COACHING
By NINA CHATRATH
29th September 2019
As you move across roles, do you become a ‘learner’ and if you do not, would you earn the respect of others in the team.
Is it important for you to know ‘who says what about you’? is it to settle scores?
How do you build acceptance to your taking on the oval office?
What do you do to minimize the discomfort people have in your leadership capabilities?
Coaching Journey
- A Head of Sales, in an MNC with an unbeatable track record of sales, is taking on the mantle of becoming a Chief of Operations, a much bigger role, both in scale and scope, establishing a need for coaching to strengthen him to tackle bigger responsibilities.
Context & Background
The organization was taking this decision based on his brilliant track record in Sales, concluding that if he were to be given new challenges, he would succeed. He came with the disadvantage of being a salesman-an orientation to sell, sell products, solutions, his ideas, his opinions, at times without hearing enough from the person at the other end! There was an inherent need for learning to happen as he would understand the other functions in depth, ones that went beyond Sales!
I was bought in to coach him to develop a holistic profile, go beyond sales, and gain a better understanding of the other functions- all equally important for success of the organization. And take the rest of the teams of the functions other than sales along. Such was the rush of ‘being the chosen one’, he had developed an attitude of ‘Mr. Know it all’, and at the first instance wanted to make changes all around-to the team, to the functioning, to the target setting. Set about putting multiple things into motion without so much as understanding in depth the issues at hand or taking the trouble of getting to know the people, their mindset, or earning their trust. He seemed to have started with too many things, too soon, and did not factor in that for successful implementation of these projects, people need to partner with him. As I talked to the teams, as a coach, I gauged the extent of discomfort people were having in accepting him as a leader!
As I stepped on the pedal in our coaching journey, he was unable to disassociate himself with what was going on around him. Clearly his investment of time was geared towards ‘finding out what others think right now’, and how can he settle scores, as opposed to what he needs to get delivered and how can he take people along with him. The question whether he is progressing in this new role remained unanswered. According to him, he was driving key process improvements and that is bound to make him unpopular and he was fine with that. As I played the card of ‘you need to focus on getting the projects socialized better and gain their buy-in’, he was clear that since he was in the driving seat, they better follow, and fall in with his mega plans. Alongside, he was being observed in the review meetings-evidently, he came across as a poor listener, with a very short attention span coupled with a relative lack of composure.
Coaching sessions were clearly leading nowhere.
Every time there is a breakthrough in awareness and acceptance, along came the intellectual rationale of why and what would he or she benefit by saying what they are saying. He wanted the focus to be on the high score on arrogance which was symptomatic of a high drive for results combined with high intellectual horsepower. Translated it meant getting more done to his exacting standards which will always be beneficial to the organization. All in all, the cycle would barely move forward, reverting just when there was a glimmer of progress.
If we do not partner, the right message are not received. It’s a fine balance that the organization also needs to have between encouraging him to take on the larger role, but alongside stating clearly what is expected of him, both in terms of what he drives and how he engages people in the process. As we sat together, and partnered on these, we were beginning to see a U-turn, wherein you ring fence the ‘strengths you bring to the role’, and additionally ‘what you can develop to be successful’ in this new role.
Thankfully, organization had the patience to allow him to develop into his new role, with the right amount of hand holding and guidance towards ensuring his and organizational success.