Coaching - Project Manager as Change Agent

Coaching is one out of many interpersonal skills that PMI (Project Management Institute), an organization that defines worldwide standards for project, program and portfolio management, recommends a Project Manager to possess . The standard defines coaching as a means of developing a project team to a higher level of competency and performance, applied with an individual or team approach. Coaching is recommended in situations where a project team member or an entire team is low performing due to lack of motivation, knowledge or skills.

The fact that coaching is a commonly used term, representing many different categories of coaching (e.g. Executive, Life coaching, Workplace coaching), coachings in different contexts (e.g. personal or business), and coachings with different focus (motivation or skills) provides different expectations and understanding towards prerequisites for a coaching, which limits the application of coaching in a business context. .

In a context of change, coaching can be seen as a corrective action aiming to get a team member or an entire team 'back on track' and aligned with new project objectives. A Program Manager applying coaching is highly comparable to a Change Agent facilitating a change. Adopting four collaborative modes of intervening from Change Management can ease the application of coaching in a business context.

Recommendations are given to Project Managers at different coaching levels. A 'First step' - providing basic knowledge on how to get started with coaching, and a 'Next step' - introducing a viable coaching approach for a business context.

This article will focus on individual coaching in a context of change, and address a situation where a team member is low performing due to lack of motivation.

A situation of change

Changes happen in projects. They may be initiated by project team members, stakeholder requests, complaints or a wide range of other factors, however, it is the Project Managers responsibility to manage the change and implement corrective actions

Corrective actions are related to activities, XXXXXX scheduling, planning, and budgeting are (explicitly??) covered in the PMI guide, Project Management Body of Knowledge [PMBOK], as opposed to corrective actions as re-motivating and ensuring that a team member gets 'back on track' after a project has undergone change. Developing a team members mindset and attitude in case it is unaligned with new project objectives may be less tangible than enhancing a team members skills and knowledge, but nevertheless it very important in terms of regaining high performance.

Interpersonal skills and competencies

Figure 1 Infinite list of interpersonal skills recommended for a Project Manager]

As the Project Manager is assigned to lead a team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives he must possess three specific competencies, in addition to area-specific skills and general management proficiencies required for the project, to be efficient. These three competencies are knowledge of project management, the ability to perform while applying his/her project management skills, and personal competencies such as attitude, core personality characteristics, and leadership.

Keeping the fact in mind, that a project manager accomplishes work through the project team and other stakeholders, interpersonal skills are worth paying attention to as well. Interpersonal skills cannot stand alone, they are to be balanced with other important project management skills such as technical and conceptual skills in the act of analyzing situations and interacting appropriately.

In any situation where a Project Manager needs to implement corrective actions to the project plan, budget or schedule, there is a potential risk that a team member or the entire team will be negatively affected by the change. In a worst-case scenario, the team members will be demotivated, performance will be affected, the progression of the project will decrease and project objective won't be achieved. In such a situation several interpersonal skills are relevant to possess. Communication, trust building, motivation, conflict management, teambuilding and coaching. However, in a situation of change where fear is known as the main reason for people be resistant to changes, coaching skills stand out. Handling a team member's fear - whether it is fear of poor outcomes, fear of the unknown, or fear of realization of faults with change overlooked by management and their fear of resulting problems - requires some kind of dialog with a focus on regaining trust and confidence in the new situation. Two different approaches to coaching can be taken, either a problem-centered or a person-centered.

Coaching

Coaching is as mentioned, an interpersonal skill that a Project Manager is recommended to possess and is fundamentally based on a dialog between two people, one conducting the coaching (the coach/Project Manager) and the other being coached (the coachee/project team member).

Definitions of coaching though vary considerably. Emphasising an instructional approach proposes that coaching is concerned with the immediate improvement of performance and development of skills by a form of tutoring or instruction'. In contrast, John Whitmore, who in 1970s introduced the principles behind sports coaching to organizations, sees coaching as a process of 'unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them'. Here the focus should be drawn to the word unlocking since it represents the facilitated change in mindset and attitude that is needed for a person to maximize own performance.

With reference to PMBOK® Guide coaching is seen as a means of developing the project team to a higher level of competency and performance. And the purpose of coaching is given as 'helping people recognize their potential through empowerment and development'. Despite PMBOK® Guide mentions empowerment and motivation in relation to coaching, it tends to focus on the development of skills rather than unlocking potential.

Focus

In this article, the terms motivation focused coaching and skill focused coaching will be used to easily distinguish between the two different approaches to coaching. Both approaches are relevant for a Project Manager since low performance can be a consequence of lack of motivation as well as lack of skills.

• Motivation focused coaching addresses motivation by facilitating a change in a persons mindset and attitude towards accepting a challenging situation and unlocking own potential. This type of coaching has a nondirectional ask-not-tell approach and the coach uses a wide variety of cognitive and behavioral techniques to enhance the coaching dialog. Focus is on a person's self-discovery and is linked to personal rather than professional development.

• Skill focused coaching addresses skills and knowledge by helping a person to develop specific skills or achieve the knowledge needed to handle a new situation. This type of coaching is directional and has a tell-rather-than-ask approach, emphasizing advice and direct feedback.

Anyone can in principle provide coaching. Since the middle of the 1990s, coaching professional associations such as the Association for Coaching (AC), the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), the International Association of Coaching (IAC), and the International Coach Federation (ICF) have worked towards developing training standards for coaches.

Context

Coaching can be applied in different contexts a personal and business context. . In the role of a Project Manager, it will always be applied in a business context but it is relevant to understand the difference between the two contexts.

• Personal context - coaching in a personal context, the goals, and needs of the person being coached are seen as the highest objective for the coaching.

• Business context - coaching in a business context, a company's competitive advantage or a project's progression is seen as the highest objective for the coaching.

In figure 3 shows three important differences in focus and prerequisites between coaching in a personal context and a business cóntext.

Figure 3 Differences in focus and prerequisites for a coaching in a personal and a business context.

Categories

Providing a picture of the common understanding of coaching it is relevant to mention three categories of coaching - Executive Coaching, Life Coaching, and Workplace Coaching. In Executive Coaching, a person with managerial authority and responsibility in an organization is being coached by an external consultant on e.g. strategic planning, skills, anger and stress management, and leadership development - in a business context. In Life Coaching a person is typically being coached on personal issues in a personal context e.g. work/life balance, managing finances and developing new career directions.

Less known is Workplace coaching. Here a nonexecutive person is being coached by a line manager or project manager - in a business context. It focuses primarily on performance or skills enhancement rather than personal or professional development

Application

A coaching between a Project Manager and a project team member, where the coaching dialog is conducted by the Project Manager responsible for achieving project objectives, meets the prerequisites of a Workplace coaching.

Workplace coaching is applied either formally or informally. If informally applied, then the coaching is more likely to be short, focused dialogs during a workday, also called 'corridor-coaching'. In contrast, formal coaching typically involves formal sit-down coaching sessions where the Project Manager will be conducting the conversation, assisted by a formal structure.

In both settings, the Project Manager uses a wide variety of cognitive and behavioral techniques to enhance a coaching dialog with the project team member with the aim of improving his performance and, consequently, the progression of the project.

PMBOK® Guide does neither mention nor incites a Project Manager to acquire certain techniques, knowledge or experience within the field of coaching before applying it is given.

Potential pitfalls regarding the application of coaching in a business context are elaborated in the Limitations paragraph and recommendations on how to avoid these pitfalls, are given in the Recommendation paragraph.

Limitations

Based on the presented information, three assumptions are being phrased pointing to major pitfalls regarding the application of Workplace coaching. A worst-case scenario and as short analysis is presentet to show the potential consequence of the pitfalls. Furthermore, three additional pitfalls are briefly touched upon.

As coaching is a commonly used term, with a reference to many different categories of coaching (e.g. Executive, Life coaching, 
Workplace coaching), coachings in different contexts (e.g. personal or business), and coachings with different focus (motivation or skills)  

 - It is likely to assume that the exact understanding of a coaching will differ from one person to another - e.g. from Project Manager 
   to project team member

As coaching in PMBOK® Guide is mentioned as a recommendable interpersonal skill, presented next to other interpersonal skills that 
one might see as a straightforward applicable skill e.g. communication, trust building, and influence - and the fact that no incitement 
of achieving certain techniques, knowledge or experience within the field of coaching is given

 - It is likely to assume that a Project Manager will lack techniques and knowledge within the field of Workplace coaching 

As the prerequisites confidentiality, equality, and the highest objective for the coaching being personal are only valid when coaching 
is applied in a personal context - but coaching with a high personal focus (motivation focused coaching) can be necessary to apply in 
a business context if a project team member is lacking motivation on a project

 - It is likely to assume that the person who receives that type of coaching in a business context will have an 
   underlying belief regarding confidentiality, equality, and that highest objective for the coaching is personal

Regardless of the potential pitfalls, a motivation focused coaching in a business context is a recommendable corrective action for a Project Manager if a team member is low on motivation or has a wrong attitude towards a projects new objectives. A recommendation on how to apply a motivation focused coaching in a business context, inspired by the work of a Change Agent, is given in the Recommendation paragraph.

A worst-case scenario

A worst-case scenario based on the three assumptions could be as follows:

A Project Manager finds it necessary to do something about a low performing project team member who, due to a change in the project, is lacking motivation. The Project Manager is inspired to apply coaching as he in the PMBOK Guide can see that it is recommended when a project team member performs at a low level. As he finds communicating and trust building quite easy he has no concern regarding the application of coaching. How hard can it be to ask some questions helping the project team member to reflect, accept the situation and 'get back on track' contributing to the project's progression?

The project team member finds himself demotivated and low performing due to a change in the project that brings about a feeling of fear. His wife has a friend who is a self-employed coach and lately he has been reading a book called 'The inner game of tennis' addressing the importance of aligning mindset and attitude to perform the best. So, when the Project Manager invites him to a coaching session he feels confident and relieved that he can be honest about his fear - and bring on his reservations about the changes.

The day for the coaching session arises, the project team member arrives at the Project Managers office and is asked to take a seat. Even though the setup is quite formal the Project Manager seems quite relaxed and initiate the coaching dialog by saying 'So, are you doing OK?'

After a while the coaching dialog gets going, the project team member feels confident with the setup and is very honest with the Project Manager about his fear of the unknown. As he trusts the Project Manager he even involves him in a confidential dialog he had with a colleague the other day about a project team member being disloyal to the project. The coaching session is over, the Project Manager and the team member shake hands and went their separate ways.

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Short analysis: The Project Manager and the project member has two very different understandings of coaching. The Project Manager has no coaching skills and no knowledge or experience with coaching. He doesn't know the importance of framing the coaching upfront - especially when a motivation focused coaching is applied in a business context. When not clearly framed upfront, the project team member will, based on his understanding of coaching, expect that whatever said in the coaching is confidential. The Project Manager, on the contrary, is aware of his responsibility towards a project's progression why he will take any information that compromises the project into close consideration and take action if needed.

A consequence of misalignment is that the project team member's underlying beliefs regarding confidentiality and equality will be compromised resulting in mistrust and a potential worsening of a situation. Or, if the Project Manager is unaware of the highest objective for a coaching in a business context, he will omit his obligations regarding project management by not implementing corrective actions.

Country, culture or hazard

Other pitfalls regarding the application of workplace coaching is a high power distance, a command and control paradigm and a hazardous situation.

• In countries with high power distance a coaching approach can be non-applicable since the coaching attitude implies and certain employee autonomy.
• In a company or department corresponding with the 'command and control' paradigm the application of coaching can be less successful. The reason is that coaching is a natural part of the 'interactive learning' paradigm and thus requires a less hierarchical structure, and a more shared value -based approach than the command and control paradigm supports.
• In situations where e.g. a change causes a hazardous situation and an immediate corrective action is needed, coaching will not be applicable. The reason is that regardless of focus, a coaching is based on a dialog.

Recommendations

Recommendations are given in perspective of a Project Manager who is challenged by a decrease in team performance as a result of a change in a project. He wants to apply coaching to get the team member 'back on track'. The Project Manager is aware of mindset and attitude being the primary reason, skills secondary.

First step - get basic knowledge

Given the main pitfalls, a recommendation will be to get fundamental knowledge about coaching in a business context, before applying it. Find recommended books in the Annotated Bibliography paragraph.

When knowing basic coaching techniques the Project Manager should start practicing by applying an informal coaching dialog on a daily basis. This will help the Project Manager to detect and immediately respond to minor setbacks in a team members mindset or attitude.

When a need for more formal coaching is detected, it is important that the Project Manager frames the coaching session in a business context, by telling that the coaching will be applied with the project's progression as highest objective - e.g. by highlighting the three prerequisites in figure 2.

With a change in a project's objective, it is unlikely that a change in mindset and attitude will be sufficient. Often new skills or knowledge is needed in order to comply with new requirements. This argues for applying skill focused coaching as well motivation focused coaching. In a situation where a corrective action will be to develop a team members skills in addition to increase motivation, it is recommended that skill focused coaching will be applied next to motivation focused coaching. This will increase the outcome of the skill focused coaching due to a mindset of acceptance and access to full potential.

A next step for the Project Manager will be to get a deeper understanding of how mindset and attitude can be limiting a team member's performance. A way to approach this is to look into Change Management literature and the role of a Change Agents. The expression used in Change management 'facilitating change' is comparable to the process applying motivation focused coaching. Both aims to move a persons mindset and attitude from a current stage X towards a future desired stage Y . In our case stage X could be 'Team member is low performing and lacks motivation due to a change that has induced fear' and stage Y could be 'Team member is highly motivated and performs at a high level".

Next step - be a Change Agent

When the Project Manager has an understanding of the way people typically react to changes and how a Change Agent facilitate a change, he can apply a Change Agent mindset and start applying motivation focused coaching. As it can be seen in figure 3 Change Agent skills are very similar to the interpersonal skills a Project Manager is recommended to possess. This argues for the possibility

Figure 3 Shows a similarity between skills recommended for a Project Manager (blue) and a Change Agent (green)

.that a Project Manager is likely to act as a Change Agent in terms of facilitating a change.

Looking into the fact that a Project Manager will be comparable to an internal Change Agent, it is relevant to ensure that the arguments for applying an internal Change Agent are met. In accordance with Hayes the main arguments for choosing an internal Change Agent are as follows:

• the person responsible for managing the unit or subsystem that is to be the (initial) target for change is committed to acting as change agent
• It is agreed that a particular insider has the time, knowledge and commitment to manage the change more effectively than an outsider
• the system does not have the resources to employ an outsider
• issues of confidentiality and trust prohibit the use of an outsider
• it proved impossible to identify a suitable outside consultant.

The two first bullets are clearly showing why a Project Manager can be seen as a Change Agent. And further, none of the arguments are compromising the Project Managers role and responsibility in regards to project management.

In terms of facilitating change or in other words, applying motivation focused coaching, a Project Manager can be inspired by the intervening modes that a Change Agent uses.

Apply different intervening modes

Four different modes of intervening, all with a collaborative approach, are found helpful to a Project Manager applying motivation focused coaching. An important argument for recommending these modes of intervening is based on their potential for unlocking a project team members frozen mindset, simply by presenting an opportunity to see the situation from another perspective.

Shortly described, the modes of intervening can help a project team member to reflect and self-develop through four different approaches

• Challenging mode. - challenge in regards to an undocumented belief.

The Project Manager's objective is to call attention to contradictions in action and attitude aiming to help the project team member to identify an alternative. (How do you know that this is true? What if I see it differently, am I wrong then?)

• Theorizing mode. - help by applying a theorizing cause-effect approach.

The Project Manager's objective is to find theories and conceptual models that are relevant for the project team members situation, helping them to a better understanding of their situation in an analytical cause-and-effect fashion

• Information-gathering mode - encourage to collect data that will illuminate a point of concern.

The Project Manager's objective is to guide the project team member to arrive at a better level of awareness.

• Supportive mode. Be allowed to express feelings, emotions, and concerns.

The Project Manager's objective is to support project team members to give themselves permission to talk about difficult issues, which leads on to giving themselves permission to act rather than to worry

The latter is to be used carefully and only with a clear framing of the business context. The reason is that this intervening mode addresses emotions and feelings, which, as an underlying belief, are expected to be handled in a context with confidentiality rather than in a business context.

In case of high power distance or command and control paradigm

Change Management theory also present a fifth way to intervene with team members in a situation of change. This approach is prescriptive, as opposed to the other four approaches which are collaborative. Given its nature, an advising mode of intervening is not to be seen as a recommendable approach in regards to motivation focused coaching. Advice-giving reduces opportunities for the project team member to develop self-directed learning skills. However, the advice-giving mode of intervening can be applied in skill focused coaching.

Furthermore, the prescriptive intervening mode is mentioned, as it is important for Project Managers, who might prefer a coaching attitude towards project team members, to be aware of the need for clear leadership in situations where circumstances conflict with collaborative intervening modes. Such circumstances could be the three additional pitfalls mentioned before e.g. high power distance, command and control paradigm as well as hazardous situations.

Conclusion

(Ensure that conclusion is only based on things that is written earlier in this wiki)

Project Manager can preferably apply a coaching approach in the day-to-day dialog with team members, teams, and stakeholders to help them to a new level of understanding that can clarify their thinking about a problem. The Project Manager can beneficially use one or more of three problem-centered, collaborative intervening modes , typically uses by change agents, in his/her dialog with team members and stakeholders.

Annotated bibliography

Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management, 521.

Molly-Søholm, T., & Jacob Storch. (2013). Ledelsesbaseret coaching. L & R Business.

Cavanagh, M., Grant, A. (Anthony M. ., & Kemp, T. (2005). Evidence-based coaching. Volume 1, Theory, research and practice from the behavioural sciences. Australian Academic Press.

Project Management Institute. (n.d.). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® guide)

References

(Must fix: the same reference is shown multiple times)