In this article the author describes how executive coaching supported leaders in
several U.S. government financial institutions from 2005 to the present.
Individual and organizational impacts on leadership are discussed during the
aftermath of 9/11 and the recent economic crisis, and approaches coaches used to
help leaders build resiliency in adapting to change.
The full article is available as a download below.
Here are a few excerpts:
Over the past two years the United States has faced an economic crisis of historic proportion not seen since the stock market collapse in 1929. Bank failures and bailouts have led to criticism and review of existing bank regulations, policies and regulatory structure. Combined, these forces create a stressful environment for people working in the financial oversight community, particularly those in leadership roles at the various regulatory agencies such as the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Department of Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Organizational performance, cohesion, and morale at all of these regulatory agencies often rely on the ability of leaders to manage stress, maintain their own health, sustain a psychologically healthy workplace for the people they supervise, and have a balanced family life outside of their job demands. Achieving this resiliency is an ongoing leadership challenge.
To help leaders develop resiliency and other leadership competencies, most of these organizations have used executive coaching programs over the past five years. The executive coaches help their clients with the leadership challenges of stress management, adaptability, agility, and flexibility in managing change. This article explores how independent executive coaches and those within the Department of Interior’s Federal Consulting Group work with financial institution executives during times of crises and help build their clients’ resiliency in adapting to change.
As noted in an earlier article I wrote on the evolution of coaching in the federal government, coaches have successfully worked with their executive clients over the years to help strengthen and develop leadership capability (Salmon, 2008). Most of this work in government has unfortunately been poorly documented, due to fear and reluctance on the part of some agencies to expose themselves to political criticism. To even suggest that executives don’t have all the answers and may need to learn new skills as their job requirements and agency missions change is a common, but unfounded, perception of weakness. Human and leadership development professionals can cite research demonstrating that a failure of leaders to learn and grow is one of the factors leading to executive derailment (Hughes & Terrell, 2008).
In the last two years during the economic collapse of the U.S. economy and attendant bank failures, there has been increased scrutiny placed on government financial institutions, pressure for regulatory reform, and controversy over the role of bank regulators to ensure a stable economy. In this political climate of blame and criticism, especially over the past year, the normal reticence of government agencies to be open about their leadership development programs has grown. There appears to be a reluctance to disclose any information, no matter how benign or even laudatory, that could be used to question agency competency. This becomes very important when the role of agencies, as well as related discussions of mergers and restrictions on authority, is questioned. It is for this reason that I have chosen to protect the identity of agencies whose coaching programs I discuss in this article. Likewise, I have chosen to make the contributions of fellow coaches anonymous to protect them from possible reprisal, given the highly contentious environment that now exists in Congress.
In my research on how coaching has supported leaders in government financial institutions, coaches I have spoken with all agree that the issues and competencies we address in support of leaders are, in most cases, independent of agency. They include the real challenges of strengthening and developing managers’ emotional and social effectiveness skills necessary for clear communication and delegation, the courage to make tough decisions with limited information, and the ability to adapt to and help people manage rapid change. I will discuss one coaching program within a government financial institution that is illustrative of how coaching has supported leadership development efforts.
In 2005, the Federal Consulting Group launched a pilot coaching program with a government agency customer for their high-performing executives and managers. The program’s announcement stated:
Executive coaching is a well-documented strategy for developing leaders and for building (a) culture …(that) believes coaching will support the (organization’s)… strategic future by formally supporting executives and by strengthening, sustaining, and renewing the culture by focusing on identified leadership strengths. (Salmon, 2008, p. 13)
The program used both internal coaches and external coaches contracted from the Federal Consulting Group, then an internal consulting group within the Department of the Treasury, and now a directorate within the Department of Interior’s National Business Center.
The pilot coaching program began in the fall of 2005 with 18 executives who volunteered to participate. They completed the coaching pilot in April 2006. The program focused on enhancing high-performance, not on performance management issues. The program objectives were to:
- Accelerate the development of the next generation of leaders by providing personalized learning at critical junctures, such as periods of increased responsibility, a new position, a recent promotion;
- Maximize the contributions of high-performing leaders by developing their capacity to align vision, actions, and performance;
- Work more effectively within their business line and network across the organization;
- Support the organization’s strategic future by providing support that challenges participants’ assumptions and encourages innovation; and
- Strengthen, sustain, and renew the organization’s culture by supporting the development of critical leadership competencies.An evaluation of the pilot program identified measurable outcomes and benefits to individuals and the organization. Participants and their coaches completed surveys to identify return on investment as well as return on value, a more meaningful measure based on improvements in communication across business units and other factors related to mission execution. The evaluations showed value-added benefits in four areas:
• Enhanced relationships and improved communication skills with supervisors and development of trust with staff;
- Improved quality and focus on customer satisfaction, including development of resilience and adaptability to meet new customer demands;
- Elevated leadership confidence, including the ability to create clarity around vision and mission; and
- Reduced stress, including improved work/life balance.Several key enhancements were made before launching the agency-wide program in Fiscal Year (FY) 2007. There was an expanded emphasis on the targeted leader level and increase in the program parameters and guidelines. Greater emphasis was placed on supervisor involvement in the beginning by establishing a formal orientation for the participants and their supervisors, and outlining respective responsibilities. The evaluation process was expanded to include a mid-point check-in and end-of- program evaluations by both the participant and the supervisor.
An informal discussion with the coaching team indicated that at some point in the coaching relationship participants became more open to working on improving their ability to manage stress and balancing the demands of the job with demands from family. At first, this seemed to go against unspoken cultural expectations: be available 24/7, and make the personal sacrifices needed to get the job done, no matter what the cost. Coaches had to challenge these assumptions and discuss overall cost/benefits required to avoid burnout of the client and their staff. Managers’ ability to sustain productivity and meet increasing customer demands brought further interest in developing a more formal program for developing leaders and their ability to manage stress and change.
EVOLUTION OF THE COACHING PROGRAM DURING A PERIOD OF CHANGE
- From 2005 through 2006 during the pilot coaching program, there were a number of significant changes affecting employees and leaders: a new emphasis on ensuring national banks had the necessary controls to detect and deter money laundering and terrorist financing, a reorganization to improve organizational efficiency, and the turn of the economy.During this period, coaches helped agency leaders set up new departments, manage new groups of people and activities, and respond to the variety of events that come during periods of rapid and broad change. These challenges required leaders to take on new assignments and to change the ways they were accustomed to doing business when old ways were no longer tenable. As one source reported:
In a recent testimonial to the value of the coaching experience, one regional district manager remarked that he felt overwhelmed and realized that he could no longer manage the banks under his jurisdiction in the same way he had in the past, given the mandated consolidation of field offices within his district. (Hughes & Terrell, 2008, p. 170)
Since then, the program has evolved to integrate with other leadership development efforts. In April 2006, a new leadership development program was announced, aimed at preparing the next generation of supervision leadership. The program identifies high potential employees who may succeed in the next wave of leaders and provides structured job assignments in multiple departments.
The new program began in January 2007 with six participants. Each served 18 months rotating among different jobs to build an understanding of the wide range of activities and organizations that contribute to supervision at the agency. Since then, six have completed the program and are in leadership positions, three are in the process of completing the program, and three new participants started in January 2010.
The transition from technical subject matter expert to manager is challenging for many people. People require new mindsets and skill sets in order to succeed in their new role as manager. An executive coach can help with this perspective shift and promote the soft skills needed to go from being an expert individual contributor to getting things done through others. To support the transition, each participant chooses a coach through the executive coaching program. The participant and their coach are then oriented to the program expectations and the coaches are given a copy of the organization’s competency model and an orientation to the organization’s culture.
The Executive Coaching Program also supports the on-boarding and transition of new executives into the organization. Many new executives choose a skilled executive coach to support their transition from another agency or outside of government, to help diagnose their organization’s conditions and needs, to develop their strategic vision, and to accelerate change management and team building.
From assisting with new mission focus to building a cadre of leaders to enabling new executives, the Executive Coaching Program has evolved from a small pilot to a more robust program to support the agency’s ability to cope with change. Evaluations of the program over the past four years have shown it to be effective, particularly in developing leaders’ ability to be resilient and to adapt to change (Hughes & Terrell, 2008).
EVALUATION OF THE EXECUTIVE COACHING PROGRAM
An evaluation of the agency-wide coaching program launched in FY 2007 was conducted by an independent outside contractor. The responses were overwhelmingly positive in several key areas: the achievement of critical goals established at the onset of coaching; development of leadership competencies that directly impact team and business success; the value of the relationship established between coach and participant; and the skill of the
coaches involved in the program.
Chief among the participants’ assessments was the value of having someone with whom they could share issues and concerns, and who would provide a fresh perspective with direct, honest feedback. Several participants expressed sentiments similar to this coaching client: “Most valuable to me was having another perspective to assess the working relationships within my management team. She provided a unique insight into these relationships and identified opportunities not obvious to me.”
Managers also reported that the program helped their employees become more effective leaders in several areas, including their ability to communicate expectations to staff and hold them accountable. They also emphasized the value of candid discussion and feedback between coaches and program participants.
A second evaluation study was conducted in 2008. The evalu- ation showed that 100 percent of the participants and their supervisors concurred that the participants became more confident as leaders and managers. Additionally, 93 percent of the participants and 100 percent of their supervisors agreed that the coaching participants became more effective managers. Participants noted their greatest growth in three areas:
- Performance management, specifically
- Dealing with problem employees and managing conflict,
- Ability to give feedback more skillfully;
- Enhanced relationship and communication skills;
- Reduced stress.
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