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Human resource professionals routinely arrange for coaching or career counseling for employees up and down the ladder in their organizations. But the time may come to do for themselves what they do for others.
Career coaching can work for those in HR just as it can help others in various ways—sometimes to address a shortcoming, but more often to accomplish other purposes, such as to improve performance or gain career development insights that could help them reach the next level of responsibility.
“I think HR people, almost more than anyone, need to get an outside perspective or coach for their own career,” says Joan Moore, SPHR, president of The Arbor Consulting Group in Northville, Mich. “I think because we’re in HR, we’re sometimes too close to it. I find many HR people are not very good at getting that bigger picture, even at selling and marketing themselves.”
Moore says HR professionals often don’t appreciate “the value they bring both to an organization and in their career. So, I think it’s really helpful to have an outside perspective, someone who can help you see the big picture and help you market yourself and look at what you want to do and the most effective way to do it.”
Robert Morgan, chief operating officer of Chicago-based Talent Management, a division of the global Hudson recruiting firm, says a career coach can help HR professionals learn how to improve their “personal brand” and be more effective as HR leaders.
Coaching’s Forward Progress
Although career coaching traditionally has been seen as an intervention for improving particular employees’ job performance, today it is used for wider purposes. In fact, in a recent survey conducted by Philadelphia-based Right Management Consultants, a global subsidiary of Manpower Inc., only 15 percent of responding organizations said correcting behavior problems was their top reason for providing career coaching for employees. The top reason, for 38 percent of the respondents, was to sharpen the leadership skills of high-potential individuals.
Gina Hernez-Broome, a senior program associate for the Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs, Colo., adds that “one of the most touted benefits of career coaching has to do with developing effective working relationships within the organization.”
Marjorie Brody, who heads Brody Professional Development, a coaching and training firm in Jenkintown, Pa., is a certified executive coach who works with high-potential employees and leaders in major companies. What she does, she says, is “help people be more successful in their careers so they have more opportunities and options.” In working with individuals to help them develop stronger leadership skills, she says, she focuses on helping them work to close the gaps—the distances between where they are in leadership skills and where they need to be to achieve their goals.
Morgan, whose firm offers a program for coaching HR professionals, says one of his clients is an HR executive who “has an issue with not being perceived as a strong business leader.” The coaching program, Morgan says, will help that executive “repackage” how he presents himself and his ideas.
Causing a Little Discomfort
The key to achieving growth and development in a career coaching effort is to move the person being coached beyond his or her comfort zones, according to executive coach Judith Glaser, CEO and president of New York-based Benchmark Communications Inc.
Glaser, author of The DNA of Leadership (Platinum Press, 2006), says there’s a tendency for professionals in any field to “start to work in a zone of comfort around approaches and philosophies,” and that “is the place where learning stops.” Working with a coach, she continues, “reawakens us to stretch and begin to think in new ways and rejuvenates our way of thinking.”
Morgan expresses a similar notion. As an HR professional on the receiving end of career coaching, he says, you should expect to feel uncomfortable. “If you’re really comfortable during the whole process, it’s probably not that effective.” The relationship, he says, should challenge, stretch and help the HR professional grow. It should expose areas of both weakness and strength. “You’re not looking for a golfing buddy, but someone to help you develop professionally. So there should be some discomfort during the process.”
The Arrangement
Just as coaching relationships differ according
to goals and other variables, so
do details of the arrangement such as
duration and the manner of delivery.
“It could be on the phone; it could be
face to face,” Brody says. “It could be
three months, several times a month;
[it could be] a year. It all depends on
your objectives.”
Costs can vary also. In most instances,
they are paid by the employer.
Since the purpose of career coaching,
Glaser says, “is really to expand your
value to the organization and to ensure
that you become a rising star,” most organizations
will cover the cost.
Nonetheless, Brody cautions, if you
put in a request for coaching, “you
need to be careful that you don’t send
the message that you’re interested in
going somewhere else. Part of your
selling job needs to be able to position
the coach as a way of giving you more
tools to add value within your current
organization.”
Finding a Coach
It’s critical that the HR professional
and the coach have a strong, professional
relationship, which depends on
selection of the right coach. The challenges
for the HR professional
involve knowing where
to begin the search and
how to select a coach.
Career coaching is
a broad field, Morgan
notes, and it “can encompass
everything
from a $9.95 CD you
can buy to a $100,000
per year engagement.”
Brody agrees. The field has expanded
greatly in recent years, she says, so
HR professionals interested in finding
a coach should choose carefully. “There
are a lot of [unqualified] people who
call themselves coaches.”
Titles may range from life coach to
career coach to personal development
coach. This variety and lack of consistency,
Glaser says, can make it challenging
to find the right fit. “You can’t
always tell by a title what the approach
will be, so it’s important to use some
kind of screening process,” she says.
The field of executive coaching is
based largely on referrals and recommendations,
so it can be useful to ask
colleagues if they’ve had experience
working with career or executive
coaches and if they have recommendations. In addition, there are a number
of organizations that can serve as starting
points in learning about the availability
of coaches and the services they
provide.
(For a list of such organizations,
see "Career and Leadership Organizations.")
Morgan strongly recommends
that HR professionals look for
experienced coaches who
have been HR professionals
themselves. “While it’s
imperative that an HR career
coach has done the
research on this topic and
has a proven track record,
it’s equally important that
he or she understands what
it’s like to be on the inside of an
organization coping with the internal
dynamics.”
In fact, HR professionals might approach
the selection of a career coach
in the same manner they’d approach
the selection of an employee. “I would
interview the coach and find out about
the coach’s background, how they’re
going to help you, what they’ve done
and what their methodology is,” Morgan
says.
Digging Deeper
Besides credentials and
track record, there are
less-tangible characteristics
that you, as
the HR professional
initiating the
coaching relationship,
should consider.
For example,
experts suggest you
look for someone with
whom you would have a
personal chemistry—someone
with whom you could feel comfortable
establishing a professional relationship,
confiding in, and sharing strengths and
weaknesses.
“You have to like working or being
with them, because you’re trusting
your future to this person,” says
Glaser.
And ultimately, some say, the coach
should be someone whom you would
respect and who would hold you accountable
for achieving results.
In fact, the most important element
of a coaching relationship, Hernez-Broome says, is the coach’s support.
“The coach is really there to support
you, not just in terms of reinforcement
but accountability as well,” she says.
“We hear that time and time again --
the true value is having somebody you
feel accountable to for development.”
How the Process Unfolds
In the initial stages of a coaching relationship, it’s crucial for both parties to develop clear, specific professional and personal objectives for the person being coached, experts say. In fact, Morgan says, “When I enter a coaching relationship, one of the first things we do is set goals on what we’re going to achieve.” Those goals, he says, are discussed and agreed to by the coach, the person being coached and that person’s boss, if the company is paying the bill.
The desired outcomes of career coaching may be general, such as discovering specific strengths that can be leveraged to move into a higher position in the organization. Or they may be specific, such as acquiring stronger negotiation or consensus-building skills.
Glaser calls the beginning of a coaching relationship the “discovery phase.” During this phase, the coach “will be asking a lot of questions to learn what the HR professional aspires to, what current challenges they face, where they think their growth opportunities might be and where they might be confused about direction or what’s on the horizon.”
The discovery phase often includes formal assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or other personality inventories, 360-degree feedback assessments and other types of information, such as interviews with colleagues. All are looked at collectively to create an overall assessment.
Some assessment of the HR professional’s strengths and development areas would be a must, says Hernez-Broome, adding that a good coach would be able to assess the person according to his or her skills, values and expectations. The more varied the inputs, the more thorough the assessment can be, leading to the coach’s insights on the person’s strengths and areas that need improvement depending on the person’s particular goals.
With such feedback and assessment, the coach will work with the HR professional to develop a plan to achieve the agreed-upon outcomes. The plan might include specific assignments, Brody says. “I might have them read a particular book. I might do some observation or shadowing. Assignments vary.”
Thus, a client working to develop better negotiation skills might be shadowed by a coach who would assess strengths and opportunities for improvement, and who would provide specific feedback and follow-up assignments for future interactions.
Brody cites the example of one of her clients, who, after she shadowed him and gave him feedback, began using an acronym -- SUM (for “Shut up, Matt”) -- as a reminder to be less assertive in meetings so that others could have a say.
The Recipient’s Role
To be effective, career coaching cannot be a passive endeavor. Individuals being coached need to be committed to being honest, forthcoming and engaged in the process. “Hiding problems you don’t think are important to bring up is not going to get you your best return on investment,” Morgan says. “You need to put it all out there in terms of what you think the issues are and be open to feedback.” That’s not a simple undertaking.
“I’ve coached people where they start to draw a line in the sand about what things they really don’t want to share,” Glaser says, adding that such a situation can be problematic. “We have to make sure that line is opened up big enough so the coach can get inside where the difficult issues are.”
Hernez-Broome agrees: “There’s got to be commitment. They have to be open to taking some risks and allowing themselves to be vulnerable to some extent. If you’re going to put yourself out in ways you’ve not done before, and you’re outside your comfort zone, it makes you more vulnerable. You’ve got to be willing to take that on.”
Says Moore: “It will be a lot of work, but you’re not going to get anything out of it if you aren’t an active participant.”
Lin Grensing-Pophal, SPHR, is a Wisconsin-based business journalist with HR consulting experience in employee communication, training and management issues. She is the author of Human Resource Essentials: Your Guide to Starting and Running the HR Function (SHRM, 2002).
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