Renewal Coaching E-Book

Douglas B. Reeves

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 393

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Renewal Coaching provides a series of personal assessmentsthat will guide individuals and teams through the seven stages ofrenewal. Each assessment includes both survey and narrativeresponses, and readers can use the journal pages in the text orconvenient on-line formats to respond. The Renewal Coachingframework consists of these seven elements: Recognition?Findingpatterns of toxicity and renewal; Reality?Confronting changekillers in work and life; Reciprocity?Coaching in harmony;Resilience?Coaching through pain; Relationship?Nurturing thepersonal elements of coaching; Resonance?Coaching with emotionalintelligence; Renewal?Creating energy, meaning, and freedom tosustain the Journey.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Figures

Table of Exhibits

Dedication

PREFACE

The Coaching Jungle

How Renewal Coaching Works

Acknowledgements

THE AUTHORS

PART ONE - Before You BeginRenewal Coaching

Chapter 1 - From Resistance to Renewal

Renewal Coaching Defined

What Is Renewal Coaching?

Why Traditional Coaching EffortsAre Not Enough

A Better Way: Sustained ChangeThrough Renewal

Chapter 2 - The Renewal Coaching Framework

Recognition—Finding Patterns of Toxicity and Renewal

Reality—Confronting Change Killers in Work and Life

Reciprocity—Coaching in Harmony

Resilience—Coaching Through Pain

Resonance—Coaching withEmotional Intelligence

Relationship—Nurturing thePersonal Elements of Coaching

Renewal—Creating Energy, Meaning,and Freedom to Sustain the Journey

Your Personal Journey TowardRenewal Coaching

PART TWO - TheRenewal CoachingFramework

Chapter 3 - Recognition

Recognizing Patterns in Peopleand Organizations

Changing Patterns Before Changing People

Sweating the Small Stuff

Chapter 4 - Reality

Reality and Illusion: A False Dichotomy

Developing a Reality Orientation

Snakes, Wasps, and Mosquitoes

From Reality to Reciprocity

Chapter 5 - Reciprocity

What Is Reciprocity?

Assessing Reciprocity

Commitments

Learning in a SuccessfulCoaching Relationship

The Importance of Reciprocity

Challenging Preconceived Notions

From Reciprocity to Resilience

Chapter 6 - Resilience

Resilience and Renewal Coaching

From Resilience to Redemption

WHEN RESILIENCE IS ELUSIVE

From Resilience to Resonance

Chapter 7 - Resonance

What Is Resonance?

Assessing Resonance

A Resonance Experiment

How Does Resonance Fit into the Framework?

When Resonance Is a Challenge

From Resonance to Relationship

Chapter 8 - Relationship WHEN PROCESS IS PERSONAL

When Relationships Work

Assessing Relationship

Relationship and theRenewal Coaching Framework

Why Relationship Is Importantfor the Coach

Why Relationship Is Importantfor the Client

How Relationship Is Used in the Real World

What to Do When Relationships Are Stuck

From Relationship to Renewal

Chapter 9 - Renewal

What Is Renewal?

The Paradox of the Root of High Places

Assessing Renewal

Renewal as Part of the Framework

Why Is Renewal Important to the Client?

Why Is Renewal Important to the Coach?

When You Are Stuck Pursuing Renewal

Renewal Coaching as a Profession

PART THREE - The Professional Coach

Chapter 10 - The Renewal Coach

A Day in the Life of a Renewal Coach

Getting Ready for Renewal Coaching

Are You Ready for Renewal?

Are You Ready to Coach?

The Renewal Coaching Framework in Action

Coaching and Consulting:What’s the Difference?

Feedback from the Coach

Coaching Resources

Coaching Goals

Chapter 11 - The Profession of Coaching

Defining Your Services

Marketing Without Selling

Conference Marketing:From Breakout to Keynote

Chapter 12 - The Businessof CoachingPASSION AND BUSINESS

CASH FLOW

BETTER FREE THAN CHEAP: DEALING WITH CLIENT DEMANDS FOR DISCOUNTS

THE “CROWDING-OUT” PHENOMENON: HELPING CLIENTS ALLOCATE RESOURCES

GETTING PAID: IN FULL AND ON TIME

HANDLING DISAGREEMENTS

Building an Organization

REFERENCES

INDEX

Table of Figures

Figure 1.1 Two-Dimensional Coaching

Figure 1.2 Multidimensional Coaching

Figure 1.3 Three Paths Toward Renewal

Figure 3.1 Happiness and Renewal Matrix

Figure 12.1 Cash Flow Realities in a Successful and Growing Business

Table of Exhibits

Exhibit 3.1 Role Responses to the Statement, “Loyalty Should Be Rewarded”

Exhibit 10.1 Sample Coaching Agreement

Exhibit 10.2 Renewal Coaching Journal

Exhibit 10.3 Coaching Goals

Exhibit 12.1 Matching Client Needs to Your Strengths

Copyright © 2009 by Douglas B. Reeves and Elle Allison. All rights reserved.

Published by Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741—www.josseybass.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax [phone], or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax [phone], or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or sources for further information may have changed or disappeared between the time this was written and when it is read.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986, or fax [phone].

Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-47101-2

1. Organizational change. 2. Employees—Coaching of. 3. Personal coaching. 4. Change (Psychology) I. Allison, Elle, 1960- II. Title.

HD58.8.R.3’124—dc22 2008050157

To BrooksD.R.

To my sistersE.A.

PREFACE

IF YOU WANT to influence people and organizations, you have two choices: commanding or coaching. If your objective is to evacuate a building on fire, then commands work quite well. But if you want to help individuals, teams, and complex organizations create and sustain change, then you need Renewal Coaching. We begin with a blunt question: Why is sustainable change so damn hard? Certainly it is not for lack of books on the subject; a search of “change” on Amazon.com reveals 762,680 books on the topic for sale. Certainly it is not for lack of evidence on the value of change. You know that we should be more humane, healthy, and wise and that failure to engage in sustainable change can be deadly for individuals and organizations. But if a combination of evidence and dread were an effective prescription, then most of the three-quarters of a million titles about change would evaporate.

What makes Renewal Coaching different? Change literature is largely focused on three goals: satisfaction, efficiency, and effectiveness. Those are worthy goals to sustain change, but they are insufficient. Ultimately the responses to questions such as, “What’s in it for me?” and “How can I be more productive?” are equivalent to the instructions for evacuating the building on fire. The advice can be useful and even lifesaving, but it does not create sustainable change.

The Coaching Jungle

The array of coaching alternatives available is bewildering: executive coaching, life coaching, personal coaching, leadership coaching, behavioral coaching, spiritual coaches, career coaches, parenting coaches, and relationship coaches, along with a variety of discipline-specific coaching programs, such as those in finance, engineering, education, and nearly every other profession. Just as varied are the alternative approaches to coaching, where the role of the coach ranges from consultant to therapist to mentor. In addition, virtually all managers and leaders in business, government, education, and nonprofit organizations seek to provide coaching to colleagues, subordinates, and teams.

Renewal Coaching does not replace these perspectives; rather, it adds value to them. If you are already a coach or a leader who uses a coaching perspective, then this framework will help sustain the impact of your efforts. If you are a member of an organization that is enduring “initiative fatigue” as a result of one change effort after another, this framework will help focus your energy. If you are a person who has started change efforts but have not been able to continue them over the long term, this framework will help you gain the insight, endurance, and moral purpose to continue your individual journey.

How Renewal Coaching Works

This book is interactive, and you are the author of your renewal, not merely the reader of information about renewal. Facts and fear, the components of traditional change prescriptions, will not sustain change. You need insight, not just facts. You need a source of meaning beyond fear that is associated with the failure to change. Renewal Coaching provides a series of personal assessments that will guide individuals and teams through the seven stages of renewal. Each assessment includes both survey and narrative responses, and you can use the pages in the text or convenient online formats to respond.

The Renewal Coaching framework has seven elements:

1. Recognition—Finding patterns of toxicity and renewal

2. Reality—Confronting change killers in work and life

3. Reciprocity—Coaching in harmony

4. Resilience—Coaching through pain

5. Resonance—Coaching with emotional intelligence

6. Relationship—Nurturing the personal elements of coaching

7. Renewal—Creating energy, meaning, and freedom to sustain the journey

Renewal is the last part of the framework, but it is not a destination anymore than being healthy and happy are destinations. “Life is difficult,” wrote M. Scott Peck (1985, p. 1), in one of the most understated theses in literature. He might have added that life within organizations is exceptionally difficult and occasionally brutal. Therefore, the framework in these pages, along with the assessments and reflections, represent a career-long, indeed a lifelong, way of thinking about change that at last extends beyond facts and fear.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

From Doug: Words are powerful instruments except when their task is to offer appreciation to those to whom it is owed. Therefore I offer only the briefest of thanks with the confidence that the heart speaks when the pen fails. Lesley Iura, executive editor at Jossey-Bass, was instrumental in bringing the research and ideas of this book to a wider audience. Literary agent Esmond Harmsworth is a model coach, blending patience with challenge. My colleagues at the Leadership and Learning Center are a continuing source of inspiration and innovation. Cathy Shulkin must have edited more than a million of my words over the past seven years, and it is to her credit that only a few thousand of them made it to the printed page. Robin Hoey also assisted in the preparation of the manuscript and has made life in the office much easier than it would otherwise have been. I also appreciate the keen eye and careful editing of Susan Geraghty and Bev Miller. Elle Allison is not only an inspiring colleague but a true friend, willing to challenge me when others will not. My observations of her coaching practices formed the genesis of this book.

Brooks, to whom this book is dedicated, reminds me that writing is a passion as well as a craft. I knew that he was a smart and funny writer long before his work was reviewed in the New York Times, though it helps to have parental wisdom inscribed in the newspaper of record. He has played with words since he was a child, and I hope that he will continue to find pure enjoyment in writing.

FROM ELLE: I offer gratitude first to the coaches, clients, and the wise people I have worked with and interviewed. They taught me the most valuable lessons that appear in this book.

I am particularly grateful to Paul Axtell, who introduced me to coaching many years ago when I was a novice leader. To this day, Paul is the role model I conjure up in my head and strive to emulate in my work as a coach and as a trainer of coaches.

My friends and mentors Rob and Kathy Bocchino were also instrumental to my early development as a leader and coach. I feel fortunate to have been touched so early in my career by their gentle brand of supporting adults during times of change.

I owe a special debt of gratitude to Patsy Boverie of the University of New Mexico, who as my professor always treated me as a colleague and as my friend always encouraged me.

Words alone cannot thank Cathy Shulkin enough for her editing and coordination of this book and the million and one details that needed attention. Cathy is a role model for resonance. Her optimism, kindness, and equanimity when facing deadlines (even while planning her daughter’s wedding) is contagious.

I am most fortunate that our literary agent, Esmond Harmsworth, and our editor, Lesley Iura, and the entire team at Jossey-Bass believe that what we have to say in this book is important enough to share. How lucky I am to be included in this opportunity with Doug.

While writing this book and living in Washington, D.C., my sister Joanne, her husband, Bill LaPlante, and my nieces Claire and Caroline integrated me into their family life and provided me with extraordinary support and comfort at a time in my life when I desperately needed it. They cooked more dinners for me than I can count and Joanne met me for lunch at fabulous D.C. restaurants nearly every week. My sisters, Mary, Joanne, Maureen, Beth, and Carrie, mean the world to me and I am so thankful they are my family.

Also in D.C., my sister Carrie and her partner Sarah cared for my dog, Ole’, whenever I had to travel. They gave both of us shelter far beyond the amenities of their guest room. For years, my friend Barbara in New Mexico has done the same and Ole’ sees her as his second mom.

I am blessed with the best of friends who sustain me with their fierce and unconditional love. Over many years, Barbara Jennings, Nancy Ovis, Cindy Pence, and Bette Frasier, have celebrated everything good in my life, including the writing of this book.

Yes, I am grateful to my amazing dog, Ole’, who is one of the kindest people I know, not to mention the best listener.

Most of all, I acknowledge Doug who both inspires me and accepts me. He moves hearts and makes this world a better place.

THE AUTHORS

DOUGLAS B. REEVES is the author of more than twenty books and fifty articles on leadership and organizational effectiveness. An internationally recognized expert in leadership, he was twice named to the Harvard Distinguished Authors Series and was recently named the Brock International Laureate for his pioneering research. His work appears in national journals, magazines, and newspapers and has been translated into six languages. Through his affiliations with ChangeLeaders.com and the Leadership and Learning Center, he delivers more than eighty keynote addresses annually around the globe to audiences in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

ELLE ALLISON has worked with clients in health care, business, education, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. She is the founder of Wisdom Out, an organization that shares the strategies used by wise people, couples, and organizations to face whatever challenges come their way (www.wisdomout.com). Since 2000 she has conducted countless interviews of people who were identified as being wise by someone who knows them. What these Wisdom Makers have to say will be published in the forthcoming books, What Wise People Do and What Wise Couples Do. Elle designed the Leadership Performance Coaching seminar offered through the Leadership and Learning Center and has authored several articles about wisdom, coaching, and leadership. She is a member of the National Speakers Association and through her affiliations with Wisdom Out, ChangeLeaders.com, and the Leadership and Learning Center, she reaches a diverse audience by delivering engaging and informative keynote addresses and seminars on Renewal Coaching, wisdom, and leadership.

PART ONE

Before You BeginRenewal Coaching

1

From Resistance to Renewal

Miriam and José are vice presidents of Scanlogix.1 Miriam, the sales leader, and José, the operations chief, lead teams that are efficient and effective. Their colleagues do their work accurately and on time, and they generally focus their efforts on tasks related to achieving the immediate goals of Scanlogix.

A year ago, there was a palpable loss of energy in the team. The usual reports were produced on time and accurately, but they were devoid of insight and analysis. Team members seemed tired even at the beginning of the workday. And although Miriam and José had received substantial bonuses, they were anything but motivated. The moment their bonuses had been spent, they approached the parking lot each morning with a sense of boredom.

The same scene is repeated in organizations around the world: the nonprofit organization in New York, the professional practice in San Francisco, the school in Kansas City, the entrepreneur in Salem, and the government office in Toronto. Hard-working and intelligent leaders have been seduced by the myth of efficiency: if they work hard and smart, rewards, motivation, and energy will follow. But as Miriam and José know well, this equation is deeply flawed. Yesterday’s reward is today’s entitlement; last year’s outstanding effort is this year’s expectation. Our most effective leaders are thus sucked into a vortex of meaninglessness and powerlessness. If they had to answer the question, “Why do you show up to work every day?” the best response they could provide is a feeble, “More.” More money, more stuff, more bills, more accolades from the boss, and looking good for their thirtieth high school reunion.

Renewal Coaching asks, “Is this enough?” If your answer is yes, then you will be satisfied by the endless pursuit of efficiency and the infinite pursuit of more. Miriam and José, however, decided that the answer to the question was no. With the help of their Renewal Coaches, they started to ask profound questions about their careers—indeed, the most profound questions of their lives. The first time that José asked his team, “Why does your work matter?” his colleagues thought that he had gone off the deep end. They were stunned when he was unwilling to accept another report that ended in meeting preordained goals. “I didn’t ask if you met the goal,” José calmly said. “I asked, ‘Why does your work matter?’”

The resistance that Miriam met when she asked her team, “How will we respond if our division is closed next month because of international economic conditions?” bordered on belligerence. Miriam had been trained to be a positive thinker, and her team had been nurtured on a steady diet of her cheery optimism. This was the first time they had been challenged to consider the impact of failure, defeat, and loss. Their group commitment to the power of positive thinking implied that if loss happened, it was permanent. Loss means death, and the hole created by loss was a descent into the abyss from which no one ever emerged. Some of Miriam’s team members had experienced personal and professional loss, and they were uncomfortable with the topic.

When Miriam asked, “How will we respond to loss?” the group’s emotional response was that loss was an unspeakable subject. They became suspicious, asking, “What do you know? Is our department going to be eliminated? Why didn’t you tell us? Are we going to lose our jobs and our homes?” Miriam replied with assurance, “There is no threat to your jobs, and our performance has been fine. In fact, it’s been great. But we must be able to have a rational conversation about resilience—how we can bounce back from loss and defeat. If we can’t have that conversation now, we won’t be prepared for it when times are tough. We need to ask now, not later, how we find meaning in our jobs and in our lives from sources that are beyond our current goals.” This was unusual talk indeed from someone who was known as a bottom-line manager, and the team was not sure how to respond.

The defining moment for these teams came from neither a corporate crisis nor an economic calamity. Miriam’s executive assistant, Malcolm, normally the rock of the organization who was known for coming to the office no matter how sick he was, missed several days in a row. Within a few days, the entire organization knew the reason: Malcolm had pancreatic cancer. He was willing to try chemo and radiation, but everyone knew the score, and Malcolm was way behind.

A new sense of purpose soon emerged, with self-organized teams taking food to Malcolm’s home every day. José and some friends in and outside the firm pitched in to repair Malcolm’s roof before winter set in. Miriam’s colleagues took Malcolm’s mother to the Metropolitan Opera, a lifelong dream and something she had hoped to do with Malcolm.

José and Miriam marveled that they had never seen such motivation, initiative, efficiency, and caring in the pursuit of corporate goals. Their teams had certainly been successful, but they had never been superlative. Why were they so much more effective now? The only answer, Miriam and José concluded, lay with Malcolm.

As experienced leaders, they had seen glimpses of extraordinary performance in the past. But this was the first time that they put the pieces together. Exceptional commitment is not produced by the pursuit of a 2 percent gain in return on equity or any other ephemeral objective. Rather, Malcolm’s tragedy represented the opportunity for team members to pursue the greater good, an objective that promises no return—no bonus, no reward, no commendation, no recognition. The greater good offers nothing except redemption and renewal.

We don’t know the end of the story. Malcolm still has cancer, and Miriam and José still have corporate goals to meet. But the team members and their leaders have been transformed. They no longer shuffle into work counting the seven hours and fifty-nine minutes before they can shuffle out. They no longer waste energy and time in watercooler politics. They no longer invest emotion, energy, and time in complaints that could be devoted to their commitment to today’s greater good. They spend their coffee breaks checking in on Malcolm’s mom; they donate their accumulated leave so that Malcolm stays eligible for the company health care plan; they e-mail stupid jokes to Malcolm’s kids. And yes, they achieve—even beat—their corporate goals. After all, if they don’t achieve their goals, they won’t be there for Malcolm and his family.

Miriam and José may not be exceptional leaders, but they are extraordinary with regard to the transformation that they made from efficiency to renewal. Along with their team members, they gained a new perspective, forsaking efficiency for renewal. They know that disappointment can be far deeper than missing a quarterly objective. Real resilience is the ability to bounce back from any defeat, any disappointment, any tragedy.

The story of Miriam and José is repeated in a thousand variations every day: the company threatened with takeover, the development of a disruptive technology that can destroy an industry, the school threatened with state takeover, organizations overwhelmed by the departure and arrival of leaders, market changes rendering obsolete today’s products and services, and the loss of loved ones, friends, and colleagues. Disruption is not always in the form of a fast-moving cancer, but disruption is certain in every enterprise. Every sentient leader knows, deep down, that efficiency and effectiveness are insufficient allies in a world overwhelmed by the clouds of change, fear, and loss. The answer is not, as the popular press would have it, to become faster, better, and cheaper. The answer is not efficiency and effectiveness. The answer is neither power nor strength in conventional terms. The answer is renewal.

Renewal Coaching Defined

Are you really ready to change? This is the essential question that coaches and clients must face before they begin the challenges of Renewal Coaching. Renewal Coaching is a framework for helping people and organizations achieve sustainable change in pursuit of the greater good. It is equally important to identify what Renewal Coaching is not. It is not another tired formula to improve efficiency. It is not a consulting equation to solve productivity problems. It is not a strategy to promote comfort and self-satisfaction. It is certainly not a pabulum for promoting complacency with the present state of affairs. At its core, Renewal Coaching is about doing important work, work that has meaning beyond quarterly objectives and performance goals. In contrast to the transient impact of management tricks and illusions, Renewal Coaching provides enduring and sustainable change precisely because it anticipates disappointment and loss. Renewal never happens in the fairytale land of unending success and uninterrupted happiness. Renewal is inextricably linked with resilience, and resilience is inevitably the result of loss. Research suggests that for most people, enthusiasm for change far outstrips action. Even when the case for change is clear and compelling, powerful emotional and psychological forces stand against change. Deutschman (2007) recounts the stunning findings of medical research that reveals that even when patients are facing a death sentence if they fail to change—the consequences for heart surgery patients who continue to smoke and overeat—the odds against change are staggering. Kotter (1996, 2007) demonstrates that organizations are no better than individuals when it comes to adapting to essential changes, and he estimates that more than 70 percent of organizational change initiatives fail.

Renewal Coaching has a uniquely transformative impact on individuals and organizations. Whereas current coaching frameworks focus on individual and organizational performance, the multidimensional perspective of Renewal Coaching provides the optimum intersection of individual performance, organizational performance, resilience, renewal, and a focus on the greater good. This is not naïve idealism, but rather a critical component of sustaining effective change. While short-term pressures, threats, and rewards can sometimes create a sense of urgency for initiating a change initiative, these motivators are never enough to sustain those initiatives. This is why organizations abandon the vast majority of even their most successful change initiatives. Ultimately the rewards and punishments associated with achieving short-term objectives are insufficient to sustain change. Therefore, even currently popular coaching frameworks that appear to be effective in the short run are not sustainable unless coaches apply the principles of Renewal Coaching.

Ultimately the rewards and punishments associated with achieving short-term objectives are not sufficient to sustain change.

What Is Renewal Coaching?

Renewal Coaching is an approach to personal and professional development that develops the individual and the organization in service of the greater good. The results of Renewal Coaching include sustained personal and organizational energy to create and implement change that transcends the vision of leaders and teams. Organizations do not engage people with the rallying cry, “Let’s give our all for the organization!” and they do not fire the imagination with goals for quarterly revenues and profits in business or professional practice, test scores in schools, or grants received in a nonprofit organization. These achievements are certainly important—indeed necessary—for organizations, but they do not alone create renewal. We must ask the essential question of Renewal Coaching: What can we create together that matters for all of us and for the world? This is not hyperbole but a multigenerational imperative. Millennial generation members who entered the workforce in the twenty-first century expect employers to have a commitment to the planet, and their colleagues who are twice their age are reconsidering the narcissism of an earlier era and asking if there isn’t more to meaning than the balance in their pension fund.

Perhaps the aspiration to change the world and create a greater good seems far-fetched to the reader who thinks, “That’s a fine idea in theory, but I have immediate needs right now. My team needs to improve its performance, and I need to improve my leadership skills. We need results, not platitudes.” Fair enough. Let us consider the results of one organization that unabashedly reaches for the stars.

Google was recently named the most innovative company in the world by Fast Company, the leading journal of innovation for twenty-first-century organizations (Salter, 2008). How has this exceptional organization maintained its success as it has grown more than a thousand-fold in less than a decade? The answer is a common refrain from the engineers to the executives to the people in the kitchen: We want to change the world; anything less just isn’t very inspiring. Fast Company journalists are trained to smoke out hyperbole and on a regular basis skewer self-important business leaders whose slogans outpace their performance. But the deeper they dug into Google’s culture, the more they found a commitment to changing the world for the greater good.

Google’s commitment to idealism is entirely compatible with a commitment to delivering value for customers, shareholders, and employees. While many other technology companies have suffered financial setbacks and their stocks have been battered in the market, Google’s revenues, profits, and market value continue to be strong, despite the record economic challenges of 2008. The pace of Google innovations is measured in weeks, not years, and the company’s engineering teams deliver a dizzying array of new products every year. At the same time, the company’s commitment to philanthropy (the company-funded foundation has more than $1 billion in assets), environmental awareness (Google is a leader in carbon-neutral corporate responsibility), and organizational climate (benefits are exceptional and employees are permitted to work up to 20 percent of their time on self-selected projects, often related to the passion for service and justice shared by many employees). This commitment to the world beyond an individual, job, department, or organization is the essence of Renewal Coaching. Indeed, it is the distinction between traditional coaching models and the multidimensional approach in this book.

Paul Hawken (2007) has documented the power of renewal for large and small organizations, profit and nonprofit, throughout the world. In addition to reaching their revenue objectives, they are committed to social justice and environmental restoration. Without hierarchy, mandates, or manipulation, these organizations have employed the power of networks to make changes that are meaningful, large in scope, and unusually rapid. Our own experience with the power of renewal includes a dizzying variety of people, from stonemasons to shoe salesmen, from CEOs to teachers, from scientists to frontline managers. In the following pages, you will meet some of these people whose commitment to renewal for the greater good demonstrates that the power of these ideas transcends occupations, industries, and national borders.

ESSENTIALS OF RENEWAL COACHING

Renewal Coaching takes place within a framework of seven essential elements:

Recognition—Finding patterns of toxicity and renewal

Reality—Confronting change killers in work and life

Reciprocity—Coaching in harmony

Resilience—Coaching through pain

Relationship—Nurturing the personal elements of coaching

Resonance—Coaching with emotional intelligence

Renewal—Creating energy, meaning, and freedom to sustain the journey

Although these elements are not necessarily sequential, they are mutually reinforcing, and therefore are all essential to achieve the full value of renewal.

When individuals and organizations commit to this framework, they find that while typical management and leadership strategies drive performance, Renewal Coaching and a focus on the greater good draw performance. The difference is profound, particularly when organizations face challenging times. Performance-driven cultures can be sustained by bonuses, recognition, and what psychologists call extrinsic motivation (Slavin, 2006). But in a Renewal Coaching organization, performance is drawn not with short-term rewards, but with the bone-deep conviction that our work matters far beyond the achievement of quarterly objectives. On the surface, this may seem to be a moral or philosophical distinction that organizations can ill afford when the competitive environment demands high performance. But in a startlingly counterintuitive synthesis of the evidence, Kohn (1993, 1999, 2005) concluded that the typical punishment and reward system so revered by Western culture simply does not work. In fact, it is counterproductive. When people become habituated to rewards, both economic and verbal, they are incapable of sustaining the work simply because it is valuable work.

Envision a continuum from narcissism at one extreme to monastic self-denial at the other. One extreme asks only, “What’s in it for me?” The other extreme diminishes the individual to the point of self-sacrifice. Renewal Coaching rejects both extremes as it challenges people to seek an ultimate source of energy that is beyond rewards, recognition, and punishment, but also does not demand self-sacrifice, which by definition is not renewable. Renewal Coaching is the golden mean in which great work is sustained by neither self-defeating rewards nor self-limiting sacrifice, but by the energy associated with a thoughtful commitment that includes relationships and resonance, essential elements of the Renewal Coaching framework.

A FRAMEWORK, NOT A MENU

We caution that these components are not a menu from which readers can choose (“I’ll take some of the renewal, please, and a couple of relationships”). As researchers, we understand the value of equivocation and necessity of caution in expressing conclusions. Nevertheless, the evidence is clear on three key points. First, every change requires dissonance. This is what Mezirow (2000) calls the disorienting dilemma. Without dissonance, either the change was an illusion in the first place, or it was so insignificant that it lacked impact. That change requires dissonance is a universal law. Second, sustainable individual and organizational change requires renewal, the energy to complete the journey. In the short term, we can perform tasks, from losing weight to running a marathon, from improving organizational efficiency to implementing better-quality controls. But even effective change efforts fade over time without renewal. Third, renewal requires the previous six components of the framework: recognition, reality, reciprocity, resilience, relationship, and resonance. Without recognition, we lack the understanding of what must change. Without reality, we fail to acknowledge the difference between the ideal and real states of performance. Without reciprocity, we fail to share experiences and vulnerability. Change is an isolating and lonely experience, and without reciprocity, the isolation can cripple personal motivational and organizational momentum. Without resilience, the pain of change will become immobilizing. Without relationships, the interpersonal support essential to sustainability will evaporate. And without resonance, the void of empathy and other critical emotional intelligence characteristics will undermine even the most determined coach, client, and organization.

Why Traditional Coaching EffortsAre Not Enough

There are four prevailing models of coaching, displayed in Figure 1.1. Coaching models on the horizontal axis are divided between those that focus on personal and organizational performance; on the vertical axis, they are divided between the models that focus on therapeutic and performance objectives. By “therapeutic,” we do not mean to imply a formal medical or psychiatric intervention, but rather the nuance of a phrase in the American Heritage Dictionary definition of psychotherapy, which notes that the goal of the practice includes “changes in behavior leading to improved social and vocational functioning, and personality growth.” The application of these two axes yields a matrix that describes the four prevailing systems of coaching. The personal therapeutic model, in the lower left-hand column, is widely practiced by leading executive coaches. At its best, world-class coaches such as Marshall Goldsmith (Goldsmith & Reiter, 2007) focus on improving the behavior of individuals, with a typical emphasis on improved interpersonal skills, leadership, time management, and individual behaviors associated with improved effectiveness.

PERSONAL THERAPEUTIC COACHING

Far less effective are practitioners of personal therapeutic coaching, described by Barry Conchie of the Gallup Organization (2007), who notes that “a cadre of well-intentioned coaches peddles their wares in a ‘feel-good’ market that caters to the upper echelons of corporate America. The problem is, the results just might not make a difference for the leaders’ businesses. The contrast between a ‘feelgood’ approach and one that is candid, objective, and incisive, is stark. As executives search to address their vulnerabilities by seeking out an independent voice, feel-good feedback can give them a nice emotional boost, but the results may leave them wondering whether it was worth it. For some, feeling good becomes synonymous with feeling comfortable” (p. 193). Conchie’s critique is joined by Sherman and Freas (2004), who observe that at its worst, coaching can be a poor substitute for therapy, delaying psychological treatment that some depressed and anxious executives sorely need.

Figure 1.1Two-Dimensional Coaching

PERSONAL PERFORMANCE COACHING

The second contemporary coaching framework, in the lower left-hand quadrant of Figure 1.1, is the personal performance framework, exemplified by models where clearly definable quantitative targets are present. Coaches who focus on improved performance in sales, physical performance, or other quantifiable goals exemplify the personal performance quadrant. Their appeal is undeniable because their purveyors can sometimes provide statistics that offer what buyers crave: short-term results. With a combination of rewards, punishments, incentives, embarrassments, celebrations, and humiliations, personal performance coaches can create change, at least for a while. Unfortunately, as Martha Beck (2007) reminds us, the research on the failure of most personal change initiatives is unequivocal: whether the desired performance is to stop smoking, lose weight, or increase the number of contacts made by salespeople, the record of long-term sustainability is a sorry one.

ORGANIZATIONAL THERAPEUTIC COACHING

The quadrant in the lower right-hand corner of Figure 1.1 represents the organizational therapeutic approach to coaching. When the objective is to encourage communication, reduce silos, or resolve conflicts, the organizational therapeutic approach can offer useful tools, including norms for meetings or signals designed to defuse potentially explosive situations. Coaching of this nature is particularly important when cultures clash, such as after a merger or acquisition or a change in senior leadership. If the stunningly low level of success of mergers and acquisitions is any indication, then cultural clashes overwhelm theoretical synergies almost every time. The same phenomenon occurs in the public sector, when changes in a majority of the boards of trustees of school systems and nonprofit organizations frequently lead to a change in executive leadership. Therefore, although organizational therapeutic coaching may help to address short-term conflict and communication, it frequently fails to address the underlying causes that led to the adversarial behavior in the first place.

ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE COACHING

The fourth and final traditional coaching framework, organizational performance, is in the upper-right-hand quadrant of Figure 1.1. Here the coaching claims extend to systemic change, a laudable, if rarely achieved, goal. John Kotter (2007) of the Harvard Business School, one of the world’s leading authorities on changes in organization, laments that more than two-thirds of change initiatives are never even implemented and an astonishing 90 percent are never implemented as designed. Summing up mountains of research on the organizational change around the world, Hargreaves and Fink (2006) begin their landmark work, Sustainable Leadership, with the contention that change is “easy to propose, hard to implement, and extraordinarily difficult to sustain” (p. 1). Even short-term success, they note, almost always turns into long-term disappointment because “while heroic leaders can achieve great things through investing vast amounts of their time and energy, as the years pass, this energy is rarely inexhaustible, and many of these leaders and the people who work for them ultimately burn out” (p. 2).

SUMMING UP TRADITIONAL COACHING

In sum, traditional coaching has been an insufficient remedy for the failures of individual and organizational change. Whether focused on salving the ego of an executive or focusing on legitimate performance needs of the individual and organization, the four existing coaching frameworks inevitably hit the nearly insurmountable obstacles of fatigue and ennui. Let us be clear: these obstacles are not the fault of a coach or a leader, but a natural part of the cycle of change. Practitioners within the four prevailing coaching models include coaches and clients who are sincere, honest, and competent. But they are rarely effective over the long term. Traditional coaching models are a victim of their own success, preferring the comfort that they create over the transformation to which they aspire. Only a coaching system that anticipates the need for renewal and works through the psychological and organizational barriers to sustained change will provide enduring results. Efficiency and effectiveness are necessary but insufficient qualities for sustainable change. At best, they lead to an extraordinary amount of intellectual and emotional energy, time, and resources devoted to the execution of initiatives that may not be sustainable because they lack the focus of Renewal Coaching, the Greater Good.

A Better Way: Sustained ChangeThrough Renewal

There is a better way, and that is the subject of this book. Although there is nothing wrong with the focus on traditional coaching modeled on personal and organizational performance, these therapeutic and organizational orientations are insufficient for sustainable change. Consider Figure 1.2. In the lower right-hand quadrant, we consider where many clients are today. They are already engaged in a number of effective coaching programs. They are better time managers and project managers, improved personnel managers, and they have a well-aligned series of strategies to support their organization’s mission and vision. They are no doubt working very hard, yet something is missing. The occupants of the boredom quadrant don’t have many complaints—they are meeting expectations and have engaged in a great deal of training. They are certainly better off than their counterparts who occupy the quadrant of despair. In the lower left-hand quadrant, we have the worst of all possible worlds, combining poor efficiency and effectiveness along with the pursuit of meaningless objectives. It is a toxic work environment in which people work aimlessly in pursuit of meaninglessness. It is the caricature on which comedy series, such as “The Office” and “Dilbert” are based. Of course, the reason that these comedies are successful is that they strike a responsive chord with so many people in the modern workplace. In the upper left-hand quadrant, frustration, we find a number of nonprofit organizations or the well-intentioned twenty-first century enterprise that aspires to be a value-driven company. Some of these companies have even put in their charitable goals and commitment to sustainable energy policies in their charters and bylaws, but when the reality of the demands for efficiency and effectiveness conflicted with idealism, the latter loses every time. You can’t contribute profits to worthy causes if you do not first earn those profits in the course of running an efficient and effective enterprise. You can’t sell virtue or market self-righteousness. People who dwell in the Frustration quadrant sometimes airily dismiss the traditional pursuit of efficiency and effectiveness. These are the people who like to give long-winded speeches about the difference between leadership (visitation and dynamic) and management (dreary and mundane), all the while failing to understand that they cannot be visionary leaders without effective management of people, time, and projects. The path to sustainability lies in the upper right-hand quadrant, renewal. These people and organizations can cast a vision toward the horizon while keeping their feet firmly on the ground. They are motivated by the greater good and they believe that their work has deep meaning for people and the planet. They also know that establishing objectives, meeting goals, organizing projects, and keeping commitments are all part of sustainability.

Figure 1.2Multidimensional Coaching

There are three paths toward renewal (see Figure 1.3). The first path illustrates the journey from boredom to renewal. This is the path frequently followed by clients who already have engaged in successful coaching. Their managerial skills are excellent and they are masters of people, time, and project management. They have a record of setting and achieving performance goals and are unquestionably effective and efficient executives. However, something is missing. Even when they achieve success and receive laudatory comments, there is something missing, a hole that is not filled by quantitative goals alone. In order to achieve sustainability, they must follow the path from efficiency and effectiveness toward renewal. Note well that this is not a rejection of the skills, knowledge, and capacities that led them to high levels of excellence. It is simply that, as unpopular a notion as it may be to say, excellence alone is not enough.

The second path is from despair to renewal. This is the most challenging and circuitous journey, because those who are stuck in the quadrant of despair hardly know where to begin. They are overwhelmed on a daily basis for lack of the most basic time management abilities, and they lack a sense of meaning in their work. They might be working very hard, but they are working with futility, growing weary while not accomplishing very much. Even when they finish a task, they are unable to find meaning in the completed work. Although the second path appears to be linear, this is an oversimplification. As the arrows indicate, it may be necessary for those in the quadrant of despair to first improve basic time management skills. For those emotionally overwhelmed, it may be necessary first to find a greater sense of meaning in pursuit of the greater good. One thing is certain—each additional day in the quadrant of despair is a soul-killing way to live. The third path, from good intentions to meaningful action, is taken by those whose commitment to the greater good is undermined by their ability to transform noble intentions into actions and results. This path is the challenge for many volunteer organizations as well as those commercial enterprises that have become too internally focused. Organizations and people in the frustration quadrant are almost always caring, decent, and passionate people. But they soon learn that earnestness is no substitute for execution.

Figure 1.3Three Paths Toward Renewal

The goal of this chapter has not been to disparage traditional coaching models but rather to suggest that many coaching relationships, however effective they may be, can be reenergized by the Renewal Coaching framework. Coaches that have helped bring order out of chaos for individuals and organizations have performed enormously valuable services. They have helped organizations to clarify their vision, establish strategies, and create action plans to execute those strategies. Businesses and organizations of every stripe depend on these coaches. We suggest, however, that there is a second act to many of these coaching relationships, if only the coaches and clients are willing to acknowledge that their journey is not done. The telltale signs of boredom are warning signals that the changes the client has made are not sustainable without a new focus on the greater good that will lead the client toward renewal. Similarly, personal coaching relationships that have helped clients find meaning, hope, and value are of exceptional worth in giving the client the gift of hope. But hope without action is a prescription for frustration. Thus for these clients, the coaching relationship can be fruitfully extended by a greater emphasis on building capacity for effective effort. Each part of the Renewal Coaching framework will help coaches and clients move along one of these three paths toward renewal. In the next seven chapters, we will consider how each element of the framework can be used to help you on your journey.

Storber and Grant (2006) have marshaled impressive research from business, educational, nonprofit, medical, and governmental organizations. Using a combination of large-scale quantitative studies and detailed case studies, they come to the overwhelming conclusion that effective coaching not only provides measurable gains in interpersonal skills and executive efficiency and effectiveness for the coaching client but also delivers measurable results for the client’s organization. Efficiency and effectiveness alone, however, are not enough. What will sustain the coaching relationship over the long term are the added dimensions of resilience and the pursuit of the greater good, and it is the combination of these factors that will give power and meaning to every coaching relationship, whether it is long established or a new beginning.

The term coach