Successful business people swear by the benefits of coaching and mentoring, yet the practice is unscientific and can be difficult to manage. HRM examines the latest trends and thinking in the field.
Globally, an increasing number of organisations are investing in coaching and mentoring programmes to ensure their leaders stay ahead of the game. Though many organisations in Singapore have been slow to embrace such programmes - word seems to be spreading.
Bev Paulin, director of professional services at Lee Hecht Harrison, Singapore, and an expert on executive education issues, agrees, "Recognition of the value of executive coaching is still developing in Singapore. But there is definitely a growth trend here, more and more businesses are coming on board."
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges facing HR is the releasing of funds for such a programme. Such approvals can prove tricky amid the corporate paranoia of 'train them and they'll leave' mindsets and difficulties in proving the tangible benefits of arranging for senior workers to have one-on-one feedback with a trusted advisor.
Alec Bashinsky is one HR director who doesn't need to be convinced of the merits of coaching. He took over as senior director of HR for Japan and Asia-Pacific at enterprise applications software vendor Peoplesoft midway through last year. He says engendering an environment of ongoing formal and informal coaching is critical to Peoplesoft's success, and one of his top three priorities as it absorbs rival JD Edwards, which it acquired in 2003. The company now employs about 900 people in the region.
There are currently a number of informal programmes in place, he says, but he wants to introduce a more structured programme at executive level. "Coaching is not just a game of attending a course," he tells HRM. "It's making sure the executives take what they learn in a leadership role and get trained in how to provide coaching to their own teams, so it's a two-way solution."
But some analysts argue that while mentoring and coaching can be extremely beneficial for the individual, as it allows them to open up about worries and challenges to someone who is not their boss, its benefit to organisations is debatable.
Paulin suggests that there is an easy way to ensure that company benefits as well, "It is vital to establish an agreement between the 'coachee' and the organisation to really articulate the objectives for all parties concerned. Furthermore, the organisation must continually evaluate if those objectives are being met."
But are newly coached or mentored individuals really tempted to move on and take their new found expertise with them, leaving the company with a huge loss? Cynics and worried HR directors often think so. In reality, this is rare, argues Dennis Heath, a director of DBM in Singapore, "People leave an organisation for a variety of reasons but not because they just received coaching," he says, noting that finding out earlier rather than later is actually a blessing in disguise for the company. "In fact, coaching might bring out underlying sentiments about the organisation that may have laid dormant for years - and if the individual continues in the role without being really committed, this will represent an even greater loss to the company."
The risks of newly coached staff taking off doesn't seem to bother Peoplesoft that much. To Bashinsky and many others, leadership is the critical element in ensuring that the newly merged organisation delivers greater opportunities to its employees, rather than just being a bigger company. "Whereas at a small business you might be able to afford to be more hands on, the best way to for us to evolve in terms of our leadership and ensure strength going forward is to take it to the next level and have the leaders focus on providing vision and guidance to those coming through rather than operational involvement," says Bashinsky. It's a key part of the succession management strategy.
Spot the difference
However, coaching and mentoring should not be unthinkingly thrown into the same category. Paulin emphasises that it is important to draw a distinction between the two. "Coaching is usually provided by someone who is outside the organisation - development of people through a third party in a structured or semi-structured setting. Coaching can be applied to a variety of challenge management situations," she says and adds, "but mentoring is typically provided by someone who is internal to the organisation."
Heath concurs with Paulin and suggests that mentoring is about imparting skills and experience - it is directive. Mentoring refers to someone who is not a line manager - they may, or even should, be from elsewhere in the organisation - giving a more informal kind of assistance. Coaching is fundamentally different: coaches do not provide answers but work with senior individuals to change certain career limiting behaviours.
In fact, Heath further argues that mentoring and coaching are often confused with each-other. In Heath's opinion it is the coach that provides the 'brianstorming' or 'sounding-board' functions that many believe is to be provided by a mentor. "If you are a senior executive in your 50s with many years of experience, you probably don't feel a need to be mentored-you are a mentor. However, a professional coach makes an ideal sounding-board - who you can bounce ideas off to arrive at the best solution to a problem. You can also be confident that those ideas will not be discussed with anyone else, internally or externally. Confidentiality is a cornerstone of professional coaching."
It is in fact this kind of relationship many senior executives, especially those at the top of their organisations who have nobody to report to, seek in executive coaching - a place for trusted advice, feedback and a sounding-board for ideas and anxieties. For the CEO - the loneliest management chair, many coaching experts recommend a CEO forum model, where under-pressure business leaders gather to share ideas and challenges in an informal and private environment.
Paulin emphasises that any HR department trying to set up an organisational mentoring programme should ensure mentors and mentees - or coach and coachee - are well matched. She adds that although the criteria might differ depending on the objectives of the given organisation, some elements to matching, such as the pairing up of individuals who can forge a good relationship, are "fundamental". She also feels that there must be "mutual respect and willingness to create the kind of nurturing environment necessary for a mentoring relationship to bear fruit."
The crucial part of a successful executive coaching programme is to clearly communicate throughout the organisation - and especially to the person being coached - that it is a professional-development tool, never to be seen as 'remedial' class. Paulin concludes, "Communication of this message is the foundation of executive coaching - it is a developmental opportunity. Executive coaching is definitely about positive development and growth, poor performance is managed in different ways."
Heath adds that the first response in his experience in Singapore to the suggestion of executive coaching can sometimes be, 'What's wrong with me?' The simple answer to this he concludes is, "The company wouldn't be investing in coaching if the individual receiving the coaching wasn't highly valued by the organisation."
He sums it up best when adding with a smile, "We like to refer to executive coaching as polishing diamonds."
Turning the tables
With corporations' angst about being left behind by new technology, ideas, generations and business models, one of the most interesting coaching and mentoring trends to emerge is an increase in what is known as 'reverse mentoring'. It is just what the name suggests, the reverse of the typical mentoring relationship in which a young and ambitious executive seeks an older colleague or business acquaintance to coach them as they develop. Reverse mentoring sees executives in the advanced stages of their careers, even CEOs, having a regular feedback session with a member of the younger generation. Clearly this is helpful when a member of staff has concerns and might even prevent senior executives losing touch with the 'shop floor'.
CASE STUDY
If you want a conservative opinion on some matter, go see your bank. HRM went out to see HSBC for a balanced 'user-side' case study on mentoring and coaching. We did achieve some degree of balance, but in all honesty Sarah Duckworth, VP learning & development, loves the topic.
"We use coaching mainly for senior managers, it appears to be successful on anecdotal evidence but it is very difficult to say whether coaching is a really great thing because the benefits are immeasurable."
"One thing that I can say," Duckworth continues, "is that one of our very senior people was a complete sceptic on the benefits of coaching programmes, but is now very positive about it and is pushing others into coaching."
Coaching has one major drawback, notes Duckworth, it lacks the ability to generate immediate results. For immediacy she recommends what the psychologists call 'flooding', and what the rest of the general public calls 'being thrown in at the deep end!' "At the end of the day," says Duckworth, "the best way to teach someone how to handle a situation is to immerse them in that challenge."
But this is not to say that coaching and mentoring do not have roles in the executive workplace. Nobody expects coaching to provide immediacy - it has a different role. Coaching helps the senior executives at HSBC to open up and develop their leadership skills in a confidential setting with a trained 'development expert'.
And professional executive coaches have a vital role to play. On the issue of a bunch of heavyweight businesspeople getting together at the Singapore Cricket Club to 'bounce ideas', rather than paying executive coaches lots of money to tell them the same thing, Duckworth is truly sceptical. "It's probably not going to happen. Going to your peers in other businesses might damage personal or business reputation, particularly here [in Singapore] where the top-level people form a very small group. Confidentiality and privacy are lost."
So does Duckworth have a coach and/or a mentor? "For coaching, not really but for mentoring, absolutely - someone I have known for a long time. Mentoring is less structured and more long-term than coaching. My mentor sees me progress and is very useful to talk with about career options. Even our most senior people, like country heads, have mentors, because our [HSBC's] global network is very good. It's all internal and more of a journey."