CIO —
By John Baldoni
The project had hit the wall. The harder the team pushed the less the wall moved. In fact, it seemed to be tipping backwards, threatening to crush everyone underneath. The wall is of course a metaphor for the intractable forces that so many teams find themselves up against when developing a new product, initiating a new release or implementing a process upgrade.
Teams do not like to confront walls; managers like it even less. Obstacles are factors that all managers face and how you face them is a measure of who you are as a leader. Most managers deal with the external obstacles very well—the assembly of a team, the marshalling of resources and the lobbying for support—however, many managers fare less well on the internal side—dealing with difficult people, sudden challenges or even personal setbacks.
These obstacles exact a toll on the psyche. While commitment to the enterprise is laudatory, managers must be careful not to take things too personally. Internalization leads to a build up of stress as well as the formation of another wall—one between manager and staff. Instead of reaching out, managers under duress either lash out at others, or seal themselves off. Either instance can be costly, not only to the project, but to the manager himself.
Call in a coach
When this happens—and it does every day in every kind of organization—what can you do? More and more companies are turning to executive coaches to help their managers not only deal with challenges, as described, but more importantly to develop their talents and skills so they can become better contributors and improved leaders. Management today is coaching; it is about bringing out the best in others, but managers, too, may need assistance.
Some managers may be resistant to coaching from an outside source because they feel as if they are being called on the carpet for some deficiency. Actually the opposite is true. Companies invest in coaches because they believe so strongly in their people they want them to succeed. Few organizations will hire a coach for someone who is on his way out the door; they invest in coaches to help people move up the ladder and most importantly stay there!
The question of when to hire a coach arises first. Executive coach Mark Sobol employs the “5 when’s” approach. According to Sobol, who is based on the West Coast and specializes in global strategic change issues, coaching is indicated by one or more of the following: “one, when executives believe they need the insights and objectivity of someone ‘outside the system;’ two, when they are seeking new pathways to success; three, when they are questioning their definition of success; four, when they are transitioning to a new role of increased responsibility; or five, when the skills that have served them so well in the past are increasingly less effective in the present environment.”
