LEADERS IN EXECUTIVE COACHING

Praesta Points is continuing its tour of the partnership’s international network with an interview with Jane Upton who runs our Spanish and Portuguese operation. Jane is also a Visiting Executive Fellow at Henley Management College.

How is the coaching market developing in Spain?
It depends whether you’re talking about its use by indigenous, middle-ranking Spanish businesses or international companies with Spanish operations. The former are certainly more aware of coaching, but there’s still a lack of understanding about what coaching is – they often confuse it with management consultancy – and its benefits. Also, there’s a definite reluctance amongst Spanish business leaders to consider learning and related personal development as a continual process – few Spanish companies have significant training budgets. The link between tertiary education and business leadership is far stronger over here than in the UK. There’s a tendency to think that once you’ve jumped the academic hurdles or passed the rigorous sector-specific entry tests you’re the finished article.

And yet, if you look at international concerns based in Spain or very large Spanish businesses with international interests – the majority of my clients – the picture is very different. As one would expect, these organisations are requiring common standards in executive performance and they’re fully aware of the value of coaching in helping achieve this level of consistency.

What’s your take on the current discussion about the accountability of coaching? Can coaching output be measured?
Coaching is, of course, very different from some of the psychological interventions used in management development, but it’s worth considering the parallels between the two disciplines with regard to their actual impact. Research suggests that the impact of any ‘therapeutic environment’ and the tools and techniques used in interventions account for around 45 per cent of the final output. In short, it’s a matter of mutual accountability between the coach and the client; so much rests with the nature of the individual – their willingness to learn about themselves and embrace change.

And, while it’s not directly answering the question, here’s some recent anecdotal feedback from a no-nonsense, highly practical Portuguese MD when I asked him to specify the results following my work with his company: “I can’t give you an actual figure because I don’t know what the results would have been without the coaching. All I can say is that I don’t believe that we’d have hit our targets without your input. More importantly, it’s the long-term impact you’ve had on me as a leader. That’s what will make the real difference.”

What are your views on businesses’ increasing focus on ‘in house’ coaching?
If it’s done correctly, I’m all for it. Managers have a responsibility for developing their own people; that’s fundamental to good leadership. The problem often is that businesses may say that they want to create a coaching culture but, in reality, they’re not doing enough to make it work. It takes more than a couple of days in a workshop to ground coaching in the way a company manages its people.

I see no conflict between good in house coaching and what we do at Praesta. An internal coach will naturally be focusing on an individual’s specific function; there’s bound to be a greater emphasis on remedial issues. The external coach is there to help senior executives to understand the bigger picture – where they see themselves within and without their organisation.

Is coaching complementary to other leadership development interventions?
Yes, because the latter are directed more at improving specific leadership skills. Coaching can take generic learning within a group context and make it personal – “What does this mean for you?”

What do you get from being a member of the Praesta network?
From a purely commercial standpoint, it’s the Praesta ‘kite mark’ - a guarantee of quality. Clients have to be confident that they’re working with a blue chip organisation with a proven track record; the first-time buyer can find it hard to differentiate from the plethora of providers. Speaking personally, it’s tremendously rewarding to be collaborating with colleagues who are setting the standards for the profession. I’m no different from my clients; you’re never too old to learn and the partnership is a constant source of insight and inspiration.