[Ailist] AI and Coaching - not only the coachee but also his boss

[David J. Snider]

Hi Esther

For work with the person you are coaching I suggest you use  
Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change by Sara Orem,  
Jacqueline Binkert and Ann Clancy.  They beautifully apply the heart  
of AI philosophy and framework for consulting to coaching.  I am  
using it with a new coaching client - I'm too early in the process to  
report what is working.  However, if you are doing an AI approach  
generally, this source will be helpful.

For work with the boss I suggest The Versatile Leader: Make The Most  
Of Your Strengths - Without Overdoing It by Bob Kaplan and Rob  
Kaiser.  The heart of their approach is in a PDF article called  
"Developing Versatile Leadership," available at
http://www.performanceprograms.com/pdf/DevelopingVersatileLeadership 
(SMR2003).pdf  That version is available free (I found it with a  
Google search).  Or you can pay for it at the MIT Sloan Management  
Review site.  That site does have info about content of the article.

The part of The Versatile Leader that is relevant to the boss you are  
working with is in their concept of versatility as applied to the  
paired concepts of "Forceful" and "Enabling" leadership.  They make a  
strong case that a leader who overdoes either the Forceful or the  
Enabling part of the pair will be far less effective than one who is  
versatile and can choose either Enabling or Forceful, depending on  
the situation.

The boss in this situation sounds stuck in Forceful leadership.  In  
their book Kaplan and Kaiser report that many of the leaders they  
have worked with had no clue that they were overdoing their Forceful  
leadership style.  I just got the book yesterday and am not sure how  
useful I regard their suggestions for people to change.  However,  
they do have specific change suggestions.

Kaplan and Kaiser do not mention the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory  
perspective.  However, when I read them with awareness of the MBTI, I  
am guessing that Forceful leaders are likely to have a preference for  
Thinking and overdo their Thinking (logical) preference.   Enabling  
leaders, I believe, are likely to have a preference for Feeling and  
to overdo their Feeling (people concerns) preference.  The key, from  
an MBTI perspective, is to develop one's less-preferred functions and  
to lead with a fuller self.  In some of the MBTI literature that is  
called type flexing.  It seems very similar to Kaplan and Kaiser's  
versatility concept.

It may be useful at some point to introduce the versatile leader  
concept to the person you are coaching.  That may enable him to  
understand more of the behavior of the leader who dashes energy and  
esteem.  It may be useful for him to recognize that the leader's  
behavior probably is not personal (directed only to him).  It is in  
fact the leader's overdoing of a strength (forceful leadership) that  
this boss probably does with most people.

Both Appreciative Coaching  and The Versatile Leader are available  
from amazon.com.

If you use one or both of these approaches, please let us know what  
works.  Good luck and enjoy the challenge!

Best to you,

David

David J. Snider, Ph.D.
David Snider Associates
   Consultants On Personal and
   Organizational Development
17214 Wildemere
Detroit, MI 48221
O: 313 342 8060
Fax: 313 342 8650
davidsnider at mindspring.com

On Jul 3, 2007, at 8:13 AM, EwingChange at aol.com wrote:

> I am about to take on a coaching assignment where an  individual  
> has quite
> low self-esteem as well as a poor relationship with his  boss. I  
> have had some
> preliminary conversations with him and he gets quite  excited about  
> the work
> (and is convinced it is important to do) and then he has  a  
> conversation with
> his boss who is apparently hyper-critical and his esteem and  his  
> energy gets
> dashed.
>
> I would love it if he could learn to be more resilient and I  will  
> be working
> with him on this but does anyone have any suggestions about how  I  
> might work
> to influence the boss who, it seems, has some beliefs that are   
> counter to
> how I would like to work. Specifically she seems to believe that   
> being
> encouraging is "to ignore the facts" and does not believe that  
> people need  time to
> make behaviour change.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Esther Ewing
> The Change Alliance
> 330 East 38th St. Suite  53K
> New York, NY 10016, USA
> Telephone: 212-661-6024
> Building  Strength from Within
>
>
>
>
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