Coaching & Consulting

Coaching and consulting both create value and facilitate change for clients.  Using both coaching and consulting services is a strategy that is extremely effective with today’s savvy clients in today’s complex organizations.  A certified coach who is also a consultant is able to operate skillfully in environments of change.  As Cheryl C. Belles describes it in her article “Blending Consulting and Coaching for Real Value”:

“Consider this a bell curve.  At one end of the curve is pure consulting, at the other end is pure coaching.  In the middle, for each consultation (or meeting with a client), there exists an optimum blend of coaching and consulting behaviors.”

A certified coach is aware of the information their client needs so they can be consultative when the situation calls for it.  The key is to choose strategies that provide optimum benefit to the client, be it a coaching or consulting strategy.  Examples may be to allow the client to fully explore a situation before providing information or help the client to understand the entire process, determine where they are now and what they need to do to be successful.  An organization (or team) example is to 1) start with an objective assessment of an organization’s existing methods, systems, and leadership capabilities, then 2) coach the organization through a discovery process to identify what must be changed, why it must be changed and how to change it, and 3) follow through with coaching to implement new management systems and develop required leadership skills  Coaching does not impose a decision on a client as much as it facilitates awareness of the choices they have and the implications of those choices in relation to desired results. 

Consulting includes the use assessments to enhance client awareness.  Two types of assessments used are:

·         360 Degree Assessments - In most organizations, the higher an individual moves up, the less candid feedback he or she is likely to receive.  People have fears and blind spots and can’t always recognize dynamics happening in their organizations.  The coach provides honest, objective feedback for the leader throughout the coaching relationship and encourages the leader to seek the same feedback within the organization.  360 Feedback tools provide on-line computerized assessments from peers, direct reports, and supervisors (and sometimes clients or customers) on effective and problematic behaviors. Combined with one-on-one interviews, 360 assessments provide powerful insights. Carefully designed processes that include 360 degree feedback can allow a leader to practice consultative coaching with employees..

·         Behavior Assessments - The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), based on Jung’s theory of psychological type, provides a positive way to look at people’s preferred behaviors and to identify common patterns.  Knowing your type can help you understand and develop both your most and least preferred functions, as well as help you understand and work with other people.  Although any type can perform any role and you can adopt a different style when needed, you will perform best when you are using your own preferences.  Type is also used to analyze the requirements of careers, jobs, tasks, situations or courses of study; for team building, networking and group dynamics; and for relationship improvement.  The intention is to enable the leader to be more aware of his/her behaviors to function more consciously and productively.  The feedback is designed to increase the leaders EQ, Emotional Intelligence.

Using a combination of baseline assessments and individualized coaching sessions, clients will identify and address skill gaps, define personal goals, develop action plans, and monitor progress toward those goals.  Consulting may include observing the employee in work situations (job shadowing) and facilitating development of specific work strategies.

A combination of coaching and consulting is highly effective for:

• Fast track/succession planning for high-potential employees
• Recruiting and retention of the best talent
• Increasing productivity and as a relief valve for key employees
• Employee intervention as defined by objectives or shortcomings in performance reviews
• Identifying and eliminating barriers to reaching objectives
• Reduction of corporate politics
• Facilitate and maintain long range and complex initiatives

Athletic coaches effectively use coaching techniques as demonstrated by a 1988 study on influence of perceived coaching behaviors on burnout and competitive anxiety in female college athletes.  Coaching styles/behaviors were predictive of athlete burnout.  Athletes with burnout perceived coaches to have reduced empathy, an autocratic style, and an increase in negative behaviors.  The implication is that when handling athletes with burnout, coaches should emphasize an increase in empathy, positive reactions, and a cooperative coaching style.  Applying these results to leaders and their employees, these same coaching techniques can be used to reduce burnout while changing behavior and structure simultaneously.  An effective process includes the following steps:

• Identify desired outcomes, and behaviors that will achieve them.
• Coach everyone in the organization of those behaviors.
• Learn from the people the structural obstacles to their success.
• Remove obstacles.
• Assess results and repeat.

vikki@callmecoach.com
P.O. Box 17202, Seattle, WA  98127 USA
Phone: (206) 297-9300   Fax: (866) 841-8089

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