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Coaching for Behavioral Change
By Marshall
Goldsmith
My
mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive, long-term, measurable
change in behavior. The following process is being used by coaches around the
world for this same purpose. When the steps
in the process are followed, leaders almost always achieve positive behavioral
change – not as judged by themselves, but as judged by pre-selected, key
co-workers. This process has been used
with great success by both external coaches and internal coaches[1].
Our “Pay for Results” Behavioral
Coaching Approach
Our coaching network (Marshall Goldsmith Partners and collaboration with
Hewitt Associates) provides coaches for leaders around the world. All of the behavioral coaches that work with us
use the same general approach. We first
get an agreement with our coaching clients and their managers on two key
variables: 1) what are the key behaviors that will make the biggest positive
change in increased leadership effectiveness and 2) who are the key
stakeholders that can determine (six to eighteen months later) if this change
has occurred.
We then get paid only after our coaching clients have achieved a positive
change in key leadership behaviors as determined by key stakeholders.
I believe that many behavioral coaches are paid for the wrong
reasons. Their income is largely a
function of “How much do my clients like me?” and “How much time
did I spend in coaching?” Neither of
these is a good metric for achieving a positive, long-term change in behavior.
In terms of liking the coach - I have never seen a study that showed that
clients’ love of a coach was highly correlated with their change in
behavior. In fact, if coaches become too
concerned with being loved by their clients – they may not provide honest
feedback when it is needed.
In terms of spending clients’ time – my clients are all executives whose
decisions often impact billions of dollars.
Their time is more valuable than mine.
I try to spend as little of their time as necessary to achieve
the desired results. The last thing they
need is for me to waste their time!
Qualifying the Coaching Client:
Knowing When Behavioral Coaching
Won’t Help
Since we use a “pay only for results” process in behavioral coaching, we
have had to learn to qualify our coaching clients. This means that we only work with clients
that we believe will benefit from our coaching process.
We refuse to work with leaders who don’t care. Have you ever tried to change the behavior of
a successful adult that had no interest in changing? How much luck did you have? Probably none! We only work with executives who are willing
to make a sincere effort to change and who believe that this change will help
them become better leaders. Our most
successful coaching clients are committed to being role models for leadership
development and their company’s values.
Some large corporations “write people off”. Rather than just fire them,
they engage in a pseudo behavioral coaching process that is more “seek and
destroy” than “help people get better”.
We only work with leaders that are seen as potentially having a great
future in the corporation. We only work
with people who will be given a fair chance by their management. We refuse to work with leaders who have been
“written off”.
There are several different types of coaching. We only do behavioral coaching for successful
executives – not strategic coaching, life planning or organizational
change. I have the highest respect for
the coaches that do this kind of work.
That is just not what our network does.
Therefore, we only focus on changing leadership behavior. If our clients have other needs, we refer
them to other coaches.
Finally, I would never choose to work with a client that has an integrity
violation. We believe that people with
integrity violations should be fired, not coached.
When will our approach to behavioral coaching work? If the issue is behavioral, the coaching
client is given a fair chance and they are motivated to improve, the process described
in this article will almost always work.
If these conditions do not exist, this process should not be used.
Involving Key Stakeholders
In my work as a behavioral coach, I have gone through three distinct
phases.
In phase one – I believed that my clients would become better because of me. I thought that the coach was the key
variable in behavioral change. I was
wrong. We have recently completed
research with over 86,000 respondents on changing leadership behavior[2]. We have learned that the key variable for
successful change is not the coach, teacher or advisor. The key variables that will determine
long-term progress are the people being coached and their co-workers.
In phase two – I spent most of my time focusing on my coaching
clients. I slowly learned that a
motivated, hard-working client was more important than a brilliant coach! I learned that their ongoing efforts meant
more than my clever ideas. My results
improved!
In phase three (where I am now) – I spend most of my time not with my
coaching client but with the key stakeholders around my client. By doing this, my clients’ results have
dramatically improved[3].
How do I involve key stakeholders? I ask them to help the person that I
am coaching in four critically important ways:
1)
Let go of the past. When
we continually bring up the past, we demoralize people who are trying to
change. Whatever happened in the past
happened. It cannot be changed. By focusing on a future that can get better
(as opposed to a past that cannot), the key stakeholders can help my clients
improve. (We call this process feedforward,
instead of feedback[4]).
2)
Be helpful and supportive, not cynical, sarcastic or
judgmental. As part of our coaching process,
my clients involve key co-workers and ask them for help. If my clients reach out to key stakeholders
and feel punished for trying to improve, they will generally quit trying. I don’t blame them! Why should any of us work hard to build
relationships with people who won’t give us a chance? If my clients’ co-workers are helpful and
supportive, my clients experience increased motivation and are much more likely
to improve.
3)
Tell the truth. I do
not want to work with a client, have them get a glowing report from key
stakeholders and later hear that one of the stakeholders said, “He didn’t really
get better, we just said that”. This
is not fair to my client, to the company or to me.
4)
Pick something to improve yourself. My clients are very open with key stakeholders
about what they are going to change. As
part of our process, our clients ask for ongoing suggestions. I also ask the stakeholders to pick something
to improve and to ask my client for suggestions. This makes the entire process “two-way” instead
of “one way”. It helps the stakeholders
act as “fellow travelers” who are trying to improve, not “judges” who are
pointing their fingers at my client. It
also greatly expands the value gained by the corporation in the entire process[5].
Steps in the Behavioral Coaching
Process
The following steps outline our behavioral coaching process. Every coach in our network has to agree to
implement the following steps. If the coach will follow these basic steps, our
clients almost always get better!
1)
Involve the leaders being coached in determining the
desired behavior in their leadership roles.
Leaders cannot be expected to change behavior if they don’t have a clear
understanding of what the desired behavior looks like. The people that we coach (in agreement with
their managers) work with us to determine desired leadership behavior.
2)
Involve the leaders being coached in determining key
stakeholders. Not only do clients
need to be clear on desired behaviors, they need to be clear (again in
agreement with their managers) on key stakeholders. There are two major reasons why people deny
the validity of feedback, wrong items or wrong raters. By having our clients and their managers
agree on the desired behaviors and key stakeholders in advance, we help ensure
their “buy in” to the process.
1)
Collect feedback.
In my coaching practice, I personally interview all key
stakeholders. The people that I am
coaching are all potential CEOs, and the company is making a real investment in
their development. However, at lower
levels in the organization (that are more price sensitive), traditional 360° feedback can work very well. In either case, feedback is critical. It is impossible to get evaluated on changed
behavior if there is not agreement on what behavior to change!
2)
Reach agreement on key behaviors for change. As I have become more experienced, my
approach has become simpler and more focused.
I generally recommend picking only 1-2 key areas for behavioral change
with each client. This helps ensure
maximum attention to the most important behavior. My clients and their managers (unless my
client is the CEO) agree upon the desired behavior for change. This ensures that I won’t spend a year
working with my clients and have their managers determine that we have worked
on the wrong thing!
3)
Have the coaching clients respond to key
stakeholders. The person being
reviewed should talk with each key stakeholder and collect additional “feedforward”
suggestions on how to improve on the key areas targeted for improvement. In responding, the person being coached
should keep the conversation positive, simple and focused. When mistakes have been made in the past, it
is generally a good idea to apologize and ask for help in changing the
future. I suggest that my clients listen
to stakeholder suggestions and not judge the suggestions.
4)
Review what has been learned with clients and help
them develop an action plan. As was stated
earlier, my clients have to agree to the basic steps in our process. On the
other hand, outside of the basic steps, all of the other ideas that I share
with my clients are suggestions. I
just ask them to listen to my ideas in the same way they are listening to the
ideas from their key stakeholders. I
then ask them to come back with a plan of what they want to do. These plans need to come from them, not
me. After reviewing their plans, I
almost always encourage them to live up to their own commitments. I am much more of a facilitator than a
judge. I usually just help my clients do
what they know is the right thing to do.
5)
Develop
an ongoing follow-up process. Ongoing follow-up should be
very efficient and focused. Questions
like, “Based upon my behavior last month, what ideas do you have for me next
month?” can keep a focus on the future.
Within six months conduct a two-to-six item mini-survey with key
stakeholders. They should be asked whether the person has become more or less
effective in the areas targeted for improvement.
6)
Review
results and start again. If the person being coached has taken the
process seriously, stakeholders almost invariably report improvement. Build on
that success by repeating the process for the next 12 to 18 months. This type
of follow-up will assure continued progress on initial goals and uncover
additional areas for improvement. Stakeholders will appreciate the
follow-up. No one minds filling out a
focused, two-to-six-item questionnaire if they see positive results. The person
being coached will benefit from ongoing, targeted steps to improve performance.
The Value of Behavioral Coaching for
Executives
While behavioral coaching is only one branch in the coaching field, it is
the most widely used type of coaching.
Most requests for coaching involve behavioral change. While this process can be very meaningful and
valuable for top executives, it can be even more useful for high-potential
future leaders. These are the people who
have great careers in front of them.
Increasing effectiveness in leading people can have an even greater
impact if it is a 20-year process, instead of a one-year program.
People
often ask, “Can executives really change
their behavior?” The answer is definitely yes.
If they didn’t change, we would never get paid (and we almost always get
paid). At the top of major organizations
even a small positive change in behavior can have a big impact. From an organizational perspective, the fact
that the executive is trying to change anything (and is being a role model for
personal development) may be even more important than what the executive is
trying to change. One key message that I
have given every CEO that I coach is “To help others develop – start with
yourself!”
References
[1] For a study on the
effectiveness of this process with internal coaches in GE Financial Services,
see “Leveraging HR: How to Develop Leaders in ‘Real Time’, in Human Resources in the 21st
Century, M. Effron, R. Gandossy and M. Goldsmith, eds., Wiley, 2003.
2
“Leadership is a Contact Sport”, H. Morgan and M. Goldsmith in strategy+business, Fall 2004.
3 This
process is explained in more detail in “Recruiting Supportive Coaches: A Key to
Achieving Positive Behavioral Change” in The
Many Facets of Leadership, M. Goldsmith, V. Govindarajan, B. Kaye and A.
Vicere, eds., FT Prentice Hall, 2003.
4 “Try
Feedforward, instead of Feedback”
originally published in Leader to Leader,
Summer 2002.
5 For a
great description of the impact of co-workers’ focusing on their own
improvement, read “Expanding the Value of Coaching: from the Leader to the Team
to the Organization” in The Art and
Practice of Leadership Coaching, H. Morgan, P. Harkins and M. Goldsmith,
eds., Wiley, 2005.
Comments
to: editor@leadingtoday.org
About the author:
Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping
successful leaders achieve positive, measurable change in behavior: for
themselves, their people and their teams. You can find out more about Marshall
and his work at http://marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/html/marshall/biography.html