| Coaching Capability |
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The Second Australian Conference on Evidenced-Based Coaching ’Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives’ was held at the University of Sydney in October 2005. The speakers presented evidence based research on the process and impact of coaching in a range of educational, workplace and sporting contexts. |
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The conference was opened by Dr. Anthony Grant (Coaching Psychologist, academic at the University of Sydney) who spoke on the growing academic interest in coaching. Grant encouraged researchers to be aware of research being conducted in the areas of medicine, business and psychology and to learn from each of these areas when developing research on evidence based coaching. |
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Dr. Hilary Armstrong and John Matthews provided an overview of the coaching methods they use at the Institute of Executive Coaching. They referred to the Wilber Integrative model that informs the coaching conversations through a focus on the internal-self, and collective culture and the external behaviors and systems that interact to form the reality and the opportunity for growth. |
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Gordon Spence, a lecturer in Coaching Psychology and is completing a PhD on the role that attention plays in creating and maintaining non-clinical behavior change in coaching presented on mindfulness and self-coaching. Spence’s study aimed to identify if any method for training had an impact on mindfulness. He compared attention training, mindfulness meditation and mindfulness training. The preliminary results indicated that all groups improved in mindfulness, with the group practicing meditation making the largest improvement. He noted that mindfulness training decreases levels of depression, stress and anxiety, and would appear to be useful in preparing individuals for change. Coaching could be usefully delivered as a sequential intervention, which includes some element of mindfulness training. |
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Interdependent’s Coaching Capability training series integrates many aspects of the theory and practice covered at the conference. The peer based coaching workshop in the series focuses on the intentional internal world and then builds key behaviors such as assertiveness, questioning and listening. The later workshops emphasise coaching for cultural change with the need to manage the interaction of systems and behaviors. As part of the course we develop skills in mindfulness practice. The Coaching Capability DVD provides short role plays that demonstrate the key coaching skills required by managers, team leaders and staff for every day interaction in the workplace. |
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For conference proceedings:
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| Talent Management |
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Why is there a sense of urgency about the current number of people over the age of 45 in the work force? Do we know the intent of these people who make up 34.7% of the work force? Many may wish to work well into their 70’s. After all, in the USA, Greenspan, at the age of 78, took office on June 19, 2004, for a fifth term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and is now making critical decisions that impact on world economies. Obviously the Federal Reserve wanted to retain his talents. The question is not about age and the presumed behaviours that go with a certain age but an organisation’s ability to develop and manage the talent and skills of staff. |
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The patterns in the labour force have changed dramatically over the past 10 – 15 years; increased part time work, many recognised on the job training pathways, contractors, working from home, multiple careers, less job security and reduced retention patterns. To compete we have been led to believe our work forces must be flexible, responsive, and innovative and that each of us is responsible for our own careers. |
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Yet we have persisted with the paradox of succession planning and work force planning as tools to identify the future demand and to plan for the skills required. Succession planning is usually owned at a corporate level, based on capabilities required and has the aim of developing a talent pool from which to fill targeted leadership roles. It can support some aspects of talent management but has a different paradigm. The paradigm is one of reasonable stability and often it has a focus on only a few ‘special’ people. |
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Talent management considers that the internal and external market place of skills is constantly changing and that it is every manager’s and employee’s responsibility to analyse the capabilities required and to build potential. It means managers have to know staff capability and intent, they need to be able to coach and mentor with an awareness of the whole organisation’s needs and challenges. |
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See our website for help on guiding the focus on talent management |
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| HR's Role in Talent Management & Workforce Planning |
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Talent management is the shared responsibility of all managers and employees. Calls to increase retention, concerns about young people who move jobs, fears about mass exodus at 55 are often based on nothing but presumption, rather than planning, to meet an identified skills shortage or improve a specific capability to achieve improved performance. |
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HR needs to gain intelligence from managers and employees, through conversations, the performance management system, surveys, workshops and meetings so that they can identify: |
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What are the critical capabilities required to make a difference to the organisation’s/section’s performance? |
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Why do people select and leave the employer? |
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How satisfied are managers with skill levels on selection? |
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What support do managers need to support skills development and performance? |
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Who is a high potential and how are they being mentored, coached and developed? |
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How attractive is the employer to high performing employees? |
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Which stake holder relationships need to be strengthened and supported to improve learning? |
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What is the expected change in demand for employees in specific roles? |
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What changes in salary conditions or training will be made to respond to changed demand? |
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Key measures to track talent management include: voluntary turnover, development of cross functional area/career level, internal external promotion ratio, senior management strength, development costs. |
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See our website for more detailed key measures. |
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Developing Leadership Capability
- What are leaders meant to do? How do you know if they do it well? |
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The Australia Council for the Arts is guiding a conversation about what leadership is and how it is demonstrated by running a series of action learning projects. The initiative is in response to the results of the Employee Opinion survey which indicated that there was room for improvement in ‘leadership’. As ‘leadership’ is such a broad term with many interpretations, Cecilia Strensom (Human Resources Project Manager) decided that a clearer focus was required. |
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Australia Council staff bring with them a passion and deep knowledge of the Arts. Their experience of working has often been one of independence and autonomy with many of them demonstrating significant leadership in their specific fields. Working in the Australia Council and setting up strategies and providing funding for innovation presents different leadership challenges. The leadership capability project that Cecilia developed with Rosemary Bishop from Interdependent was designed to enable participants to analyse and develop organisational and personal leadership. |
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To inform the conversation about leadership, from a broad range of perspectives, all staff were invited to participate in a number of leadership forums. At the forums staff were treated to stories of joy and struggle, learnings about politics and organisations and reflections on how to influence and why to respect. Leaders that spoke at the forums included David Gonski, Adrian Collette, Wendy McCarthy, Rhoda Roberts, Robyn Archer and Dr Simon Longstaff. |
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Following the forums a small group of nine, representative of entry level to senior executive team staff, formed the Leadership Action Learning Team. The team were provided with a methodology to analyse leadership through considering the context of the situation requiring leadership, the attributes and behaviours of the person and challenges that they met. |
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Each project created conversations across the organisation about an aspect of leadership. The research methods ranged from surveys, focus groups, one to one conversations and multiple feedback tools. Action learning projects included focusing on the leadership behaviours required for stakeholder management, coaching self and others, demonstrating integrity and leadership, self leadership in entry level roles, turning ideas into action and developing consensus. |
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The group is now sharing the outcomes of their analysis. Key findings have been that leadership behaviours are not defined by organisational strucutre, that leadership is about integrity of realtionship and trust and therefore a responsibility shared by all. There was consensus that a critical aspect of leadership is being able to speak out while consistently demonstrating respect for others. The learning projects focusing on driving significant change reported on the lonelinessof leadership as risks are takenand relationships challenged. The leadership capability behaviours will guide future development. |
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| Designing and Delivering Motivating Graduate Programs |
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The competition for high potential graduates is fierce. Many organisations complete the search and selection process at least six months prior to the graduate completing their course of study. Some organisations develop a relationship with their future employees during the senior school years. The courting and selecting of graduates is a serious investment. This investment requires a well designed development program so that a clear return is provided to the organisation and the individual. |
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Our clients are keenly aware of the cost of a graduate's decision to leave so we have been working with them to provide sound retention and development programs. One aspect of these programs has been the establishment and management of mentoring programs and career development programs for graduates. Mentors receive training in mentoring, access to an online career-coaching tool and participate in a support system for mentors. Graduates receive a session on career management and also gain access to an online career support tool. |
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During the career workshop Edgar Schien’s career anchors are explored. This tool, which is also available online, uses eight career anchors to guide self-awareness. These anchors refer to the most important motivators such as 'Pure Challenge' or 'Technical Functional' that graduates seek out and wish to maintain in a career. We have reviewed the frequency of anchors that 150 graduates in a private sector engineering company and a public sector engineering company selected. Most graduates selected the ‘Security’ career anchor as one of the key motivators that they are seeking in a career. The other anchors that have been most frequently selected are 'Lifestyle Integration' and 'Technical Functional'. Graduates, it seems, are keenly interested in developing their competence and employability within an organisation that promises the opportunity to focus through offering continuity of employment and respecting life balance. |
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Graduates describe the job search process as one of anxiety. It was not easy for graduates to be sure that they were selecting appropriately nor did they have the confidence to reject an offer in case nothing else came up. The overwhelming majority of graduates considered that the accuracy of their knowledge about the chosen organisation was quite limited when they started and considered their need for a mentor to be high. |
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We have noticed that the critical time to focus on retention of graduates is around the 18-month point of the relationship. It is at this time that graduates increase in confidence and consider mobility. Travel becomes a focus and a break in the graduate program seems desirable. Other graduates indicate that their desire for challenge and rapid learning has increased with confidence in the workplace. To retain and extend high performing graduates we have encouraged mentors to provide leadership opportunities within projects and to increase exposure to their own wider decision making forum. |
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The formal development of graduates now needs to extend from self-leadership to managing part of a project. Now is the time to extend the learning focus towards the communities and stakeholders that the graduate interacts with so that they can analyse the way that the organisation establishes and manages relationships. |
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Retaining and developing graduates is all about providing a learning environment that is secure and challenging. Structured competency development models, such as the PDP offered by Engineers Australia provides, or enterprise competency models enable a graduate to develop and monitor their progress. These models also assist in career planning with supported rotation across an organisation. |
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Organisations seeking to provide a rich learning experience for graduates are now seeking to offer rotation across the value-add chain so that graduates form relationships that increase their ability to make decisions and build opportunities. Interdependent supports graduate development programs through the design of development programs, mentoring systems and support, online administration of rotation, assessment and performance and online career management tools. |
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We are currently researching the key motivators for graduates and the aspects of the graduate development program that they most value. |
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| High Performing Workplace Communities |
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Francis Hesselbein (1998) describes the characteristics of high performing organisational communities as: |
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Creating a Common Purpose |
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Supporting the gift economy |
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Establishing a shared environment |
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Moving towards equality |
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Creating internal not for profit entities |
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Providing safety, security and love |
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Hesselbein provides concrete examples to demonstrate her meaning. One example to describe the Gift Economy is Sun Microsystems where each person has a little icon of themselves when they start. As they share their knowledge and assist others they are 'thanked' by people sending them attributes for their icon - eg hats, clothing and other things to add to its status. Hesselbein also speaks of developing Communities of Values once again with clear examples and suggestions for practice. |
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Building a sense of community and promoting the sense of connection within that community is one of the key attraction and retention strategies that we have seen growing in importance over the last few years |
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Client Snapshot:
- Career Development at Energy Australia |
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Simone Money, Human Resource Manager at Energy Australia, works with her internal clients throughout Sydney and Newcastle. I asked her how she manages the challenging scope of her work. |
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I've found it useful to develop a 'win' with an area that is facing pressure to change. I can make the greatest difference to performance when the client is seeking a solution and the manager is willing to champion the changes Simone said. |
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A recent project that Simone has managed is the development of Competency Frameworks that support career development and performance. "I encourage managers to adopt a competency approach for work redesign and to involve key staff in the design of the competency standard. Where practical we relate the competency standard to professional standards or national standards. My main challenge has been to keep it simple, link it to performance management and to skill up both managers and participants in applying the system," she said. |
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There are now five business areas within Energy Australia that have successfully designed and are now implementing enterprise competency frameworks. Simone commented "Feedback from staff on the benefits of the system for career development and training has been positive so far. I know that I have to put quite a bit more focus on developing assessor skills now so that team leaders and managers become more skilled in implementing the system that they have designed." |
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Interdependent staff have worked with Simone to assist her in guiding the development and implementation of Competency Frameworks. |
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