Coaching matchmaker keeps the cowboys away
Monday, June 30, 2008
Interesting article from the Business Day about the challenge of matching a coach and a coachee. For a documented guide from Inner Coaching on how to choose a coach, send us an email requesting one on info@innercoaching.co.za.
Business Day Article published 18 June 2008
From: http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=3246858
COACHES are the new consultants. They are everywhere, promising all manner of executive development and realisation. However, while just a couple of years ago a coach was considered a prerequisite for anyone who aspired to be anyone in business, they have been around long enough now - and with varying enough degrees of success - for organisations and individuals increasingly vociferously to question their worth.
Does coaching deliver on its promise? Does everyone potentially benefit from coaching? And if so, how does one decide what kind of coach one would best benefit from? How does one most accurately match coach-coachee? How do you measure the success of a coaching relationship? And what do you do if it all goes wrong?
Indeed, the questions are many and, as more and more coaches come a-knocking, the uncertainties mount. If you buy into the value of coaching, how do you distinguish the oft-dazzling "cowboy coaches" with their whip-fast promises, from the quality coaches who really know their stuff? And then, if you get that right, how can you accurately assess the qualifications and experience of those coaches to establish the best fit for your needs?
According to Jessica Jarvis, adviser of learning, training and development at the London-based Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, there is growing concern internationally about the number of coaches "entering the market who are inexperienced, have little training and lack the appropriate knowledge and skills".
This, she explains in the institute's guide to coaching and buying coaching services, arises from the fact that the coaching industry is fragmented and has neither a cohesive professional body nor sets of qualifications and standards to direct interested parties.
It is a problem which a Cape Town-based coach matching company, Ekin Astengo Coaching, has turned into an opportunity. The organisation - a partnership between entrepreneur and business owner coach Simon Ekin, and human resource specialist and leadership coach Susi Astengo - was established in 2006 after nine months of extensive research on what clients and potential clients perceived to be the shortcomings of coaches and coaching in SA.
"Worryingly, we saw coaching was increasingly falling into disrepute," explains the British-born Astengo. "Because there are no barriers to entry into the business, you can trot off on a weekend seminar and the next week add the word 'coach' to your credentials.
"We also saw that while many coaches were great at sales and marketing, they were unable to deliver on their promises. So, what emerged was a pattern of people who had experienced coaching, initially with great hope, who were now increasingly disillusioned."
"In fact, some organisations had begun absolutely prohibiting the use of coaches because of bad experiences. "
"This was hugely concerning to Simon and I, given the benefits we know good coaching provides," she says.
After thoroughly examining what people and organisations wanted and expected from coaching, and what frustrated them about it, Astengo and Ekin narrowed the top three requirements down to transparency; measurability; and consistency and rigour.
They were determined that there was a way to bridge the widening gap between coaches and their target market.
"We then carefully evaluated the primary successful coaching models available, and developed a methodology to accurately assess high-performance coaches and, as importantly, to match coach and coachee," Astengo says.
High-performance coaches, she clarifies, are "remarkably resourceful coache" available to their coachees 24 hours a day, seven days a week and who guarantee that they will encourage their coachees to venture at least 30% beyond their present comfort zone.
Astengo's international recruitment, selection, training and development experience includes work with Fortune 500 companies in the UK and, just before establishing Ekin Astengo Coaching, Deloitte in SA.
The Ekin Astengo Coaching process begins by evaluating coach hopefuls "who have already qualified as high-performance coaches after training at one of a number of institutions approved by the International Coaching Federation" against exacting assessment criteria based on Astengo and Ekin's original research. This includes a series of tests, interviews and observed coaching sessions.
It is essential, says Astengo, that the process is transparent: "We believe that a coach matching company should be able to demonstrate the rigorous process it uses to select its coaches."
While the organisation has a long list of applicants waiting to be assessed, 80% of the coaches Astengo sees fail the selection process. Although professional qualifications and experience are essential for coaching, she says, the matching company is looking for more.
"By the time we take a coach onto our books, we know them intimately enough to be able to accurately assess which clients to partner them with."
Astengo and Ekin believe that finding the right coach is as important - and as potentially difficult - as finding the right business partner. If the match does not work, there will be limited or no return on the investment of clients' valuable time and money.
"It's not good enough to rely on chemistry and a basic hunch to feel if the coach is a good egg," she says. "A matching process is necessary to manage and mitigate the risk, and to maximise return on investment."
Ekin Astengo Coaching's primary objective is to develop the tools and services necessary to ensure a perfect coach-coachee match, and so guarantee that organisations and individuals get the results they want.
The key, claims Astengo, is to be systematic: "As many companies have discovered in the past, trying to find a coach on their own carries the risk of making an uninformed buying decision. It is so easy to get it wrong."
"Unless you know the criteria for what makes a good coach, as well as who will be best for you," she says, "you are relying on luck and instinct to make a decision. And these are not the criteria for making a successful business decision."
The process also requires a thorough interview with potential clients. To match its clients' requirements and personalities with the right coaches, Ekin Astengo Coaching needs to establish what results they are hoping for, the kind of communications they prefer and what they are like.
It is also, the company says, vital to explore each client's other professional relationships to identify which have worked, which not, and why. "Once we have made the match, further steps need to be put in place to ensure the relationship succeeds," says Astengo.
"You need to set the rules for the game. It is not like dating where you meet someone, there is chemistry and you see where it takes you. It is like finding a business partner. You need to set up the contract terms upfront. You and the coach need to put measurable goals in place so that both can assess the return on investment."
The premise is that working through a company using a scientifically developed matching model offers a new level of professionalism in coaching, in terms of process and outcomes.
Having a professional third party to mediate and manage the relationship also helps ensure that the integrity of the relationship between the coach and coachee remains intact.
Indeed, it's a sure way of keeping 'em cowboy coaches out of the corral.
Labels: coaching, Ekin Astengo Coaching, guide, Simon Ekin, Susi Astengo
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posted by Telana @ 7:26 pm,
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Telana Simpson
Telana Simpson is a Professional Personal and Communication Coach. She is a caring and focused facilitator who has a passion for expression. She helps executives, individuals and entrepreneurs find authentic ways of communicating their inner potentials.
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