However, the organization, realising that this approach had perhaps led to a decline in the wider competencies of senior managers, brought in SHL to devise and implement a programme of coaching for the senior executives in the business. The goal was to give these key individuals a better sense of their role and value in delivering the company’s goals. The company was seeking to accelerate its performance within its market sector and understood that investment in the personal development of those at the top of the business, developing their ability to drive success, was critical in achieving this.
Peter was offered six individual coaching sessions with an experienced executive coach from SHL. “I took up the offer because I had been marketing director for four-and-a-half years and needed some new challenges. I knew that I could add fresh value to the business but I needed some external viewpoints to help me develop,” Peter commented.
The coaching started with a blank sheet of paper – what direction did Peter see his career taking next, what direction did he want it to take? What additional skill sets should he build and how could he and the organization benefit from these?
“As a starting point I felt that I had become a label – I was defined by my job role. I wanted to use the coaching to investigate other possibilities outside of the role. It was important for me to develop new skills and then see what options presented themselves.
“In particular, I was interested in my role in developing individuals in the team. My marketing background had led me to consider the customer at the heart of everything and understanding what makes them tick – I was actually very motivated by the thought of taking this experience and applying it to people management.”
The coaching started by initially getting to grips with the motivations, the likes and dislikes, the strengths and weaknesses that Peter saw in himself. The coach asked for examples of real situations that illustrated these qualities and then grouped them to develop a picture of Peter’s overall motivations. Each instance of motivating or de-motivating activity discussed was captured for meaning and added to the picture.
Each session lasted three hours, but Peter would put the whole day aside for the coaching. “I’d attend the coaching session in the morning and then use the afternoon to work on the outputs. I found that working this way, offsite, I was able to concentrate on the learning I was undergoing and that I got the maximum benefit from it,” commented Peter.
“Initially, not only did I not know what to expect, but there seemed to be little structure. I later learnt that each course is very flexible and tailored to the individual – there are no set processes.”
Peter began to see his own personal development and understanding as being similar to the development of a brand. “I put the process into language and terms that I was familiar with. I was the brand and I needed to work out how best to develop that brand. I was writing the brand development plan for myself.”
This thinking was put into practice as Peter used a presentation to record the stages of his coaching. He was able to establish a personal brand identity for himself and develop the positioning for how he wanted to be seen. From this it was comparatively simple to outline the steps necessary to get there. “I had a roadmap of where I wanted to go and what I needed in terms of support from the organization to get there. In addition, the key aspect of this process was that it defined me as a person - not as a label.”
Mid-way through the process Peter had his annual appraisal. This benefited from the coaching and also gave a focus to the process. He was able to use his brand development plan to shape the appraisal and define where he wanted to go in the organization.
“The brand metaphor helped me focus in on what my strengths were and how they could best be utilised. It also identified areas of strength that could be enhanced by spending more time on them. With this in mind I was able to suggest a job role that met my emerging needs and also supported the goals of the organization. I was able to clearly state what it was that I wanted to achieve, how I thought I could achieve it, what the organization needed to do to support me in this and how it would benefit. It was a real win-win.”
Back in the coaching sessions Peter now had a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve and what the benefits would be to the organization if he was able to do this. The next step was to identify elements that could be put into practice. “The next question was how do I take that collection of things through which I can add value and turn them into a job role – what would that role look like? It was important that this new role was one that I could live, and one that was in tune with my new brand essence.”
The last three sessions were intensive and focused on these questions. The result was that Peter was able to redefine his role within the organization to incorporate the objectives he wanted to achieve, whilst enhancing the value he provided to the organization and its business goals.
In assessing the coaching he received Peter gave the SHL coach and the process eight out of ten. After initial frustration with the process he understood the role of the coach and saw the value in examining his personal motivations in order to create a picture of what he wanted to do. Peter feels that having achieved his immediate goals he’d be interested in another round of coaching every couple of years to reassess progress and ambitions. Setting goals and assessing progress against them, seeing where he’d deviated from original targets and how those targets may have changed would be a worthwhile exercise.
“Initially, I found the coaching sessions quite difficult – I wanted quick wins and solutions. However, I soon realised that the coach was not there to give me answers, but to guide me to them. My coach was able to help me understand what my own needs were and to discover what I needed to do to realise them. At times this was very tiring, but ultimately it was a most rewarding experience.”
*Name changed for anonymity