By Liliane Held-Khawam, author of the book “Management by Coaching: Coping with Complexity in a Changing World”
The methodology of a business coaching process
The Management through Professional Coaching (MPC) methodology (illustration) we apply in our consulting practice contains several phases that are explained below.
The audit of the coachee’s professional situation
This first phase consists in the coachee listing up his/her dreams, needs, strengths and weaknesses, both at personal and professional levels. It thus consists in realizing two audits:
A “personal” audit that implies:
- Defining one’s values
- Describing what one’s work-life balance should ideally be like (this is very personal and varies from one individual to the other).
- Assessing what may contribute to this ideal work-life balance
- Assessing what may hinder the achievement of this ideal work-life balance
- Assessing one’s level of stress
A “professional” audit that implies:
- Defining one’s ideal professional mission statement. This mission statement should be coherent with the personal audit and integrate the human factor
- Assessing one’s professional skills (knowledge, know-how)
- Assessing one’s personal potential (management and communication skills, teamwork, decision-making, risk-taking, ability to structure…).
At this point, it is absolutely necessary to detect any source of interference with the project in terms of personal skills, as such factors of disturbance may jeopardize the completion of the professional mission. Such sources of interference may, for example, reside in:
- A disproportionate amount of assertiveness that may result in a form of authoritarianism, an exaggerated sense of self-importance, or a lack of listening
- An excessive amount of emotionality
- An excessive level of independence
- Insufficient listening skills
- An insufficient distance from events
- A lack of a global vision
- Weak decision-making skills
- …
The audit of the coachee’s professional “project”
The coachee’s professional activity will be regarded as a project, independent of the organization and the culture the person evolves in. In this audit, the following elements will have to be identified:
- All the coachee’s customers, as well as their respective expectations
- All the coachee’s partners who take part in the completion of the project
- The positive data (both at technical and human levels) that will support the project’s successfulness
- The problematic data (both at technical and human levels) that could hinder the process
This analysis aims to structure the audit of the coachee’s professional situation in an objective way, both in technical and human terms.
The definition of the project’s mission statement
At this point, the coachee will have to set up his/her project’s mission statement while enriching it as much as possible with his/her personal characteristics and aspirations (his/her ideal and values). The mission statement is often constructed along 3 axes:
- The positioning of the project within the life of the company (identity, strategy, culture)
- The expression of the professional (and even technical) dimension
- The integration of the human factor both outside (customers) and within (project team, subordinates…) the company.
The human and identity-related dimensions are all too often forgotten in the process of defining the mission statement. This puts the coachee’s role as the leader of the project he/she wants to complete, at risk. It is highly important for the coachee to position him-/herself within the company and the human-related workflows that are inherent to the project.
The definition of the project’s goals and workflows
At this stage, we derive from the project’s mission statement the short term, middle-term and long-term goals that will allow for the completion of the project. These goals, however, are often not so well-known. What is often missing are goals that are related to the human factor (e.g. the development of customer relations, the development of the project team’s competencies…).
Such goals may be broken up into workflows: the aim here, is to draw the process that links up and ordinates the activities required for the completion of the project. We thus gain a global vision of the workflow and of the positioning of the roles of its diverse actors.
Surprisingly enough, this material is often available, as many large companies have gone through a reengineering process of some kind or another.
The definition of the coaching program’s means and structure
At this stage, we list up all the means that will allow for the completion of the project’s goals. They are of two types:
Technical resources. We can mention:
- Working tools
- Professional information
- The infrastructure…
Human resources. This may refer to:
- The management of customers
- The marketing of the project
- The communication around the project
- The management of the project team
The project team’s management is the central axis of every coaching process. It implies:
- Federating the team around the mission
- Clearly defining each person’s role
- Having all the partners appropriate their roles
- Setting up both an internal and an external communication
- Developing the project team’s competencies
- Dealing with potential sources of tension
- …
As for the structure, it consists in formalizing and positioning each person’s role in a clear and transparent way. This will strengthen delegation and will help develop a structured global vision.
The definition of the coaching program’s action plan
The aim of an action plan is to materialize the coaching program’s mission statement. If this step is not completed, coaching is useless. Also, it is essential that it quickly leads to concrete actions. This action plan is made up of two parts:
- A personal action plan
- A project action plan
I. The personal action plan (illustration): aims to build up one’s personal work-life balance. The latter relies on the coachee’s personal hobbies and “passions”, as well as on the correction of the weaknesses that he/she regards as a significant burden to both the project and him-/herself. Here are a few examples of weaknesses that can be addressed in this context:
- Fixing existing tensions and conflicts
- Learning how to develop a global vision
- Getting freed from stress
- Renouncing perfection (both for oneself and others)
- Renouncing the “victim’s scenario”
- Finding a correct positioning for one’s professional life as compared to one’s private life
- …
Simultaneously, the coachee will have to start activities that he/she enjoys doing and which contribute to his/her life-balance (as in the annexed table). The aim of this personal development process is to develop:
- one’s well-being and creativity
- one’s entrepreneurship and ability to take risks
- a “win-win” approach to work relationships
- …
All these developments are only possible if the coachee displays a high level of motivation; otherwise, the coach cannot do anything. Finally, coaching ultimately aims to help individuals become actors (instead of victims) of the change in their workplace.
II. The project action plan (illustration): With the project action plan, we reach the ultimate phase of the project’s organization. It will become the steering tool of the project, as it integrates its mission statement and goals, as well as the roles of the diverse players and the tools and ressources available to them. Moreover, it will allow for the introduction of a timeline that takes the compulsory project deadlines into account. Finally, thanks to this plan, project managers can assess the project’s progress. They can also include indicators that will help control and follow up the whole process.
Related topics:
- Business coaching: definition and goals
- Competency profile of the coach, duration of the coaching process
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