EVERY MANAGER WANT HIGH PERFORMING TEAM MEMBERS YET THESE VERY MANAGERS MAY HESITATE TO INVEST TIME & TROUBLE TO NURTURE TALENT

COACHING 

THE OMINTOOL FOR TALENT DEVELOPMENT    COACHING:

Make talent development is  a 365 day affair

The practice of coaching as a tool for work force and leadership development has gained popularity in India recently. Twenty years ago, coaching would not have made it to the top of any manager's list of most critical tasks and responsibilities. The reasons for the phenomenal growth in the use of executive coaching by employing organizations may include:

¨     As managers became more transitory in their careers and organizations, the sense urgency for investing in people's long-term development has increased .

¨     the knock-on effects of the downsizing of recent years, resulting in ‘lonely’ and isolated senior managers who welcome support and challenge from someone external to their immediate work environment

¨     the increasing demand by organisations for senior managers with key ‘soft skills’. Many standard training & development initiatives have failed to embed the kinds of feedback-based approaches necessary for self-insight for young managers.

¨     Some senior managers consider they have ‘made it’ and worry that being seen to undergo development may be perceived by others as admitting they have a weakness. The nature of the executive coaching relationship is private and avoids that public gaze

WHAT IS EXECUTIVE COACHING?

Executive coaching is an individualized approach to professional development that focuses on results and outcomes. The cornerstone of this approach is to encourage employees to learn on their own instead of providing them with solutions straightaway. Coaching is a different delivery system …the coach works with the manager to tailor the program in skill areas where we will have an impact or problems which need to be addressed in private. Executive coaching is an interactive process that is usually work related and focused on improving performance or behavioral changes needed for growth . It is a goal-orientated form of personally tailored learning for a busy executive.. It is a action orientated, personally tailored approach to learning  which  utilizes feedback and offers some objectivity .

Managing people today is less about command and control and more about development and empowerment. Instead of operating from a position of power, managers need to become cheerleaders and coaches to their employees. The current trend of flatter organisations and frequent downsizing puts pressure on employees to constantly cope with changing requirements in skills, responsibilities and performance. Individuals are being called upon to take ownership for their own development and even training, which is the prompt for the transformation of the manager’s role into that of a coach.

In this new capacity, the manager-coach is expected to guide, encourage and suggest rather than direct individuals to optimize their potential and performance.In reality, coaching asks managers to spend more time giving constructive, individualized feedback on performance to subordinates, rather than barking orders and sending their troops to boot-camp training programs.

 

Why Top Companies An Executive Coaching Program ?

What motivates employers to commission executive coaching? What is it they hope to gain? Coaching is taken for granted in the world of sport where individuals and teams have a coach to provide motivation, enhance skills and refine performance. Ultimately a coach aims to bring out the best in an individual to enable the team to work better as a whole. The same can be said of business and its leaders.

We have found five main motives for organisations in introducing executive coaching. These were categorized as:

1.   to support the induction or appointment of a senior person into a more senior, or different role

2.   to accelerate the personal development of individuals defined as ‘high potential’, or individuals from a minority group identified for affirmative action

3.   to underpin the effective implementation of organisation change, through supporting teams and individuals

4.   as a critical friend or independent sounding board to a senior individual

5.   Executive Coaching works best when used to help individuals address specific personal development issues or to assist when taking on a particularly challenging work role or project.

Executive coaching is  not a passing fad. What was stigma ("You're so broken you need a coach?") has become status symbol ("You're so valuable you get a coach?"). Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps have coaches. Even President Barack Obama has a coach.

THE SCOPE OF THE EXECUTIVE COACH

Executive coaching--personal should be used like a powerful prescription drug that works best under certain conditions. Since 1993, we have had numerous coaching assignments and candidates These have been at different levels and different functions. Here are some diagnostic questions we ask before making the decision to function as  a coach.

1. How valuable is this person's performance and potential to your organization?

2. What is the challenge the person is facing right now?

3. How willing and able will the executive be to work with a coach?

4. Is the need for coaching well defined and accepted by the candidate

5.What alternatives to coaching are available?

6. Is  the organization  environment ready to support this person's efforts to grow and change?

THE G.R.O.W  MODEL is a well-established framework for executive coaching. It is an acronym that expands into

GOAL: defining what is to be achieved,

REALITY: exploring the current situation, relevant history and future trends,

OPTIONS: coming up with new ideas for reaching thegoal and

WILL: deciding on a concrete plan of action.

This simple yet powerful approach is at the root of many successful coaching endeavours   working  with business owners, executives, and people at every level in the company. The G R O W  MODEL spells out into the following points

1.   Set and achieve higher quality goals

2.   Ensure people are accountable and take responsibility of their actions

3.   Accelerate development in business processes, skills, knowledge, and relationships

4.   Eliminate rather than tolerate the negatives in their life

5.   Encouraging you to focus on your key priorities

6.   Providing you with an impartial sounding board

7.   Supporting you in making better decisions

8.   Giving you greater confidence

9.   Helping you achieve new levels of job satisfaction and motivation

THE MODUS OPERANDI WE USE…

Phase One—Develop Formal Commitments

During this phase we meet with the client/sponsor to identify the performance issues, formulate outcomes, clarify expectations and get commitments.

This phase can be completed either face to face or on the telephone. There may be some supporting documentation that will need to be completed through email/post.

Phase Two—Gather Information & Creation of Professional Development Plan

During this phase we gather information about the client's performance issues, we will review any existing performance data, conduct some interviews and ask the client to complete some assessments/questionnaires. We will provide feedback and help the client create a professional development plan. We also get commitments for Phase Three. (Note: Phases One and Two usually take 2 to 4 weeks.)

 

Phase Three—Coach

During this phase the actual coaching process begins.

Depending on requirements this can be a mixture of face to face, telephone and email sessions.

We are completely flexible with regards to this.

Phase Four—Evaluate and Follow-up

During the final phase we report on the client’s progress, evaluate the coaching assignment and help the client build support structures to maintain new behaviours and relationships.

Phase Five – Fold Up

Don’t drag it on. We found that most coaching assignments last between six and 12 months. Determine the appropriate end point and stick to it. Much of the individuals learning can and should be continued without a coach.

In Closing…Organizations that are serious about executive coaching are willing to make a “leap of faith” without having solid, metrics to determine the ROI of their anticipated investment. The real the impetus behind executive coaching is both the satisfaction and returns the beneficiary of coaching get ……Much more than the  business results - which is  often evident.

Best wishes

                  Wilfred Monteiro

Talent management formally integrates ALL people management programs and functions so that they work as a continuous & complementing process.

WILL  TALENT  MANAGEMENT SUPERCEDE  TRADITONAL  HRM ???

Talent management is the integrated process of ensuring that an organization has a continuous supply of highly productive individuals in the right job, at the right time. Rather than a one-time event, talent management is a continuous process that plans talent needs, builds an image to attract the very best, ensures that new hires are immediately productive, helps to retain the very best, and facilitates the continuous movement of talent to where it can have the most impact within the organization.


 "The war for talent has shifted, now it's the war for the right talent," said David Ulrich, leading Human Resources guru. "It is not enough to say that people are our most important asset; but to believe that people are the customer's most important asset." So where does the traditional HRM system survive with the onslaught of outsourcing & automation of most HR operations???


TALENT MANAGEMENT : a strategic & integrative approach
The talent management strategy is superior not just because it focuses on productivity, but also because it is forward looking and proactive, which means that the organization is continuously seeking out talent and opportunities to better utilize that talent. It produces excellent results because it overcomes the major problem of traditional recruiting, which is isolation. It instead integrates the previously independent functions of recruiting, retention, workforce planning, employment branding, metrics, orientation and redeployment into a seamless process.


TALENT MANAGEMENT & HRM : the differentiators


There are some other factors that help define how talent management differs from traditional HRM. They include:

A focus on high impact positions. 
A talent management strategy requires managers and HR to determine which jobs, when filled with top talent, have the largest impact on a firm’s success.

Cross Functional Approach. 
Talent management builds cooperation and integration between previously independent efforts of line/functional managers, through its heavy use of common goals, metrics and rewards. As a result, no independent function like marketing, production or IT can be considered successful unless the overall talent management effort is also successful.

Accountability. 
Talent management gets managers’ attention by instituting a system of measures and rewards that ensures every manager is recognized and rewarded for excellence in people management (high workforce productivity). It simultaneously measures employee engagement to ensure that managers reach their productivity goals while using the appropriate management behaviors (two-way communications, empowerment, meritocracy, etc.).

¨ Recognition of the business conditions. 
The talent management approach involves recognizing that different types of talent are required depending on changing business situations & the business cycle. As a result, talent management requires the continuous internal movement of talent in and out of jobs and business units based on current business needs and where the company is in its business cycle. Our experience with client companies, suggests that too many firms rely on recruiting new talent rather than systematic development of “home grown” talent. This generally leaves them unprepared to respond quickly to business opportunities. It is a constant struggle to have the right people in the right jobs at the right time in order to deliver improved business results.

Focus on Internal Customer Service. 
Seamless service is the expectation of talent management. Customer satisfaction, process speed, quality, and responsiveness are continually measured. In our HRD EFFECTIVENESS AUDIT newsletter we have described how this arm of the talent management should be evaluated

¨ Anticipation. 
While traditional HRM tends to be reactive, talent management is forward looking. It forecasts and alerts managers about upcoming problems and opportunities. It encourages managers to act before the need arises in talent management issues

Primary Principles of Talent Management 

The four primary factors that make the talent management approach unique include:



Integrating people processes into standard business processes. Talent management goes the next step and further repositions people management programs and processes into the company’s standard business processes, such as the corporate strategic planning process, budgeting, mergers, and new product development.

Shifting responsibility to managers. Talent management pushes the accountability and the responsibility for executing people management down to the line management levels.

Measuring success with productivity. Talent management shifts the success measures from the more traditional HR and recruiting functional metrics towards measuring the overall productivity of the

The Key Success Factor of Talent Management

Before going into any detail about talent management, it’s important to take a step back and look at where it fits into the business map. Start with the operation of the HR department. Most HR departments operate using a functional model where every HR unit operates on a relatively independent basis. Other than HR generalists, every HR unit has independent goals, measures, and budgets. For example, there is little or no integration in the traditional recruiting function between its recruiting programs and the activities of other HR functions like development, compensation, and retention. Although this traditional separation provides the recruiting function with the opportunity to focus on its own specialty area, it can limit the impact of recruiting efforts by not meeting the expectation or needs of other people management and business processes and programs.

"Alignment" is therefore the key element of a successful Talent Strategy. When selecting or developing people, most organizations focus on the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours required for the role. However, some organizations are beginning to look at the behaviours required to operate effectively in a particular team or culture. Our experience at Synergy Management Associates, in serving our clients, is to have an approach that looks at all of the factors that drive team performance, the relationship between people's motivations and the sorts of organizational cultures in which they will thrive.

Talent Management should be about delivering business success through understanding what we actually mean by talent, and how it will achieve the specific goals of the organization. It is about ensuring that we value the natural talents and aspirations of our people. It is about ensuring that we understand what blockages can spoil all our hard work.


 It is about operating people processes that join together not only with each other, but with the business's goals. And finally, it is also about understanding how to manage people for alignment as well as ability. If we adopt these approaches, not only will business success follow, but we should also have fulfilled and effective people.

Some best practices in Talent Management

Companies which have excelled at Talent Management have had the following observed best practices:

CEOs were directly involved in the Talent Management process; - empowered, strategic human resources leaders; - attentive Boards of Directors; - unified, comprehensive and integrated approaches to focusing exceptional care upon top-performing executives. "We wanted to create an environment where people feel passionate about their work, where people feel inspired," the CEO often says

Monetary rewards are not as strongly emphasized as motivators. Consequently, proactive employers are looking to a broader and more personalized range of non-financial motivators, including:

- Executive education; - personal coaches; - individualized development programs; - allowing employees to select how they are rewarded.

These companies have ambitious succession plans with successful execution of high-potential employee development activities.

HR departments tended not to have formal budgets for Talent Management - costs being mostly incurred and driven at line management level.

The distinct presence of performance metrics and accountability around Talent Management programs contributes to concrete action in moving such programs forward.

CONCLUSION

It comes down to whether a company has the talent needed to execute its business strategy. And the signs of a faltering system are readily apparent: failing to meet business targets or objectives; shortages of key talent; talent management a low corporate priority; employee morale and satisfaction on the wane; problems recruiting employees; problems retaining employees; a tarnished employment brand. The end result of the talent management process is to increase overall workforce productivity through the improved attraction, retention, and utilization of talent.