Despite it's success predicated on the talents of individuals and teams, most conversations about Design of Work Experience are about organization-scale culture and change. On Get Yourself The Job, we delve into how culture affects the individual, what they can do about it, and the implications of culture "fit."  Many of my coaching conversations cover this territory and people's specific situations, but here's a chance to hear about it as a general audience. Give it a listen here. 

You’ve got a few steps to get through before you hire the first coach. As someone I worked with used to say, “First things first, second things second.” That might sound obvious, but so many organizations fail to think things through and purposely sequence their actions. As a result, investments in people and resources fall short of their full potential.
 
Let’s assume executive coaching is the right solution for your organization. In a field that lacks consistency, quality, and sometimes uses paid certifications as evidence of capability, you’ve got to do some mining before you find gold.  For the good of coaches, talent, and organizations alike, here’s some high level advice, in order.
 
1. DEFINE THE PURPOSE
 
What are you trying to achieve and why? Be specific. The purpose will drive everything else after this, so think this through, articulate it, and make sure people are aligned. Tie it directly to business strategies and goals, for no coaching program should ever be done in isolation. What organizational outcomes will the use of coaching relationships support? There are many possibilities for the purpose of your organization’s program, including:

• Development of future leaders. This is probably the most popular reason for a program, but make sure you’ve figured out which archetypes/capabilities you’re trying to develop. It’s not enough to say “leadership” or “high potential” without defining it (and its needs) for your organization.
• Support of current leaders. It can be lonely at the top.  Senior executives still need opportunities to learn and somewhere to go for perspective once they’ve “made it.” The political atmosphere may not support a safe environment for them to do this, so coaching may be a temporary solution while the cultural issues are worked out in the meantime.
• Facilitating a culture change. Behavior, working dynamics, and relationships between people will be different when you create a coaching or helping culture. A coaching program may be one of the conditions you set to encourage this.
• A form of 360°feedback. Depending on the context, this may be an inappropriate or appropriate use of a coaching program. I’ve seen it go both ways. Some coaching arrangements begin with 360° interviews and psychometric assessments. These are analyzed and put together in an executive summary that identifies priorities for the coaching relationship. 360° feedback should always be done in the spirit of development and building of self-awareness. It must never, NEVER be used as a performance management tool, nor a replacement for authentic conversations. To do so will guarantee a corruption of your agenda and outcomes.
• Transition tool (in or out of roles/the organization).  Coaching can be used as part of a support system helping people and the team around them manage through the inevitable change that come with transitions. The purpose of these arrangements should be clear and communicated for intended understanding. This was not the case in one organization. They hired coaches for both high potentials and poor performers. With no transparency, people (even those being coached) were confused. Why would an organization treat these two groups the same way? 

 
2.  DESIGN THE COACHING EXPERIENCE
 
Once the purpose is determined, your next step is to design for what it will be like to go through the coaching program itself, as an experience. People are not cogs in a machine. Every coaching arrangement should address the learning and business needs individually, so we are not talking about everyone doing the same thing every time in the same way. However, you can design an experience for consistent outcomes, such as: overall success in achievement of coaching goals, development of capabilities, demonstration/adoption of new behaviors, improved relationships, increased engagement, satisfaction, etc. Consider the coaching experience as a journey. What happens as one enters the program, participates, and comes out? In design, the 5E’s is a popular guideline used for the various points along the way: Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit, Extend. Design of Work Experience offers a comprehensive approach to creating experiences based on the context of the organization and its people and guides the progress toward desired future states. Upon completion of the coaching program’s designed experience, it’s clear what conditions have to be in place and what needs to happen to achieve desired goals. The presence/absence of these conditions and the planned outcomes become the measurements for your program’s success, so get these down. They will be useful later.   
 
3.  IDENTIFY THOSE WHO WILL BE COACHED
 
Who’s getting coached? Coaching can be a very beneficial contribution to your overall talent development program, but it doesn’t come cheap. Chances are you can’t afford to offer it to everyone, especially at the same time. It then comes down to priorities. First, establish criteria as an impartial decision making tool. Include only that which the business and its people most critically need (as opposed to want). Next, look at the coaching experience you designed. Knowing that its purpose is tied to business needs, who are those that will benefit the most when you compare them to the criteria? Consider the roles in the company where top talent and performance make the biggest difference. Once nominated, ensure candidates are in a position to fully engage in the coaching program. In what remains, parse out cohorts and implement them in waves.
 
4.  FIND COACHES AND PAIR OFF
 
Source your coaches next, with forethought and discipline. If your company has a required procurement process, make sure your RFP reflects the purpose, requirements of the designed experience, and your criteria.
 
Based on the firms that answer, you can begin an iterative filtering process, with each round narrowing the field.  Treat individual coaches and large firms as equals in the same pool.  After all, they share the same level of variability—all have their different strengths and challenges.
 
Round 1:  Eliminate coaches whose approaches and specialties don’t match your designed experience.
 
Round 2:  Test for capability, not situations. Many vetting processes ask questions around “Have you ever…” That doesn’t indicate capability, nor does it account for everything that could happen in the course of a coaching relationship. Look for demonstration of behavioral characteristics (flexibility, resourcefulness, use of network, connections between ideas). The most capable experts will become evident.
 
Round 3: Next, observe behavior in an experiential setting—i.e. interactions where people can’t fake or talk their way through. Get creative with role plays, coaching fairs, speed networking, etc. 
 
Round 4:  Use references wisely. Remember that they’re provided by coaches for the purpose of endorsement, so ask open-ended questions that might challenge the prepared script and allow you to read between the lines.  Listen not just for what’s said, but also for what goes unspoken.
 
Round 5: Select 3-5 options per person for comparison. Reiterate to everyone the criteria and measurements for the coaching relationship based on the designed experience. Resist the temptation to choose on personality alone.
There are those who choose coaches most similar to them—so much so that they end up enabling or validating each others' faults. On the other hand, a forced fit when compatibility is way off is also counter-productive. Balance the tension between these two extremes and find relationships that aim for both “backbone and heart,” as author Mary Beth O’Neill discusses in her book. The coaching relationship (relationship being the key word) should appropriately challenge the person to learn while also fostering trust in a psychologically safe environment.
 
5. YOU’RE NOT DONE YET:  TRACK PROGRESS AND OUTCOMES
 
Many organizations walk away once the coaching relationship begins. It’s unwise to completely disengage at this point. Give the pairings their space, but set up a way to touch base and monitor progress. If you created a journey map, look out for markers of success and concern along the way. Use the measurements created out of the designed experience in Step 2 to ensure alignment of intentions and outcomes. Course correct as necessary along the way. When all is said and done, the success of the overall program is a pass/fail:  Did the outcomes match the purpose?  Yes or No?
 
These steps should get your coaching initiative off to a better start.  If you are ready for more, talk to me about a customized approach based upon your organization’s unique context.

Feels like Uber is getting a lot of media coverage these days, for better or worse.  The title of this New York Times article is "Uber's Model Could Change Your Work" (Click the pic above to see it).  I share this not because I agree with the author here, but for the dialogue that it stimulates.  Warning-the tone is unnecessarily negative and conveys one emotion above all others, fear.  Disrupting the status quo in an evolutionary or revolutionary way is how innovation happens.  The #futureofwork is coming no matter what we do, so I'm not sure what this article expects people to do with their information other than to be cranky.   We can influence whether it is for the better or worse.  Having a tech company's model re-draw the boundaries is not necessarily a bad thing, it's different.  The question for us individually is whether we are willing to adapt ourselves into the talent of the future and bring about positive outcomes.  Work is changing and has always changed so there is no use fighting it.  Leverage it.   

Check out this opinion piece from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, "Recruit Me With A Manicure" as food for thought.   There is hardly any topic about diversity that doesn't stir up strong emotions or controversy amongst people.   As a woman of color, my life experiences and culture studies have informed how I feel about this.  Separate from that, we can respond to this article from a Design of Work Experience (DOWE) perspective.  It expands our understanding of the concept, and also gives us a different way of looking at this long-debated topic.   Let's look at this hypothetically:

1.  First, a company could articulate the archetype of qualities that would be successful there--not what they would like, but what would realistically work in that culture.  If it doesn't look pretty, I would suggest some transformation work to set the right conditions for top talent to thrive.  Gender (as in the case of this article) wouldn't be a quality per se, but the company might decide that the hired group as a whole should reflect diversity to leverage its benefits.  

2.  Once they know what they are looking for, perhaps they would go out to understand the behaviors and motivations of candidates.  They could look for ways in how those aforementioned qualities are demonstrated and select the people that exemplify them best.  To attract these target people to their company, perhaps they follow their activities, interests, and interactions.  Then they go out and meet them there.  In the process, they might discover that some of these candidates enjoy manicures, so they host an recruitment event at a nail bar.  

Not as controversial sounding now, huh?  It makes sense.  A DOWE approach lets the target candidates define the recruitment activities, which makes the company more attractive to them.  It ensures a strong job-person-company fit-match, thus ensuring greater hiring success and retention. Compare that to how some things happen today, where companies don't set the conditions for success, think hiring for job requirements is enough, recruitment activities are always the same, matches aren't that strong, and hiring success rate hovers around the 50% mark (thanks, Google).    Convinced?  Now design for the on boarding experience, DOWE-style!

I've been documenting "moments" of my writing process as a personal ethnography of sorts.  For me, the process has been just as important as the book itself will be.  I consider myself a lifelong learner--and I've learned so much about research, writing, the publishing process, and even myself.   The typing of the keyboard has forced me to organize and hone my thoughts, and the iterative process has given me lots and lots of practice.  What a great personal development opportunity this has been.   This pic is one of my favorites so far--it reminds me that you can't always choose the moments that ideas come to you.   Sometimes it comes in the middle of the night, and I had better take advantage of getting them down because it won't be there in the morning!  Having coached others to take opportunities at seemingly inopportune moments, I am happily eating my own advice.  

I’ve talked about the importance of networking in my previous blog post, “Pearls of Wisdom for Career Transitions”.  It bears discussion again because I continue to be amazed at the beauty of how it works.  Here are three recent examples.  Read on below about why it matters. 

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When I (re-) relocated to CA, I needed to rebuild my network from the ground up.  It had been 15+ years since I lived and worked on the West Coast.  There was no such thing as LinkedIn or Facebook to keep in touch with back then.   I spent my first few months meeting with as many people as I could, no matter their background or connection to me or my work.  I was introduced (through my aunt by marriage) to a consultant who specializes in late startup/early IPO compensation.  Getting to know her gave me another contact I could refer if any of my clients ever needed that kind of expertise.  She mentioned how she was getting so busy, she needed to hire more staff to help.   The very next week, I was in contact with a former CIO I worked with, who introduced me to someone he worked with previously.  This new contact had a background in both labor law and compensation.  He also happened to be looking for new opportunities.  I made the introductions on e-mail, and they were able to work together remotely for a while.  Because he was on the East Coast and she was on the West Coast, they might not have otherwise met. 

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About a year ago, I was flying somewhere and my seatmate and I ended up chatting.  We connected on social media thereafter.   He works as a sound engineer, but also owns an IT consulting practice.  We stayed in touch periodically.  One day he asked whether I could refer anyone to his client.  They were looking for a firm to help them develop a B2B marketing strategy.  I made introductions to four different providers, all with very different strengths and approaches to their work.  It gave me a great excuse to reconnect with those contacts, help someone out, and expand everyone’s networks at the same time.  

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Earlier this year, I was talking with agents and publishers about my upcoming book on Design of Work Experience.   When it came to the contract negotiations with my publisher, I decided to seek some legal advice rather than go through an agent.  It turned out to be a great decision, because I found a great lawyer.   We connected through a former colleague who was a corporate attorney and whose wife (also an attorney) published a novel in the last few years.  I was so impressed with his background and in awe of the advice I received.  I would’ve never found him (or anyone of his caliber) if it weren’t for my network.  

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My consulting business is largely built through referrals within my network.  It makes things a lot easier--they already know what I’m good at and how well I do it.  I am somewhat of a “known quantity” instead of a stranger starting from scratch.  This approach has worked so far, and I’m glad for it.   When you look beyond the obvious fact that networking is a good business practice, there’s even more benefits to be had:

You build knowledge.  Finding out about what other people are doing and how their business is evolving builds your own knowledge of industry and what’s going on.  It leads to new paths one can pursue, or new people to meet and learn from.  If you ask me, networking should be a huge part of learning and development efforts. 

You know where you stand.  Reaching out to your network gives you feedback—of your importance to them, the quality of your relationship, and how they feel about you.  Those that value your relationship will be responsive and will seek you out.  It also highlights for you where you might need to make more effort, or it gives you insight on where to “trim” or “prune” your network. 

You build good karma, and you get good karma.   Note here that they might not come from the same sources, but “what goes around comes around” as they say.   I encourage those I coach to reach out and help others when they are feeling discouraged.  Eventually, you’ll feel better and the universe will reward you for your good work.  I enjoy being able to share my network with others, and I am willing to go the extra mile especially for those who do the same.   All good stuff, all around. 

You build your reputation.  Your personal brand matters.  It’s built by a combination of the tone you set through your actions and how others react to you.  Building a great reputation ultimately leads to better opportunities.  Networking is one way of building that reputation.   Pretty logical stuff.

Everyone always says they should do a better job of networking, but they never have the time or bandwidth for it.   I’ve learned that you really should build and nourish your network before you need it.   You don’t want to be seen as the type that only calls when they are looking for something, so make the time and be generous.   Pick up the phone, send that e-mail, or schedule that coffee to see how your network is doing.   So what is your favorite networking story?  Please feel free to share in the comments section. 

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you’ve seen my live tweets from last week’s Exceptional Women in Publishing Conference (#ewip2014).  I was asked by a friend on one of the panels to cover their session as a way of practicing my tweeting skills.  The bug bit me and I ended up tweeting all day long.  One of the other sessions I attended was How to Manage Transitions and Grow Your Own Career.  This was of interest to me not only because of my work, but also because I have gone through my own personal journey with several transitions throughout my life.  With all this first hand experience with transitions, I was interested to hear what others had to say.

This distinguished panel included successful women in media: Amanada Enayati (Columnist , CNN Health), Cynthia Samuels (Partner, The Cobblestone Team), Peggy Northrup (Editor-in-Chief, Sunset), and Sarah Granger, (Founder, Center for Technology, Media & Society).  There were some real gems to take away, like asking yourself “What am I learning?” and defining “What does a sustainable life look like?” Entrepreneurship in-between jobs was encouraged. The overall storyline was about unplanned transitions that (im)posed new challenges and how they were able to rise above it.  It’s a great, inspiring theme—in fact, I’ve blogged about it before (When Stepping Down is a Step Up).  What I wanted to contribute to the dialogue was a different storyline:  how one can purposefully plan for a happy transition to a new career.  As I was not a panelist in this case, I chose to bite my tongue, hear more from others, and then blog about it.  And here we are.   

My website bio talks about my previous life as a corporate executive before transitioning to a portfolio career.  This panel at ewip inspired me to be introspective about my own experience.  I believe enough time has passed since my transition and now I can share some pearls of wisdom gathered thus far:

1. Not all transitions are bad.  Human nature (our fight/flight instinct) has trained us to fear change.   Organizations employ change management to address this for the many transitions that come with running a business.  Having managed lots of change initiatives I can tell you that though the initial reaction is typically shock and fear, there is often an equal amount of opportunity that can come from it.  One’s response should be to leverage it.  Get used to change, and you will master it.  It is a matter of taking this perspective and allowing it to guide your actions.  The undesirable alternative is to base your actions on fear, and where does that leave you? Opportunity rules!

2. Not all transitions are unexpected.  This is something I wanted to share during the session at the conference.  It took me a few years to realize this and bring it to life, but my transition was planned.  Transitions don’t have to be sprung upon or imposed on you.  In fact, you could decide to make a transition if you wanted to on your own.  This means you can plan ahead for a transition whether you are planning to make one or not, and you’ll be prepared.  I oftentimes ask people what their dream job would be.  There are the lucky few that are living their dream jobs today, but many people would rather be doing something else.   If you are not where you want to be, you can actually do something about it.  Plan a transition with purpose, and purposefully.  It will feel much better to choose things on your own timing rather than have it happen to you. 

3. Build and maintain your network all the time, and especially before you need it.  Everyone knows how important networking is, but few live by it.  I know people that are typically very social, but when you put in the “networking” terminology, they are turned off or they act differently.  There are others who call upon their network only when they need it, but otherwise disappear. Networking is about relationships.  Cultivating your network is building relationships.  You will need your network to help you.  Conclusion?  Make the time.  We are all busy, but social media has made it much easier to keep in touch.   It takes all of 10 seconds these days to send a simple “how are you doing?” to someone.  If you don’t leave too much time between meetings you can actually catch up over a short coffee break or phone call.  Personally, I have found networking to be extremely fun these days.  I’m meeting people I wouldn’t have met if I didn’t make the effort, and I love hearing about their experiences.   

4. Give more than you take.  When it comes to networking, no one likes a serial taker.  If you want your network to work for you, then you have to put some skin in the game and build good karma.  Introduce people to each other and help solve people’s challenges by getting them the right resources, even if you don’t stand to directly benefit from it.  Offer help cheerfully and readily.  The good stuff will come back to you in different ways.   I promise.  People will be willing to help you more when you need it if they know you would do the same for others. 

5. Expect good and bad days.  When you are in the in-between, it’s easy to feel unmoored.  Again it is a matter of perspective on which direction you want to go—do you want the good days to keep you going, or let the bad days get you down?  With every journey you will experience both good and bad days.  Anticipating this means that there will be no surprises and you can prepare how you will cope with the good and the bad.  Every day is a new day.  That means your longest bad day will be 24 hours max.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it—that’s what your friends, family, and network are there for.  This is coming from me, who is reluctant to “owe” others and to ask for help.   I’ve learned that it isn’t always about that, especially if you aren’t a serial taker.

6. Find energizers, build self-motivation.  Without the structure of whatever “business as usual” was for you, it is up to you now to drive things from within.  With transitions comes some form of flexibility.  You get to structure your own life.  How do you want to spend your days?  What activities energize you when you need it?   What’s it going to take to get things done?  Most importantly, you must hold yourself accountable.   Other things to expect in the self-motivation department:  If you are in between company jobs (or going independent), expect your e-mail box to go silent at first.  Don’t be disheartened.  The life you left behind will move on without you.  A friend warned me of this ahead of time, a gem from his personal experience. (Thanks, friend!)  It will be through your self-motivation to fill your inbox up again.  Along the same vein, I was used to having work come at me in the corporate setting (usually through a metaphorical fire hose).  Now I have to find work for myself.  Scary, but also liberating because I know it is all up to me, and I get to choose what work I do (#empowerment).   

7. Keep your eyes on the prize, but remain intuitive and reflective.  This lesson was one of the best (and hardest earned) things I’ve learned over the last few years.  For a long time, I was the type of driven individual that wanted to will the world to go my way.   That’s ultimately a losing war, because life simply does not work that way.  Save yourself disappointment.  Become really clear on what you want out of your life, look for signs around you that will get you there and be flexible (i.e. intuitive), focus your actions to support where you want to go, and then take the opportunities that come to you (including the unexpected).    Reflect every day on what you are doing and why you are doing it.  Get things done without losing sight of the big picture.  There are lots of books out there in the self-help genre that speak to this in great detail.  I’ve just summarized it for you here.  ;)  Suffice it to say that no matter how esoteric some of this might seem, the results have been there for me so far.

8. Practice patience.  For those that know me, they know that patience is not my strong suit.  Because patience is not my natural inclination, my professional journey has turned out to be many exercises in practicing patience.  What I’ve learned is that it is your responsibility to do everything in your power, but it is not always up to you on the timing.  Patience is a competency one has to manage along a continuum—if you are too patient, you might not be action-oriented enough.  If you are impatient, you might get less-than-baked results or miss other opportunities.   This is a constant challenge for all of us, but “knowing is half the battle” (as they say).

9. About that money thing….Being fiscally conservative and the breadwinner for my family, I always made sure that I had enough savings to live for 6 months without an income.  This was our safety cushion.  When it came time to think about my transition, I increased my savings to a year.  When my transition happened, we lived off the savings but put money we earned here and there back in the pot.  You need not be a penny pincher to save money.  When I was getting regular paychecks, we set up money to go into another account automatically.  I never saw or felt it.  Financial comfort is also a mindset.  I never thought we could live on a smaller budget, but we are doing just that.  We are living within our means.

I considered adding a pearl of wisdom about taking risk.  10 would have been a nice round number.  Let’s face it: life is full of risks.  Not transitioning when you should is a risk.  Transitioning is a risk.  Life after transition includes risks. IMHO, risk is balanced with empowerment.  If you take the position of being empowered, you can manage risk and all that comes with it.  It’s the losing control thing that people don’t like about risk, but if you are empowered, you don’t have to lose it.  When it comes to career you can be your own advocate or your own worst enemy.  Most of us in the professional world are not in life-or-death situations.  Now that’s real risk.  How much risk could there be in your career?  What do you stand to gain or lose?  Chances are there is more to be had than to lose.   

My parting words are my disclaimer:  I’m not the expert on transitions, nor is any of this scientifically proven.   However, I am a lifelong learner.  I am a product of my experiences, and I like to learn from others.  Consider this a summary of all that I’ve encountered in my professional career, managing transitions for others and myself, attending conferences, reading, and hearing lots and lots of stories from personal experiences.  If anyone can take anything from what I’ve written here, then it is a gift.   Thanks for reading!