OVERVIEW

In today’s results driven marketplace, greater demands are required of managers and leaders to gain and maintain competitive advantage.  There is greater pressure to develop and enhance skills needed to face ever increasing responsibilities, changing organizations, profit pressures and organizational competencies. 

Many leaders and managers are hiring business coaches to enhance their leadership and communication skills.  The benefit received in the Business Coaching partnership is a greater confidence to execute strategy, lead change initiatives and build commitment in these dynamic and challenging times.  The Hayes Group coaching practice provides this business partnership.

FORMAT

• Phase 1: Establishing the Relationship

The coaching engagement begins with face-to-face meetings in which you and the coach build rapport and establish realistic guidelines and expectations.  This phase creates the foundation for a collaborative relationship.

• Phase 2: Assessment and Feedback

The discovery begins in the conversation with the coach and continues with the use of assessment tools to capture a snapshot of current leadership and management style, personality and behaviors.  The tools can include a combination of online behavioral style survey, interviews with colleagues, unobtrusive observations in the work environment, interviews with customers, review of performance appraisals, self-assessment and a 360° survey and/or a Job Relations Inventory.  The information in this phase identifies development needs and provides the foundation for personal development. 

• Phase 3: Personal Development Action Plan

The next step in the process is to establish goals and plan change strategies based on the development needs.  The development goals include short and long term development.  The strategies for achievement often include stretch assignments, in addition to skill development approaches. 

• Phase 4: Coaching The Personal Development Action

The Hayes coach follows up with the leader/manager on the progress of achieving the desired development goals.  Setbacks, obstacles and successes are the focus of discussions.  In addition, real world practice occurs, with the aid of videotaping and playback critiques.

• Phase 5: Sustainability of Actions

LENGTH

The coaching engagement typically lasts for six to twelve months according to the participant’s needs.

IDENTIFYING PERSONS BEST SUITED FOR COACHING

Coaching facilitates the personal development process when the person:

• Recognizes performance problems bases on behaviors that lead to ineffective leadership and communication
• Selected as high potential candidate in succession planning process
• Faces significant increase in job responsibilities
• Desires to broaden experience and capacity to move to the next level in the organization
• Needs to develop interpersonal skills
• Needs to become more adept at persuasion and influencing of others
• Needs to improve ability to develop alliances
• Is leading across geographic, cultural and/or demographic boundaries
• Takes on unfamiliar assignments such as leading a business turnaround, rapid growth, organizational changes

Frequently Asked Questions

How is coaching distinct from other service professional (psychotherapy/ counseling, consulting, and mentoring)?

Counselor (Psychotherapy):
An expert hired to focus on how past events in an individual’s life may have created or impacted their current challenges.  Leads the process with asking questions of the client.  The questions are used to assist in discovering the root of issues from the past that limiting current success.  The goal is help the client live in the present.

Consultant:
Retained by individuals or organizations for the purpose of accessing specialized expertise.  The consultant diagnoses problems, makes recommendations and implements solutions.  Leads the process with sharing perspectives and insights from past experiences and successes related to client’s situation.  The consultant is hired to do and/or lead the initiatives and/or projects.

Mentor:
An expert hired to share perspectives and insights based on their personal experience or sharing of experience in a specific area of industry or career development.  The client does the work and the mentor is the guide in the process of achieving desired goals and results.

Coach:
Supports personal growth and development based on individual initiating change in pursuit of specific actionable outcomes.  Coaching is forward moving and future focused.  It is a supportive, discovery-based approach and framework for development.  Leads process with asking client questions that empower them to take action from the current situation that will assist in desired goals and results.  The client completes the work.  The coach is the partner providing support and observations in the process of achieving results.  A key role of the coach is to provide objective feedback and communication.

How does a life coach differ from business coaches?

Life coaching assists people in determining and achieving personal goals. Some of the areas that life coaches focus on are intimate and/or social relationships, personal finances, health and aging, family and parenting, career/profession, work and life balance, and spirituality.  Life coaching draws from a variety of disciplines; e.g., sociology, psychology, career counseling, mentoring and numerous types of counseling.

Business coaching builds its foundation from management consulting and leadership training.  The focus on the client and coach relationship is self-awareness that leads to effective leadership and communication.

Within the partnership, what does the coach do?  What does the individual do?

The role of the Business Coach is to provide an individual with objective assessment and observations that foster enhanced self-awareness and awareness of others.  The coach practices astute listening in order to obtain full understanding of individual circumstances.  In addition the coach:

1. Acts as sounding board for ideas, planning, decision making
2. Champions opportunities and potential
3. Encourages stretch of personal strengths
4. Fosters the shifts in thinking to reveal new perspectives
5. Challenges blind spots to illuminate possibilities
6. Supports the creation of alternative scenarios
7. Maintains confidentiality

The role of the individual is to own their personal development.  The individual:

1. Creates the coaching agenda based on established goals
2. Utilizes assessment and observations to enhance self-awareness and awareness of others
3. Envisions personal and/or organizational success
4. Assumes personal responsibility for personal decisions and actions
5. Utilizes the coaching process to promote possibility thinking and new perspectives
6. Utilizes the tools, concepts, models and principles provided by the coach to effectively move forward personal development actions

What makes the coaching process so powerful and successful?
The relationship and structure of the coaching process provide the environment for personal development and change.  The focus is on the individual as it relates to goal setting, outcome creation and personal change management. 

 What makes the Hayes Group Coaching Process unique?

Approach
The Hayes Group approach is to address issues directly with the individual while maintaining a “tough on the problem, gentle with the person” perspective.  We often utilize The Belief System™ construct to diagnose problems.  Unique to Hayes, The Belief System™ addresses whether individuals believe their effort will lead to performance (Can I do it?); their performance will lead to outcomes (Will I get an outcome?); and will the outcomes lead to satisfaction (Do I want the outcome?).

Focus
The Hayes Group has provided business coaching to more than 2,000 leaders in major international companies.  Our focus is primarily on teamwork, communication, operational vs. strategic balance and managing relationships.  We focus on individual behavioral change.

Assessment
Hayes uses individual patterned interviews as well as standardized and customized instruments to assess individuals.  The instruments include standard assessments such as DISC, MBTI, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Modes, and the Kaplan-Devries Versatility Index for strategic and operational fit as well as customized Hayes 360° Surveys. 

Our proprietary instruments include the Job Relations Inventory – a validated on-line instrument that measures what employees work for and the managerial strategies used to coach employees and The Belief System™ Motivation Profile that measures the beliefs of employees regarding their ability to do the job, the outcomes of doing the job, and individual worker satisfaction.

Video-taped Skill Development Practice
Hayes is unique in its use of videotaped feedback to show leaders how they can improve in communication, relationships, and emotional intelligence. We have used the Tell-Show-Do format in over 1,200 organizations worldwide and over 160,000 people have been part of our videotaped feedback process – both in individual coaching situations and in classroom environments.  Using real-world role plays, individuals can “see” first hand how they react and how they communicate.

Sustainability
All Hayes processes utilize specific sustainability techniques to reinforce positive behaviors and help the individual change negative behaviors.  These techniques include the individual being transparent, finding managers and peers to give feedback, and “broadcasting the change”, which helps to change peer and manager perceptions of the individual.  Hayes uses integral follow-up points to reinforce the behavioral change.