A Message From Peter
As I write this I'm flying to St. Johns for Skate Canada, the second most important Canadian skating event of the year. The past few months have been incredibly enjoyable for me as I work with Canada's best athletes in preparation for the 2006 Olympic games in Torino, Italy. Witnessing the interaction of a coach who is able to inspire greatness and an athlete that has the mental fitness to consistently perform under pressure is always exciting, and continually reinforces the value of what we teach. For details on what I've been doing with Canada's Olympic athletes read the 'Countdown to Torino' section below.
Between working with athletes, and conducting research for my new Rings of Truth presentation, I have an increasingly busy schedule. As a result, I have recently made the decision to move solely into keynote speaking. Our amazing training staff of Peggy Baumgartner, Garry Watanabe, Karyn Garossino, Jacques Charuest, and Karl Hagglund will continue to deliver Performance Coaching's programs at our incredibly high standard.
This month's newsletter is about coaching. In "Coaching: Change Big, Change Fast, and Don't Change Back" Dane Jensen, our Director of Business Development, outlines what it takes to make a permanent change to a coaching culture - and why it is so imperative. I hope you find it stimulating, and pass it on to others who you feel would find it interesting. Also, we'd love to hear your comments on your own coaching successes, challenges and breakthroughs - or just an update on what you're up to. As any good coach knows, communication is a two-way street! You can reach us at mail@performancecoaching.ca.
Have a great holiday season, and expect us in your inbox again in February!
Coaching: Change Big, Change Fast, and Don't Change Back!
by Dane Jensen
The Case for Change
The importance of a coaching culture cannot be overstated. A recent report by the Corporate Leadership Council stressed that "above all else, top-tier leadership organizations are distinguished by their cultures of development. Central to these cultures are senior executives and managers who believe in employee development and act on these beliefs"1. Furthermore, a recent article featured in the Harvard Business Review identified "[c]oaching, mentoring, training, and assisting activities" as one of the key enablers of operational excellence2.
In practical application, companies that have moved to a coaching culture have seen tangible improvements in key performance metrics. A recent article in the Globe and Mail noted that the Bank of Nova Scotia, which implemented a "top to bottom" coaching solution, has seen employee satisfaction rise from 64% to 91% in just two years, along with increases in commitment and productivity3. Similarly, a Performance Coaching study of Union Energy revealed numerous accounts of increased productivity as a result of the coaching culture. UE manager Kerri Bowen noted that "... in the past when we did training our stats would drop for that month. Now, even in the months where we do training our stats stay the same or improve4."
The benefits of a coaching culture are clearly substantial, but even armed with this knowledge, many organizations are hesitant to fully commit. The reasons for this resistance are often rooted in three common misconceptions:
Too big - "Changing to a coaching culture is just too radical for us to consider right now"
Too slow - "Cultural change takes too long - we need results quickly"
Won't stick - "It might make a difference in the short term, but after a while things will just revert back to the status quo - and we will have wasted a lot of time and money"
Not only are these myths incorrect, they could be holding your organization back.
Change Big
When Lou Gerstner elected to re-invent IBM as a services business, he sparked the most well-known, documented, and studied corporate turn-around of the past 20 years. The IBM example is one of many that illustrates the supremacy of radical change over incremental change. Had IBM elected to simply 'stay the course' and look for small ways to improve it is hard to imagine they would have achieved the same phenomenal results.
The same is true about coaching. Done properly, a move to a coaching culture is not a small change: you will be asking every manager in your organization to change how they perform their job. Such a big change is bound to be incredibly difficult, right? Wrong. Contrary to common wisdom, mounting evidence indicates that radical change is actually easier for people and organizations than incremental change. The logic for this seemingly paradoxical conclusion lies in what Harvard Business professor John Kotter calls "short-term wins". The more sweeping the change, the more dramatic the short-term results. As Kotter explains, "... short-term wins help build necessary momentum. Fence sitters are transformed into supporters, reluctant supporters into active participants, and so on"5.
Coaching is particularly well-suited to providing short-term wins. In a survey done by Union Energy after coaching training, 99% of respondents reported a 'positive impact on their performance' within the first six months. Building this critical mass of individuals whose commitment to the change is re-affirmed by quick successes is imperative, and can only happen if the initial push to change is wide-spread throughout the organization, and rapid.
Change Fast
Changing to a coaching culture cannot be a 3-5 year initiative. In a study underlining the importance of changing rapidly, Bain & Co. discovered that of 21 recent successful corporate turnarounds most were "substantially completed" in two years or less, while none took more than three years6. According to leading Canadian change researchers Elspeth Murray and Peter Richardson, it is largely in the first 100 days that the success or failure of a large organizational change is decided. It is during this period that the driving forces behind the change must build the necessary "escape velocity" that can be capitalized on in the second 100 days to build unstoppable momentum and drive tangible results7.
Building momentum when shifting to a coaching culture is an organic process, thanks to the 'coaching multiplier'. As more and more managers are trained as coaches, they become exactly the type of leaders - those who question, empower people to change, and fan the embers of change leaders - that most effectively lead the charge. This accelerates the pace of change and builds momentum. Union Energy found a particularly effective way to harness the coaching multiplier: the executive team became certified as Coaches and led the push themselves, delivering coaching training and support throughout the organization. Looking back, VP of Rental Operations Paul Slinger notes "if we could turn back the clock - we wouldn't do it any other way".
Don't Change Back
In any change initiative, making change permanent hinges largely upon two things:
1) Senior management's ability to demonstrate long-term commitment to the change
2) Opportunities for those leading the change to coach each other.
At IBM, Lou Gerstner sent a signal that he was committed to 'the new IBM' by convening a Senior Leadership Group of 300 executives who "were beginning to exhibit the sort of personal leadership and commitment to change that [he] sought" in order to provide them with "support and encouragement" 8. That Mr. Gerstner spent several days a year with this group sent a clear signal that he was committed to seeing this change through. Signals of commitment from senior management are essential for cutting through change cynicism. People need to know that this isn't going to go away, and the only way to demonstrate this is by allocating time and money at a senior level.
Another important aspect of IBM's Senior Leadership Group was that it gave change leaders time to reflect on and talk about the challenges and successes they were facing. Recognizing that organizational change hinges on individuals changing, and giving them the opportunities they need to coach each other through the change, is essential if they are to stay motivated and focused.
Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, definitively demonstrated the importance of keeping individuals who are facing big changes motivated and focused. In a study for Mutual of Omaha, an insurance company, Dr. Ornish was able to achieve a 77% success rate in getting patients with severely clogged arteries to make and sustain positive life-style changes - compared to the 10% national average9. This improvement saved the insurance company $30,000 per patient. His program consisted of extensive peer coaching through weekly meetings, and a high level of commitment demonstrated to each patient by Dr. Ornish, and a host of health experts. While change in your organization may not be a life or death issue, the implications are clear: even with a powerful intrinsic motivator (e.g. another heart attack) change is almost impossible without coaching. This is another instance (see 'change fast' above) where a change to coaching becomes a positive feedback loop. As more coaches come on board they become more effective at coaching each other and bringing others on side.
Change Big, Change Fast, and Don't Change Back
A coaching culture provides the 'short-term wins' necessary to make a cultural shift possible, feeds back into itself to build critical momentum, and provides the tools necessary to make the change permanent. The entire process of changing to a coaching culture is self-reinforcing, and relies on one major input: senior management demonstrating commitment by allocating time and resources.
How can Performance Coaching help?
Change Big - Performance Coaching's Coaching For High Performance program is specifically designed to provide your managers with the "short-term wins" essential for building momentum. Participants leave with the tools and processes they need to see results immediately.
Change Fast - Performance Coaching's Coaching Follow-On module provides change momentum at the 60-day mark by holding coaches accountable to the performance objectives they set for themselves, and identifying common barriers that can be addressed in the Coaching Milestone workshop.
Don't Change Back - Performance Coaching's Coaching Milestone workshop, run anywhere from 6 months to 2 years after our Coaching for High Performance workshop, is a tangible signal of an on-going commitment to coaching that, among other things, gives change leaders the tools and motivation they need to develop their own coaching network groups - a phenomenal tool for building motivation and focus.
The Coaching Multiplier - The single most effective way to harness the coaching multiplier is through Performance Coaching's Train the Trainer programs.
Have one of PCI's coaching experts contact you to discuss your organization's needs.
Countdown to Torino, Italy!
by Dr. Peter Jensen
As the 2006 Winter Olympics approach I thought I might give you some insight on the preparations our Canadian athletes are making.
A disturbing statistic over the past few Olympics has been Canada's 'conversion rate'. The conversion rate is the percentage of athletes ranked in the top five in the world who medal at the Olympics. At 26%, Canada's conversion rate puts us at the bottom of the totem pole. To begin to address this issue, The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) hosted seminars in Banff in 2005 and Lake Louise in 2004 called 'Own the Podium' for Canada's medal hopefuls and their coaches, and a separate gathering for Canada's top sport psychologists. I was fortunate enough to attend and present at all three events.
I am also working with both the women's Olympic hockey team and Skate Canada in the capacity of sport psychologist. Adding these commitments has crammed my schedule, but made it my most enjoyable fall in years.
Hockey Canada
I get to spend 3 to 4 days a month with the hockey team in Calgary where there are 26 incredible hockey players vying for 20 spots. Talk about motivated performers! My work there includes both team and one-on-one sessions that focus on sharpening the mental fitness skills elite athletes need to perform under pressure. Some of the skills we've worked on are:
- How to manage your energy to stay engaged on the bench
- Keeping a healthy perspective
- Dealing with fear
Many of the players are under significant pressure as making the team is an ever-present challenge.
Final team selection will take place in late December. Soon after, Performance Coaching's Director of Training Peggy Baumgartner, S.W.O.T Yourself Coach John Barnett, and I will be heading out to do a highly individualized version of our S.W.O.T. Yourself workshop with the players and coaches. It will help them understand how they pay attention and what tends to distract them. Based on the TAIS instrument designed by Robert Nideffer, an American sport psychologist, it enables us to come up with strategies to reduce internal and external distractions that undermine high level concentration.
So far the team is 4-0 against their archrival, the United States.
Skate Canada
My partner Sandra Stark and I also used the TAIS in Montreal and Barrie recently for many of the top Canadian figure skaters. I also spent a wonderful week at a training camp in Torino with the skaters at the Olympic rink. What an advantage to see and skate where you will perform in February! All mental rehearsals from now on will 'be' in that rink whether the skater is training in Calgary, Vancouver or even France, as our top ice dance team does.
This is just the beginning of the work in sport psychology that we hope will help make Canada #1 in the medal count at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. An ambitious goal but worthy of all our attention!
Notable Quotes
Lao-Tzu on Coaching
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people all remark
We have done it ourselves
W.C. Fields on Management
"Never mind what I told you - you do as I tell you!"
1. Hallmarks of Leadership Succes. (Corporate Leadership Council, 2003). Retrieved from http://www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com/CLC/1,1283,0-0-Public_Display-106619,00.html#hallmarks on Oct. 25,2005.
2. Spear, Steven. Fixing Health Care from the Inside, Today. (Harvard Business Review, September 2003)
3. Immen, Wallace. The new game plan: top-to-bottom coaching. (The Globe and Mail, Sept. 14, 2005)
4. Creating a Coaching Culture at Union Energy. (Performance Coaching Inc., 2005), available at http://www.performancecoaching.ca/client/case_studies/union_energy/
5. Kotter, John P. Leading Change. (Harvard Business School Press, 1996)
6. Deutschman, Alan. Change or Die. (FastCompany, May 2005)
7. Murray, Elspeth and Richardson, Peter. Fast Forward: A new framework for rapid organizational change (Ivey Business Journal, 2003)
8. Gerstner, Lou V. Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? (Collins, 2002)
9. Deutschman, Alan. Change or Die. (FastCompany, May 2005)