the episodes was about a policeman who has been shot and rendered a quadriplegic - he could neither speak nor make any actions. Lightman shows him pictures of likely suspects and detects the answers by observing the cop's irises of the eye - they dilate on his recognizing his shooter's face.

I have personally found the science of Body language fascinating and of great use in my coaching practice, and the program was like a primer on micro expressions and also helped me revise my knowledge of the subject. When I coach (always face-to-face) I look out for different signs which can help me get a better understanding of the coachee's personality. The pitch and tone of voice in his speech, his facial expressions, hand-to-body gestures and body language are one set of signs I look out for. The others are around him and only need an awareness of their significance to add colour to the canvas of his personality. For instance, a cluttered table to me reflects the clutter in his mind.

What does this table suggest about the owner's personality?

This could mean two things - either he is disorganized in his ways or currently navigating through several decision making options. Also, how does he handle interruptions, how does he speak to people on the phone and why, what kind of books does he read? All these observations help me to get clues to his personality and draw up an approach to coach him.

Leaders too can gain from a knowledge of reading people - they can apply the insights gained through observing to improving their performance as leaders and to navigating the ever-present corporate politics. In our corporate lives, says Art Petty in his blogpost we spend a great deal of time struggling and striving to be heard and somewhere along the way, many of us forget how important it is to shut up, listen and importantly, to observe. How true!

He has some useful suggestions to make on how to watch and learn - the 'elementary' lesson Sherlock Holmes always needled his dear Watson on.