CHAPTER THIRTEEN

COACHING TO EMPOWER

By R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr.

I believe that Empowerment Management is critical to creating an organizational environment that enables a diverse group of employees to contribute to their full potential. I believe further that Empowerment Coaching is critical to achieving Empowerment Management. This chapter explores the concept of coaching to empower, as opposed to coaching for execution.

By way of analogy, the chapter begins by looking briefly at the differences between these two modalities in the context of sports. It then explores what coaching for empowerment looks like in the field of diversity. It next examines the conditions that make Empowerment Coaching a viable choice. The objective is to enhance understanding about Empowerment Coaching and to make it more accessible to those coaching in the midst of diversity.

Coaching in the Sports Arena

Execution Coaching1

While the Execution Coach prepares for a sporting contest by prescribing game plays and stressing execution, he does much of his coaching during the actual game. He directs and problem solves. He gives prescriptions for winning and expects execution. In a real sense, it is as if the players are extensions of him. The players look to their coach for a game plan, and then they execute.

One often sees this model in college, where coaches perceive—rightly or wrongly—that players typically lack the experience and judgment necessary for doing more than focusing on execution. As a result, the competition often boils down to which team executes best. If players deviate from the game plan, or fail to execute, they displease their coach.

Once, in an NCAA basketball championship game, the coach called a last-minute play that, if executed properly, could win the game. The player who was to get the ball to the designated shooter did not see a passing lane that would work for him, so he took the shot and made an incredible basket.

As his teammates mobbed him and the crowd went wild, the television cameras focused on a sullen coach. One announcer noted, “Coach is not happy because [the player] did not stick with the called play.” At no point did this Execution Coach compliment the player for making the winning shot. The hero was guilty of thinking and adapting—that was the coach’s job. Indeed, the hero’s demeanor reflected regret for not following the coach’s orders, as opposed to celebration over winning the championship.

For Execution Coaches, “success” is great execution. Great game plans plus excellent execution equals winning. This formula often results in coaches receiving a disproportionate amount of credit for the team’s wins.

Empowerment Coaching

The Empowerment Coach seeks to empower players with a capability to think through game situations and to react and adapt as necessary. This coach focuses less on coming up with a winning game plan, and more on a winning preparation that embeds “a way of thinking”—a capability—into the players. Although the word “execution” might be used in these situations, “application of” or “utilization of” the embedded capability is more descriptive of what the Empowerment Coach expects. Through the capability, players are expected to think, behave proactively and reactively, and to adjust as necessary—all on the fly.

Empowerment Coaches perform their most critical work away from the actual game as they embed the desired capability. During the game, they cheerlead for application, more so than problem solve. This approach is markedly different from that of the Execution Coach.

The Execution Coach believes that “execution” of the game plan is the key to winning. The Empowerment Coach believes that effective application of the embedded capability is central to winning, so he shies away from extensive problem solving and directing during the game. The more this execution-like coaching behavior is necessary, the more likely the Empowerment Coach has done a poor job in embedding the capability.

A good example of when Empowerment Coaching is necessary is that of the Triangle Offense.2 Phil Jackson, former head coach of the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers, popularized this approach.

Most say that his offense is complex and requires players capable of mastering it. Attention to detail is critical, as are spacing specifics. Reportedly, no set plays exist, only possibilities. For most of the players, roles are interchangeable. Players must read the defense and take opportunities that become available.

Because of this complexity, players must commit fully. They also must be able to focus intensely on the offense and its requirements. It literally must become a mindset—a capability—that they apply unconsciously in a game.

To embed this offense in the mental maps of players, the coach must understand it fully himself and then must explain it effectively to the players. But, beyond the technicalities of the offense, the Empowerment Coach must foster complete commitment to the team, and also must facilitate the clarity of mind required for the sharp focusing needed to make the Triangle Offense work.

Phil Jackson proved very skillful at securing commitment and focus with the Bulls and the Lakers. This commitment to team is especially critical when superstars are on the squad. Essentially, the Triangle Offense seeks balance between the team as a whole and its best players. Phil Jackson reportedly went to the Triangle Offense to make it difficult for opposing players to hone in disproportionately on his superstar Michael Jordan.

Once he embedded the offense into his team, Jackson coached relatively unobtrusively during games. On one occasion, as matters deteriorated on the floor, Jackson’s assistant hollered for him to call time-out and earn his pay. Jackson responded, “Ah, let them work it out.”3

That is what you would expect from an Empowerment Coach who fostered capability before games, and saw self-management during games as steps toward further mastery of the offense. He sought excellence in application of the Triangle Offense in pursuit of solutions for defenses presented by opposing teams. Phil Jackson offered a stark contrast to the Execution Coach.

Coaching in the Diversity Arena

Execution Coaching

In the diversity field, Execution Coaching appears to dominate. Individuals desire the “five to-dos” with respect to a given diversity issue. This is true whether in a one-on-one coaching session or in a workshop. Workshop participants desire takeaways they can execute the next day.

Practitioners end up with “to-dos” for different types of diversity issues; such as gender, generational, ethnic, functional, acquisition/merger, and customer diversity. As issues surface, chief diversity officers (CDOs) and other organizational leaders routinely seek prescriptions they can execute.

Sometimes this Execution Coaching manifests itself through the practice of benchmarking. “Best practices” leaders in the field provide coaching through one-on-one presentations and participation in benchmarking workshops. Success for participants is the acquisition of some execution prescriptions that can be used immediately.

Four circumstances make Execution Coaching problematic for CDOs and their organizations.

One, CDOs can become experts on “best practices” without a corresponding growth in understanding about diversity and diversity management.

Two, the continued accumulation of lists of execution prescriptions as different diversity issues become priorities can become problematic. CDOs can find themselves running around asking, “What are the best practices with respect to such-and-such diversity issues?” Keeping track of these lists and their implications can become challenging.

Three, unempowered CDOs likely will not empower their organizations. Here, CDOs practice diversity management for their enterprises, much as affirmative action officers carry out affirmative action efforts. The difficulty here is that diversity management cannot be limited to the collective organization. Individual executives, managers, and individual contributors must participate as well. This is a major distinction between affirmative action and diversity management, and it is this difference that makes centralized diversity management unacceptable.

Four, “best practices” may not be optimal for a given enterprise. The conditions that make a best practice suitable for one organization may not be present in another. Without the larger context of diversity management, the CDO can be in a poor position to customize solutions.

Empowerment Coaching

These challenges account for my belief that CDOs who are serious about diversity management will benefit most by practicing Empowerment Coaching within the context of the Strategic Diversity Management Process™ (SDMP™).4

SDMP is a universal capability. It offers the wherewithal to think through diversity issues of any kind in pursuit of quality decisions that support an entity’s overarching objectives. Individuals as leaders, managers, and individual contributors can apply this capability to traditional diversity issues like race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, as well as to those not usually thought of as diversity issues; such as decentralization/centralization, acquisitions/mergers, functional integration, change, innovation, and thought.

One can think of SDMP as a craft, which once mastered results in capability. The premise is that the craft can be applied to any diversity issue in any setting in any geographic location. As a craft, SDMP has concepts, principles, and requirements for practice, mastery, and continuous improvement, performance standards, characteristics of art, and specific discrete subskills. Most people and organizations cannot pick up the craft easily, nor excel with it immediately. It cannot be learned in a three-day workshop. Instead, it requires understanding, work, and determination over a period of time.

Three basic elements comprise the process: (1) universal concepts, (2) universal principles, and (3) a universal decision-making framework.

The universal concepts are as follows:

The universal principles are the following:

The universal decision-making process combines SDMP’s universal concepts and principles into a convenient application framework with six steps:

Step 1: Specify context and overall “requirements”

Step 2: Recognize the nature and context of the mixture in question

Step 3: Assess the mixture’s tensions and complexities

Step 4: Identify the mixture’s requirements

Step 5: Identify the organizational culture and systemic factors that must be considered as actions are planned

Step 6: Plan actions

SDMP mastery requires acquisition of three basic diversity-management skills:

1. The ability to recognize diversity mixtures. Individuals can only use SDMP where they have identified diversity mixtures. This skill therefore is critical.

2. The ability to determine whether action is required with respect to a particular diversity mixture. An infinite number of mixtures exist. Therefore, it is imperative to be able to determine which are of such significant strategic importance personally or organizationally to merit priority, or indeed, so relatively insignificant to merit no attention.

3. The ability to select appropriate responses once you are sure action is required. This means that the individual has the ability to generate and explore solution alternatives.

Diversity maturity refers to the degree to which an individual or organization understands and can utilize SDMP universal concepts and principles. The characteristics of the diversity mature individual are:

A corresponding set of characteristics exists for the diversity mature organization:

My job as an Empowerment Coach is to assist the individual and organization in acquiring the basic diversity management skills, and in moving into diversity maturity. I literally can do this without ever specifying how any particular diversity issue should be addressed. Success comes for me when the individual and organization, as a result of understanding and practicing, effectively apply SDMP to any diversity issue in any setting in any geographical location. My job as an Empowerment Coach would be done.

Challenges

Several significant challenges deserve mention. One is that people and organizations do not necessarily wish to be empowered in the diversity arena. Sometimes, they believe diversity and diversity management are simple to achieve, and should not be overcomplicated. Or, they may possess a narrow view of diversity and thus do not see the need for a universal capability. Another possibility might be that they have a strong bias toward action and an aversion to concepts and principles.

Even where awareness of diversity and diversity management exists in a universal sense, leaders may not wish to make the necessary investment of resources. Relatively speaking, it is less expensive to go out and find a prescriptive list than to undergo the transition that likely will be required for organizations and individuals to master SDMP.

For others, the magnitude of the change possibly needed in organizational culture, systems, policies, and practices may be discouraging, even when the enterprise has the necessary resources. Leaders simply may not consider the benefits of enhanced diversity management worth the inconvenience of the necessary modifications.

Finally, some leaders may not want progress with diversity. For whatever reason, they may be content with defensive strategies such as effective public relations campaigns and annual training programs that can give the appearance of progress. These efforts could convey “commitment” without the costs and inconvenience of transitioning to SDMP mastery.

Benefits

Despite the challenges the benefits can be impressive. Mastery of SDMP brings a capability to generate and self-customize approaches for diversity issues as necessary, thus reducing the need for accumulating prescriptive lists.

This capability can be dispersed throughout the organization down to where the requisite information for a given decision resides. When this happens, individuals with issues are empowered to develop appropriate action plans, and do not have to push everything up to the CDO and other leaders.

All of this would bring greater ownership of diversity and diversity management and also momentum, thereby setting the stage for greater sustainable progress. This would facilitate the work of CDOs immensely.

The Viability of Empowerment Coaching

As one might expect, Empowerment Coaching is not for all coaching situations, although many coaches utilize it. The discussions about the Triangle Offense and SDMP can reveal conditions that are favorable for empowerment coaching.

Whenever the situation for which coaching is being offered has multiple permutations—like diversity or the defensive schemes of opposing teams, Empowerment Coaching can be beneficial. In these circumstances, the ability to generate and customize action options as needed can be a big plus, and negate the necessity of gathering prescriptive lists.

Similarly, whenever success requires the contributions of all players, Empowerment Coaching can be useful. With Phil Jackson, the Triangle Offense involved all players extensively and meaningfully, thereby making it difficult for opposing teams to hone in on super stars without paying a price. Similarly, with Diversity and Diversity Management, CDOs require buy-in, ownership and commitment by executives, managers and individual contributors, as they seek to develop an environment that works for all. SDMP can foster the necessary empowerment throughout the organization.

Further, whenever the issue under consideration is so complex that more than the coach’s wisdom is needed, Empowerment Coaching can be a plus. Stated differently, in basketball the Triangle Offense can put the play selection in the hands of the players who might be better positioned to make the call than the coach—especially, if the decision-making framework has been embedded in them. Also, with SDMP, individuals down in the organization might have the necessary perspective and information to be in a better position to make decisions on an issue more effectively and efficiently than CDOs and other senior leaders.

Also, Empowerment Coaching is practiced often where development is important. In a previously cited example where Phil Jackson refused to call timeout to rescue his players from a deteriorating game situation, but elected to let them work it out, he placed a priority on development that could serve the team well in future games. Similarly, in organizational circumstances, managers can employ empowerment as a developmental strategy.

Finally, Empowerment Coaching works to connect diverse “players” through an embedded framework. If that framework is like the Triangle Offense and the SDMP, where room is left for individual differences within the context of requirements, the results can be inclusiveness without unnecessary conformity.

Initial Steps

CDOs and other executives and managers might be wondering where to begin with implementation of Empowerment Coaching. A good first step is to check the type of coaching you are providing in the midst of diversity. If you routinely give “to-dos,” you probably are an Execution Coach.

A second step would be to identify a Diversity and Diversity Management model that you can use to embed capability. At a minimum, the model you adopt should offer concepts, principles, and a decision-making framework. SDMP works for me in this regard.

Next, you should make certain that your organization’s culture and people management systems and practices will support Empowerment Coaching. Otherwise, you will have difficulty sustaining progress.

Finally, be prepared to pioneer. As I noted earlier, I do not perceive Empowerment Coaching to be prevalent in the Diversity and Diversity Management arena. You will be charting new territory.

For the past twenty-five years, R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., D.B.A., has been at the forefront of developing and implementing innovative concepts and strategies for maximizing organizational and individual potential through diversity management. He currently serves as CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training, Inc., and as Founder/Trustee Emeritus of The American Institute for Managing Diversity (AIMD). Dr. Thomas is the author of seven published books; his most recent is World Class Diversity Management: A Strategic Approach. Dr. Thomas has been active for more than twenty-five years as a consultant to numerous Fortune 500 companies, corporation, professional firms, government entities, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions, and he has served as a frequent speaker at national conferences and industry seminars. He has also served as secretary of Morehouse College, dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration at Atlanta University, assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, and instructor at Morehouse College. Further, Dr. Thomas has been recognized by The Wall Street Journal as one of the top ten consultants in the country, elected as a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources, and cited by Human Resource Executive as one of HR’s Most Influential People. Contact: www.rthomasconsulting.com; rthomas@rthomasconsulting.com.

Notes

1. I struggled with how to label what I am calling “Execution Coaching.” Other options considered were “Prescriptive Coaching” and “Directive Coaching.”

2. The following two articles provide good discussions of the Triangle Offense:

“In Triangle Offense, Cuts Are Sharp and So Is Learning Curve,” available from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/sports/basketball/14triangle.html

“The High Priest of the Triangle Offense, Phil Jackson,” available from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1017460/index.htm

3. “The High Priest of the Triangle Offense, Phil Jackson,” 2.

4. Here, I provide a brief overview of the Strategic Diversity Management Process™ for the purpose of giving a feel for the empowering framework I use. A more complete account can be found in my most recent book: R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., World Class Diversity Management: A Strategic Approach (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2010).