Enabling factors that support Coaching readiness
There are at least four factors that enable Coaching readiness.
1. Executive Motivation
The most important enabling factor for readiness is the Executive’s motivation to change, improve and go to the next level.
The Meta study of Assay, Lambert et.al (1999) examining the factors contributing to success in therapy, attributed 40% of the success to client factors. In other words, this epoch making research suggests that it is clients themselves and the circumstances of their life situation, which account for the most important element of the change process. This includes the client’s own inner strengths and external supportive elements in their environment, including friendships and family support,
membership of a close networking group, religious affiliations, hobbies and leisure activities. The inner factors like self belief, the ability to identify a focused issue or goal, persistence and sense of personal responsibility to work towards it, are also key ingredients that account for the Coachee’s motivation and successful Coaching outcomes.
2. Emotional Intelligence
Coachees should have at least a basic level of emotional intelligence. This gives them the necessary self awareness, the ability to understand others, the ability to
engage in social interactions and control and moderate their emotions. While we do not expect mastery, its absence should not derail the process. For example, if
certain individuals have blind spots that are impermeable, any amount of assessment and feedback can be ineffective and the Coach may not be able to make any progress.
3. Managerial Support
Coachees do not operate in a vacuum. They spend most of their working time with their managers whose support, guidance and endorsement and alignment is key for success. For the CEO, this could be the Board, for a CXO, it could be the CEO.
If the Coachee and his or her manager are aligned on all substantive issues and also enjoy a good interpersonal relationship, the Coachee’s ability to reenter the
workplace and attempt new behaviours and succeed will be very high. Even if there are minor differences, Coaches can help and empower Coachees to take the initiative to resolve these differences.
4. Challenging Work
Coaches help Coachees develop new perspectives, belief systems, skills and behaviours. However, all this has to be finally put to use at the workplace. For this, they must have work that challenges them and stretches them and helps them test these new found abilities. When their work itself is challenging and they have the benefit of a Coach who helps them develop new abilities, the combined effect can be transformational.
Inhibiting factors that impair Coaching readiness
There are at least three factors that inhibit Coaching readiness.
1. Performance Issues
If a Coachee has serious issues with his current performance, Coaching may not be the right solution to help him. There might be need to explore the causes and come up with suitable improvement plans. Coaching certainly cannot be an intervention arising out of a performance improvement plan.
Here it is important to differentiate between individuals who have performance problems and those who desire to enhance their performance. Coaching can certainly
help the latter but not the former.
2. Career Derailment
If an executive is facing career derailment - a condition where his career has literally gone off track, where he is no longer progressing as well as he was, where he is even facing the possibility of slowing down, being ignored and ultimately asked to go elsewhere, is he suitable for Coaching?
Coaching can be an extremely effective solution for executives who are facing potential derailment. However, it depends on how quickly this has been identified and addressed. The truth is that like debilitating diseases, career derailment is hard to spot in the early days but easy to correct. It is however easier to spot much later but harder to correct.
So, depending on when it has been identified, Coaching can or cannot work. The effectiveness of Coaching also depends on the presence of enabling factors and the
absence of inhibiting factors.
3. Psychopathological Problems
Coaching will be an inappropriate intervention, when an employee suffers from psychopathological problems such as anxiety, depression, addiction, schizophrenia and personality disorders. Such individuals may require therapy and even clinical intervention which are well outside the realms of Coaching.
There is a huge danger and professional risk associated with individuals who are referred to Coaching. Sponsors need to be mindful of such conditions among potential Coachees (though this is likely to be quite rare) and refrain from recommending them for Coaching. Instead they could be referred to seek therapeutic help (please read Dr. B. J. Prashantham's article on this subject in this issue.)
A case for good judgment
It must be re-emphasised that arriving at Coaching readiness is not a mathematical process. There is no magic formula here. In our experience, even when Coachees have a few inhibiting factors along with some enabling factors, they do benefit from Coaching engagement.
Arriving at a sound judgment about the balance between these factors is therefore a key task for sponsors. If they make the right decision, they will help the Coachee,
the Coach and themselves! However the indiscriminate use of Coaching will do all concerned a huge disservice!
