COACHING AND MENTORING AT THE TOP Prof. David Clutterbuck

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1 COACHING AND MENTORING AT THE TOP Prof. David Clutterbuck On their way to the top of the management ladder, 80 per cent of CEOs ascribe the receipt of a large part of the learning and support they required to having a mentor i -- someone to help them understand what is needed in behaviour, experience or track record to move up a rung or two; to be a sounding board when there are difficult choices to make; and occasionally to goad them into tackling issues they might otherwise have avoided. As a young person, in their first ten years or so of organisational life, they have been grateful for the learning they have acquired in this way, recognising it as a gift between generations, for which there is little obvious reciprocation, other than to pass on in return. Until recent years, however, it has been much less common for executives and directors to continue this kind of learning once they reach or near the top. Instead, they have tended to assume that the time has come for them to become the mentor and by inference that their own need for learning and personal support is past. For this reason, both coaching and mentoring programmes in companies throughout the Western world have been focussed on relatively junior employees, or on a cadre of high flyers. In the past decade or so, however, much has changed. and coaching have become major instruments for promoting diversity and equal opportunities at all levels. Companies have become increasingly involved in mentoring within the broader community. And managers at the top have had to rethink their own attitudes to learning. A number of trends have combined to bring the latter about. Among them: The increased complexity and rapid change within executive jobs mean that people who stop learning become less and less relevant. Skills gained further down the ladder are not enough. The potential to make costly mistakes through ignorance rises constantly, where people at the top are not switched on to their own learning The large numbers of MBAs and other academically educated employees in companies put the executive, who has learned in the school of hard knocks, at a disadvantage, especially in the area of strategy The increasing use of performance measurement at all levels in the organisation, often against a competency framework, exposes personal weaknesses and opens them up for discussion. Where the top team avoids being measured (while expecting it of everyone else) they may become negative role models for learning, with predictable results on the behaviour of others. The problem for executives is that the most readily available means of learning are often impractical or irrelevant. Taking a substantial period out to attend a business school is logistically difficult to arrange and potentially fatal politically a great deal of change can take place while they are away. It essentially means giving up one s job for the period and trusting there will still be a job when you return. It doesn t help that many companies have used send him off to a business school ploy as a means of easing executives out. In general, executives have less and less time to be taught; they require instead highly focused opportunities to learn. Even if there is time to attend short courses of a few weeks or so, the executive is likely to find that these only partially meet his/her need. Executives typically learn best when the content and process are directly relevant to their current priority issues. At lower levels in the

2 organisation, delivering on-demand training is relatively easy, using computer-aided learning processes, but these, too, are insufficiently customised for the executive, who wants the learning to address the specific issues and circumstances of the day. The rise of executive coaching and mentoring has been substantially driven by the need for a more readily available, more relevant, pragmatic source of learning. One that sets out less to deliver new knowledge to the executive (knowledge has never been easier to acquire than today), than to help them: Recognise learning needs and respond to them Access and draw upon previous learning and experience to develop new responses, tactics and strategies Manage their own careers and their own development of personal competencies Develop their own self-awareness and informed self-confidence. Other significant influencing factors have been: The reductions in numbers of levels in organisations, which make the jump from one layer to the next more challenging and demanding of more support The increased need for career planning by executives, as it becomes less and less common to remain long-term with a single organisation Increased stress at work, coupled with (and to some extent caused by) long hours and the conflict between the demands of work and home The collapse of informal support networks in many organisations, as constant job shifts move people in and out of roles. (A recent straw poll I conducted of middle level executives in multinational companies found that on average, each had had between two and three bosses over the previous 15 months.) This combination of learning and support is difficult to find within normal organisation structures (although it is defining characteristic of effective line management). Executive mentors, and to a lesser extent, executive coaches provide islands of stability, to which executives can turn whether their current need is to be challenged and stretched, or simply to be listened to empathetically. Coaching, mentoring and counselling Executive coaching and executive mentoring tend to be used synonymously, but the terms describe distinctly different roles. Coaching is concerned primarily with performance and the development of definable skills. It usually starts with the learning goal already identified, if not by the executive, then by an influential third party. It will typically be a relatively short-term relationship, although occasionally a coach will stick with an executive for longer, working on a series of competence requirements. Coaches often offer direct feedback, based on observation of the executive in practice something executive mentors almost never do, not least because they are not in a position to observe in this way. The most effective coaches share with mentors the capability to help the learner develop the skills of intrinsic observation (i.e. of listening to and observing himself), which leads to much faster acquisition of skills and modification of behaviour. Executive coaches also share with mentors the role of critical friend confronting the executive with home truths no-one inside the company feels able to address with them. Whereas the coach is more likely to approach these issues through direct feedback, the mentor will tend to approach them through questioning processes that force the executive to recognise the problem for themselves.

3 Diagram 1: Coaching v mentoring Executive coach Short-term Opening perspectives/horizons Skills competence Executive mentoring Long-term is usually a longer term relationship (see diagram 1), concerned more with potential, with helping the executive determine what goals to pursue and why. It seeks to build wisdom the ability to apply skills, knowledge and experience in new situations and to new problems. It provides a sounding board, where the executive can explore alternative approaches. (One of my CEO mentees describes it as "My chance to think out loud.) sits somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between coaching and counselling, with counselling being primarily directed at helping the individual overcome psychological barriers to performance and/or helping them deal with dysfunctional behaviours. In practice, these boundaries, such as they are, may become blurred as, for example, a coach becomes drawn into helping the executive think through whether a proposed job move will help their long term goals, or a mentor invites an executive to work with him on a project, to learn by observation. In selecting a learning partner therefore, it is important to define what point on the coaching mentoring counselling spectrum the executive s priority needs lie. It doesn t help that agencies providing professional coaches or mentors aren t consistent in the definitions they apply. The executive seeking this kind of help or the Human Resource manager arranging it on their behalf should question thoroughly exactly what sort of process the provider expects to use and treat with extreme scepticism anyone who claims to operate across the spectrum. Diagram 2 provides a very broad brush checklist for separating out the roles. Diagram 2: What help do executives need? Type of need Develop skills to perform better in the current job Build and implement a career development plan Learn to cope with/overcome psychological barriers to performance Manage a major transition (e.g. first assignment overseas; first board appointment) Acquire a sounding board/source of challenge for personal/business development Help in applying knowledge/skills learnt externally (e.g. business school course/action learning set) Appropriate form (s) of help Coaching Career Counselling Counselling Coaching

4 It is also important to recognise that effective executive learners have relatively wide learning nets people in a variety of positions and with a variety of expertise, upon whom they can draw for knowledge, advice and support. Part of the role of the mentor may be to help people develop and extend their nets, making better use of them. It is increasingly common for an executive to have both a coach and a mentor, or more than one mentor, each focusing on a different aspect of their development portfolio. Some of these learning partners may be external, paid professionals; others peers inside or outside the company, or academics or close family. One of the signs of learning maturity is the ability to access multiple sources of learning. A wide range of issues The complexity of business and personal issues that may arise in a mentoring relationship and to a lesser extent in executive coaching -- gives rise to a remarkable variety of issues and concerns. One way I achieve focus with some of my mentees is to ask them to maintain a diary of events that have particularly pleased or frustrated them. This provides a rich source of issues to discuss, especially when patterns begin to emerge between events. (For example, one CEO recognised quite quickly that many of the problem issues related to lack of clarity of role between himself and his chairperson. Once identified, the issue could be tackled directly.) The following are just some of the most common dilemmas that executives bring to the mentoring relationship: How do I stimulate constructive challenge from my peers and people below me in the organisational structure? How can I develop other people, when I have less and less hands on time with them? How do I achieve through influence, rather than command? How do I manage my personal credibility? How do I continue to learn when most of the knowledge I need to acquire is intuitively based? How do I obtain sufficient contextual understanding of disciplines I have little hands-on experience in? How do I become a director? A chief executive? A chairman? How do I let go and delegate responsibilities to others? How do I network myself into a different role in a different organisation? How do I get my team to behave the way I want them to? What do I do with an inherited team I don t respect? How much should I ask my family to sacrifice for the sake of my job? How do I motivate people around a task I ve got little enthusiasm for myself? How do I persuade my colleagues to walk the talk? In most cases, the executive has the answer within them; they just haven t worked it out yet. The mentor works with them patiently, helping them to see the issue from different perspectives, develop alternatives ways of modelling what is happening and what could happen, and to assess the options against criteria the learner develops for him/herself. This kind of reflective dialogue takes time and can be very challenging on both sides. (One executive mentee told us ii Everytime I see my mentor, I come away thinking, How dare he ask me that! Then by the time I ve driven a few miles down the motorway, I m thinking, But of course, he s right! )

5 Building an effective learning alliance The most powerful coaching and mentoring partnerships achieve a balance between getting on well enough together to develop a strong rapport and having sufficient difference of experience to generate high potential for learning. Within the mentoring relationship, in particular, high functionality typically goes along with mutuality of learning the mentor gains as much from the exchange as the mentee. High levels of learning by an executive coach usually occur only when the relationship absorbs some of the mentoring role. Effective learning relationships at this level also demand specific attributes and skills on the part of both partners. In some experiments within an organisation in Scotland, we asked people to talk about when they had good and bad experiences of being coached. A key factor in the response they received to requests for coaching was the manner in which they approached the coach, and the language they used. Similarly, we have found that clarity of expectation (about both outcomes and behaviours) by both parties in a mentoring relationship appears to influence strongly the quality and quantity of learning; the hypothesis is currently being tested in a longitudinal study. To receive the best from coaching or mentoring, the executive needs to commit to being open to exploring difficult, sometimes painful issues. I usually make it part of the verbal contract that my CEO mentees expect to feel uncomfortable from time to time, because a question obliges them to examine an issue they have avoided up till now. They also need to accept the responsibility to prepare for the meetings with their learning partner, thinking the issues through to some extent before putting them on the table. A high proportion of mentoring and coaching sessions start in sounding board mode, before delving deeper. Studies in Scandinavia and elsewhere suggest that the most effective mentoring relationships are those where the mentee is highly proactive and the mentor relatively reactive. iii It also helps if the executive is prepared to learn by teaching. Practising their own coaching and mentoring skills on other people makes them more responsive to being on the receiving end. It can also make them more critical of poor coaching as a general rule, if you feel that the coach or mentor is being manipulative or too predictable, it is because they are inadequate in the role. Executive coaches and mentors also need to examine their motivations, behaviours and competencies. Perhaps the most difficult lesson to learn is that one s own store of expertise and experience is like the nuclear option a stockpile that is rarely used, but which informs and influences the process. The mentor s own wisdom is what enables him or her to ask the questions, which stimulate the executive to build his or her own wisdom. In helping select mentors for owner-managers of companies, I have been struck by how many people we had to reject. For example, those who were drawn into the role by a desire to avoid thinking about their own issues, and who therefore saw the issues of the person they were supposed to help only in terms of their own. Or those, from large companies, who had had many positions, but none where the buck truly stopped and who therefore lacked both key experience and credibility. Defining the competencies of an executive coach or mentor is not easy, because the need will vary according to the situation. However, some of the common attributes to be looked for, whether the role is internally or externally resourced, are: Self-awareness -- important in developing and using rapport, and in recognising where the boundaries of one s capability to help lie Behavioural awareness having a good understanding of how and why others behave as they do Business or professional savvy at one level, been there, seen it, done it, but also having a reputation for good judgement Sense of proportion the ability to place issues into a broader context, either organisational or societal (also includes having a sense of humour!) Communication competence especially the skills of listening, parallel processing and using anecdote to illustrate learning points

6 Conceptual modelling having a portfolio of models to help the executive analyse and understand interactions; being able where necessary to evolve new models as part of the dialogue Commitment to their own continued learning a role model for learning Commitment to developing others having a genuine interest and pleasure in the achievements of other people Strong skills of relationship management from rapport building to helping the learner maintain a constant focus on priority goals Goal clarity the ability to help people sort out what they want to achieve and why, and to develop practical plans for getting there This isn t an exhaustive list, but it covers the main factors raised in workshops preparing mentors and mentees, coaches and coachees for their roles in these powerful developmental relationships. As the volume of executive coaching and mentoring increases, we will see further moves to improve the consistency of quality. Already, there are in the UK national standards for mentoring iv, although there has been insufficient time for them to be applied widely. At the end of the day, however, it is the executive s responsibility to understand and articulate what they require of a coach or mentor. To a considerable extent, we can say that you get the mentor or coach you deserve. i Rajan, A Leading People, Clintec and Create, London, 1996 ii Clutterbuck, D and Megginson, D Executives and Directors, Butterworth- Heinemann, Oxford, 1999 iii Engstrom, M Personality factors impact on success in the mentor-protégé relationship MSc thesis to Norwegian School of Hotel Management 1997/8 iv Crawford, D et al Draft Occupational Standards, Women s Development Programmes, University of North London, Spring 2000 If you would like to receive David s latest articles by , please let us know at info@clutterbuckassociates.co.uk Clutterbuck Associates Grenville Court Britwell Road Burnham Bucks SL1 8DF T: F: E: info@clutterbuckassociates.co.uk