CHAPTER ELEVEN
WHEN LEADERS ARE COACHES*
Leadership is a relationship. Sometimes the relationship is one-to-many, and sometimes it is one-to-one. Regardless of whether the relationship is with one or with one thousand, leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. Success in leadership, success in business, and success in life have been, are now, and will always be a function of how well we work and play together. Leaders are wholly dependent on their capacity to build and sustain relationships.
Evidence abounds for this point of view. For instance, in examining the critical variables for success in the top three jobs in large organizations, Jodi Taylor and her colleagues at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) found that the number one success factor is “relationships with subordinates.”1 Claudio Fernandez-Araoz, a partner and a member of global search firm Egon Zehnder International’s executive committee, is very direct about the importance of relationship skills. After studying success and failure in the executive ranks around the world, he concludes that “serious weaknesses in the domain of emotional intelligence predict failure at senior levels with amazing accuracy.”2 We were intrigued to find that even in this nanosecond world of e-everything, personal opinion is consistent with the facts. In an online survey, respondents were asked to indicate, among other things, “Which is more essential to business success five years from now—skills in using the Internet or social skills?”3 Seventy-two percent selected social skills compared to 28 percent for Internet skills. Internet literati completing a poll online realize that it’s not the web of technology that matters the most, it’s the web of people.
Similar results were found in a study by Public Allies, a nonprofit group dedicated to creating young leaders who can strengthen their communities. Public Allies sought the opinions of eighteen- to thirty-year-olds on the subject of leadership.4 Among the items was a question about the qualities that were important in a good leader. Topping the eighteen- to-thirty-year-olds’ list was: “Being able to see a situation from someone else’s point of view.” In second place was: “Getting along well with other people.”
These days we’re constantly being asked to learn new skills, take more risks, try out unfamiliar behaviors, and, like all humans, we fail a few times before we succeed. These requests can cause us great distress and create extreme discomfort. We’re not likely to embrace the challenges unless we trust the person guiding and coaching us. So forever erase from your minds the image of the coach as that stern-faced, chair-throwing, dirt-kicking, ass-chewing tough guy who yells orders to the players. Maybe it makes good sports theater, but it definitely does not produce outstanding business performance. What you’ll get instead is a demoralized group of disengaged constituents who’d rather quit than excel.
Success in the one-to-one leadership context is dependent on the ability of the leader to build a lasting relationship in which the talent sees the coach as a partner and a role model. In other words, you can’t order others to perform at their best or improve what they do because of a position you hold. You can only get extraordinary things done because you have a heart.
Yes, heart. It turns out that the best leaders are caring leaders. We discovered this while researching for our book, Encouraging the Heart, and we’d like to apply some of those lessons to the role of leader as coach. Here are three essentials that contribute greatly to establishing and sustaining a successful coaching relationship:5
1. Set clear standards;
2. Expect the best; and
3. Set the example.
Tony Codianni of Toshiba America explains it this way: “I have a need to be personal with my folks. To me there’s no difference between work and personal life. Encouraging comes from the heart. It’s heart-to-heart, not brain-to-heart. It has to be genuine.”
Codianni is one of those people who loves people. He loves buying them presents; he loves inviting them out on his boat; he loves to cook for them. Codianni has nineteen first cousins, and he’s taken them all to Italy. Ask anyone who works with him, and they’ll all tell you they love to be around him. He makes them feel good.
But don’t ever mistake Codianni’s love of people for a willingness to forget about standards. Exemplary leadership is soft and demanding, caring and conscientious. As Codianni puts it, “I always tell trainers in my group that they have to master the program first, and then they’re free to change it.” To Codianni, having a clear set of expectations about what people will achieve is part and parcel of being caring.
The first prerequisite for encouraging the hearts of our talent is to set clear standards. By standards we mean both goals and values, because they both have to do with what’s expected of us. Values serve as the enduring principles that enable us to maintain our bearings wherever we are throughout our lives. Goals are those shorter-term ambitions that provide us with the metrics for measuring progress.
Human beings just don’t put their hearts into something if they don’t believe in it. We won’t commit with energy and intensity to something that’s not a fit for us personally. It’s like wearing a pair of slacks that are too tight. It’s uncomfortable, we look awkward, we feel embarrassed, and we can’t move around easily.
We know from the research we’ve been doing since the late 1970s that values make a difference in the way people behave inside organizations and how they feel about themselves, their colleagues, and their leaders. But when we take an even deeper look at the congruence between personal and organizational values we find something quite provocative.6 We find that it’s the clarity of personal values that drives an individual’s commitment to an organization. Shared values do make a difference, but it’s personal values that determine the fit between an individual and organization.
Exemplary leader-coaches also make sure that work is not pointless ambling, but purposeful action. Goal setting affirms the person, and, whether we realize it or not, contributes to what people think about themselves. As University of Chicago professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi points out: “It is the goals that we pursue that will shape and determine the kind of self that we are to become. Without a consistent set of goals, it is difficult to develop a coherent self. . . The goals one endorses also determine one’s self-esteem.”7
People need to know whether they’re making progress or marking time. Goals help to serve that function, but goals are not enough. It’s not enough to know that we want to make it to the summit. We also need to know whether we’re still climbing or whether we’re sliding downhill. Therefore, effective leader-coaches also provide constructive, timely, and accurate feedback. Encouragement is a form of feedback. It is positive information that tells us that we’re making progress, that we’re on the right track, and that we’re living up to the standards.
The wonderful thing about encouragement is that it’s more personal than other forms of feedback. Encouragement requires us to get close to other people, to show that we care about other people, and to demonstrate that we’re really interested in other people. When leaders provide a clear set of standards and provide positive feedback on how we’re meeting those standards, they encourage people to reach inside and put forth even more effort to get extraordinary things done.
Successful leaders have high expectations, both of themselves and of their constituents. The belief that “I know you can do it” is a potent performance enhancer. It definitely is not some tasty pabulum that leaders dispense to help us keep a positive outlook on life. When someone else believes in us, we’re much more likely to believe in ourselves. While high and low expectations influence other people’s performance, only high expectations have a positive impact on both another’s actions and feelings. And, most significantly, only high expectations can improve performance.
Nancy Tivol, executive director of Sunnyvale Community Services (SCS) in California, is a wonderful example of this principle in action. She believes strongly in her own ability and in those of every staff member and volunteer. When Tivol first arrived at SCS, volunteers were, in her opinion, underused. Many board members and paid staff felt that volunteers didn’t have the skills to handle interactions with clients, donors, and corporate contacts. Tivol believed they did. Today, SCS has volunteers doing things previously done only by staff members. Indeed, more than seven hundred volunteers run the front office, the agency’s three food programs, the Community Christmas Center, the agency’s computer operations, and the Volunteer Language Bank—all under one director of volunteers. Most of the lead volunteers are over sixty-five years of age, and volunteer hours have increased from 6,000 to 20,000 annually, which enabled paid staff to be reduced through attrition from twelve to eight full-time equivalents.
Not only that, but SCS became the country’s only emergency assistance agency that has not turned eligible clients away because available funds have been depleted. Under Tivol’s leadership, SCS has increased its funding for the emergency assistance program for low-income families during a recession and a period in which many agencies experienced significant funding cutbacks!
Previous administrators, as well as paid staff, had made certain assumptions about volunteers. They assumed volunteers would be neither motivated enough nor skilled or experienced enough to take on the responsibility that the agency would require. As a result, volunteers were mostly employed at jobs that demanded little of them, and they were given only minimal responsibilities. The bottom line was that they weren’t given the opportunity to explore or demonstrate their own capacities beyond the performance of the most menial tasks. Their beliefs held the volunteers back; Tivol’s beliefs encouraged the same group of people to excel. She placed volunteers in responsible positions, gave them the training and direction they required, and encouraged them to do their best. And they did just that!
What was the motivation that drove the volunteers? Why did the SCS picture change so radically under Tivol? The key was her high expectations of the volunteers, and her expectations literally breathed new life into the people around her. She prophesied their success.
This demonstration of belief in another’s abilities comes not only in organizational settings. It can show up anywhere. A moving and powerful instance came to us from Idaho businessman Don Bennett. Bennett was the first amputee to climb to the summit of Mt. Rainier. That’s 14,410 feet on one leg and two crutches!
During a difficult portion of the climb, Bennett and his team had to cross an ice field. To get across the ice, the climbers had to put crampons on their boots to prevent slipping and to dig into the ice for leverage and stability. Unfortunately, with two crutches, and only one boot with a crampon, Bennett got stuck in the ice. He determined that the only way to get across the ice field was to fall face forward onto the ice, pull himself as far forward as he could, stand up, and then fall forward again. He was going to get across the ice field by falling down.
On that particular climb, his teenage daughter, Kathy, was with him, and she saw what was happening to her dad. While the team leader cut holes in the ice so Bennett could hop onto clear snow and traverse the ice field, Bennett’s daughter stayed by his side through the entire four-hour struggle. As Bennett hopped, she shouted in his ear: “You can do it, Dad. You’re the best dad in the world. You can do it, Dad!”
After Bennett told us this story, he added: “There was no way that I was not going to make it across that ice field with my daughter shouting that in my ear. You want to know what leadership is? What she did is leadership.” Kathy’s belief in her father and her verbal encouragement touched a place deep within Bennett, strengthening his resolve and commitment.
It’s no wonder, then, that when people tell us about leaders who really make a difference in their lives, they frequently tell us about people who have believed in them and encouraged them to reach beyond their own self-doubts, to more fully realize their own greatest strengths. They talk about leaders who treat them in ways that buoy their self-confidence, making it possible for them to achieve more than they themselves initially believe is possible.
The thoughts and beliefs we hold in our minds are intangible. They can’t be weighed and measured like raw materials or finished products. But seen or not, measurable or not, they have an enormous impact on the people around us. Exemplary leaders know this and know how to purposefully hold in their minds high expectations for themselves and for other people.
In research with Christy Tonge, we found that the factor most related to coaching effectiveness is “investing in the relationship.” (There’s that leadership-is-a-relationship finding again!) And, of all the items used to measure coaching behavior, the one most linked to success was “this person embodies character qualities and values that I admire.”
In our continuing research on the qualities that people look for and admire in their leaders, time and time again we find that, more than anything else, people want leaders who are credible. Credibility is the foundation of leadership.8
People want to believe in their leaders. They want to believe that their leaders’ words can be trusted and that their leaders will do what they say. Personal leadership credibility, we’ve found, makes a huge difference in performance and in commitment to organizations. A group’s loyalty, commitment, energy, profitability, and productivity, among other outcomes, are directly linked to the credibility of the leader. Our findings are so consistent over such a long period of time that we’ve come to refer to this as the first law of leadership: if you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message.
So exactly what is credibility? What is it behaviorally? How do you know it when you see it? When we ask people these questions their most frequent response is: “They do what they say they will do.”9
When it comes to deciding whether a leader is believable, people first listen to the words and then watch the actions. They listen to the talk and watch the walk. Then, they measure the congruence. A judgment of “credible” is handed down when the two are consistent. If people don’t see consistency, they conclude that the leader is at best not really serious about the words, and at worst is an outright hypocrite. Constituents are moved by deeds. Actions are the evidence of a leader’s credibility. This observation leads to a straightforward prescription for sustaining credibility over time: DWYSYWD, Do What You Say You Will Do.
Over and over again, it’s the same story. Wherever you find a strong culture built around strong values—whether the values are about superior quality, innovation, customer service, distinctiveness in design, respect for others, or just plain fun—you’ll also find endless examples of leaders who personally live the values.
Personal involvement is what setting the example is all about. Terri Sarhatt, customer services manager of the Applied Biosystems Division of Perkin-Elmer, learned how important that is even in situations in which the rewards are tangible. Sarhatt was looking for a way to increase the amount of supportive communication she had with employees at the company, and as luck would have it, her decision to become more personally involved coincided with the annual distribution of stock options. At Applied Biosystems, as in many high-tech companies, people often receive stock options when they’ve had a good year, and because Applied Biosystems has been growing at around 20 percent for the last few years, it’s been a regular occurrence.
In years past, Sarhatt would receive the options from her manager. She would then present options to her direct supervisors and request they do the same with their direct reports. In 1998, she decided to use a different tactic. She wanted to thank folks directly, so she asked her direct supervisors if they’d mind her meeting with each of their employees who were going to receive stock options. Her direct reports thought it was a terrific idea.
“I personally thanked them for the specific projects and the work they had done,” said Sarhatt. “The employees were surprised that I would actually take the time out of my busy schedule to sit down with each of them separately, have a cup of coffee, and discuss their accomplishments. One of my supervisors informed me later that her employee appreciated the time I spent with her more than she appreciated the actual stock options!” As we have found so often in our research, the gift of personal time mattered most.
Sarhatt also told us that it’s “the ‘little’ things that make such a BIG difference!” And that’s the point. It doesn’t take a grand plan to begin to set the example for encouraging the hearts of others. It doesn’t take a huge budget, it doesn’t take psychotherapy, and it doesn’t take the boss’s permission. What’s most critical in all these examples is that the leaders took the initiative. Being a good role model is no exception. It has to become a conscious priority.
Along the journey to developing yourself as an exemplary leader-coach, there is a fundamental question that you must confront: how much do you really care about the people you lead?
Now our hunch is that you care a lot. You probably wouldn’t be reading this book and this chapter if you didn’t. But this question must be confronted daily, because when you care deeply the methods that we’ve described will present themselves as genuine expressions of your caring. When you care little, they’ll be perceived as nothing more than gimmicks, and you’ll be thought of as a phony.
One of the oldest observations about human behavior is that we tend to mirror those around us. If we’re around someone who’s sad, for example, we pick it up. Even if we enter the room full of vim and vigor, we find that our energy starts to leak out when we’re in the presence of negative emotions. Put yourself in the position of a person being coached. Imagine spending your days with a down-in-the-mouth, negative, and pessimistic leader. What a depressing thought.
But what happens to you when you enter a room full of upbeat, supportive, appreciative, and enthusiastic people? You tend to be uplifted yourself, don’t you? We much prefer to be around positive people. And, by the way, researchers have also found that positive, hopeful, and optimistic people get more done in their lives and feel both personally and professionally more successful than do their more negative counterparts.
As the leader, you set the tone. When it comes to your role as leader-coach, the talent in your organization will grow and thrive only when you establish a clear set of high standards, display a strong belief that those standards can be achieved, and then demonstrate by your own actions that you practice what you preach.
When you integrate these three essentials into your daily practice, you will loudly and clearly communicate the message that “I care about you. I care about your future. I care about your growth. I’m here to create a climate in which you blossom and flourish.” Not only will others find great joy and success in this caring climate, so, too, will you.
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner are the authors of the award-winning and best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge, with over one million copies in print. They’ve coauthored six other leadership books, including Credibility: How Leaders Gain It and Lose It, Why People Demand It; Encouraging the Heart; and The Leadership Challenge Workbook. Kouzes and Posner also developed the highly acclaimed Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), a 360-degree questionnaire assessing leadership behavior.
They were named by the International Management Council as the 2001 recipients of the prestigious Wilbur M. McFeely Award. This honor puts them in the company of previous recipients Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Drucker, Edward Deming, Francis Hesselbein, Lee Iacocca, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Norman Vincent Peale, and Tom Peters. Kouzes and Posner are frequent conference speakers, and each has conducted leadership development programs for hundreds of organizations around the world.
James M. Kouzes is an Executive Fellow at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Not only is he a highly regarded leadership scholar and an experienced executive, but the Wall Street Journal has cited him as one of the twelve most requested non-university executive education providers to U.S. companies. A popular seminar and conference speaker, Kouzes shares his insights about the leadership practices that contribute to high performance in individuals and organizations. Contact: www.leadershipchallenge.com; jim@kouzesposner.com.
Barry Z. Posner, PhD, is dean of the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, and professor of leadership. He served previously as managing partner of the Executive Development Center and has also served as associate dean with responsibility for leading the school’s MBA and undergraduate programs. He has received the Dean’s Award for Exemplary Service, the President’s Distinguished Faculty Award, and several outstanding teaching and leadership honors. An internationally renowned scholar and educator, Posner is the author or coauthor of more than one hundred research and practitioner-focused articles. Contact: www.theleadershipchallenge.com; bposner@scu.edu.
* Portions of this chapter are excerpted by permission from: James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003).
Notes
1. Telephone interview with Jodi Taylor, PhD, on Center for Creative Leadership, April 1998. Taylor is now with Summit Leadership Solutions.
2. C. C. Araoz, personal interview. Also see C. C. Araoz, “The Challenge of Hiring Senior Executives,” in The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace: How to Select for, Measure, and Improve Emotional Intelligence in Individuals, Groups, and Organizations, eds. C. Cherniss & D. Goleman (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001).
3. “Where Are We on the Web?” Fast Company (October 1999): p. 306.
4. Kouzes and Posner, Encouraging the Heart.
5. J. M. Kouzes and B. Z. Posner, Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, rev. ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003).
B. Z. Posner and W. H. Schmidt, “Values Congruence and Differences between the Interplay of Personal and Organizational Value Systems,” Journal of Business Ethics, 1993, 12: 171–177.
6. M. Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books, 1997), 23.
7. J. M. Kouzes and B. Z. Posner, The Leadership Challenge, 3rd ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002).
8. Kouzes and Posner, Credibility.
9. Kouzes and Posner, Credibility.