"Coaching" is all the rage in large companies these days, especially those with expat workers who run into cultural and communication issues. Find out from our HR expert if you could benefit from a coach of your own.

What kinds of problems can coaches help me solve?

Coaches are most often brought into an organisation to work with you on a developmental basis rather than on a remedial basis. If you do a yearly personal development plan, which comes out of the yearly review, there are usually a number of development areas which are your focus for the next year/ or before you can progress to the next level. 

Common themes among my clients are communication skills, personal effectiveness, management and leadership challenges, negotiating office politics, working in a multi-cultural environment and staff development.

As a coach I work with my client and the client organisation to set goals for the agreed upon coaching areas.

However, since coaches coach the person, and not just a specific issue, the coaching quite often encompasses personal aspects of the client's life as well.  For example, if I am coaching someone around organisational and time management skills then we will need to look at their personal life as well as their office life since the time management needs will cross over into both areas.

How confidential are the interactions between me and my coach -- will my boss know what we are doing in our coaching sessions?

Coaching is confidential. The coach, the client and the client company (boss or HR) agree at the outset of the coaching what information will be shared with the company.

With my clients my usual agreement outlines which areas the client needs to develop and I give the client company updates on how this is progressing. Often the client may be present at these updates. I do not share the details of what goes on in the coaching sessions.

In these cost-conscious times, how does one know whether or not the coaching has been effective?  How do coaches measure success in ways that my business organisation will understand and appreciate?

Alanea Kowalski sees coaching as a vehicle for change

Metrics have become an important aspect in coaching. There are a number of studies which show the impact of coaching on executives and the company bottom line. I find it is often appropriate for a new client organisation to review these materials before beginning a coaching relationship.
 
With a new client company often an important part of the coaches' role is to educate the client and the 'coachee' about what to expect from a coaching relationship.  What does a coach do and what are the client and the client company responsible for.  By setting the parameters and being clear about expectations from the beginning, everyone involved is working from the same set of desired outcomes.

The success of the coaching relationship is built on trust between the coach and the client.  Give your 'coachee' a choice of coaches so that there is a good working fit.

Ensure that the coaches are accredited/certified coaches through a reputable and recognised coaching programme. Someone who has been a senior executive may or may not be a good coach. Coaching accreditation helps you to know that they have the skills and approach needed.

Once you have a good client-coach fit and an agreed set of desired coaching outcomes it becomes easier to determine how you will measure the results.

An approach I have used successfully is to have a number of people in-house who will be charged with determining if the coaching has shown visible results.  Often before and after 360 feedback models are used or a more informal polling of the key stakeholders who interact most frequently with this person can also be very effective.

I tailor my approach to my client organisation in order to determine a method of measuring results that is most closely aligned with their corporate culture.

If you have a question about coaching please send it to feedback@expatica.com with 'HR: Coaching question' in the subject line.

Ask-the-expert: Alanea Kowalski

Alanea Kowalski, who focuses on expatriate coaching (from North American to Europe and from Europe to North America), also delivers training programmes internationally (some examples include, Moscow, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Europe and N.A.).

Kowalski started her own business, AdVantage Consulting Group Inc., which specialises in Corporate Talent Management, 15 years ago. The North American office of AdVantage is in Toronto and the European office is based in Paris. 

She has been a partner with an executive search firm and a vice president, HR of an international financial services company.

January 2006

Subject: Coaching, Coaching your expatriates