Do you feel that there is a particular type of client that benefits more from coaching?
GARY’S ANSWER: I think that since I’ve been coaching, almost 20 years now, I’ve rarely had anybody not be successful in making some behavioral changes.
However, I have found that people, who have jobs where they have risen in responsibility based on technical skills, often had more of a breakthrough of understanding than someone who comes to their position from a background requiring social skills.
For example, if somebody has become very successful as a salesperson, then VP Sales, then President --- they’ve had to understand the dynamics that occur between themselves and what’s happening with other people around them. And so, sometimes when there’s a suggestion when they are being coached, they may second guess that suggestion, as if they already knew or understand that already.
Whereas an engineer, or scientist, IT or other technically brilliant person who has risen to be a top manager, may not think as readily about or realize how their actions or their style of communication might make a difference on other people’s productivity in the corporate workplace. These technically oriented people tend to be more receptive to the newness of examining interpersonal relationships. And so, sometimes, there may be greater breakthroughs with technically proficient people, who’ve risen to higher responsibility due to their technical accomplishments.
Why is coaching about corporate politics important?
In today’s dynamic corporate climate, competition among executives has developed into a costly, time consuming reality. This corporate politicizing between individuals is sapping their productivity and efficiency and is increasingly demanding attention within organizations. Dr. Gary Ranker is perhaps one of the only executive coaches who specialize in coaching individuals to navigate their corporate politicized worlds.
There are many coaches offering a variety of services. What particular skills set you and your executive coaching apart from all the other coaches practicing now?
GARY’S ANSWER: My ability to understand and coach about corporate politics.
General Electric approached me in 1989 and asked me to help one of their top managers in their Power Systems Group to change his management style. There was no formal term then for this type of consultancy. Over the years we’ve come to know of this work as executive coaching.
I do bring a different style and in particular, a different set of skills to this role of coach.
I saw that the role that I was being asked to do back in ’89 was to help someone be more successful. Really what the company wanted was for them to be more efficient, more productive. And so I thought well if that’s the case, I need for them to understand more of the political agendas surrounding them. Here is where I began to differentiate myself from others and why people would come to me and not to somebody else. I
Most corporate cultures have some degree of politics. I ask my client to talk to me about the people who surround them. Most people haven’t analyzed their corporate political environments, political cultures, or political systems like that. I help them strategically think about the people in their world and who and how they are important to achieving their goals. I help my clients think about what their goals are and what they want to do? Make more money? Be promoted? I think it’s very important for the executive coach to keep it very simple and pragmatic.
And then I start to use this skill, the political savvy, to help the executive analyze their client’s corporate political environment. I ask them to talk to me about what they perceive to be the agenda of these other people. And I’m also asking them to begin to look at their own agendas. We begin to make comparisons and see how these agendas are either in conflict, help, hurt, or don’t matter at all.
This political strategizing becomes a really unique process that many coaches or clients never thought about. And that’s part of what I do that is unique as an executive coach. My clients are in the senior management at the very highest levels. Mostly I work with people who have great consequence – as role models in their style of management and in the decisions they make.
This political analysis that happens in my coaching is different than simply helping somebody be more efficient or help change their behaviors. I think that this added dimension of what I bring to the coaching process is extraordinarily powerful for my clients because they can begin to take control of the politics that surround them.
How do you differentiate yourself as an executive coach from other executive coaches?
GARY’S ANSWER: I do a different form of coaching in that I coach very in depth over a longer period of time than some. I don’t think that I do necessarily a better format than others, it’s just different.
What you asked is how do I differentiate myself? Actually I use a similar format like many other coaches, in terms of a 360 interview process. I want to get to know the people who know the target individual, the person to be coached, best. In my case, I interview people one on one in person. And I probably interview about 10, and sometimes more if they wish. I don’t really need to interview a lot of people, but it’s important to interview the stakeholders in the executive’s sphere of influence. It’s important to meet with those people who know the individual the best (some above, some peers, some subordinates), and draw from them a couple of common themes that they believe, if they were to be changed, things (or the client) would be more efficient and productive.
You’re asking about what’s different about my style? I’d say that I’ve come to see that I work often with people who have behavioral issues that perhaps they’re aware of, and perhaps not. But they’ve never really done anything about it.
Lately I’ve offered a kind of analogy to clients that explains the goal of coaching in a positive light. I tell them to think of a wind tunnel. If you think about the concept of a wind tunnel and what you’re trying to achieve, is you’re looking for sharp objects that stick up from the object in the wind tunnel and cause a higher “co-efficient of drag” --- in other words the shape doesn’t slip through the air as easily as it might --- there’s friction. You’re trying to achieve a shape that’s most aerodynamic and that’s able to slip through the air in the easiest manner.
So I think of my coaching as looking for the sharp objects ---behaviors --- that somehow cause social friction. When I think about it, that’s what I’m trying to do when I coach executives. I’m trying to find sharp objects, essentially behaviors that stick up a little bit and cause “drag” in the person’s life.
Just like a car that’s in the wind tunnel – I’m trying to help my clients get the most out of their “horsepower” by identifying and removing the “drag” in their lives. If we smooth those little sharp objects, their behaviors, style, relationships - then they will be able to get more work done, in less time.
Sometimes clients feel stigmatized when they think of the idea of being coached. But if you put it in this wind tunnel analogy way it’s a little more positive.
I specialize in helping people be coached towards efficiency and productivity, especially in environments where there are a lot of organizational politics and political issues. In work settings that are highly politicized and there’s a strong political culture, there can be a lot of “drag” in the executive’s life. I specialize in helping leaders analyze their behaviors, the individuals around them, which people are most important, and what they want from those people. We do this by analyzing which behaviors are getting in the way of their success and cause “drag” in their lives, and I help them smooth out these friction points. The clients achieve with greater efficiency because of less “drag” and can therefore succeed faster and quicker towards more important goals.
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