News analysis - Coaching: Asking the right questions

Juliet Daye, learning and development manager at Ecclesiastical Insurance, defines business coaching as: "A form of powerful conversations that enable individuals to take ownership of their life and performance. It creates a culture of people who find solutions and results themselves."

Having survived the recession, brokers are used to balancing cost control with investing for the future; cynics might feel that paying someone thousands of pounds to ask questions is far from a top priority. Yet those whom have taken the coaching route are adamant that it is money well spent.

Ecclesiastical launched its sales academy in August 2009, at the heart of which was coaching. Daye is an advocate of the approach: "Coaching is essential to what we do. It's a way of achieving sustainable behavioural change." In September, the insurer stated that for every £1 spent on training development underwriters, it generated a return of £9.39 in new business.

Gladeana McMahon is a practising coach and chair of the Association for Coaching UK. She stresses that coaching is not a "cosy chat": she recommends that any brokers considering coaching start with an in-depth chemistry meeting with potential coaches to investigate the programme to be pursued, from addressing a weakness to building on a strength. She also cites agreeing how to measure success, transparent feedback procedures and understanding confidentiality as essential prerequisites for a successful programme.

Holistic thinking
When working with a coach, brokers often want to focus simply on being more profitable, yet McMahon highlights that a good coach will break the topic down into core offshoots. She said: "To be more profitable, they have to think about managing people, clients, processes and what the culture of the organisation will be. A coach drills down in a supportive but challenging environment to ask 'what do they do', 'how is it working', 'what is not' and 'how do they know that?'" McMahon prefers fixed-period pieces of work to maintain focus, although relationships often extend into further sessions. Units can range from 12-24 hours in length and are often delivered in monthly 90-minute sessions, allowing time for the client to embed new practices into their working routines.

One broker who has been using a coach for 18 months is Paul Macbeth, managing director at Reading-based Macbeth chartered insurance brokers. He is a supporter of the process and recommends all brokers consider it. He said: "When you own a business, it is easy to get wrapped up in it."

He describes the sessions, held every eight weeks, as a fountain of knowledge and motivation, with each creating a list of elements to implement in a suitable timeframe. Like McMahon, Macbeth stresses it is not easy: "You've got to hear the things you might not want to, take it on board and deal with it. If you don't listen then you'll never improve."

In particular, Macbeth points out that coaching has been key to fine-tuning both day-to-day working and strategic five-year plans for successful business. He explained: "The coach doesn't tell you how to run your own business, they ask very clever questions to get it out of you."

Advocate
Stuart Affleck, head of resourcing and development at LV, is similarly enthusiastic. The insurer has had a programme in place for many years and recently launched a management trainee scheme that includes 18 months of coaching for 10 people.

In addition to supporting the person being coached, Affleck feels that it enriches the whole organisation. The insurer uses the system to create cross-divisional networks around the country by allocating individuals a trained coach from a different team to their own.

His conclusion provides food for thought for any broker considering adding coaching to their 2011 resolutions: "We get incredibly positive feedback from people who did not realise how much they'd get out of it until they went through it."