HPS Leadership Best Practices Journal™

Lateral Coaching™ for Improved Leadership Performance

Coaching is a powerful business tool which serves to close gaps between the current levels and fullest potential performance of individuals, teams, and organizations. According to recent research studies conducted by McKinsey and Company, coaching is also an essential ingredient of key talent development and retention. In essence, coaching improves leadership effectiveness and is a process to ensure the growth of future generations of leaders.

Last month, we featured an article on How to Choose and Use a Coach. In that article we defined executive coaching, discussed realistic outcomes, and identified some common characteristics of high-performance coaches.

In this article, we continue our discussion by introducing another form of coaching pioneered by Human Performance Strategies called Lateral Coaching.™

We define Lateral Coaching™ as an informal exchange of mutual support between individuals whose respective strengths represent performance improvement opportunities for their colleagues. Incidentally, this process is not confined to peer relationships and can be used regardless of hierarchical level within the organization. It's amazing how much senior management can learn down the line of the organization. There's a very good reason we were born with two ears and only one mouth.

Lateral Coaching™ is another method of gaining more performance traction while leveraging existing resources within an organization. Lateral Coaching™ also complements another article featured in this month's issue entitled More Traction with Less Resource.

Following are some potential advantages and several important considerations regarding the use of Lateral Coaching.™

Potential Advantages

• Leverages existing resource talent within an organization.
• Establishes a unique internal best practice which becomes part of organizational culture.
• Establishes a forum to improve communications, trust, and teamwork among all levels of the organization.
• Accelerates leadership development and complements other components of any leadership development program.
• Improves performance at the individual and team leadership level.
• Provides an effective method of leveraging strengths and identifying improvement opportunities. A weakness is sometimes a form of denial; however, a blind spot is an improvement opportunity which can be transformed into a more effective behavior or potential strength. Lateral Coaching™ provides a method to raise awareness of our weaknesses and blind spots and redirect this energy toward more productive outcomes.
• Creates a unique form of competitive advantage

Important Considerations

• Recognize that gender and diversity may influence Lateral Coaching™ opportunities. Be sure to make this resource available to everyone.
• Mentoring is often confused with coaching. Mentoring typically occurs between two individuals, whereas Lateral Coaching™ can occur among many different individuals regardless of level, department, or function.
• Acknowledge and communicate senior management's objective of using Lateral Coaching™ as another means of leadership development and a vehicle for performance improvement.
• Encourage open testimonials describing the benefits of Lateral Coaching™, and recognize and reward those who seek and provide coaching assistance.