Human Capital Development

Singapore
Newsletter – August 2002

Welcome to the August Edition of Human Capital Development

Following our coaching theme this month, I want to explore with you some issues that create successful
coaching within an organisation and deal with the limitations of coaching too.

David Stratford writing in his book ‘Executive Coaching – The Keys for Performance Improvement
through Personal Growth’, notes three things are required for change in people:

• A level of self-awareness
• Development of a personal will to change
• A supportive environment

This simple analysis hides the underlying drivers for change…how do we create the self-awareness, how
is the will to change motivated and what comprises a supportive environment. Common sense may drive
us in the wrong directions if we use too simple an analysis of personal change here.

Dr Anthony Grant, whom I have introduced to you all before, has researched the underlying paradigm for
change. By reviewing the last thirty years of research, he identified the drivers for change must involve
both knowledge and behavioural elements to be successful. Secondly, he found that coaches needed to
create a roadmap for change like this:

1. Build discontent with the present sufficient to motivate the will to change
2. Build a vision of the future, consistent with the coachees’ values and beliefs
3. Together build their path to reach their goals by defining a plan of action

Surprisingly, just giving people information about the need to change is not enough. Thus, doing
personality tests, providing 360-degree feedback, or other sources of career enhancing information is
insufficient to expect someone to change.

The will to change is a fickle phenomena, subject to the traits and states of the individual, their
relationships at work, their self awareness and perception of themselves, and their relationships with their
‘significant’ others. Like the boss, or especially in Asia, parents and sometimes spouses. Sounds
awkward to be discussing family in a business context, but it is the crucible of family life and upbringing
where identity and the reasons for change are established for each of us. Parts of the roadmap above are
written for us as we grow to maturity. Understanding those patterns and preferences is important to a
successful change experience.

But coaching faces it’s own challenges, amongst them are these:

• How long is this going to take? – a commonly held perception that this is an external solution rather
than one controlled by the coachee
• What will my peers, subordinates and the Board of Directors think about me if I have a coach –
more often it is this fear of other’s perceptions that makes the potential learning that coaching offers
so difficult to accept
• There is nothing wrong with me, why do I need to have a coach? – in our Asian context, this
perception, even though it may be wrong, can be a significant roadblock to acceptance of learning.
Effective planning and management of coaching within your organisation can help to resolve these
roadblocks.
 TMP Approach to Coaching in Organisations

Participant TMP Worldwide Organisation

Program Design

Phase 1: Design
Set organisation objectives

Select panel of Coaches to ‘fit’ Coachees

Phase 2: Launch Build organisational commitment

Communication to participants

Phase 3: Assessment Conduct and review assessments

Prepare coach briefings

Program management & administration

Phase 4:
Set & approve individual objectives
Commence Coaching
Participants commence coaching program

Phase 5:
Action Planning – create learning options
Extend Learning Options

Commence approved learning options

Phase 6:
Participant
Individual Review Program Review- manager review

Review Program

www.sg.tmp.c
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TMP Approach to Coaching in Organisations
TMP works with clients to identify and resolve the difficulties mentioned above. Typical to our process are
the following steps when approaching a coaching into a client company:

• Pre-program planning – aiming to identify key stakeholders, identify coachees and coaches –
make slection process, review available literature about the coachees, build buy-in to the
program through meetings and discussion, define implementation steps and key milestones and
so on;

TMP TIPS:
1) Culture of the company and acceptance issues need to be resolved through finding program
sponsorship from both Line Management and HR at the highest level possible.
2) Clarify expectations by building integration with other HR Learning and Development Systems
(coaching is only one forum for learning to take place)

• Pre-program Communication - To maximise the acceptance of the coaching program, it is

important that the communication piece emphasises the many practical benefits for managers
themselves as well as for the organisation as a whole. These benefits and imperatives would
include:

• Improved performance of their staff

• Greater synergy and support across the organisation resulting in greater overall
performance
• Decreased turnover
• Improved succession planning

TMP TIPS:
1) Informing people before you communicate officially can help your audience to anticipate and receive
your messages well. This may mean briefing sessions, meetings and face to face discussions are
needed before the program is launched.
2) Conducting a Pilot program with a key senior level participant can help to smooth the way to
successful acceptance of communications

• Pre-Program Diagnostic - TMP recommends that participants complete a pre-coaching

assessment. Further discussion is involved to define the best tool to use. The overall purpose is
to develop self awareness of the participants prior to their participation in coaching. This
process will help them to be open to their need to learn and to target learning more
appropriately.

TMP TIPS:
1) Don’t place too much emphasis on assessment, its purpose is to provide information relevant to the
learning needs addressed by the coaching. It is not a pass or fail judgement.
2) Use the culture of the organisation to help drive the choice of instrument. The more closed the culture
the more non-specific and singular should be the data source.

To find out more about TMP’s Talent Development Solutions,

please call John Read at 6430 5324

www.sg.tmp.c
om
 • Commence Coaching – having established the panel of coaches, matched coach and coachee
using a variety of tools and measures, coaching sessions can begin. Clearly defined milestones
and management of coaching are neeeded to ensure that it does not run off the rails. TMP
recommends that reports from the coach and coachee are taken during the coaching to ensure
that it remains on target.

TMP TIPS:
1) Clarifying the responsibility of the coach very clearly and prescribing their brief will help to set the
coaching off on the right track.
2) Balancing flexibility of coaching whilst ensuring delivery of goals is the Art of effective coaching
management
3) Involve the coachee and their immediate supervisor (or another similar level staff if they are the
coach) to monitor progress informally.

• Measuring the success of a Coaching Program – TMP proposes:

- Review progress against individual goals set

- Review costs and benefits by measuring both. For stakeholder benefits consider
using 360-degree feedback after the coaching and optional training are done to
determine overall success.
- Survey coachees using online and/or focus group feedback to gather inputs and
suggested improvements

TMP TIPS:
1) Setting benchmarks at the planning stage will help to set expectations for the program
2) Doing before and after measurements enable justification of progress to be made clearer
3) After measuring is done make a presentation to senior management that will enable them to decide
effectively about future programs.

The Chinese Symbol for Coach:

Coach – is made up from the character representing filial responsibility with parent who commands
respect, implying someone for whom we have respect; combined amusingly, with practising or training to
boil silk, creating a fabric which later can be coloured and stitched to form clothing for the Imperial court!
Hence we can say it involves dedication to task, respect for the coach and practice. This is how the
Chinese understand jiàoliàn, coach.

To find out more about TMP’s Talent Development Solutions,

please call John Read at 6430 5324

www.sg.tmp.c
om