Reinventing Executive Coaching: to Accelerate Leadership Development - David Peterson

Reinventing Executive Coaching

to Accelerate Leadership Development

Reinventing Executive Coaching

to Accelerate Leadership Development

David B. Peterson, [email protected]

15 November, 2013Congresso Brasileiro de Coaching

Sao Paulo, Brasil

Copyright © 2013, David B. Peterson, PhD. All Rights Reserved.

ReinventingReinventing

To make as if for the first time something already invented

To remake or redo completely

To replace with an entirely new version

How do we equip coaches to dramatically accelerate leader development, and to foster leaders who can transform organizations and the world?

How do we manage coaching for the greatest individual, organizational, & societal impact?

How do we stay ahead of the accelerating pace of change?

Executive CoachingExecutive Coaching

Executive Coaching 2.0Executive Coaching 2.0

Coaching is not going away However, it needs to stay ahead of the pace of change,

which requires a lot of thought, energy and commitment Changing faster than the pace of change around us does not

require working harder or running faster: it requires a change of paradigm and perspective

My intention is very positive: How do we make coaching significantly better to increase

value to coaches, leaders, organization, the world?

If we don’t continue to question ourselves and advance our practice, how can we remain effective at what we do and be compelling role models of transformational development?

Three threadsThree threads

My own journey: Faster, better cheaper, more rewarding

Working at Google My beliefs and models have been expanded Interviewing over 250 external coaches

Observing how leadership and the needs of leaders are changing

What is the future of coaching?

Do you want the optimistic view or the pessimistic view?

What is the future of coaching?What is the future of coaching?

Continued diminishment of what it means to be a professional coach.

More people calling themselves a coach who don’t fit our definition.

Coaching associations will continue to be irrelevant to the people who call themselves coaches.

Take it out a bit farther and coaching is just another skill in anyone’s toolbox.

David Goldsmith (2010)

Market signals (Internal)Market signals (Internal)

More coaches available Capable coaches in every market; fewer globe-trotting coaches Commoditization of coaching, esp. mid-level Organizations bringing coaching internal for scalability – and upgrading

quality

More competitive marketplace Excess of proprietary models with little real differentiation Efforts to band together and protect the field; certification, competencies

Many comfortable, happy coaches “I love what I do. I love coaching smart, motivated people. They’re the

best clients. They’re so easy to work with.” Coaches searching for cool new tools, not ways to rethink how they work

Disruptive forces (External)Disruptive forces (External)

Technology Physiological monitoring and real-time feedback Apps for learning and development

Self-directed learning Leaders learning how to learn Instant access to resources and tools

“As evolutionary biologists have taught us, the more adapted (i.e., comfortable) you are in your current

environment, the less likely it is that you’ll be adaptive to environmental changes.”

David Maister (1997, p. 158)

What matters now(Hamel, 2012)

What matters now(Hamel, 2012)

The world is becoming more turbulent faster than

most organizations are becoming more resilient.

What are the implications for leaders and for their

coaches?

Reinventing Executive CoachingReinventing Executive Coaching

You have to train yourself to look in the places that you don’t understand. Because that’s where the problem is likely to be.

— Phil Schultz, HP GM, August, 2001 —

We must dare to think unthinkable thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a

complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think

about unthinkable things because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.

— J. William Fulbright —

Leadership & leaders are changing

The Development Pipeline(Peterson, 2006)

The Development Pipeline(Peterson, 2006)

Do people know

what to develop?

INSIGHT

Are they willing to invest the time and energy it takes?

MOTIVATION

Do they have the capabilities they need?

CAPABILITIES

Do they have

opportunities to apply

their capabilities

at work?

REAL- WORLD

PRACTICE

Do they internalize

their capabilities

and feel accountable to actually improve

performance and results?

ACCOUNT-ABILITY

Leadership development:Complex & changing

Leadership development:Complex & changing

Insight: Constantly changing: Roles, environment, success factors, audience (therefore perceptions), etc.

Motivation: Increasing, but still a tough sell on any given new skill; overload, fads, conflicting demands…

Capabilities: Totally new capabilities and challenges emerge; sustainability, networked leadership, design thinking

RWP: More opportunity, but increased demands leave less time to experiment and reflect

Accountability: Focused on performance and results, not development

Leadership and the fate of organizations(Kaiser, Hogan & Craig 2008)


Leaders actually make a difference in the fate of organizations: Success, mediocrity, or failure:

“research on managerial succession over the last 20 years has consistently found a relationship between who is in charge and organizational performance” (p. 103)

But we know little about what actually makes a difference

“leadership research often focuses on how leaders are perceived and tells us little about leading effective teams” (p. 102)



“the characteristics associated with career success are not the same as those associated with leading a team to success” (p. 102)

“Managers are rarely chosen on the basis of their talent for leadership”

“are promoted on the basis of their skill at managing impressions, not their skill at leading”

“CEO charisma predicted level of pay but not firm performance”

“Thus, although charismatic CEOs transform their personal wealth, modest and persistent CEOs with a talent for leadership transform lackluster organizations into effective competitors.” (p. 103)

Average CEO performance declinesafter a few years (Luo, Kanuri, & Andrews, 2013)

Average CEO performance declinesafter a few years (Luo, Kanuri, & Andrews, 2013)

For average CEO, after 4.8 years: Shareholder returns and product quality diminish Employee tenure and benefits improve

Their hypothesis? New CEOs: Seek diverse information from employees and customers Are willing to take risks and try new things

Over time, CEOs: Become entrenched and attached to status quo Seek to avoid loss rather than pursue gains

The new leadership context(Duke Corporate Education, 2013 CEO study)The new leadership context

(Duke Corporate Education, 2013 CEO study)

The world is more interdependent

Challenges are less predictable1. Problems are multi-dimensional (rather than uni-dimensional)

2. Authority has shifted from control to influence

3. Second-order change is required (rather than first order)

4. Challenges are emergent: Unknown, unpredictable

Knowledge is less reliable1. Access to knowledge is uncontrollable

2. Shelf-life is low

3. Tacit knowledge as important as explicit knowledge

4. Systemic knowledge is critical to understanding and solving problems

Leadership capabilities for the new context(Duke Corporate Education, 2013 CEO study)Leadership capabilities for the new context

(Duke Corporate Education, 2013 CEO study)

1. Understand how to understand

2. Develop new sources of reliable knowledge and information

3. Develop the ability to grapple and ‘grok’ (figure things out)

4. Learn to lead through successive approximation

5. Build and influence collectives

6. Broaden systemic self-awareness

7. Engage the organization in the “new rational”

Reinventing coaching

Faster* than the pace of change

* Faster because we are working smarter, not merely running faster…

Seven paths forwardSeven paths forward

1. True professionalism: Dedication to clients and doing great work that makes a difference

2. Savvy consumers

3. Deep insight into mechanisms of development

4. Faster, better, cheaper, more rewarding

5. Address accelerating complexity and other emerging leadership development needs

6. Leverage human-technology interface

7. Manage full portfolio of coaching & development resources for greatest value

1. True professionalism(Maister, 1997)

1. True professionalism(Maister, 1997)

Dedicated to clients, do great work that makes a difference

Dedicated to self-development and improvement

Put client needs and interests first, including opportunity cost “the ethical and professional thing to do… is to work hard to achieve the

client’s goals at the minimum possible cost to the client on each transaction.” (Maister, 1997, italics his) “I like working with people for at least a year or two, because I can really have an

impact.” “I prefer to do 8-10 360 interviews because it helps me understand the whole

context of what they need to work on.” (8 hours + 4 hours integration + 4 hours written report)

“Shadowing the client is important so you can really see people in action and give them real-time feedback.”

2. Savvy consumers2. Savvy consumers

Equipping them to understand their own role in self-development and how to benefit from coaching

Better consumer education: “I’m a surgeon”

How to find the right coach for the need… Four kinds of coaches

Different coaches address different needs(Peterson, 2010)

Different coaches address different needs(Peterson, 2010)

Focus Type of coach Approach

1.Feedback coaches

360/multirater, feedback-intensive coaches, some psychologists

360 feedbackAssessment and interviewsDevelopment plan

2.Insight + Accountability coaches

Personal/life coaches, trusted advisors, follow-up coaches, some internal coaches

What are you trying to do?What’s important to you?Did you do it? How did it go?

3.Content coaches

Former business leaders, mentors, gurus, content experts, academics, authors, sports coaches

Focused on capabilitiesLots of advice and ideas, not necessarily skill-building

4. Development coaches (experts on learning)

Experts on how to accelerate and apply learning

Work across entire Development Pipeline

Individually customizedPutting ideas into actionEquip leaders to be better learners

Insight Motivation

Capabilities

Real-world

Practice

Account- ability

3. Deep insight into mechanisms of change3. Deep insight into mechanisms of change

Better understanding of psychology of human behavior, motivation, performance, etc. (Peterson, 2010)

Better coaching research, e.g., side-by-side comparison: What approaches work best, for whom, for what needs, what circumstances?

Focus on the ends, not just the means It’s not about being a good listener or asking powerful questions, it’s about

meeting the client where they are and helping them through the most appropriate tools available

Best options to address mediating elements (motivation, capabilities, accountability; Peterson 2010). E.g., Insight: Systematically analyze successful vs. not-successful colleagues Self-awareness, observation, reflection, introspection Compare self to best and worst leader you know – what do you have in common? Personal mission and vision, values User Guide to Me

The uncoachable(Goldsmith, 2009)

The uncoachable(Goldsmith, 2009)

1. She doesn't think she has a problem

2. He is pursuing the wrong strategy for the organization

3. They're in the wrong job

4. They think everyone else is the problem

Lore’s coachability index(Bacon & Spears, 2004)

Lore’s coachability index(Bacon & Spears, 2004)

Coachability or coach ability?Coachability or coach ability?

The “uncoachable” are often the people who need coaching the most

Some coaches can coach successfully on these challenges The right type of coach for the need The right experience and expertise, e.g., some expert coaches

are well-qualified to work with narcissistic, defensive, distrustful, and difficult people (Ludeman & Erlandson, 2004; Mansi, 2009)

There is great value in coaching the “uncoachable” High-visibility success for coaches Even incremental improvement often has real value; moving

from unacceptable to barely acceptable

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Developing coaching maturity(Clutterbuck, 2010)

Developing coaching maturity(Clutterbuck, 2010)

Seek wide exposure to different philosophies and perspectives of coaching and related disciplines

Frequently try out new ideas in coaching, with clients as partners in learning

Individual and collective reflection on those experiments, engaging clients and colleagues in thinking about how tools work in practice

Cultivate a deep honesty about one’s own motivation in learning and about how and why we select new areas of knowledge to explore

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Enhancing our own vertical development,maturity, and cognitive complexity (Cavanagh, 2013)

Enhancing our own vertical development,maturity, and cognitive complexity (Cavanagh, 2013)

1. Perspective-taking capacity Capacity to understand, critically consider and integrate multiple competing

perspectives into comprehensive perspective that enables adaptive action.

2. Purpose The pattern of commitments (i.e., desires, values, hopes, fears and

responsibilities) that give meaning to human activity. Rather than a clear end state, purpose can be thought of as the set of criteria by which one judges the degree to which something of value has been achieved.

3. Mindfulness A motivated state of decentred awareness brought about by receptive

attending to present moment experience.

4. Positivity The quality of interaction needed to develop shared perspectives & purpose.

4. Faster, better, cheaper, more rewarding4. Faster, better, cheaper, more rewarding

Equip people to be better learners Development FIRST (Peterson & Hicks, 1995)

Attitude of experimentation and innovation Practice Aikido using only one hand (Mastery, Leonard, 1992)

Practice coaching without providing feedback or asking questions

Better matching of coach and approach to the real need

A little more humility We’re not that big a deal. We over-estimate our own contribution to

success and under-value luck, timing, fortune. E.g., Gladwell’s Outliers (2008), Taleb’s (2012) randomness and

selecting on the dependent variable



Understand how leadership is changing better than our clients (Denning, 2013; Hamel, 2012)

Understand what really contributes to leadership performance and effectiveness (Collins & Hansen, 2011; Kaiser, Hogan, & Craig, 2008)

Develop better tools, techniques and models to accelerate development of leadership maturity, cognitive complexity (Bachkirova, 2010, 2012; Cavanagh & Lane, 2012)

Help leaders build and lead more robust, viable organizations (Collins & Hansen, 2011; Taleb, 2012)

6. Leverage human-technology interface6. Leverage human-technology interface

What is uniquely human, interpersonal vs. what can be automated, streamlined?

Paying attention to people, caring? Being disruptive and challenging and interesting and novel?

How do we maximize the value of the human touch? In-person vs. phone-based coaching Videoconferencing

Incorporate technology, e.g., biophysical monitoring, apps, learning tools and resources,

Incorporate social and gaming aspects of development



What’s the best way for this person to develop specific capabilities, perspectives, character, maturity, wisdom?

When is coaching ideal vs. just useful?

Integrated, holistic development offerings: Where does coaching add something essential to lessons of experience and development programs?

Aligned with HR processes (talent reviews, org surveys, performance reviews)

Truly customized – diverse providers to meet unique needs



Strategically build and manage portfolio of scalable coaching resources across the whole spectrum

Internal professional coaches: complex, nuanced, confidential

External coaches Internal trained coaching resources HR business partners Managers Mentors Peers and colleagues

The End... …Or just the beginning of the journey??

The End... …Or just the beginning of the journey??

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do

not stop.— Confucius —