Where Executive Coaching and Talent Management Meet

Earlier this week I read a post from William Rothwell, a leading succession planning expert, The Role of Executive Coaching in Talent Management and Succession Planning, which shared some interesting insights.

The post starts off by establishing that the majority of organizations still do not have a successful talent management or succession planning programs in place. Rothwell explains:

Research indicates that as many as 70 percent of U.S. firms still don’t have successful talent management or succession planning programs. And yet many authorities continue to warn that, despite the current economic downturn, a war for talent is bathrooming. Indeed, the current economic downturn may in fact create an additional hardship for employers, since it may tempt many managers to take their human talent for allowed as unemployment rises. In short, the “r” word (that is, “recession”) may lull some managers into false sense of security as many workers delay their retirements or hunker down to accept extra work at a time when finding new jobs may not be as simple as in boom times.

Rothwell’s piece takes a look at executive coaching, including the different types, when it is appropriate and how it relates to talent management. While we discuss coaching a lot on this blog, we do not usually look at executive coaching as part of talent management, and Rothwell sheds some light on its role:

It should be apparent that executive coaching can be, at times, a valuable strategy to use in talent management. If the organization’s leaders want to promote from within but feel that in-house bench strength is really not “ready” for promotion, then a job content coach can provide “on the job training” to help an executive transition from his or her previous role to a new one. On the other hand, if the organization’s leaders value the technical gifts of a worker but believe that his or her interpersonal skills are inadequate to meet the demands of higher-level responsibility, then a job process coach can effectively provide real-time help by “following the executive around” and offering advice (usually in private) about ways to improve how the executive interacts with other people. It should thus be obvious that executive coaching can be a powerful approach to use, particularly when the organization has not sustained an effective talent management program over time to systematically prepare people for the challenges of other, usually higher-level, positions.

By all means, this is a compelling argument for the value of executive coaching, and coaching on the whole. While executive coaching has a special role in talent management, coaching across the organization really needs to be a priority for much of the same reasons. A good talent management program needs to focus on building bench strength at all levels, and preparing employees for new roles and challenges, regardless of their titles. Rothwell’s explanation of executive coaching shows both the value of coaching overall to the organization, and some different ways it can be done. It may be worth looking at ways to better prepare managers in your organization to deal with job content, job process and more. As Rothwell points out, coaches should be well qualified if you are going to build a high performance workforce for long-term success.