Business coaching — the next beckoning!

As we wound down our coaching engagement, I could sense some hesitation in my coachee. I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to discuss. “I don't suppose… of course not,” I heard him mumble and as though he had come to a conclusion, closed with a stronger, “Nothing Sridhar. It's fine.”

We completed the closure process of the engagement. Yet, his apparent hesitation to introduce something into the discussion, lingered on in my mind. My coachee was in his late forties. He had just moved from a functional role to head a small business with both growth and profit responsibility. His functional specialisation and experience in technology did raise a few doubts with regard to his new role. Right from team dynamics to delegating down the line, charting challenging KRAs with dispersed and disparate teams, to being a business head, were proving to be tough challenges. We began the relationship a year ago and here we were.

I was quite satisfied with the association and the enduring trust that had been built, yet, the hesitation rankled. So, I caught up with him a fortnight later to find out if my hunch was right and if I could be of any further help. I went straight to the point and asked him if he was considering taking the discussion further to address some business issues. He said, in a relieved tone, “Yes Sridhar, how did you guess?”

It wasn't difficult! For a while I had been reflecting on this to unfold — the natural progression of the coach-coachee relationship. This and many such experiences have offered me an insight into the future of coaching.

The Next Wave

Coaching, though widely accepted and sought after by business leaders, remains largely restricted to the HR-behaviour area. Often dismissed by the line manager as the touchy-feely stuff, it has largely oriented itself to helping people with soft skills — become more assertive, better team players, steps to unfold as a leader, 360 feedback interpretation and so on. I realise that this is a gross generalisation but my sensing tells me that it is largely restricted to this space.

These interventions are no doubt important, even critical, for the overall effectiveness of the individual in his/her business role. Yet, I believe the scope of coaching is about to change irrevocably. Business coaching, not just life coaching or skills coaching, will emerge — that is what the transformation will be. Coaches will be called to address the developmental concerns of the business leader a little more holistically, beyond the boundaries of the intrapersonal /interpersonal world that is dominant today.

Coaches will have to bring on board a deep understanding of business strategy, direction, model, economics and competitive advantage. This means two things. One, coaches will need to hone their knowledge and skills of business beyond the known and familiar in the behavioural area. Two, this will signal the shift of the coaching dialogue to an integrated level — a holistic dialogue between equals with business knowledge.

The typical issues that could be addressed could range from, ‘What are my business growth drivers and which ones should I leverage?' to ‘What are the sources of competitive advantage in my business?' Or, from ‘How do I make my team move to the next level of competence or capability?' to ‘How do I build a culture of innovation?'

If we take this evolution as a given, then there are a few concerns and challenges that would arise. I believe are addressable given the commitment that every coach has for the coaching process.

Concerns and Challenges

The first question relates to ‘why now?' Is the need for business coaching arising out of the uncertain, scary business future that lies ahead? Not entirely. The need has always been there — perhaps a bit latent. Informal channels and trusted relationships with other business leaders or alumni networks have effectively filled the void. However, the scenario is undergoing some change and the need for more organised and professional help is slowly but surely emerging. Not just C-suite members but even managers down the line will start seeking business coaches in a formal way. The climate of uncertainty — which began with the global meltdown and continues as it does with the slow economic recovery, Euro crisis, India's own deficit financing and rupee depreciation, et al — is only bound to heighten the need.

Clearly, status-quo is no longer an option for businesses. More importantly, challenging the status quo and pursuing change is also no longer just the pre-occupation of the entrepreneur/business head, but is moving down the entire organisation. Managers across levels need to make decisions without certainty about the factors at play or the outcome. This demands courage.

In the latest issue of the HBR , Rosabeth Moss Kanter of HBS commenting on our current times and in extolling leaders, says, ‘What you don't do can hurt you. Missed opportunities lead to later regrets… Doing nothing seems easy. It's often an invisible mistake — a sin of omission rather than commission.' So apt for the times we live in!

In this context, the sense of privacy, non-prescriptive yet enabling dialogue with trust and a sense of sacredness in the relationship, that are characteristic of coaching, would be a great comfort when they ask the question — ‘Which way do I go?' The only additional ingredient they seek would be business understanding. Not very different from the ambivalence and dilemma faced by Arjuna in the Kurukshetra war. In the Mahabharata , Krishna played the role of a business coach to the despondent Arjuna. To be an effective business coach, Krishna needed to know not just the dynamics of the drivers of ambivalence but also be conversant with the art and science of fundamentals of life in its absoluteness. The conversation that ensued covered several subjects that provided the context and meaning. A parallel would be for the coach to understand and engage intelligently with the larger context of the business and challenges and issues of identity that the coachee is wrestling with.

Roles and Expectations

When it comes to what exactly the business coach would be called upon to do, the roles and expectations could vary. Serving as a sounding board, providing another point of view, and being a challenger to open the ‘opportunity space' in the mind of the coachee are some commonly experienced business coach roles. Business leaders and managers may have an emerging point of view in their mind to a problem. Boxed in, as they are, by the pressing demands of the work environment, this point of view may not be crystallised. In such a situation, they seek a dialogue to bring clarity, direction and a robust, unbiased review. It is this need the business coach would fulfil. It is about reviewing that point of view. It is about a dialogue that could include facilitative questions such as — ‘Are you happy with that?', ‘Is there more we need to do?' and so on. I see this as a process of co-creation where at least 80 per cent is contributed by the coachee through careful facilitation and effective listening, while the coach pitches in with 20 per cent and maybe at that.

Is the Indian coaching fraternity ready for this transition? The challenge for individual coaches would be to broad-base their skills and capabilities. They would need to build newer identities, skills, knowledge, awareness and perspectives and be able to intelligently converse about business needs/areas, on platforms that are business-driven. It could range from customer understanding and insights, products, markets, ROCE, to assets, utilisation of assets, competition and margins. The traditional coach's profile does not include these and hence they may need to enrol in a business finance programme or take active participation in business debates. But that would largely depend on the interest or motivation of this individual.

In the early stages of this emerging trend, it would be the responsibility of the business coach to express, demonstrate and broaden the dialogue. In a typical case, the opportunity would be at the pre-engagement discussion that the coach and coachee have. However, as this trend strengthens, I expect the employer/sponsor of the coaching engagement would also look for broad-based backgrounds that cover not just coaching skills but have deeper understanding and conceptual clarity on the business.

I foresee a push-back from the classical coaching school to this concept. ‘This is about business consulting and is certainly not coaching' is a lament I anticipate. However, to me they are very different. Consulting tends to be very directive, while coaching is strictly non-directive. Another point of significant difference is the ‘subject' expertise. Coaches are generally not subject experts while consultants earn their premium through their specialist knowledge.

By its very nature, business coaching remains focused on the individual manager/leader, while consultancy addresses the collective/team, the system and the interconnected parts and so on.

To close, I urge the coaching fraternity in India, who normally come from HR or social science disciplines, to consider this as a great invitation to play a more central role in business. It could very well be the way to remove the cynicism and disdain that is erroneously associated with coaching as being HR-ish and not really business. In the Gita , the Lord gives a clarion call: Uththista Bharata — to awaken and arise! I believe that such a call has come the coaches way.

It's now a question of whether we are up to it or not!

( The author is Director — HR, and Lead Director-Diversified Business, Murugappa Group. He has been a practicing coach for over 10 years .)

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