How does coaching impact individual and corporate performance? Coaches cultivate curiosity, creativity, and consciousness by tapping into the natural learner inside each of us, who grew by experimenting, exploring and adapting. What makes this important? Because we live in a world that grows increasingly complex, changes more rapidly than ever and spews a non-stop flow of information. Given the complexity of our problems, we need all hands on deck. Organizations are in the business of solving problems and as Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.” Coaching not only facilitates new ways of thinking, it helps build skills like collaboration, flexibility, resilience, curiosity, and mindfulness. These skills create the foundation from which experimentation and innovation grow. For these to flourish, people need space for thinking, openness to the ideas of others, and ability to listen to their inner wisdom. A good manager can motivate and facilitate learning, but employees naturally bend to what the organization requires. While it helps provide cohesiveness within the organization, too much compromise can land someone in a role that invites misery instead of mastery. Coaching improves self-awareness, shifts perspective, and develops intuition. Clients experience more confidence and deeper trust in their ability to add value and companies benefit when each employee leverages their unique talents. I always tell my clients, “Nobody else owns your unique blend of strengths and passion. The world truly needs you to share your thoughts, listen to your intuition, and expand the ideas of others. Be yourself to the fullest so that your organization can tap into its greatest resource – human potential.”
So how are companies tapping into this vast pool of possibility? Many that I observe are using traditional processes to measure performance, like annual reviews, which analyze employee commitments and competencies. Unfortunately for many individuals the company goal morphs into something completely different by year’s end, as leadership shift strategy to adapt in a changing marketplace. How do you measure an employee against a moving target? And then there are HIPO programs, which identify high potential employees. These are eerily similar to the tracking systems we used to see in schools. Yes, they might identify folks who are the perceived cream of the crop at the moment, but what about the remaining employees? Can companies afford to rely only on their top twenty percent? Success today depends on utilizing the strengths of all employees. The current systems often fall short, because systematizing performance essentially erases one of the most important aspects of human capital – individuality. It is the collective uniqueness that makes a company great. Are systems and processes for performance measurement relevant? Absolutely. But when they are inflexible and adhered to with rigidity they often have the opposite effect of improving performance.
A lot of models for increasing performance set competencies that employees adhere to. The system identifies the skills and behaviors that appear to drive success for a particular role, like management or marketing, and then measure individual performance against those metrics. Does this help employees get a better understanding of how the company defines success yes. Does a company benefit if every manager manages the exact same way. I don’t believe so. Yet, this often drives how individuals map out a career.
My clients often come to coaching looking for help in growing skills according to a particular competency list. “If I just learn how to figure out the financial analysis side of things, I’ll be in line for a promotion,” says one 15+ year employee. Yes, this makes sense on paper, but I notice his eyes are glazed over. “How much do you enjoy financial analysis?” “This isn’t about enjoyment, it’s about promotion.” Well actually science says something quite different. In Drive, Dan Pink eloquently describes how Wikipedia, “created by tens of thousands of people who write and edit articles for fun,” eventually bested Encarta, “developed by well-paid managers who will oversee the project and ensure it is developed on budget and on time.”
The problem is that there’s not much long-term energy or motivation created in trying to fit into a competency list. It’s like putting a size 8 foot into a size 6 shoe. Is it possible? Yes. But walking will be tough. According to a growing body of evidence, as described in Ken Robinson’s The Element, or Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow and Tom Rath’s Strengthsfinder 2.0, you will get the best out of someone when they are following their passions, doing something that interests them and playing to their strengths.
So how do we get people to listen to their inner wisdom and add their unique magic to the organizational cauldron? Hire a coach. Why? Because coaches trust that the individuals they work with have the answers within. We’re not paid to fix. We’re paid to help shift, expand, and optimize thinking. Metaphorically speaking, companies are the gardens in which individuals are planted. The management prunes people, plants them where they are needed and let some go fallow – all in service of the greater garden. That’s the role of management. Maximize output. Coaches can be brought in to nurture individual plants or entire crops. We encourage clients to seek the nutrients and ground conditions in which they will not only survive but thrive. The tension between the two creates a garden that flourishes.
Michelangelo said, “The greatest danger for most of us, is not that we aim to high and miss it, but that we aim to low and reach it.” Coaching pushes the envelope of potential by holding the space for clients to aim high. Though coaching is not the answer to every individual or organizational challenge, the skills used by coaches promote success behaviors necessary for individuals and organizations to thrive. Sometimes coaches create safety by asking an obvious question that others are afraid to ask. Other times we help clients get out of their heads, tapping into body wisdom that offers a solution inaccessible to the analytical brain. When we mirror back information, a manager gets the rare opportunity to hear honest feedback, undiluted by the filter of you-control-my-destiny thinking. When we use metaphor to reframe what we hear, clients can focus and gain new clarity. Can team members and managers do this for one another? Yes. But the objectivity and confidentiality of a good coaching relationship provides a unique opportunity to explore and develop.