Business Coaching in a Recessionary climate by Dr Jon Warner

With rapidly falling house prices, a significant credit squeeze and fast rising prices in the shops and we seem to have entered a "recessionary" period (at least in most of the western world). No-one knows how long this recession is likely to last or how deep it may go, but it is probably safe to assume that the next 12-18 months at least are likely to be much more difficult ones for most people.

For businesses of all sizes and types (no matter what sector they might be in) this usually causes a large-scale "tightening of the belt" as far as expenditure is concerned (and there is already plenty of evidence of this). One of the very first casualties of this tightening is employee development. In many ways, development at all levels (individual, team and enterprise-wide) is always a "soft" target. It is soft because the direct impact of reducing or eliminated employee development altogether is not usually felt immediately (and often not even in a single year budget cycle). This affords the organisation the opportunity to make visible savings immediately or to use the money saved in other areas that appear to have quicker pay-offs. Unfortunately, some of this thinking has been extended to the money that is spent on management development, and much of this may be in the realm of external coaching (that many leaders have benefited from in the economically healthier times of the recent past). Ironically, because "people factors" are likely to be most crucial in recessionary times and may make the difference between "riding out the storm" poorly or well, cutting back on business coaching may have significant consequences.

In tough times for any organisation its senior leaders need to be not only “fast on their feet” but act as role models in setting the best possible forward strategy for the organisation (or their particular part of it). This includes:
• Developing greater commercial awareness (to bring about better business results
• Setting up and successfully managing change projects
• Increasing sales through enhanced customer service strategies and practices
• Reengineering operational processes to reduce costs (and lift profits)
• Successfully managing poor performance
• Building strategic alliances (and the teamwork and collaboration to make it work)
• Engaging in more “out-of-the-box” problem solving and decision analysis
• Successfully managing time, pressure and stress

While a few managers are “fast enough on their feet” and sufficiently skilled to do some of these, the majority typically struggle with many of these demands and (in the absence of anywhere else to turn) look for some kind of assistance from their colleagues. Of course, in a tough economic climate, almost everyone is facing the same sort of challenges and consequently may have little time or energy to help a colleague when he or she may be in need of just as much support or assistance. In such circumstances, an experienced coach is a huge benefit, not only as someone to talk with who is not caught up in similar problems and issues, but because he or she is likely to have a number of independent and fresh thoughts and suggestions on the possible forward path (some of which are drawn from other non-competitive organisations who have found useful solutions to current challenges). In general, external business coaches have typically been hired by senior executives for very good reasons in the recent past. In a survey of over 200 executives in 30 companies in the US in 2007* (well before the current recessionary times occurred), the following were the top 5 areas of identified benefit to executives:

-Better Time management/focus on priority issues: 80%
-Optimised Career thinking: 75%
-Improved Business/Commercial thinking: 75%
-Better workplace relationships: 59%
-More focused/relevant goals (personal and team): 50%

With the exception perhaps of “optimised career thinking”, it is difficult to conclude that these benefits are not of equally high value in these more cost-constrained times. After all, a senior leader who is spending time on the most pressing issues of the day, thinking more commercially about better cash flow, communicating more effectively in business relationships of all kinds and setting and tracking relevant goals, is an asset that most companies would want to have around.
Of course, in a recessionary environment, there are other, additional demands on an organisation’s senior leaders. These include the need to:

• manage potentially negative personal and team moods and emotions
· be more creative or innovative in more challenging circumstances
• lift team morale as people face greater personal pressure
• set clear expectations of others to perform at their best
· better prepare someone for a significant career shift or exit from the organisation
• develop a more strategic perspective
• quickly drive/handle a major culture shift or change initiative
• Deal with a lack of personal or team action/follow through focus
• better manage budget or costs
• Deal with performance mediocrity

In reality, if managers needed help with the basic demands discussed earlier, they are even more in need of assistance with most items on this list. This is where a good business coach can potentially be worth their “weight in gold”.

A good business coach will work with executives to help discover where knowledge and experience shortfalls might lie to tackle the recessionary challenges being faced. They will also suggest particular areas where guidance and help to better tackle current problems and issues can be included. This input may not be immediately measurable in hard return terms, but it would quickly have negative impact if it were absent altogether.

Summary
Recessionary times often cause many organisations to simply accept that their employee development budgets and programs will be cut until there is greater financial flexibly within the enterprise. This thinking mistakenly can extend to managerial development and the often critical time that a leader spends with an external coach. Because people are an even more critical asset during cut-back times (and we need to make even greater efforts to retain and motivate individuals as much as possible in these periods), external business coaches can play a leading role in supporting senior leaders in a time of greatest need.
*TEARC Research, Coaching practices, 2007

Dr. Jon Warner
www.WarnerResultsCoaching.com


This article was written by Dr Jon Warner of Warner Results Coaching, an executive coaching business based in Kingston in Surrey. Jon is an experienced coach with over 20 years experience in assisting individuals of all types and at all levels of management. He is also an experienced author having published several books in the leadership and coaching areas, as well developing several assessment instruments including the Coaching Effectiveness Profile. Jon has an MBA and PhD in Organisational Psychology. He can be reached at jon@WarnerResultsCoaching.com