ePsych News

Executives Undressed (and all the better for it)

A Survey of Australian Executive Coaches

S. Thompson et al 2003

The usual image of a senior executive is of a person who is highly skilled and unusually self-assured.  He or she has risen to dizzy heights by virtue of commercial talent or fearless political navigation.  However, up to the minute research proffers a revealing twist.

Insight Matters corporate psychologists, Sydney, surveyed almost 1000 executive coaches in order to better understand the minds of Australia's men and women in suits.  Results showed that the dominant topics of discussion between senior mangers and their coaches relate to their handling of interpersonal issues such as conflict, staff management and motivation.

Notable results

The number of coaches who "Frequently" or "Always" discussed...

  - Conflict management issues:  100%

  - Motivating staff:  100%

"No-one teaches managers how to handle this stuff", notes Stephanie Thompson, Director of Insight Matters, "It's just assumed. It's a glaring gap in our management education that ends up occupying an amazing amount of high-dollar time and headspace."

In second place at 87% were 'Family or personal relationships', especially matters of life balance. 

By contrast, 63% of coaches said that 'Operational management' only 'Occasionally' came up.

Even more notable is that 'Financial management' of their business ‘Never or rarely’ featured for 87% of the group.

So what is particularly striking about this data is that those elements that have historically been presumed to be the essence of doing business - operational and financial management - barely even come up.  The majority of executives want to learn techniques for managing 'human factors' over and above anything else.

Yet coaching gets remarkable results, so much so that corporations are willing to invest a significant percentage of executive salaries in reaping those returns, by attaching coaches to key executive and professional positions. 

Coaches' comments

Summarising the experience of most who work with senior people, Executive Lifestyle Coach Carolyne McCourtie observed, "It's amazing to witness how little true confidence they have in themselves, despite having lived a life of largely looking very confident and competent."

Perhaps it’s because many executives feel so profoundly unsupported by the businesses they serve.  "Senior managers feel alone in their world", noted Padraig O'Sullivan, president of the Sydney branch of the International Coaching Federation. 

This aloneness was not only about a dearth of developmental input and feeling dropped in at the deep end, but about a lack of personal support that is free from political agenda. 

Other research

All of this is in keeping with the findings of Martin Seligman (Learned Optimism), Daniel Goleburn (Emotional Intelligence), and Campbell (Centre for Creative Leadership).  These authors provide compelling evidence that success or failure in senior management has far more to do with emotional mastery and relationship skills than with technical know-how - up to 90%.

Unfortunately, most organisations still presume that managers come equipped with these skills -  the faulty 'Just add water' assumption.

The future of executive coaching

So, if succeeding at the top is mostly about emotional mastery and relationship skills, shouldn't executive coaching be restricted only to psychologists?  In 2002 a number of finger-wagging doomsday articles warned exactly that. 

"Rubbish", says Stephanie Thompson (herself a corporate psychologist), "Next it will be declared dangerous to talk to a friend.   It's unlikely that a non-psychologist coach would do harm."

Nevertheless, the reality is that non-psychologist coaches are taught to stay well away from emotional matters because they do not have the relevant training.  This leaves a cavernous gap in the coaching equation.

"Of course psychologists have a much fancier kit bag for resolving emotional and interpersonal issues", notes Stephanie, "The problem is that there are so few who really understand the corporate world."

It's just as inappropriate for a clinical psychologist to hang a shingle and set up business as a corporate coach as it is for an ex-executive to do so, without additional training.  Efficacy requires commercial experience, as well as skill with coaching methodologies. 

"Until we have sufficient Coaching Psychologists to meet the needs of industry", suggests Stephanie, "the most attractive model is partnering - business coaches and psychologists working closely together on cases.  This is well received by businesses and can be a highly effective form of intervention."

Bottom line

In their final analysis, the surveyed coaches urged corporations above all else to 'humanise their cultures', by whatever means.  The highest returns, they believe, are to be gained from:

• Confidentially supporting the growth of senior managers' self-awareness and people skills, and

• Structuring roles to play to each individual's unique character and talents

So it sounds like it could be time for the old corporate gunslingers to leave town, because a new breed of enlightened executives are on their way.

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