• What People Want From Work And The Workplace Today
• What Today's Workplace Needs Its Leaders To Do
• What The Workplace Needs Its Workforce To Do
• Reasons People in Organizations "Posture" Instead of Telling the Truth
• How Fear is Manifested in Organizations
• The High Hidden Costs of Fear in the Workplace
• How Coaching Helps to Eliminate Fear in the workplace
• Corporate Coaching Questions and Answers
• Comparison Of Traditional And Coaching Organizations
• Shifting the Organizational Culture from Compliance to Commitment

What People Want From Work And The Workplace Today

Increasingly, people working in modern organizations want more from work and the workplace than a paycheck. Some of what they want:

The rapidly changing marketplace, increased global competition, and leaner organizational structures require radically different skills and attitudes from all individuals in the workplace.

>Some of what the workplace needs people to do:

• Embrace change : Never has the pace been more rapid than it is in today’s market place. Organizations must respond quickly and be innovative to survive, let alone have a competitive advantage. This requires a flexible, adaptable workforce. Corporations simply do not have the reserves to tolerate anything less. This translates to a variety of new work arrangements, including changing work assignments, flexible work schedules and frequently re-forming work teams.

• Learn to thrive on uncertainty : Flatter, leaner organizational structures mean that there is less day to day direction from the top. Individuals will be expected to form networks within and outside their organizations, master the skills of creative collaboration, respond to frequently changing priorities, and assume personal responsibility for setting their own direction.

• Stay abreast of technology : The internet is rapidly becoming the hub of the global marketplace, and the corporation’s workforce will need to develop and maintain its proficiency in computer and telecommunications technology in order to be viable. Teleconferencing and virtual learning are but two examples of how organizations are orienting their practices in the global economy.

• Learn to make the most of network relationships : Increasingly, organizations are entering into alliances, mergers and joint ventures with former competitors. The ability to manage lateral relationships will be a critical determinant in peoples’ ability to achieve results. No longer can organizations afford internal compartmentalization and the associated redundancy characteristic of traditional management structures. Cross functional work teams and matrix structures are becoming commonplace, and they require a more demanding set of interpersonal skills.

• Make the most of learning opportunities: Organizations which survive and thrive in the 21^st century will be those which are continually renewing and learning. People who work in or with them will be expected to assume full responsibility for managing their learning in response to changing organizational needs. Learning will be different than that in traditional organizations as well. Rather than prescribed curriculum being handed down from "experts", people will be responsible for creating their own learning opportunities to harness their individual creativity and talents.

• Develop a different perspective on career advancement: Career advancement in the traditional organizational structure consisted of upward promotions throughout one’s career. Leaner organizational structures preclude that expectation within 21^st century corporations. Instead, career advancement, indeed the ability to add value to the organization, will increasingly be evidenced by "career latticing". People will develop a broader base of experience and more extensive networks by making a number of crisscross career moves.

• Add value: The organization can no longer afford the workforce that merely meets expectations. Increasingly, standards are being raised to ensure competitive advantage, and exemplary performance will be the norm. People who thrive in organizations will be those who pursue opportunities to add value. They will see themselves as stakeholders in the enterprise.

• Alter expectations about employment: Contract work, outsourcing, temporary employment, telecommuting, virtual organizations—these are but a few of the changes in the way people are already being "employed" as organizations are downsizing and restructuring to be more competitive. The workforce of the 21^st century will not expect to have a lifelong relationship based on dependency with one employer. Instead, people will have a series of short-term relationships throughout their careers in which they contribute their knowledge and expertise in response to particular business needs. They will have to operate more like business owners whose customer is the corporation.

• Embrace new workplace relationships which will replace traditional supervision and mentorship: Reshaped organizations will have fewer leaders at the top than traditional vertical organizational structures and, given the rapidity of change, those at the top will be incapable of being the repositories of organizational knowledge and wisdom. In the new era, leadership will emerge throughout the organization regardless of job title or status, and individuals will have relationships with "leader coaches" who will sponsor them in their development of new knowledge and achievement of evolution performance.

Reasons People In Organizations "Posture" Instead Of Telling The Truth

• Fear of appearing foolish, ignorant or incompetent

• Assumption that the truth is obvious to everyone and therefore does not need to be made explicit

• Fear of not being able to meet new expectations for higher levels of performance that telling the truth might create

• Organizational cultural norms dictate what, how, and when information is shared, thus creating a culture of compliance and controlled disclosure

• Telling the truth often surfaces conflicts which have been rendered "undiscussable" and surfacing these creates anxiety

• Telling the truth may create new conflicts which people lack confidence and skills to handle, or conflicts may threaten the culture’s rules for "political correctness"

• People fear that their observations and viewpoints may not be valid

• In a fear-based organization, people are reluctant to expose errors in judgment which they perceive could jeopardize their jobs

• Loyalty to one’s team and the need to maintain team morale may constrain truth telling

• Rationalization that it’s the role of top management to discover and relate the truth in the organization

• Having access to information (truth) that others may not know can engender an artificial sense of power or control

How Fear Is Manifested In Organizations

• Meetings in which little disagreement is expressed, with people quickly conceding to the leader’s point of view

• People doing just what is expected, taking little initiative, and looking to management for day to day direction

• Low morale which is not improved by employee recognition awards or other ceremonial overtures from management

• An overactive rumor mill in which people try to create meaning and context out of their fear

• Defensiveness and resistance around performance evaluation

• Reluctance to provide 360 degree leader feedback

• Employees are overly critical of management, and management is overly critical of employees

• Turnover, both voluntary and involuntary, is increased

• Absenteeism is increased, as are reports of stress related illness and behaviors

• Productivity is decreased and small crises erupt which are delegated upward to management for resolution

The High Hidden Costs Of Fear In The Workplace

• Potential problems which could be proactively addressed are not identified

• Meetings are not used productively

• Mistakes are more frequent

• People do not volunteer for new or different responsibilities

• Time needed to learn new responsibilities is increased

• Employees are suspicious and distrustful of other employees and management

• Management is suspicious and distrustful of employees and other managers

• Decisions are made and problems are solved at higher levels of the organization than necessary

• Employee turnover results in downtime as well as a costly learning curve for new personnel

• Ideas for new products and services are not generated, resulting in missed opportunities and profits

• Culture of fear breeds fearful, suspicious customers who buy less or buy from other vendors

• Business networks are not used for maximum impact, resulting in lost opportunities for new customer or vendor relationships and lost business

How Coaching Helps To Eliminate Fear In The Workplace

• Coaching emphasizes collaboration, partnership and mutual growth. This reduces the fear-inducing distinctions among people regarding their status in the organization.
• Coaching is a relationship rooted in mutual respect and rapport
• Coaching is anchored in constructive, respectful language
• Coaching is endorsing rather than diminishing of people’s skills and abilities
• Coaching assists individuals to see more possibilities than limitations in the organization
• Coaching supports individuals to take personal responsibility for managing their fear by challenging their distorted and limiting assumptions
• Coaching helps people to overcome personal obstacles to their success, including attitudes, beliefs and behaviors
• Coaching provides a structure for establishing and measuring performance goals fairly and objectively
• Coaching offers a model for giving and receiving constructive feedback for improving performance
• Coaching forwards team communications and provides a structure for managing conflict
• Coaching provides a structure and a process to develop new behaviors and competencies, thereby eliminating the need for posturing and defensiveness

Coaching is a collaborative partnership between a coach and a willing individual which connects at the deep personal level of beliefs, values and vision, and which enables, through a process of discovery, goal setting and specific action steps, the realization of extraordinary results. Coaching is also a body of knowledge, a technology and a style of relating that focuses on the development of human potential. Coaching is interdevelopmental in that the collaboration develops both the coach and the individual being coached.

Coaching in the corporate setting uses the synergy of the organization and its members to enable them to evolve their capacity for learning and renewal into achievement of extraordinary results. Corporate coaching is central to a cultural evolution process that shifts the landscape of the workplace from one where people receive direction from others to one where people commit to doing things they care passionately about. Everyone wins, and organizations achieve competitive advantage when organizational members' creativity and potential are realized.

Intense global competition, advances in computer and telecommunications technology, product and service innovation, and the emergence of the customer as a central player in the organization, have created a new corporate imperative. To sustain competitive advantage, indeed to survive, organizations will be compelled to continually innovate with unprecedented speed.

Rapid responses to the marketplace will be possible only in those organizations which promote continual advances in knowledge within their cultures. To do this, organizational leaders and members alike must radically shift the way they think and act in relationship to work. They must place a new emphasis on learning and the harnessing of individual and collective creativity. This will require a new type of workplace relationship. Coaching provides both a technology and a process for such a relationship, and is one of the cornerstones for organizational evolution.

• Provides a platform for organizational evolution
• Results in improved workforce recruitment and retention
• Is applicable to all parts of the organization
• Uses a common language which everyone can relate to
• Emphasizes the unique potential of individuals
• Is relevant to individuals as well as teams
• Provides a vehicle for establishing internal and external networks and partnerships
• Enhances communication with internal and external customers
• Complements other improvement processes
• Has sustainable benefits
• Promotes focused performance discussions
• Promotes development of new skills
• Forms a basis for planning for career advancement
• Fosters entrepreneurial thinking
• Facilitates the building of shared vision

The evolution to a coaching based organization requires commitment and sustained sponsorship at all levels of the organization. There can be unevenness in getting everyone on board, and this can be initially unsettling to the organization's culture. The process encourages the development of personal leadership throughout the organization. This can be difficult for those who remain vested in traditional organizational structures which emphasize direction and decision making from the top. There will invariably be organizational members who are reluctant to enter into a coaching relationship due to internal obstacles. Moreover, coaching is not a quick fix program for serious organizational or individual performance problems. Finally, those organizations which enjoy protected market niches may not have a compelling need or desire to introduce coaching as a vehicle for evolution.

Some of the indicators that an organization may be ready to become a coaching based culture include the desire for:

• A system that promotes innovation and accelerates results
• Increased effectiveness of recruitment, development and retention of valuable organizational members
• Increased results from present quality improvement programs
• A more vital corporate culture
• A performance management system that’s applicable throughout the organization and has meaning for organizational members
• A process to move vision creation and decision making throughout the organization, thus ensuring that organizational vision and goals are shared
• Improved organizational communication and team effectiveness
• Shared accountability for the success of the organization

Training is the process whereby a prescribed curriculum or body of information is delivered by one or more individuals with specific expertise to others, often for the purpose of preparing them for particular roles or skills. Training does not typically take into consideration the uniqueness of peoples' existing skills, motivation or commitment, and it does not usually result in radical shifts in people's thinking and actions. Training tends to reinforce traditional organizational structures and dependency on top down direction and decision making.

Mentorship is a supportive relationship in which a more experienced individual passes on his or her knowledge, wisdom and experience to an individual who is a novice. Often, mentoring relationships are utilized to pass on informal organizational cultural norms and to assist the individual in making connections which are important to career advancement. Mentoring relationships are not usually interdevelopmental and may foster dependency on the part of both the mentor and individual. Mentoring tends to reinforce traditional organizational structures defined by hierarchy and top down decision making.

Performance correction is a performance management process which addresses less than acceptable performance as demonstrated by a pattern of behaviors and/or attitudes that falls below standards established by organizational job descriptions, policies, procedures or standard practices. The goal of performance correction is the resolution of problem behaviors and attitudes and re-establishment of consistently acceptable performance. It is not a collaborative, interdevelopmental process and it is hierarchical in its orientation.

Coaching complements and enhances other process improvement programs. It does so because other process improvement programs typically focus on tools, techniques and work processes, but rarely on interpersonal factors. Coaching puts people into the process improvement equation and can dramatically increase the likelihood of success of those programs. As a technology for performance improvement, coaching also provides a structure for measurement of quantifiable results.

An individual does not have to have any particular background, training or organizational status to become a coach. People who gravitate toward the role of coach are often those who are already natural leaders in their organizations. They are people who want more for their organization, and from their own performance, and they are eager to help others reach for more. Through their honesty and passion for learning and growth, they have a natural ability to inspire others to reach for new levels of performance. They see possibilities.

It would be nice to be able to say that the answer to that question is a resounding "yes". The truth of the matter is, though, that roughly 15-20% of individuals in an organization are probably not coachable. This could be because they are unwilling, have serious performance problems, or are planning to retire or move on to another job. The good news though, is that as the organization begins its evolution, these individuals won't find it very comfortable to remain because standards are naturally elevated, and the organizational culture expects more from everyone. The even better news is that the organization then attracts and retains higher caliber talent than previously.

Shifting The Organizational Culture From Compliance To Commitment