From “Performance Problem” to VP: How EI Coaching Saved a Career

 

As part of our Partnership Program, we asked expert coaches about their experiences in applying the EQ-i in their coaching practices. This featured article showcases the expertise of MHS partner, Kelley Marko.

An Article by Kelley Marko, MBA, MA

A Vice President of a service organization approached me several years ago about one of his senior managers I’ll call Jim (his real name has been protected).  In my initial conversation with the VP, I was advised that Jim already had “one foot out the door.” If his behavior did not soon change, there would be no other option but to let him go.  Further discussion revealed that Jim was incredibly smart; he was a brilliant strategic thinker and often had the right intention. However, he was prone to put people off with his abrasive nature and he frequently created a high-stress work environment for others.  Despite these challenges the VP was not yet willing to give up on Jim. Instead, the VP was intrigued by the opportunity of supporting Jim in developing his EI through executive coaching as a way to deal with this challenging problem.  Jim and I met, and we began a coaching relationship after several frank discussions.  Two years later, Jim has not only kept his job, but was subsequently promoted to a Vice President position based on the significant turnaround in his leadership behavior that he credits in large part to the focused development of his EI. 

The following phases of development  were developed from my education and trial-and-error experiences as a professional executive coach that helped support Jim along his journey, and they may help others who are faced with a similar challenge.

Phase 1: Ensuring Suitability, Willingness and Proper Motivation for Coaching
The first step with Jim was to ensure that he actually wanted to be coached and was not doing this simply just to please his boss or as a quick fix to save his job.  Experience has taught me that if the coachee is not fully committed to the hard work, a natural part of personal development, then coaching will not be successful.  Also, focusing on the future and how things would be better for Jim and others  was more helpful than focusing strictlyon what he was doing wrong today.  Educating Jim about what coaching is and is not and what he could realistically expect to experience through a personal development process supported Jim in making his own decision on whether to proceed.  Establishing an environment of strict privacy and confidentiality between the two of us also allowed Jim to be vulnerable, more open and honest about balancing his wants and needs with those of the business through our upfront discussions and our ongoing coaching relationship. 

Phase 2:  Up Front Orientation, Assessment and Specific Goal Setting
Before we could begin our official coaching sessions we needed to establish where Jim was at day zero.  To find out, Jim spent the first month doing activities that included EQ-i and 360 assessments, a personality type assessment, and reflective questionnaires.  As we debriefed these assessments and questionnaires, Jim benefited from starting to see common data points from many different sources that he translated into common themes of both strength and development.  We acknowledged that it would be impossible for Jim to address all identified themes, so we then worked through a process to help him choose the three most meaningful and important objectives that he wanted for himself through coaching.   This approach ensured several things:

• Jim was driving the process
• It was in his own language
• It was aligned with his motivations while still meeting organizational needs
• We could continue to measure progress over time.   

Phase 3: Ongoing Coaching Plus Measurement Against Progress Over Time
Ongoing coaching with Jim consisted of no less than two sessions per month. Several things helped Jim be successful through the process of coaching and the hard work of personal development:

• Committing to full engagement in the process by authentically wanting to be coached to develop his EI
• Focusing on the future and how things would be better for him and others helped anchor his willingness to proceed
• Being realistic about the time required to achieve noticeable behavior change
• Acknowledging that he was not engaging in easy work and giving himself permission to struggle as part of his development 
• Balancing transparency with confidentiality by allowing Jim to determine what specific details he wanted to share about our sessions with others including his boss
• Sharing his coaching objectives with his boss and other key identified stakeholders in his development so that they had a sense of what he was working on such that they were less likely to misinterpret his behavior as he tried new things
• Teaching others in the workplace about some of the tools, techniques and frameworks that he was learning about through coaching
• Asking “what worked well?” and “what would you do differently next time?” to reinforce his learning and development
• Checking in on progress against his three specific goals and objectives on a regular basis and changing or augmenting these objectives when needed
• Celebrating his successes and not letting him off the hook with his accountabilities and commitments in mind during coaching

Today, Jim is a successful executive who truly appreciates the value of emotional intelligence in his workplace.

ABOUT Kelley Marko MBA, MA, Consultant, EQ Coach and Learning Facilitator

Kelley is President of Marko Consulting Services Inc., a leading Canadian firm working with organizations worldwide in developing high-performance leaders and enabling sustainable and meaningful change. Kelley’s ultimate focus is to move his clients to strategic and informed action that impacts the bottom line.

Kelley draws on his prior experience as a professional management consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and partnership with McKinsey in the area of organization and change strategy.

Kelley is also a Professional Executive Coach and a Master Trainer and Coach of Emotional Intelligence (EQ). He has had the pleasure of working with organizations in North America, Central America and Europe and has worked with hundreds of leaders across diverse industries to improve their skills and competencies and improve the success of change initiatives within their organizations.

EI and ROI: Ten Case Studies in Your Back Pocket

 

Like most consultants and HR professionals, you need to be bottom-line focused and show real results in order to get buy-in from key decision makers.  When it comes to selling the benefits of Emotional Intelligence and specifically, the EQ-i, we know that this imperative certainly applies. Perhaps this imperative is required even more when it comes to EI because CEOs and Directors need even more proof that the often-thought-of “soft” emotional intelligence skills can indeed deliver “hard-line” results. 

The following white paper helps to overcome the challenges you may face from skeptical decision makers. It highlights our ten best EQ-i case studies from MHS, showcasing the real bottom-line results achieved by some top name companies.

In this shareable pamphlet, you will see clear statistics that link the EQ-i to:

• Higher sales and profits
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Increased performance potential
• Decreased attrition rates
• Reductions in training costs

 Get buy-in on your emotional intelligence initiative:

 Download the “EI and ROI” case study white paper

Better assessments = Better innovation

 

A Case Study by Patricia Harmon, Ph.D. 

The CEO of a global, European electronics company and his senior team were discussing a problematic issue that had plagued the company for some time. It was perplexing to say the least. They were experiencing lagging levels of innovation in various parts of Asia. No one could figure it out.  Their senior management at the regional levels believed that they hired talented and motivated individuals, and paid them well for their work.

Looking for answers they hired a Canadian University MBA group to do a country by country analysis to uncover any patterns or trends that might lead them to resolving this issue. At the same time, they arranged to have all of their country managers and division heads profiled with the EQ-i to see what insights, if any, might be found. 

A clear pattern emerged with their 67 managers and division heads. Empathy levels were low while assertiveness levels were high, relatively. What could that mean? they pondered. In discussing this finding, senior management members offered that they were proud of their direct, no-nonsense management style. “That is how you get things done and make things happen around here” some said with obvious pride.

As the meeting progressed, a clue emerged. The managers who ran the regional offices in Asia were all European expatriates. The style of management of these Europeans was typically a direct, say-it-like-it-is approach. This style that did not mesh well with some of the more indirect, subtle, Asian management styles where “yes’ can mean “no” and much effort is in ‘saving face’ at all costs.

Those two management styles could not have conflicted more, resulting in a cross-cultural communication clash that inhibited the trial and error practices that accompany innovation.  It was a light bulb moment. Not surprisingly, the university findings corroborated this result.

Shortly thereafter the company amended its management practice and focused more on hiring local managers, where possible, together with providing cross-cultural training to expatriates.

If you are interested in finding out more about Pat Harmon’s studies on Innovation, check out her new book entitled The Mind of an Innovator.