By Frank Gallo

One of the hottest HR activities in China is executive coaching. While the “old China” might consider coaching a remedial process for executives who were failing, it is now being seen more and more as a reward for the best executives to help them progress on a faster track. This article covers the best way to select a coach in China and highlights some of the key competencies to look for in an executive coach here.

Selecting a Coach for Your Company in China

You should begin any coaching relationship in China with a trial period. It is most important that the coach and the coachee have “chemistry” together and there is no way to truly test that until they have had a chance to meet and do their own evaluations. Second, I suggested that all executive coaches in China should have China knowledge. You need someone who is familiar with the nuances of doing business in China. It often surprises me when I learn that a company in China is using an executive coach from the U.S. or Europe. The company in China pays the expense of flying this foreign coach to China, usually because the coach belongs to a company that has a contract in the home country. But often, these coaches, (whom I assume are excellent in their work) are not very familiar with the nuances of leading people in China. If the purpose of the coaching is to work on strategy or change management, perhaps this relationship can work well. But if the intention is to help the coachee to be a better leader of people, then it is a mistake to use someone who is not familiar with Chinese customs and Chinese culture. These matters are very important in the leadership process. They enter the process subtly and, unless the coach truly understands the Chinese customs and Chinese culture, the coaching may suffer.

Another recommendation is that the coach be selfless. That is, the coach must put the needs of the coachee before his or her own. I am sorry to say that I have met many coaches from different countries who spend most of their time telling the coachee about themselves and do not listen to the specific needs of the coachee. That style is sometimes comfortable in China because the coachee does not have to reveal anything private and can simply use the time to learn from the seasoned coach. But this style is more like teaching than coaching and does not bring out the most important needs of the coachee. Being coached is not always a comfortable process. Sometimes the coachee needs to accept things about themselves that need to be changed. A good coach will be looking and listening carefully for these issues – not focusing on their own needs to train or lecture.

Let us now look at some of the other key competencies for a successful executive coach in China.

Key Competencies for an Executive Coach in China

Beyond China knowledge and selflessness, I recommend that your coach in China has the following competencies.

Listening skills. Coaches need to be better listeners than talkers. While beginning coachees, especially those in China, often prefer to listen to their coach, that approach will not help develop the coachee quickly. Rather, the coach needs to spend time listening for clues from the coachee about their most pressing issues. Seasoned listeners need to be very sensitive to clues, as the coachees often do not even know themselves what their biggest needs are. One of the greater challenges for coaches in China is to resist the temptation to do most of the talking and to be offering advice. Generally, Chinese employees are very respectful of a coach, especially if he or she is much older and more experienced. Employees genuinely believe that they can best learn and develop if they listen to these experts and follow their advice. But research has shown clearly and often that the most permanent positive change in coaching relationships will happen when the coachee is able to identify their issues, reflect on these and then suggest their own solutions. The coach’s job is to help the coachee clarify the issues, raise consciousness about their importance and to prioritize solutions.

Trustworthiness. In my experience, it usually takes at least two or three live meetings before the coachee begins to truly trust the coach. Personal trust is so important in China. It is built into the Chinese culture. Some coaches in other countries may feel they can get right down to business with coachees at the first meeting because they have such great reputations. But in China, trust must be earned over time. As such, the coach needs to demonstrate their trustworthiness early on. They do this by listening carefully and responding to real needs (as noted above), by setting ground rules with the coachee and sticking to those rules and by dealing with issues of confidentiality.

Business Acumen. No executive coach can possibly know as much about all of the varied industries that their coachees work in. But they must at least have a working knowledge of the industry as well as the company itself. Furthermore, the coach should have a pretty good understanding of the role the coachee plays in the company and how that role relates to the rest of the organization. I recently began an engagement with a major international firm in China where I was to coach a number of executives over a one-year period. Before beginning the assignment, I received a one-day primer on how the firm was organized and how the various departments and functions were inter-related. I volunteered my time for this primer because I felt it would improve my ability to be a better coach at the firm. I recommend this approach whenever a coach is being hired to work with several executives at the firm. In another case in China however, I was asked to coach the CFO. At the first meeting, I mentioned to the Chinese CFO that I was not an expert in finance and that our meetings would be based on leadership style, not finance. Our meeting was polite, but soon after it was over, the coachee told his boss that he did not think I could be a help to him because I was not a financial expert. This highly technical and functional focus in China needs to be addressed early by the coach and coachee if good work is to be done. If the coachee purely wants to become better technically, there is no need to hire a leadership coach.

Intuitiveness. Whatever is discussed in the coaching session usually just scratches the surface. The most important matters lie under the surface. This is where a coach earns their pay. The coach needs to be able to understand what is really being said and then suggest to the coachee how to proceed. This kind of intuitive judgment brings the coachee to higher levels of self-awareness and improved performance. This continues to be a challenge to me in China. While I do understand a great deal of the Chinese culture, I am not as nuanced in Chinese communication as a native speaker. As such, I am sure that my intuition sometimes suffers due to poor comprehension on my part.

Flexibility. Oftentimes a plan is decided upon at one coaching session to be followed at the next session. However, when the session opens, the coach learns that another matter has emerged and is either more important more urgent than what was discussed in the original plan. While the coach needs to provide discipline and keep the coachee working in a particular direction, he also needs to be flexible enough to change the plan if required. Furthermore, in China, linear logic is not at all significant. Rather, Chinese tend to think holistically. It is perfectly appropriate to go back to an issue that was covered in an earlier session, as time may have provided more information about that issue. Western coaches need to understand this and be even more flexible, perhaps, than they might otherwise be in a Western coaching situation.

Versatility. Unless the coach specifies that they only work with one particular function or one particular level, the need for versatility is critical. In my practice I may work with a CEO at one company in the morning, and then with a high potential director in a different firm in the afternoon. It is a good practice, when interviewing coaches, to ask if they have had more or less success at particular organizational levels or functions and then to match that coach appropriately in your firm. But when there are not that many coaches available, the best approach is to hire someone who can be versatile and work well at different levels and functions in the firm.

A Checklist

I recommend that every company create its own checklist to use before selecting a coach. The list may be maintained by HR and shared with others as they seek out coaching relationships. Here are a few suggested items to include:

• What is the reason for the coaching? Is it to help executives prepare for organizational change, develop a corporate strategy, develop their leadership abilities or prepare high potentials for bigger jobs within the firm?
• What executive levels and functions do you want the coaching for?
• How will you select the coach? Is there a formal process? Will there be a trial period? Is cost an important issue?
• How many coaches do you think you will need?
• Do you think your need is for short-term or long-term coaching?
• Does the coach have relevant experience with a company like yours and with employees at the level in which you are interested?
• Who will be the coach’s primary contact/client in the organization? Will it be the CEO, HR, another appointed delegate, or the coachees themselves?
• Will you have a formal coaching contract? (I recommend that you do and that the contract define cost, time and expected outcome.)

There are still only a limited number of qualified senior coaches in China who are capable of doing what you need. This number will increase as the coaching field grows here. But for now, companies should proceed cautiously. A bad coaching experience is worse than no coaching experience.

Frank Gallo, Calypso Consulting