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Creating a deeper manager pool
Written by: Jason Hovet
Photo by: Luminum
Only a few years ago, coaching was
a word most often associated with sport. However, it is gradually
becoming another essential tool in corporate management development
kits. Companies are betting that, along with specially-tailored
development programs and even MBAs, this is the way to groom
- and hold onto - future and present-day managers.
IT'S NO SECRET that top companies have made management education
and development a top priority of HR departments over the past five
years. To retain the best, major businesses have created - with the
help of external firms - an arsenal of development options for top
managers - both current and upcoming. Whether training comes through
specially-designed group seminars or one-on-one coaching or even
MBA coursework, the common feature is now individuality. Although
training is becoming more individualized, "it doesn't mean it's
only one-on-one," says Iva Pondělíková, who helped found CNP
Consulting 12 years ago. "You also have to know how to meet
the needs of the group."
Her firm recently began a development center for Czech Airlines (ČSA)
called Leadership Academy. "This two-year program was created
mainly for the education of managers," says ČSA spokesperson
Jitka Novotná, adding it uses a variety of study models: from classic
seminars to solving case studies or applying theory to practice.
CNP designed the program to help boost ČSA's development tools, which
were admittingly weak in the past. Currently there are about 10 participants
from upper-management who attend five yearly modules, lasting two
days each. The program is combined with coaching, helping to put
what is learned into practice. "In this part of the course,
managers expand their knowledge of the principles of working with
people or they learn how to handle job performance crises," Novotná
adds.
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Iva Pondělíková |
ČSA's work is just one example of the emphasis major firms are putting
on development and, in effect, on employee retention as well. In
Pondělíková's time on the market, the biggest change has been companies
starting to "understand development has real meaning and is
a time investment." Others agree and management training firms
now offer a wide portfolio of courses and are quick to tune this
to local demand. One such example is an Anticipatory and Adaptive
Management course offered by Dynargie, which company partner Joel
H. Cooper says is designed for emerging markets. The basic concept
behind the training is to not only enable managers to anticipate
risks involved with any endeavour, but also help them to make a plan
that can be more easily adapted to any of these risks - anticipated
or not. "You can't anticipate everything," says Cooper,
who has worked in management training and consulting for 16 years,
including nearly the last six in Prague. He adds, "You shouldn't
start an action unless you have an adaptive plan."
Walking the talk
Project planning and management courses have been one of the most
requested services from firms, say management consultants. Barbora
Chlaňová, an HR Business Partner at Unilever, points to these
skills as being one of the most important today. "Project
management furthers the ability to work cross-functionally," she
says. Unilever, which uses several external firms for training,
relies on Expertis Praha for project planning. "Programs
are often a combination of training and consulting," says
Lenka Papadakisová, director of Expertis. "Usually there
is in-depth analysis of the level of project management in the
particular firm and then mainly implementation training."
Over the past year, Expertis has cooperated with about 20 clients
in this area and has seen several hundred participants in its courses.
Like in other training groups, though, a focus remains on the individual
and helping them apply the teachings to work. "It's quite
productive to use coaching [in project management]," Papadakisová
advises.
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Lenka Papadakisová |
In management training, coaching is slowly, but surely, becoming
a common feature. This shows a marked difference to the situation
just three years ago. Pondělíková, who is also a member of the
Česká asociace koučů (ČAKO), remembers a conference on coaching
held then. "We found out that the market didn't understand
what coaching was," she says. This may still be a problem
today. According to Radvan Bahbouh of Qed & Quod, another firm
offering corporate development services, Because of increased demand
for coaching in the past few years, "many reacted by offering
coaching services without using people educated enough in this
area." For this reason, the appeal of coaching hasn't reached
everyone. "It's growing, but not very fast," says Eva
Jedličková, a coach with Contour Consulting. She adds that while
the use of the word is now more common, which is a good sign, "it's
still seen mainly as an 'exclusive' service."
Not surprisingly, coaching is most prevalent in multinational companies,
where it continues to grow in use most rapidly. Unfortunately for
some coaching providers, this means more competition - especially
from an unlikely source: clients. "I think field assistancy
is the method that's growing more," says Martina Čapounová,
the training department manager at Česká spořitelna. "It's
coaching on the job with everyday feedback." Field assistancy
is basically using another manager to act as a coach, and its use
is quite popular with other companies. "Internal coaches,
especially anager/coaches, have various advantages in comparison
with external ones," says ČSOB spokesperson Pavel Hejzlar,
pointing to a deeper understanding of work aims, processes and
problems; or a better knowledge of the coachee's personality and
authority as a few examples.
A different perspective
Still, ČS and ČSOB don't shun external coaches, and Hejzlar willingly admits
there are disadvantages to having only an internal coach. For instance, he
says, discussions around employee problems "are not so free and open" as
with an external coach. Dynargie's Cooper also acknowledges this, stressing
the most important part of coaching is building trust,
as well as removing the coachee from the work atmosphere to make things clearer. "I
prefer to meet in a neutral place," he says, adding an external coach
from outside the system can help give a new perspective on issues.
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Radvan Bahbouh |
Coaching, however, can be very hands on. "We have several reasons for
[using coaching]," Hejzlar says, naming leadership practice as the first. "The
second reason is an effort to help employees implement new working procedures
and products" that can be problematic. Based on early results, Hejzlar
thinks coaching is a continuing trend. At ČS, Capounová agrees that coaching
shows fast and effective improvement in management, however she also points
out the drain it can be on resources: both time and money.
Indeed, depending on the coachee's demands and stature, coaching can reach
upward of CZK 15,000 for an hour session. However, in most cases, costs run
between CZK 3,000 and CZK 5,000 an hour, with sessions typically lasting 90
minutes to two hours. While it can be expensive, providers agree that the value
is there. To prove it, some, like Contour's Jedličková, even offer a trial
session. "Sometimes managers think someone who isn't an expert in their
field can help," she explains. Cooper also recommends firms have a system
in place to support coaching in order to truly take full advantage of the service.
As far as who's benefitting from coaching, Cooper sees two types of clients
most often. The first are higher-level managers who want to grow or change.
For instance, they may have "found an external perception that doesn't
match their self-perception," according to Cooper. "They're not happy
about something and don't have an understanding of it," he adds. The second
type are young top performers in their late 20s or early 30s who are provided
with coaching by the firm. "[The company] wants to hold on to these employees
[and] uses coaching as a motivating tool," Cooper says. And if companies
are betting right, these top performers could be moving quite smoothly into
top management roles in years to come.
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MBAs - never out of style
The MBA - the classic manager's tool - has come a long way here
since first appearing on the market in 1990.
About 10 years ago, there were only 100-200 MBA students studying here;
today, well over a thousand students study either full- or part-time
for a Masters of Business Administration. While a good number of these
students are foreigners coming to the Czech Republic for cheaper costs,
the vast majority of students are Czech managers.
At Brno International Business School (BIBS), which reported 249 MBA
students during its 2003/2004 school year, making it the largest provider
in the country, there has been an increasing interest from applicants.
According to Miloslav Keřkovský, director of MBA studies, about half
the students at BIBS are funded by their company, with the rest paying
there own way. (A two-and-a-half year program runs about CZK 250,000).
He says the student body varies from managers at both large and small
manufacturing firms and service providers, as well as hospital, banking
or insurance managers and lawyers or consultants. "The spectrum
of participants in our MBA program is very wide," Keřko-vský says.
At ČSOB "an MBA is a part of our management training," says
spokesman Pavel Hejzlar, with the bank picking up school fees and providing
free study time. As expected, though, the chance to study for an MBA
is very selective. "The majority of our MBA applicants are participants
or graduates of our training and development programs for high-potential
employees," Hejzlar notes, adding that MBA graduates sit in most
high-level management positions. "An MBA program gives them a lot
of valuable knowledge and skills, as well as self-confidence," he
says.
Despite the wide array of student backgrounds, most MBA providers (who
are all teamed with foreign universities, as Czech schools cannot provide
MBA titles because the degree isn't recognized in the Czech University
Law) offer a general MBA course, although several schools have started
offering specialized degrees in everything from IT or logistics to agriculture,
law or healthcare. That doesn't mean the focus of an MBA hasn't shifted
over the years. "The coursework has changed from more or less theoretical
studies to more practical applications," explains marketing director
Tatiana Boráková, from the Czech Management Institute Praha (ESMA), which
has ties to the Spain-based Escuela Superior de Marketing y Administración
Barcelona. Boráková adds that studies now concentrate primarily on putting "theoretical
knowledge into practice."
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A trustworthy contact
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Joel H. Cooper |
As coaching is a one-on-one relationship, there are
a number of trust factors involved.
Especially today when handfuls of firms provide some "coaching" services,
firms must be very careful in picking a coach. "Firms
really do background work [when choosing a coach]," says
Dynargie partner Joel H. Cooper. "It's a reflection on
the HR department if a coach isn't successful," he adds.
Most coaching relationships develop from old contacts or references. "At
the beginning, trust is more dependent on references," notes
Radvan Bahbouh, a director with Qed & Quod. Dynargie's
Cooper, whose client list is 95% made up of past coachees or
referrals, adds, "If firms are skeptical, you'll never
get a face-to-face meeting." Similarly, not all references
may be positive, a side effect of poor services from dozens
of untrained firms and coaches. "Only in cases where poor-quality
services were provided in the past can we detect skepticism," Bahbouh
says.
Still, a highly-qualified coach doesn't necessarily equate
success. "Even if you are a skillful coach, it doesn't
work if you don't match your client," claims Eva Jedličková,
a coach with Contour Consulting. Bahbouh seconds this, saying "the
most convincing CV and list of achievements won't substitute
for personal contact." Once a personal contact is made,
ground rules are important to establish - especially in cases
where a firm provides a coach for an employee, making the coach
responsible to both parties. From there, coaches must help
coachees gain an accurate self-awareness by finding out their
values, what motivates them, and what their goals are. "To
develop trust, I'm being a facilitator," Cooper explains.
All the while, coaches must behave openly, sincerely, and,
above all, consistently.
It's a lot of work to do in only six months to a year - the
time when most coaches agree it is necessary to sever the association. "It's
unethical to establish a long-term relationship," Jedličková
says, adding that a coach's job is to "enable clients
to solve things on their own."
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Organized coaching
A good sign of a growing service is when an organization
appears to promote it. In coaching's case, it's gotten two:
the Czech Asso-ciation of Coaches (ČAKO), started three years
ago, and a Prague chapter of the International Coach Federation
(ICF), active since March 2005.
Contour Consulting's Eva Jedličková, who isn't a member of
either group, welcomes the new organizations' effort, saying
there needs to be "more promotion of what coaching is." ČAKO
found this early on at one of its first conferences, where
many didn't understand coaching. "We found [at that time]
we were working too fast for the market," says Iva Pondělíková,
from CNP Consulting and part of ČAKO's leadership. Pondělíková,
who calls coaching more of an attitude than a tool, has seen
a growing interest in the service since that time.
For Radvan Bahbouh, of Qed & Quod and another leader in
ČAKO, the group has put some order in the market, after the
number of firms offering the service - sometimes unprofessionally
- expanded. "ČAKO is trying to promote the [coaching]
method," he says, "as well as introduce to potential
users the way it should be provided." He says conferences
and seminars are valuable to this, "but the most important
are references." Indeed, one initiative of ČAKO is building
a database of coaches.
References are also the strength behind the Prague chapter
of the ICF. While not exactly an organization in the traditional
sense, free-lance coach and chapter leader Monika Bartoníčková
describes the ICF - with some 8,500 members, including nearly
a dozen locally, in 34 countries - more as a network. For USD
100 membership dues, members have access to training and education
materials, as well as international networking and references. "[In
the Czech Republic] there's a lack of literature and experience," she
says. "Sometimes the only good source is abroad."
Arguably, Bartoníčková's job as chapter leader could be regarded
as more of a "contact person", since the Prague chapter
receives no funding from the ICF. Still, she hopes to bring
more things - like literature or ICF-approved educational courses
(which the ICF doesn't run, but only certifies) - to help speed
up progress on the Czech market. "The ICF is a great opportunity
for updated information or meeting colleagues from abroad," she
says. "For a new business like coaching, this is very
important."
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