“I’m a consultant, not a coach!”

He said this with a sneer dripping off the word coach that you could smell across the room.

The problem was we were not really hired as consultants, at least not as he was defining a consultant. We were hired to teach a client coaches how to support continuous improvement (CI).

Client coaches attended advanced  CI training  and coached projects run by the business units. Each client coach was assigned a “consultant coach” to help them with difficult problems.

This “consultant,” an independent contractor, was ignoring his client coach and doing calculations, taking measurements, running experiments. In short he was ingratiating himself with the business unit leader and undermining the client coach and the project.

“Work is getting done and Tony (the business unit leader) loves it” the “consultant said obstinately.

“Yes, but nobody is learning anything,” I countered.

This was  one of many painful conversations. He was better at all the things he was doing, but he couldn’t understand that his role was to teach not do. Ultimately, this consultant had to be removed from the project.

In fairness, many “expert” independent consultants are hired as an “extra pair of hands” to do a difficult task. Competency transfer isn’t an expectation.

So What is a Coach?

A coach is someone who helps and individual or a group develop competency (knowledge and skill), helps them learn in the context of a goal.

There are all kinds of coaches, singers vocal coaches, acting coaches, life coaches, spiritual guides, the tech help desk, executive coaches, change coaches, book publishing coaches, and so on.. They all teach (or help you learn) in the context of a goal.

Many people have an understanding of what a coach is from sports, Knute Rockne of Notre Dame football, John Wooden of UCLA basketball. Sports coaches often have the reputation of being motivational “ass-kickers.” These coaches have the advantage of working with top players with a crystal clear goal, “winning.” Sports coaches at top levels may not use much positive feedback; they can leave that to the cheering fans.

Business coaches use positive feedback more. Whether a manager or a consultant, these coaches take the “player” “as-is” with limitations and may clarify the goal as well as shape performance to achieve it. A business coach may also have to help move from competency to capability by adding review processes and other support structures to maintain competency.

My first management training had a half day of “coaching and counselling”. Coaching in the definition of this course was helping people perform better. Counselling was problem solving  with difficult employees. I imagine that there are still managers who practice coaching as a part of their job, but many organizations hire external coaches.

Why Do Organizations Hire External Coaches?

Companies hire third party coaches for many reasons:

• Development – managers don’t have time to develop their people and companies hire coaches to help individuals or a level or a class of employee (e.g. middle managers).
• Team development – to help a new department form, set goals, conflict, etc.
• Succession planning –to help evaluate and develop leaders to the next level.
• As part of a change effort – to learn and practice new what is required in a changed environment.
• Remedial development – for individuals or teams experiencing difficulties

An entire business coaching industry has sprung up. There are individual coaches and coaching companies. There are many books, coaching models, and coach training and certifications programs.

Some consultants have decided to earn a living as full-time coaches. I never wanted to do that, but I came to believe that at a minimum consultants should learn coaching skills because coaching characterizes most senior level client relationships. The vaunted “Trusted Advisor” consulting relationship at the CEO level is a coaching relationship, unfiltered feedback and goal-centered leadership development.

What Makes A Good Coach

I have read enough testimonials about coaches  (in sports, theatre, music,  etc.) to recognize certain themes:

• “Coach believed in me”
• “Coach was right there at just the right time with the right piece of advice”
• “Coach kicked my butt when I needed it, picked me up when I needed it.”
• “I brought some skill, I did the work, Coach showed me what work to do.”

In my view good coaches have a strong similar set of core values. Coaches have knowledge and skill in what they are coaching. A Bill Belichick (New England Patriots coach) who had never seen a football wouldn’t be very effective. The coach may not be the best ever in the game, but what they have is the ability to transfer competency. The best coaches evaluate the player, determine what is needed and deliver motivation and a learning at the right time. They also understand the coaching process.

Core Values

Most good coaches have underlying values and beliefs:

• A desire to be helpful
• A drive to deliver the goal
• An abiding belief in the content they are coaching and the person being coached to deliver the goal

Good Coaches are

• Focused more on others, less on themselves
• Authentic – they say what they mean and mean what they say.

I can think of successful coaches who don’t have one of these values, but they have a strength in the other values that overcomes that deficiency.

You can’t train values. You can’t train the specialized content knowledge and skill You select for those attributes. You can train coaching skills around a coaching model..

A Simple Coaching Model

There are many coaching models, all with clever acronym names, OSKAR, GROW, STEPPA, CLEAR, ACL, etc. The model I used was taught to me by Alan Moore, a  Glaswegian Scot, and one of the gentlest souls I ever met. I worked with Alan on several continuous improvement initiatives in the oil and gas industry.

I like Alan’s model because it is simple and easy to understand.

It is sequential, and a good conceptual framework on which to hang knowledge and skill.

• Engage the Client
  • Prepare before engaging
  • Respond to a request / Create a request
  • Build rapport
  • Ask questions about goals
  • Listen with empathy
  • Speak only when your knowledge will help learning.

The important element of engagement is the client’s choice to engage and learn.

• Agree direction and action plan
  • Contracting – client wants and needs, coach offers and requests (One on my requests was that the client act on the agreed actions.)
  • Securing agreement on approach
• Demonstrate and Observe
  • Balance telling and asking
  • Clearly explain purpose, process, and expected output of activities.
• Support and feedback
  • Giving space to learn
  • Being available as a sounding board
  • Being helpful, direct, specific, and check for understanding when giving feedback
  • Model non-defensive, respectful, action-oriented behavior when receiving feedback

Coaching is a learning intervention. If people (Including me) always learned what they need to it would be a much better world. Coaching doesn’t always work.

I had major disagreements with one boss. We each felt a lack of respect. He hired a coach to teach me “how to talk to him respectfully.” I suggested the coach facilitate conflict resolution with us both. My boss declined. The coach resigned.

Ultimately I went to see my boss’s office and closed the door. We “cleared the air’ and things were better for a while, but I then I stepped on his toes again and he stomped on mine and I left the company.

Fully half the problem was my ignorance and arrogance, but not all of it. Coaching didn’t work.

When Coaching Doesn’t Work

The biggest breakdown is in engagement stage and the biggest part of engagement is the client must  choose to be coached. Here are two categories about why coaching might not work.

The client isn’t ready

Adults learn what they choose to learn, so if the board “tells” a CEO that he needs to be more “empathetic,” when his entire career has been built on drive and not tolerating inaction, then this CEO may not be open to a “softly-softly-make nice” coach. This is one point of Marshal Goldsmith’s book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Find a goal, a purpose for people to change and underinvesting in the “why” may lead to failure.

The Coach isn’t ready

Perhaps the problem the client faces isn’t one the coach hasn’t faced before. Perhaps the coach didn’t do research on the industry, or accepted another person’s assessment of the problem. Maybe the problem is beyond the scope of the coaches capabilities, as when a client wanted to talk about his marriage and I recommended that he consult with a trained psychotherapist.

So coaching doesn’t always work. The hard part is lack of outcome control; the client must act.

So Why Should Consultants Learn Coaching skills

If a consultant learns coaching skills, I believe it increases project sustainability because the client has learned and is therefore more likely to act to maintain results. So most change programs can be enhanced by coaching.

It may increase consultant promotability. I mentioned earlier that senior relationships are coaching relationships. Partners at big consulting firms may have two or three such relationships.

It may improve the image of the industry. Consultants are often described as “having an opinion on everything without the benefit of experience.”. Coaches typically listen more and that may help perceptions.