Coaching - Project Manager as Change Agent

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 as e.g. re-scheduling, re-planning, and re-budgeting are well explained in the standards, another corrective action, far less covered by standards, is ensuring that a team member, the entire team, as well as stakeholders, are on track after adjusting the project. Skills, knowledge, and experience often need to be developed or enhanced to comply with new, increased demands, but also a team members mindset and attitude might need to be adjusted and aligned with the new situation. Coaching is one of the interpersonal skills that a Project Manager is recommended to possess according to standards . However, where PMBOK see coaching as a means of developing the project team to a higher level of competency and performance, merely by focusing on development or enhancement of specific skills, experience, and knowledge, other literature sees coaching as a process 'unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance' which includes working with a person's mindset and attitude. Looking into change management theory and the role of the Change Agent interpersonal skills similar to the Project Managers is found convenient. Further, four collaborative modes of intervening is presented aiming to support the Change Agent facilitating a change. A limitation or a bias any Project Manager should be aware of in regards of coaching is anchored in the origin of coaching. Coaching as a concept was invented in sports and was uncritically applied to an organizational context in the 1990s (DK) 1970s (US) without taking the shift of context into consideration. From having the coachees individual performance as the highest objective in a sports context, suddenly a company's competitive advantage or a project's progression was the highest objective, which changes the fundamental prerequisites for a coaching process totally. Confidentiality between coach and coachee no longer exists, as well as the coach and the coachee no longer are in a power-free correlation. A recommendation for Project Managers in regards to coaching, and especially in a situation managing change, is to apply a coaching attitude in day-to-day management aiming to facilitate the change, rather than applying coaching in form of coaching sessions. If the latter is needed, a second recommendation will be to ensure a clear framing of the project's progress being the highest objective for the coaching session.

The big idea

Explaining how a project manager can benefit from applying a coaching approach and how four collaborative intervening modes can be supportive in 'moving mindsets' from A to B - when being clear on the project progression as highest objective.

As the Project Manager is assigned to lead a team, responsible for achieving the project objectives, he/she must possess three specific competencies in addition to area-specific skills and general management proficiencies required for the project. Besides knowledge of project management, and ability to perform while applying his/her project management skills, also interpersonal skills are of great importance. Keeping the fact in mind, that a project manager accomplish work through the project team and other stakeholders interpersonal skills seems worth paying attention to while assigning Project Managers to projects.

For instance, in a situation of change where a Project Manager needs to implement corrective actions that affect a team member or the entire team to such a degree, that team performance decreases and the progression of the project is affected, interpersonal skills and especially coaching skills can be very relevant and value creating to possess. But given the fact that coaching has it's origin from sports and was introduced to a business c

Interpersonal skills

According to PMBOK interpersonal skills are important for Project Managers to possess since they accomplish work through their project team and other stakeholders. 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 aiming to manage the project efficiently..

[Figure showing an infinite list of interpersonal skills recommended for a Project Manager]

• Leadership
• Decision making
• Political and cultural awareness
• Teambuilding
• Motivation
• Communication
• Negotiation
• Conflict management
• Trust building
• Influence
• Coaching

How do interpersonal skills for a PM, Change Agent, and a person who is coaching overlap?

Coaching

Short description of how coaching got known and highly popular in relation to performance in sport, how it later got into business introduced by consultancies and how it as the latest got implemented in organizations as a managerial discipline.

In the 1980’ies coaching was broadly known and coaching schools were established based on different theoretical foundations introducing each their collection of coaching models, methods, and tools. [Coaching i Organisationer].

This leaves a Project Manager with at least two different ways to interpret the interpersonal skills - coaching:

• A means of developing the project team to a higher level of competency and performance merely by focusing on development or enhancement of specific skills, experience, and knowledge or
• A process/method unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance (John Whitmore, 2002)

The first is how the PMBOK sees it, the latter is the definition of coaching as it was seen in the 1970s when coaching was applied in organizations by John Whitmore. He was inspired by Timothy Gallwey, the father of coaching in a sports context.

As defined by the PMBOK

With reference to PMBOK ‘Coaching is a means of developing the project team to a higher level of competency and performance’. And further ‘Coaching is about helping people recognize their potential through empowerment [link]’.

PMBOK seems primary to focus on coaching in regards to skills. Development or enhancement of existing skills or build new ones if performance is lacking due to existing skill set. Coaching in regards of changing mindset isn’t explicitly mentioned. PMBOK talks about turning a ‘can’t do’-situation into a ‘can do’-situation – not about changing a ‘can’t do’-mindset into a ‘can do’-mindset.

PMBOK focuses on coaching the individual, not team coaching. Team-building is mentioned, but there is a big difference between team coaching and team-building even though team cohesiveness and performance may be positively affected by both [TEMO book: balance divergence-cohesiveness for high performance, Factors important for cohesiveness]. PMBOK in some way mentions the benefit from team coaching and/or team-building: ‘as a team develop their skills, abilities, and confidence, their willingness to take a challenging or demanding task in increased’ but if skills can be seen as 1+1+1, ability and confidence is highly influenced by common understanding and team spirit [TEMO book].

PMBOK mentions that formal or informal training may be developed to increase technical skills or assist team-building efforts and facilitate consistent interpersonal interactions. It is a little unclear whether the training regards the PM or the team members – or both.

PMBOK distinguish between coaching and counseling – where coaching is towards a ‘can’t do’ attitude and counseling is towards a ’won’t do’ attitude. Is there a correlation between won’t do and can’t do and can different intervening approaches be used in coaching in ‘won't’ do situations? [Modes of intervening – prescriptive (advising) versus Collaborative (Theorizing approach, supportive approach, challenging approach, information-gathering approach).

As defined by John Whitmore

Agreement – Space - Confidential, power free and personal space for interaction between coach and coachee Coaching skills -

Application

How does a Project Manager apply the interpersonal skill, coaching?

(READ - Coaching conversations in the workplace can be conducted both informally and formally. Informal coaching sessions, or ‘corridor coaching’, are short focused conversations which engage the employee in collaborative problem solving and aim to leave the employee energized and engaged. In contrast, formal coaching sessions typically involve formal sit-down coaching sessions, and such coaching sessions may take place (for example) during a performance review, a debriefing after sales presentations, or in preparation for various types of negotiation. Regardless of whether the coaching is informal or formal, workplace coaching can be understood as being a helping relationship formed between an individual who has a managerial or supervisory responsibility in an organization and an employee, in which the manager or supervisor uses a wide variety of cognitive and behavioral techniques to enhance communication with the employee in order to help the employee achieve a mutually defined set of goals, with the aim of improving his or her work performance and, consequently, the effectiveness of the organization)

Limitations of coaching

In regards to country, culture or hazard

• 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 'command and control' paradigm coaching can tend to be less successful since coaching is a natural part of the 'interactive learning' paradigm and thus requires a less hierarchical structure, more a fare more value-based motivation than the command and control paradigm supports.
• In situations where a change causes a hazard and an immediate corrective action is needed, coaching will not be applicable since coaching is based on dialog it tends to be

Recommendations

See Project Manager as Change Agent

Change management skills are quite similar [The Theory and practice of Change Management, Heyes, 2014 4th edition]

• Offer leadership
• Work with teams
• Motivate
• Communicate
• Confront
• Negotiate

• Manage relationships with others
• Intervene to facilitate change (prescriptively or collaboratively)

5 intervening modes for facilitating change

Using four different ways of collaborative intervening – depending on the situation, the individual or the team.

• Theorizing approach
• Supportive approach
• Challenging approach
• Information-gathering approach

• Advising approach - (prescriptive)

Apply an workplace coaching approach more than coaching as a process

...but do not only focus on skills, experience and knowledge, also include the facilitation of changing mindset and attitude by using especially 3 collaborative intervening modes. The fourth (supportive) is applicable when used with great awareness of framing the coaching correctly (problem-centered versus person-centered, making the project's progression the highest objective).

Other ways to prevent or handle decrease in team performance

(1) High-Performance Teams, (2) Project governance, (3) Self-managed work teams, (4) Teams motivation.

Conclusion

Project Manager can 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

Kilburg, R. R. (1996). Toward a conceptual understanding and definition of executive coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal, 48(2), 134-144. A review of the literature on coaching reveals that very little empirical research has focused on the executive coaching methods used by consultants with managers and leaders in organizations. Within the framework of a 17-dimensional model of systems and psychodynamic theory, the author provides an overview of a conceptual approach to coaching activities that incorporates 5 identifiable components plus an emphasis on goal setting, intervention methods, and hypothesized factors in negative consulting outcomes.