At Profitable Conversations we combine the benefits of both approaches by using a facilitative approach…
- One-on-one coaching. Ideal for the team leaders and managers in professional service firms – middle management.
- Group coaching. Ideal for more junior levels in a firm supervisor and below. This is a more cost-effective way to deliver coaching than a one-on-one basis but is more effective than training workshops.
- A combination of both group and one-on-one coaching. This is ideal when mid-level managers can benefit from learning from each other but can also benefit from individual guidance.
- Team coaching. Ideal for leadership teams that would like to improve the way they work as a cohesive team.
- One-on-one mentoring. Ideal for directors and partners – senior management.
Some of the people challenges facing firms are…
- Bringing on the next generation of leaders is often a significant challenge particularly as a firm grows or as partners retire. While people in the firm are often technically competent this is not sufficient to fulfill a leadership role in the firm. As a mentor of mine once reminded me, soft skills have hard consequences. So, if you are not developing your people in their soft skills – communication, self-awareness, BD, and attitudinal skills, to name but a few – then this can hinder the firm’s growth as well as its market value.
- Sometimes people can get into director and partner roles lacking critical soft skills – self-awareness/emotional intelligence is often one the of the most common. This is a sensitive area that needs to be dealt with carefully. However, left unaddressed this this can have a critical impact on the culture and performance of a firm. Brushing it under the carpet is not the solution.
- Many accounting firms operate through small work groups they call pods but which they often loosely refer to as teams. However, most of these pods are not true teams as individuals within these pods largely work independently performing to individual KPIs. While these pods or more in the nature of work groups rather than teams how they function can have an impact on overall performance. For this reason we approach this challenge with a slightly different mindset. We treat these pods as communities of professionals that sit somewhere between work groups and teams. We have found that, by doing this, we are able to generate better performance from the pods.
- The leadership teams in a firm don’t always gel and provide the leadership that is required. I’ve heard some leadership teams described as an incompetent group of competent people. If this description fits your leadership team, then maybe team coaching can assist with making the team more cohesive and productive.
- Developing the ability of leaders to coach and mentor people within the firm is also often a key challenge for many firms. Developing their leaders to more effectively coach and mentor their own people. Research shows that the key reason for people leaving firms is their relationship with the person to whom they report.
Our Approach
The key to our approach is action learning – learn by doing. This is why we favour coaching and mentoring over training. We have a saying; dogs get trained people learn.
This means we use the real-world challenges that people are facing in their roles to develop their capabilities. Because of that the learning is more relevant to the individual and more productive for both the individual and the firm.
Action learning requires the person to work with their coach or mentor to identify the key challenges they want to work on then apply the learnings, immediately, and to be accountable for their actions and results. It’s a results-based (or outcome-based) approach unlike training which is an input-based approach.
The second significant element to our approach is that it is not just about the individual it also includes key stakeholders. A turning point for me was many years ago when I was asked the question; Is it easier for the coachee to change or is it easier for people around the coachee to change?
My answer to that question was; It is easier for the coachee to change as they can, in many cases, make an immediate decision to change, but people around them often still see the person the way they always have. It takes them much longer to recognise the person has changed.
The response to this answer was; Then, why bother coaching people if the key stakeholders are not recognising the change?
Ever since then I realised that it is crucial to involve the key stakeholders in the coachee’s development program. Our approach addresses this crucial issue.
Benefits
The benefits of such an approach are…
- Relevance of the learning.
- Immediate measurable results.
- It enhances the coachee’s ability to work more effectively with key stakeholders and vice versa.
- Once established, this process leaves a legacy long after the coaching or mentoring sessions have been concluded.