On June 10, 2010, we hosted a webinar with Dr. Andrew Thorn on peer coaching. The webinar was titled - Symphony™: The Future of Leadership Development and was based on his formal research study titled: The Impact of Peer Coaching on Leadership Effectiveness. The study took place over a five year period and included very well [...]]]>

On June 10, 2010, we hosted a webinar with Dr. Andrew Thorn on peer coaching. The webinar was titled - Symphony™: The Future of Leadership Development and was based on his formal research study titled: The Impact of Peer Coaching on Leadership Effectiveness. The study took place over a five year period and included very well know participants from the banking, pharmaceutical and power generation industries.

The goal of the study was to determine if the results from peer coaching could measure up to the results of executive coaching.  The findings of the study demonstrated peer coaching to meet and even exceed the results of executive coaching. The process proved to be an innovative, cost effective leadership development strategy that creates greater employee engagement by broadening the reach of coaching and establishing a vibrant culture of accountability.

During the webinar session, the number of questions received greatly exceeded our time and capacity to get through them all, so we asked Andrew to answer some of the most critical of those we had in this Q&A document.  We appreciate his willingness to do so and to let us make this information available to you all.

Your Questions From The Webinar

Nearly 800 people signed up for the webinar and we are now in the process of following up with the participants. Several questions were presented to us during the course of the webinar and we present this FAQ post for your review.

How do you motivate staff to participate in coaching when they are not interested in being coached?

The first step is to find out why they are not motivated. Coaching initiatives are expensive and organizations often use internal resources to spread the benefits throughout the organization. Consequently, the confidential nature of coaching may be compromised. As a result, your staff may be viewing coaching as a “performance management” tool instead of a “development tool”. If this is the case, they are unlikely to participate, because they don’t want to disclose the areas where they need to develop for fear that it will come back to hurt them later. I am describing the most common reason why people do not feel motivated to participate in coaching initiatives. You may discover some other reason. The most important thing you can do is to engage your staff in this conversation and to let them be a part of what you are planning. The more stakeholders you involve in the planning the process, the greater success you will have.

What are some steps or coaching techniques one might use to encourage a highly resistant employee to become involved, take ownership, begin to lead, and take appropriate risks?

Recent studies indicate that an entrepreneurial approach is the most effective method for delivering leadership development initiatives. Most prospective leaders want to be able to control the process and have input on how the training is delivered. They want to be guided, but not controlled in the learning process. When participants think they have little or no control over what, or how they learn, they report lower levels of commitment and less growth and development.

Leaders learn in a variety of different ways. This makes it difficult to offer an “out-of-the-box” solution. The Symphony™ process is designed with this in mind. You will enjoy greater success if you:

• Strictly focus on leadership development behaviors. Do not tie results to performance reviews or evaluative practices.
• Develop action learning opportunities where leadership behaviors can be practiced with low risk to both organization and employee.
• Allow participants to select the leadership behaviors they want to develop.
• Utilize flexible learning methods such as; in-person, on-line, or via telephone.
• Provide opportunities for leaders in your program to collaborate. Diversified experiences help identify pitfalls and accelerate development.
• Include opportunities to work one-on-one with a personal coach, peer-coach or mentor.

Remember, action learning is not accomplished by sitting in a classroom. It is accomplished by reflecting on, and learning from what other successful leaders are already doing, and then modeling the behavior in a controlled environment.

Regarding the “fear” related to instituting a peer coaching model: How do you address that fear? Do you start with the HR folks, a specific group or jump in with the entire organization? How do you suggest implementing peer coaching?

Organizations fear more about implementing a peer coaching model than the people who are involved in the process. This is because the organization must release some of the control it normally wields in developing and delivering leadership development initiatives. This fear is usually gone by the time the discovery and design phases are complete. That is because we develop a lot of trust with each other, giving them the confidence to let go.

We recommend beginning with a small group, no less than 50 and no more than 100. This creates a special sense around the initiative. Group members understand that they were part of select group and they feel responsible for creating success in the organization.

How do you get buy in, involvement, and support from leaders to even start this process?

The Symphony™ process begins with a discovery phase. Before we even ask for buy-in, involvement and support, we build trust. It is critical to remember that leadership development is a process. Too often we see it as an event so we hurry to get to the event without fully discovering what we really need. Once we understand what is going on, then we can determine if the goals and purposes of Symphony™ are aligned with the goals and purposes of the organization. This all happens before we launch anything formally in the organization so by the time we are ready to start, everyone is onboard.

How do we coach on behavioral growth?

Behavioral based growth is the most important issue for a developing leader. It is also the most difficult area to develop, due to the fact that it is a highly sensitive area. The person being coached must realize that the coach is objective, and that their only purpose is to help them grow. Once that happens, they are generally able to open up and see the blind spots that are preventing their growth. They must also have the space to implement what they are learning without the fear of being judged. Finally, they must be willing to enroll their key stakeholders, those who are in position to witness their behavior, because they are the real coaches. They are the ones who can see what is really happening and they can provide the most valuable input.

Please describe the peer coaching model and process.

The process is very similar to traditional coaching, i.e. assessment, selection of developmental behavior, pairing with a coach, measurement, and follow-up. The main difference is that each person in the process is learning to coach and be coached and each person is paired with one of their peers to do this.

If you are interested in discussing specifics, then please feel free to call me directly at 760-559-3548

You have a honeymoon period with these peer coaches, when there is a breakdown, how do you get the individuals back on track?

We never allow the honeymoon to end. By that I mean that we are involved with the participants from start to finish. We regularly connect with them through phone calls, emails, surveys and small group meetings that occur online. They are excited to have access to independent experts. Follow-up is the key to success and our regular interactions help keep them on track.

How do you ensure that the coaching process doesn’t go to a counseling process with unqualified counselors?

We train and retrain the simple steps to peer coaching. Each coach learns how to be a support to their peer coach by being a thinking partner, and an accountability partner. We check in regularly with the peer teams to make sure they are on track.

What characterizes a “peer” coach who is most likely to be successful, and a “peer” mentee who is most likely to benefit?

A “peer” coach who is most likely to succeed is concerned about others. Incidentally, this is a characteristic of a successful leader too, and that is why this process so effectively prepares leaders for the next level of their career.

The number one success characteristic of a “peer” mentee is that they are willing to examine their own personal behavior and then be willing to improve. This is also a desired trait of a successful leader.

Our process fosters these two behaviors.

Ideally, does the Peer Coach act only as coach or do both partners act as coach and coachee at the same time?

Both partners in the process learn how to coach and how to be coached. As a result, they give and receive coaching to, and from each other.

Do people choose their own peer coach?

No. We have found that this is ineffective and limits growth.

I understand the advantage of peer-to-peer coaching vs Executive coaching to be primarily related to cost effectiveness. Do you have any tips about matching peer to peer? What about “matching best practices” or things to look out for?

Cost effectiveness is only one of the advantages. It really is a preferred way of learning and as a result people feel more engaged and retention levels go up. In addition, participants develop “expert power” which means that they know how to lead because they have figured out how to do it their own way in the Symphony™ laboratory.

Pairing peer coaching partners, is the biggest challenge. In the Symphony™ process, we take responsibility for this highly important area. That does not mean that we do not work together with the HR and Learning and Development teams, it just simply means that we want to be accountable for it.

We use the data we receive in the principal feedback sessions to determine how we will pair individuals. We want them to be similar enough to productively work together, and different enough to challenge each other.

In what capacity do you teach folks to “be a coach and be coached?” Do they attend a training session up front?

All participants attend a “Kick-Off” meeting. In the meeting, we teach the fundamentals of peer coaching. During the meeting participants meet their peer coaching partner and begin to work together. This gives us a chance to resolve concerns and answer questions while we are all together.

We also facilitate a monthly webinar that continues to train and teach the principles of the Symphony™ process. We limit the number of attendees to each webinar to ten people. This makes sure everyone is involved and can ask questions.

I am happy to answer any additional questions that you may have. Please feel free to call me at 760-559-3548 or email andrew@andrewthorn.com.