Interview with Ed Modell, ICF President

Never has coaching been more needed since the global downturn, we speak with Ed Modell, the  2011 ICF President to give guidance on what coaching can do for your company.

New European Economy  There is a huge squeeze on businesses and their budgets right now; how can a company in the midst of restructuring wages and staff numbers justify a business coaches as essential in the current economic climate?

Ed Modell Many companies are being expected to do more or achieve more with less. They have a very limited budget for professional development programmes, but this is exactly when professional coaching can be vital to an organization.

One only has to review the research in order to make a sound argument for coaching. There are plenty of case studies and surveys available that demonstrate the tremendous return on investment that professional coaching offers.

From the ICF Global Coaching Client Study, the ICF found that companies that use or have used professional coaching for business reasons have seen a median return on investment of seven times their initial investment. Organisations typically see gains in teamwork, communication, employee performance, and enhancement of leadership skills.

Numbers aside, there are also plenty of case studies that demonstrate the benefits professional coaching can offer. Each year the ICF honors organisations that utilise coaching to achieve strategic business results. These groups have documented wonderful results, including substantial savings in employee sick time, better quality products, increased customer satisfaction, and much more. (See page x for case studies.)
Growth and improvement in these areas can have a huge impact on a company’s bottom line. It really becomes an issue of how can companies not afford to offer some sort of coaching programme.
 

NEE How do coaches customize their approach to individual client needs? Please give examples…

EM The principles underlying a professional coaching arrangement are the eleven “ICF Core Competencies”, which are the particular skills that professional coaches practice.  These include abiding by ICF’s Code of Ethics, setting a clear agreement between the coach and client, hearing the client’s goals, values, and challenges, and asking the client powerful questions that cause them to stop and consider a different perspective from the one that may not be serving them well.

Apart from these universal principles, a professional coach will apply their skills to best serve the client’s agenda or purpose for the coaching relationship. For example, if I am working with a young person who is considering a job or career change, I will want to explore with them both the positive and negative aspects of their current employment situation and then develop a plan to find new employment, perhaps even creating a job that does not now exist, that allows them to spend most of their working hours on matters that give them great job satisfaction.

On the other hand, when I work with an executive of a company or the high level manager of a department, I will oftentimes conduct individual coaching interviews with their reports or peers to determine what they are doing well and where they need to improve on their managerial skills. There have been several instances where I found a lack of open and direct communication has created considerable and destructive conflict within the organization. In these cases, I have brought the executive or manager together with the other employees to demonstrate how using coaching skills can improve communication and result in a more productive work environment. 

How do you know if a coach is any good at their job and how long is it likely to take for a company to start seeing the positive outcome?

Coaching clients, especially when their organisations are paying, may not have the opportunity to interview several coaches to see if the coach is a right “fit” for them—they may just be assigned a coach. Even so, hopefully if a person is working with a coach, they feel a connection—they’re able to easily communicate and feel comfortable talking with the coach.

A client can also refer to their originally stated objectives to gauge whether or not the coach is really helping them reach the results they want to see. At the beginning of the coaching partnership, in addition to documenting the client’s desired goals, a client and coach should also discuss and agree upon a set a metrics to use in order to measure the success of the coaching partnership. It’s important to put these in place in the beginning of a partnership so clients are able to track the return on investment that professional coaching is providing them and their organisation.

There’s no standard length of time that clients have to engage in coaching. It can take as little as one coaching session for a client to experience the beginning of positive change. From the ICF Global Coaching Client Study, we found that on a global average, coaching engagements last a little over 12 months. There are many factors that play into the duration of coaching engagements, such as the topics being covered, the number of sessions held per month, and the complexity of the issues being addressed.

Surely anyone with some business wisdom, acumen, and an independent point of view can set up as a consultant.  Why is it important to use an accredited coach and what formal training do your members receive? 

Savvy, skilled people can set themselves up as a consultant overnight and build a business rather quickly. But professional coaching isn’t the same as consulting, which is why it is important for organisations and individuals interested in working with a coach to do their research before hiring anyone.

With consulting there is often an assumption that the consultant is an expert in a given field. They will diagnose problems and prescribe and implement solutions. On the other hand, a coach comes into a situation thinking that the client is capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach offering supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks. A coach may not have background experience in an area their client is working in—the coach is the expert in the coaching process.

The majority of coaches are highly educated and have chosen coaching as a second or additional career. Although background experience can certainly assist a coach, it’s not a replacement for learning professional coaching skills and knowledge. Credentialed coaches have invested time into being trained to listen, observe, and customise their coaching approach to individual client needs.

Currently there are over 7,300 ICF Credentialed coaches worldwide, and interest in the ICF’s Credentialing Program continues to grow each year. Right now our general membership is required to uphold the ICF’s Code of Ethics and participate in our Ethical Conduct Review Process should a client raise a claim. In a move to strengthen our membership requirements, starting in early 2012, the ICF will begin requiring members to have completed at least 60 hours of coach-specific training.

What are the key goals business coaches want to achieve within an organisation, how do they go about implementing them, and what are the time scales?
 
Again, the coach has no agenda coming into a coaching partnership. They are only there to help clients achieve the goals and objectives that the client wishes to work on—help develop a plan to reach those goals. Coaches will discuss and document what the client wishes to focus on in a written coaching agreement. Generally this agreement will also include measures of success that the client will use to evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching partnership, as well as some general timelines or comments around the length of time the coach will be contracted. 

Business Coaching