Coaching A High Potential Executive: Case Study

Abstract Some of the categories of executive coaching cases most coaches deal with are: behavioral, performance, leadership, transition and high potential. This case is about coaching a high potential manager. Typically, companies identify high potential managers in their early thirties, after about 10 years of a high performance career. Corporate Human Resources (HR) or Learning & Development (L&D) personnel hire coaches to correct what they perceive as performance gaps based on organizational competencies. This case study deals with need for the Coach to go beyond the gap identification process of the sponsor company to ensure sustainable transformation. Introduction The sponsor in this case is a global multinational with a large long-term presence in India. The company is well known for its management and leadership practices. It has very well established management and leadership development processes benchmarked by others. The company identifies high potential leaders very early in their career and grooms them. It uses coaching as an intervention in its leadership development process.

Client Background Akash is thirty. He is an engineer from one of the best institutions in India. He joined the company as a management trainee in its technical function 9 years ago. A year ago, he was identified as a high potential manager capable of reaching the company board within 10 years. As part of a broader company initiative, he was nominated for an elite in-company program that included external coaching inputs. Sponsor Brief As part of coaching brief, Company L&D manager sent across Akashs development plans to Coach. These plans were part of the annual appraisal process. The process, in addition to evaluating performance for salary increments, also evaluated executive leadership potential separately. The development plan was co-created by Akash and his line manager. It measured Akash against competencies required for leadership in the company and Akashs scores. These scores were averaged based on multi source feedback that included Akash, line manager, peers, reports and superiors. In addition, the development plan also outlined a rough outline of Akashs career progression in the company as well as L&D inputs based on his developmental needs.

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Coach met Akash at a company workshop for a chemistry meeting. In the first telephonic coaching session with Akash, one of ten over a 12 month period, the line manager joined the call and provided his inputs on what he considered to be Akashs needs. Coach was impressed by the emotional bond that Akash and his manager shared and the concern that the manager had in Akashs development. This was also reflected in similar coaching with other executives in this company. The developmental issues that the company focused in Akashs case were: Peer management, Delegation, Time management, Strategic Thinking & Consumer Focus. His domain skills, analytical skills, task management and decision-making were rated high. His people management skills needed improvement. Coach was briefed to help Akash in the people management areas and the developmental need areas. Client Perceptions Akash was an ambitious, highly intelligent and highly capable manager. Trained as an engineer, as many Indian managers are, Akash was far more at ease with figures, plans and tasks than dealing with people. Coach asked Akash to describe a typical day at work. His day started quite early around 8 AM and ended past 7 PM. His routine involved a bit of travel, as he was responsible for coordinating a number of technical initiatives across a bunch of factories. He had 6 direct reports, and most of his work involved persuading peers in distant locations to carry out what they had committed as common company objectives. Akash found it a waste of time trying to persuade people to do what they had already committed to. It was their job to do what they had agreed to. If they didnt they had to be made to perform. Furthermore, he found that most of his peers were less committed and/or intelligent compared to him, and he found it frustrating to enter into dialogue explain stuff that seemed so clear to him. . In delegation, he found his subordinates good workers willing to listen to him, unlike his peers. However, he needed to provide them solutions for several problems several times a day. Most of his time was occupied by having to do their job. He had very little time to focus on larger and more strategic issues. Akash was an expert on time management, having attended companysponsored programs. He listed as recommended by experts jobs as Urgent & Important, Urgent & Not Important, Important & Not Urgent, and Not Important & Not Urgent. The last as advised he ignored. Important & Not Urgent, he kept for tomorrow, one that never seemed to come. Urgent & Not Important, he gave to his direct reports to do. He tried to complete Important & Urgent, but there were too many of them. Akash was swamped, not knowing what to do.

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Additional Challenges In addition to the work situation, Akash had some personal issues that the Coach uncovered as the relationship grew. Akash was brought up in a family value system that believed in owning responsibility and hunkering down to doing whatever needed to be done on ones own without depending on any one else. There were also some issues with siblings, which led to Akash deciding to postpone his own marriage.

Akash, though ambitious, had no clear idea of where he wanted to go longer term. He knew that he would reach the senior levels of the company. His vision was to reach a high level technical function some day. More important was to be promoted to the next level ahead of his batch cohorts. Coaching Approach Coach agreed with Akash that they would deal with his issues at two levels. One was to work on his perceived and stated performance gaps, which he agreed with, and the other was to look longer term at a personal level. The latter was not clear at this time to Akash, but he understood that he needed to have a vision for the future the same way as a company had one for itself. At the daily work level, Akashs mindset was one of doing every thing himself. He did not suffer fools gladly. His method of prioritization was not working. He was not ready to delegate solutions. After detailed discussion on what he was doing and why it was not working for him, and after they discussed seminal thinking by management experts on these areas, Akash and Coach agreed on three action points. 1. Co-creating Solutions: Not offering any solutions to his direct reports, but instead ask them to come up with possible solutions to problems they came to him with. He would then question them and co-create solutions with them, if they themselves could not come up with a solution. 2. Prioritize only Important: Deal only with issues important to him, as agreed in his work plan. Ignore all others, even if they came up as urgent. Within what was important, Akash would delegate to his subordinates, based on his new approach of no solution offering, all that could be handled by them. Only those that must be handled by him, he would. He also will learn to say no to any request that was not his baby but brought to him urgent by others. 3. OLA: Observe, Listen, Act: In any peer meeting, Akash will keep his mouth shut till others have spoken. He will observe and listen, and understand where others came from. He will suspend judgment, and act only after he understood the others position. He will empathize. None of these actions were silver bullets, but they worked magic on Akash.

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Intelligent as he was, he understood that his own career progress depended on how he developed others and how he built his relationships with others. Now, he didnt know how. His only problem with these actions he agreed with the Coach was his doubt whether they would work. In this area, perhaps the Coach allowed the mentor in him take over the coaching a bit, after clarifying what his experiences were and why these worked for the Coach, making it clear that he needed to apply them in his own way to make them work for him. Coach offered no advice as a consultant or mentor, only a directional possibility that emerged as a result of respectful adult discussion, supported by management case studies on topics such as Situational Leadership, Emotional Intelligence etc. Outcome Coach and Akash started discussing these issues at their second call. Akash started implementing them in months two and three. The fourth month Akash went to a regional conference. When he returned from this trip, he was euphoric. You know, Ram, he gushed, Guys in the regional team were all much older. I felt I knew more than them on several areas. Yet, I stayed silent the first two days of this weeklong conference, which was very difficult for me. They then started asking me for my views. I was careful in blending my views with what I agreed with having been said. Soon, I sort of became the thought leader! Keeping his mouth shut helped people discover the value of Akashs thoughts! This experience was repeated with in peer meetings at the local level as well. His direct reports had a tough time initially, as Akash reported to the Coach through mails in between. They were frustrated at his questioning and sending them back for their own solutions. At the end of another 2 months, they understood what was happening and started taking responsibility for solutions. Akash was able to delegate more. Others around him also started realizing that Akash was no longer interested in solving their problems. At the end of month 4, Akash told the Coach, Ram, You said that the proof of all this working would be for me to put up my feet with nothing to do for at least 2 hours a day. I now have nothing to do in the entire afternoon. I now have the luxury of dropping by other departments of the company to understand whats happening and visit the market. My work scene has changed Month 7, Akash was promoted to a job that was two levels higher, a highly challenging operational role that required interaction with multiple

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stakeholders. Over the next 5 months of interaction, he was doing a remarkable job in this role. Long Term Issues Around month 4,when Akash felt he had his immediate concerns under control, Coach and he decided to tackle his long-term vision. Akash reflected on events that he handled best in his life thus far and felt most joyful with, and distilled a set of workable values that were truly Akash. Based on these, he developed a holistic vision@65 excel sheet, which listed what he would like to be at 65 on various factors such as wealth, position, health, relationship, service, learning, hobbies, travel etc. He then worked backwards to 30, listing every 5 years what he ought to be to reach this 65 vision. He now had a life plan not merely an IDP! Coach and Akash worked on a visualization technique that Akash was comfortable with to anchor this life plan in his subconscious mind. Later, he told the Coach that this was the best learning he had during the coaching journey that transformed his thinking for life. Akash now had a much larger vision than the next promotion as well as his personal problems. He was able to focus on these issues without getting obsessed. Whether as a result of all this or not, he helped his sister back on her feet and on month 10 invited me for his wedding! Learning At a process level, Akash was a reaffirmation of the power of the coaching process Aware Act Anchor. Awareness created the understanding of what stood in ones way and why, often subliminally, making the Unconscious Incompetence Conscious. Act was the next step to correct the Incompetencies and make them Conscious Competencies. These were the three short-term steps that produced small successes leading to a belief in the process. The longer tem life plan was the Anchor, helping Akash embed this learning into Unconscious Competencies. This is transformation for life, sustainable with no further inputs. Conclusion Akash is one of the several young high potential managers I have worked with, resulting in similar transformational outcome. Many are still in touch months after the coaching journey is over, telling me how their lives have changed for the better. Many coaches question me on the need to question the wisdom of going beyond gaps identified by L&D to explore deeper to discover root causes, or look longer term beyond what has been stated as goals and outcome, or deal

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with the emotional side of the executive. Why bother? Why not just deal with the data provided without getting into long term, emotions and such other wishy-washy stuff. I have merely one answer for all this. Every executive is also a father, mother, son, daughter, sister, brother or friend, in addition to being a direct report, peer or boss at work. I do not know of a way to cut the person in parts to understand and deal only with the work persona. I wonder if anyone does. I wonder if itll ever work, even if anyone did. Every human being is holistic, possessing multiple persona, and a mix of rational thoughts and irrational thoughts along with emotions and feelings. Unless the coach explores all these aspects and helps the client become aware of as many as possible, whatever solution is offered will be transactional, symptomatic and unsustainable. This may be good business for the Coach, as the problem will resurface and the need for the Coach re-emerges. This to me is unacceptable as a coach and a fellow human. Transformation, not Transaction is the desired purpose of any coaching. The Coachs stated purpose must be to make the client truly independent in as short a time as possible. Resources Situational Leadership, Ken Blanchard Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman Coaching the Unconscious, Ram S Ramanathan

About Author Ram S Ramanathan is a practising executive coach and a coach mentor. Ram works mostly with corporate executives. Ram specializes in transformational coaching, especially in behavioral issues. His own model 3A: Aware Act Anchor, focuses on creating client awareness of unconscious limiting beliefs and cocreating actionable sustainable solutions.

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