User:Katherine Dell/Group Executive Coaching

Group Executive Coaching
Group Executive Coaching is similar to but differs from Team Coaching as it consists of participants who may or may not work together yet who are focused on developing similar inter-personal skills, addressing common issues, or accelerating leadership development through active and reflective exercises.

Generally, Group Executive Coaching is used as a tool in developing more effective corporate leaders in the following areas:

Executive Leadership

Executive Team Effectiveness

Developing High Potentials

Group Size, Duration and Composition
The number of participants and the length of time involved in Group Executive Coaching can vary tremendously. Group size can range anywhere from two to twenty while the duration of an assignment can last anywhere from a day to twelve months. Group Executive Coaching cohorts may comprise of participants from the same organization but different teams, intact teams within a single organization or thirdly, coachees from different organizations. Participants may be of a similar or diverse gender, culture and or generational grouping.

Group Executive Coaching Methodology
There are various schools of thought concerning the process involved in Group Executive Coaching. One view believes in a structured approach based on assessments such as psychometric tests and 360-degree feedback. Data is collated from various diagnostics and fed back to the group as a topic for self-development and improved executive performance. Coaches using this method refer back to specific data that has been collected on the individual to highlight areas for behavioral change that will serve to make that individual a more effective leader. The coachee is then encouraged to incorporate the feedback and integrate that into an action plan designed with the guidance of the coach and sometimes their fellow cohorts.

An alternate approach has been pioneered by Manfred Kets de Vries. This methodology is based on the principles of clinical psychology and then applied to the corporate environment. Data and assessments are also used but rather than suggesting participants respond exclusively to data, participants are also encouraged to reflect back on to the genesis of the behavior. This approach, though also data and 360° based, is far less systematic and allows for a degree of uncertainty and ambiguity. Insight is gained and shifts may take place as participants reflect on the underlying patterns of the behavior and apply it to the information that has been correlated. The learner is encouraged but never directed to process the feedback and to connect the dots from their past to their present in order to plot their future.

Critical Success Factors
Although there are different methodologies, most Group Executive Coaching approaches share similar critical success factors.

First and foremost is the importance of establishing of trust and rapport within the group. Building a strong bond serves a multitude of purposes in the group-coaching context. It unifies the learners so that the full disclosure necessary to move people forward seems less threatening. Trust is also essential in order to accept another participant’s feedback. It is often difficult for senior executives to hear and ultimately incorporate other people’s comments or views, particularly if those views interfere with the learner’s own worldview of themselves. Trust enables the learner to hear other people’s feedback in an unbiased and open way, ultimately paving the road for behavioral change.

Ice breakers can be a relatively non threatening way for engendering the self disclosure ideally required for successful Group Executive Coaching, and to supersede the structured cooperate environment that most executives operate in daily. Engaging corporate individuals to enter a more non-formulaic perspective, through such activities as drawing, symbolic metaphors or storytelling, encourages the group to become more fluid in their behavior and creative in their thought process. When working with a group of executives from highly structured, top down organizations, such an exercise both disrupts their normal way of operating and allows for the individuals to bond and learn as a unit.

This rapport and trust is a vital component between the coach and the coachee as well as necessary between all coachees involved in the process. If a participant is less than engaged or wary of the process, fear and uncertainty can transfer itself to the group. A critical component in building rapport and trust in a one on one coaching relationship is by an agreement of confidentiality between the coach and the coachee. So too, in a group experience it is vital that commitment to the sacrosanct tenet of confidentiality be observed, respected and adhered to between all members.

Finally, the coach’s expertise also has considerable impact on the success of the experience. This is particularly true when taking a reflective approach as emotions and cognitive memory can fuse to create potentially cathartic abreactions for participants. As there are several cohorts involved in the process, it is vital that the coach remains present at all times and is skillful in the ways of managing group dynamics. It is important for the coach to be confident in the power of the group coaching process while at the same time giving each individual the appropriate level of attention so that they are fully able to assimilate the behavioral changes necessary to integrate and grow as a leader.

Category:Coaching