Executive
Coaching Center of Houston
Developing
Critical Velocity Through On-Board Coaching
On-board
coaching helps newly hired individuals expedite their assimilation
into an organization and become
productive earlier. I like to say it develops “critical
velocity.”
In many
ways, the process of bringing
a new executive into an organization is a significant
investment. Not only are there financial costs, such as search
fees and relocation expenses, but there also are intangible,
strategic costs, such as the time senior management invests
in the interview and selection process.
If it
takes an individual six months to a year to become fully productive
-- or, worse, to find out that a match made in heaven was
really made somewhere else -- then the cost of bringing that
executive on board goes off the charts.
On-board
coaching can cut that time radically, by a half or more, so
that individuals are fully up and running sooner -- and the
organization begins to achieve an earlier return on investment.
It’s
relatively easy for a newcomer to join an organization and
learn the reporting relationships, the budgeting processes
… all the structural
things. It’s not as easy to go in and learn the
organizational culture … how to communicate and work
effectively with a new boss and peers.
For example,
if you have to give your first presentation at a monthly business
review meeting, you need to understand how those meetings
operate. Are they simply for sharing information, or is there
interaction? Do the meetings tend to stay on a rigid agenda
or are they more free-flowing? If you are scheduled at 10:30,
do you have a high degree of certainty that you will actually
be speaking at 10:30? And how should you structure
your presentation at that meeting so that it both is effective
and makes a good impression?
Very often,
newly hired individuals can cover ground like this on their
own, but the presence of a coach helps them address issues
like this sooner and in a focused fashion. This accelerates
their assimilation into the organization and, ultimately,
their productivity.
A coach
can also help identify how an organization measures success
by asking questions like, “What have you noticed about
people who have succeeded here? What have you noticed about
people who failed here?” The answers to questions like
these can provide broad brushstrokes of how things work in
a new organization.
One of
the principal benefits of on-board
coaching is clarification of expectations on the part
of both the executive and his or her boss. What does the boss
expect from the new hire in the first 60 to 90 days, six months
and first year? What does the new hire expect in the way of
access, work style and authority?
How do
the work styles of the two executives compare? How closely
to they mesh? I recently worked with an executive and boss
who had almost diametrically opposite profiles on the Myers-Briggs
personality assessment tool. The upside is that they complement
each other's strengths. The downside is that if the two executives
don't understand those differences, misunderstanding
and miscommunication are possible … and perhaps
even likely.
In today’s
highly competitive business environment, individuals and organizations
can always apply more capital or more technology to a given
situation, but there is no substitute for time. On-board coaching
creates time by building critical velocity to enable newly
hired executives to assume their positions more rapidly.
By Dick
Massimilian
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