How CXO coaches have become vital in navigating modern corporate complexity

The coveted corner room comes with intense loneliness. A leadership coach helps CXOs grasp the enormity of the role and cope with the challenges

The CXO of a large services company was feeling unsettled due to the fast-paced changes in the workplace. Negotiations had begun with a prospective buyer for the business, large-scale layoffs within the company were underway, and, to complicate matters further, interpersonal complexities within several teams in the office had risen to a cacophony.
 

Of all these problems, the multiple rounds of layoffs were most disturbing for this CXO, since an entire team, which had its work desks in a designated space close to the office entrance, had been sacked. This is when a leadership coach was engaged by the company to help the CXO.
 

“Day after day, being greeted with a deafening silence, instead of a cheery good morning, from the members of this team was very difficult for this CXO to navigate. He needed several sessions to get over the trauma of familiar faces exiting and simultaneous upheaval due to buyout talks and other issues within the top management,” says the coach who worked with the embattled CXO.
 

Instances of embattled CXOs getting help from coaches have become commonplace in recent years. Indeed, there has been an exponential growth in leadership coaching as business complexities have grown. Corner room aspirants have realised that the coveted position comes with intense loneliness. A leadership coach typically holds multiple sessions with the client to help them grasp the enormity of the role and walk them through the challenges.
 

Grooming CEOs and COOs isn’t a new phenomenon. It was in vogue earlier too, and India Inc was no stranger to gurus spouting gyaan. But till about a decade back, grooming leaders was the job of senior business leaders, whose vast experience was believed to be adequate for mentoring new leaders.
 

In the last few years, though, there has been a growing realisation that the mentoring by seniors and the coaching offered by certified professionals, specifically for leadership roles, fulfil different objectives.
 

Like many other changes, this too gets attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.
 

“The pandemic increased self-awareness and a significant number of coaches partnered with leaders to offer emotional and mental support during those trying times. Leadership is anyway a very lonely space and reducing loneliness is obviously a win-win. Leadership wellness Coaching is here to stay,” says Vijayalakshmi S, Master Certified Coach, Master Practitioner and Advanced Certification in Team Coaching The notion of leadership, she says, has evolved across Indian businesses, with leaders now increasingly taking care of their own wellbeing.

Diverse challenges

Today, business leaders – current and prospective -- face diverse challenges and doubts: Do they have it in them to be a good leader who would not just lead the business but also grow it? Are they insecure about the leaders of other business verticals within the company? Can they share a comfortable relationship with the chairman or promoter? How to speak to colleagues and subordinates? Are they easy to work with?
 

A leadership coach allows the client to discover their own leadership style, face up to their own shortcomings, and gradually navigate towards a more holistic approach.
 

A mentor would, in contrast, merely share their own experiences and advise the leader on how to proceed.
 

 The coaching industry, for its part, is maturing, with many more professionals coming forward after a rigorous training and certification. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is one body that offers certification and industry estimates suggest that India already has 1,800 ICF-certified coaches. Many more are in the process of getting certified. 
 

Besides, startups have come up that provide a platform connecting -- for a fee -- coaches with those looking for coaching. The latter can screen the profiles of the coaches registered on the platform and choose the one that suits their needs best. The two can then figure out the sessions and their timings, which can be conducted either on a video call or in person. 
 

The journey to become a certified coach is long, with advanced level coaches having trained for a decade or more to qualify as seniors in the business.
 

"People at the CXO level have business challenges every other week: Creating a shared vision, critical shareholder conversations, communicating values, positioning for growth, navigating relationships... Choosing a COO may take up quite a few sessions. From establishing the need for one, their role and core strengths, boundaries, costs to the impact of a new COO on the power dynamics in the leadership team -- all these are clarified and resolved by the leader through reflection in coaching sessions,” says Kanwaldeep Singh, Executive and Leadership Coach.
 

Self realisation

In some cases, self realisation by clients is gratifying for both, the client as well as the coach, since this leads to healthier leadership outcomes.
 

Gaurav Arora, Lead-Erickson Coaching International, recalls a Mumbai-based senior professional from the fintech industry who was being promoted to the CEO position: “In one of the early sessions, the client said that were he himself responsible for selecting the company’s CEO, he probably would not have chosen a candidate like himself. The client acknowledged that he was very competitive by nature and also that he was focused on his own growth, instead of aligning his goals with those that would lead to the company’s growth.”
 

So, how did Arora counsel him? “As a coach, I did not have to say any of this; the client acknowledged these traits all by himself. Thereafter, he worked on improving his relationship with his colleagues and stakeholders.”
 

But despite the success stories, a significant demand-supply mismatch exists.
 

Ashish Mehdiratta, who has coached team leaders, says not all Indian businesses are forthcoming when it comes to hiring coaches, especially when it comes to employees being groomed to become CXOs.
 

“Coaching is not democratised for all levels across India Inc. The HR function has still not acknowledged the need at all levels,” he says.

Maybe a session or two with HR heads will help.

 

Evolution from mentor to coach

--- Earlier, coaching meant someone spent 30-35 years in the corporate sector, retired from a senior position, and turned to coaching. They would talk to the next generation of leaders about their experiences, choices, and compulsions 

--- Today, this is called mentoring. The general tone of the mentor is about what worked for them and why the same concepts might work for the new-age leader

--- Coaching the leader is a different exercise, one in which the client decides what works and what does not work for them. The coach does not offer their own learnings

--- Some challenges in mentoring and coaching may be similar, but coaching two different persons will almost always generate different responses, and therefore different solution

--- During a coaching session, the client is encouraged to share their experiences

--- A mentor will do 50% of the talking in a session, a coach will probably talk for 10% of the time, or less

--- A mentor is typically telling a lot to the client, a coach is usually asking a lot

--- A mentor's conversation would be on the lines of "why not try that, that is a good resource to tap into"

--- A coach would ask what exactly is the client seeking, how is that important, what would they lose if they did not get what they seek

--- If the client needs help with public speaking, a mentor would guide them through the steps

--- A coach will first want to know the importance of the public speech and how would the client measure its success

--- The latter approach compels the client to think about what they seek

--- Subsequently the client begins defining by themselves what needs to be done and that no fixed template need be followed
The rate per session for corporate leadership coaches could be between Rs 20,000 and Rs 35,000 a session when the employer is paying for it

--- For smaller companies, the rate is Rs 8,000-10,000


--- Celebrity coaches charge between Rs 60,000 and Rs 1,00,000 a session