HR COACH
Developing
a Global Leadership Program
Global leadership skills are so important that they improve a
company’s reputation and contribute to a sustainable competitive
advantage. Global leadership skills are especially important
in dealing with workers, clients and associates from
different regions. Excellent global leaders have a strong suite of
personal skills that generates superior corporate performance in
terms of four criteria: (1) profitability and productivity; (2)
continuity and efficiency; (3) commitment and morale; and (4)
adaptability and innovation. Behavioral based coaching is the
only validated change mechanism that can produce a sustainable
outcome that encompasses all four criteria of organizational
performance. Through a personalized coaching / development plan global
leaders learn how to understand and best manage complex
people issues and to achieve the right cultural balance. The
global leader must also be taught how to analyze the behavior
of people around them to build loyalty, trust, and teamwork in
different cultures.
To many HR and other leadership
development professionals, coaching is just another name for
what they’ve already been doing for years—helping managers and
executives increase their capabilities and knowledge in developing
and dealing with people. However, behavioral coaching (versus
traditional coaching) is fundamentally changing the HR
relationship with organization managers and executives. An
increasing number of HR professionals are now taking on the
new role of HR Coach and directly working with managers
and leaders.
Internal human resource
professionals as coaches are in a unique position to understand
and manage the tough issues concerning culture and people and
personal leadership development. The traditional culture
training class should no longer be the exclusive domain
for the development of global leaders. Professional and personal
skills development in managers and leaders must occur in
"real time" and on a need-to basis today, not
in a classroom next month.
HR
COACH
-The
Emergence of the HR Coach
Today's skilled, certified corporate HR Coaches require: the
latest behavioral coaching models and technology; access to a
variety of validated, credible resources and back-up and, the available
time necessary to build successful leadership development
programs.
An important factor the HR
Coach brings to the coaching role is their knowledge of the
organization, and the working/profile of the manager within
that environment. Fundamental to the role, is trust. To assist
an executive, the HR person must be extremely credible with
executives. Credibility is perceived in how the coach conducts
himself/herself as an impartial professional resource, development
and change agent. A HR professional should not expect to
coach unless their coaching credentials are impeccable. The
leader participating in the coaching has to also feel the HR
coach is qualified to be looking out for their best interests
and maintaining objectivity and confidentiality at all times. This
is one of the major reasons some HR coaches fail to attract
internal clients.
In many organizations, the HR Coach also
acts as the Coaching Program Manager to coordinate and unify
the global leadership program / process of coaching in the
organization. They can manage and monitor the expenditure of
resources, train leaders / managers to also act as coaches,
confirm the credentials of external coaches, and measure and
determine the coaching results. Many HR professionals are also
engaging their own coach to assist them as they deal with their
own stresses and development.
Being coached allows HR
professionals to bring firsthand experience to formal global
leadership programs at their organizations. Coaching helps HR
'walk the talk' of coaching. It's one thing to talk up the
value and benefits of leadership coaching to others and another
thing altogether to have the experience of being coached. It gives
HR professionals more credibility with their people if they
can speak of the value it personally had for them, rather
than sound like they are promoting another HR program.
