Coaching that Counts: Harnessing the Power of Leadership Coaching to Deliver Strategic Value

Citation

Champion, C.K. (2008), "Coaching that Counts: Harnessing the Power of Leadership Coaching to Deliver Strategic Value", Personnel Review, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 241-244. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480810851361

Coaching that Counts focuses on the evaluation of executive leadership coaching programmes, at a time when coaching represents the largest growth area in training and development in UK organisations (CIPD, 2005) and when the evaluation issue is noted to be currently challenging the coaching profession (Bluckert, 2004). The book is written by the husband and wife team of Merrill and Dianna Anderson. The former is a strategic change consultant, CEO of MetrixGlobal LLC, specialising in programme evaluation and the latter a practising Master Coach, CEO of Lydian LLC. The book is set within the context of executive coaching within large American business organisations and applies the authors' empirical research findings to coaching and evaluation practice.

The book targets a broad audience, representing the stakeholders in the executive coaching process. For coaches the book aims to improve knowledge and understanding of the value‐add achieved through strategic coaching and demonstrates how to align the coaching objectives with the over riding strategic business objectives. For internal managers the aim is to offer a range of ideas in order to maximise the potential value from coaching, and to encourage high expectations of achieving excellence through a transformational leadership approach. The intention is not to teach specific coaching skills, like so many recently published texts in this field, but to propose through a model, a range of strategies and approaches.

The book is easy to read, written mostly in a narrative style using a range of case studies for the illustration of concepts and avoids unnecessary coaching jargon. However, the American language does not always have the same resonance in the UK setting. The structure lends itself to either reading cover‐to‐cover or dipping in to read about particular topics of interest.

The book is divided into three distinct sections. The first, “Leading with Insight”, focuses on the individual client and the development of their insight through the process of executive leadership coaching. The second section, “Managing Coaching Initiatives”, sets out to illustrate how to successfully manage the coaching initiative, as a strategic business intervention. The third section, “Evaluating Coaching Success”, provides knowledge, ideas and tools to facilitate the evaluation of the monetary and intangible benefits for the organisation.

“Leading with Insight” is essentially focused on the coaching process. It proposes an interesting 4 Quadrant Leading with Insight Coaching model that is designed to deliver transformational change. In chapter 2, the model introduces 4 typologies of insight: reflective, emotional, intuitive and inspirational and is illustrated through a case study of the director of an IT services company as she develops through the four stages in the model. The four following chapters describe the approach to coaching in each of these Quadrants using further case studies.

In the first quadrant: the insight is reflective with the focus on personal effectiveness. The second quadrant proposes the insight of emotion, linked to the Emotional Intelligence models, with the focus on interpersonal relationships. Thirdly, the insight is intuitive with the focus on teams, groups and networks, seeking to achieve centeredness. The fourth quadrant describes the higher‐level insight of inspiration through original action with the focus on incremental change on any level from personal to system wide.

This all represents an intuitively appealing coaching model built from empirical research and it would be interesting to understand how exactly it was devised. For me the overall model is reminiscent of the concept of reflective practice (Heidegger, 1966), which moves from calculative to contemplative thinking, with the latter providing deeper and more meaningful insights and a higher level of knowledge. Like all theoretical models, this Leading with Insight model is not universally applicable. For example, the authors state that relatively few coaching clients will move through all 4 of the quadrants to achieve the full transformational development and that each will have different experiences of the process. They also point out that the quality of the coaching experience may be limited by the capability of the coach, thus confirming the concerns of Berglas, 2002 in his infamous Harvard Business Review article.

The second section “Managing Coaching Initiatives” comprised of 4 chapters, emphasises the importance of designing in the means of evaluation at a business level, at the beginning of the coaching programme, thus providing the link between section one and three.

The first chapter in this section, “Coaching as a Strategic Initiative”, proposes that coaching will maximise value only if it is designed and managed as a strategic initiative, and lists five sensible criteria which are required in order for this to be achieved:

1. 1.

   Sponsorship for the coaching must be sustained and unwavering.

2. 2.

   The strategic needs of the business must be articulated and shared.

3. 3.

   Clear goals for the initiative must be set that link to the strategic needs.

4. 4.

   The outcomes of the coaching must be evaluated.

5. 5.

   The initiative must be actively managed in a way that respects the privacy of the coaching relationships.

The following chapter examines the context and purpose for the coaching and the implications for managing talent within the organisation. Some interesting and useful examples are provided here to illustrate specific needs assessment activities and tips on how to set specific coaching objectives.

Chapter nine recommends four best practices for managing successful coaching initiatives in order to secure success and concludes by re‐stating the importance of building performance evaluation into the Coaching process.

The final chapter in this section reflects on the competitive nature of the coaching scene and discusses the role of coach versus the role of consultant including practical tips on how to write a winning proposal.

Section three “Evaluating Coaching Success” presents the main elements of an evaluation strategy, recommending the setting of a “clear line of sight” p. 177 from the business goals to the coaching and evaluation objectives. I found the term evaluation objectives somewhat confusing in this context, since authors in the field of evaluation (Patton, 1984) use this term in a more holistic way to indicate what is being evaluated overall and why, i.e. the objectives of the evaluation process itself, rather than specific business outcomes.

The well established Kirkpatrick's (1959) Four Level Model of Reaction, Learning, Application (Behaviour) and Results (Business Impact), is proposed as an appropriate framework for evaluation, with the addition of the fifth level Return on Investment.

The major contention and practical challenge of isolating the effects of coaching from other intervening variables is discussed briefly. Three techniques are proposed for this: pre/post analysis, control group analysis, and expert estimation.

Chapter 12 is focused on the practice of how to demonstrate the ROI of coaching. Using one of the case study companies, a useful toolkit for evaluation is provided, which appears to offer limited scope for any qualitative assessment of outcomes.

However, Chapter 13 acknowledges a more constructivist philosophy, and reviews the behavioural outcomes of coaching, recognising that not all businesses will want to conduct detailed ROI calculations. Here a range of qualitative methods for collecting more detailed and rich data is noted including personal interview, group survey and focus groups. This is a very short chapter, clearly reflecting the authors' preferred approach using quantitative methods through the ROI methodology.

The conclusion draws on empirical research conducted by the authors, although it is not clear exactly how the data was obtained and analysed. These research findings were first presented at the 2004 International Coaching Federation Conference in Canada. Six key findings are presented which focus on the length and nature of the coaching relationship and how this influences the impact and monetary benefits of coaching.

Generally the authors achieve their stated objectives of improving knowledge and understanding of the value of strategic executive coaching. In addition, I think that coaches are provided with ammunition to go out and sell coaching services designed to deliver value, so to some extent the book presents a sales and marketing tool. It is interesting to note that currently in the UK the most popular approach to evaluating coaching (Gray, 2004) is through feedback from the participants at Kirkpatrick's (1959) Level 1. This book may well increase the awareness and know‐how for the stakeholders in the coaching process of the potential for a broader approach to evaluation.

Overall the book is impressive, introducing an interesting analytical framework that may provide support to the coach and the client in assessing the dynamic of the coaching intervention. The detailed approach to calculating ROI also offers practical tools for evaluation. However, the subjective and potentially political nature of this process within organisations with accountability to shareholders remains problematic.

There is a plethora of new books, post 2000, written on the themes of how to coach, and the various types and underpinning philosophies of coaching. Coaching that Counts clearly differentiates itself in this market.

The authors provide a pragmatic approach to advocating the business case for coaching at a time of increasing accountability of HR functions for Human Capital information. However I would like to leave this reader with a thought for further reflection. I am reminded of an old saying of Einstein's quoted by Garvey and Carter (2004) that not everything can be counted and that not everything that can be counted counts!!