An accountant has applied for a more demanding role in his organisation. His CFO thinks he will not cope, yet his psychometrics say the opposite.
The issue
Vivek is in his early 40s and works in the finance department for a large pharmaceutical company. He’s a certified accountant and has been with the same organisation for the past five years.
Vivek is diligent, quiet, risk-averse and generally well-liked. Business is doing well, and the finance department is expanding. Several new roles are opening up, including one that reports to the chief financial officer (CFO). Vivek has indicated that he’d be interested in applying for the role.
The CFO has articulated to Vivek that he wants to keep the door open but has reservations that Vivek will not hold his own with key stakeholders, some of whom can be confrontational, difficult and demanding.
With the expansion, all managers at Vivek’s level across both finance and operations have been matched with external coaches. Alongside the coaching, Vivek was also asked to take a well-known psychometric personality questionnaire.
The CFO shared with the coach, during the contracting process, and before any coaching took place, his surprise at the results as they show Vivek is an ambitious, confident, strategic leader, and a natural fit for any executive role.
There appears to be a significant disconnect in personality and temperament between the profile on paper and how the CFO experiences Vivek. How can coaching help in this case?
The interventions
Robert Stephenson,
Centre director, Animas Centre for Coaching
Vivek’s situation is not unheard of in large organisations where styles of communication can clash or rub against others, or even miss altogether.
My first step would be to set up a three-way contracting conversation between the CFO and Vivek. The aim of this would be to really understand the desires of both, how they feel they currently relate to each other, and how they communicate together. We’d dive deeper by exploring the differences in their communication approaches, so they become better able to communicate with greater clarity.
In one-to-one coaching, I’d look to work with Vivek around exploring what his felt sense is of his relationship with the wider team. We’d examine areas such as what are his reflections as he looks at the results of the psychometric test. We might then explore how he feels he shows up at work and his perspective on his relationship with the CFO. This will help to identify how true the results of the test feel for Vivek. I’d want to work with Vivek and the CFO, recognising that the situation might be about how Vivek is showing up, or how the way in which Vivek shows up is perceived by the CFO or a blend between the two.
I’d look to work with the CFO on what his unconscious bias is around that particular style being right in that space, which he is not seeing in Vivek at this point. We’d also look at his expectations for someone in the role.
I’d seek to work with the CFO to help Vivek work in the current environment, exploring what support might be needed and what growing edges or areas for development there are, as opposed to dismissing Vivek’s potential based on his felt sense of his ability.
There’s also an opportunity here to work with the stakeholders, exploring the qualities they seek in the role.
Salma Shah,
Founder, Mastering your Power Coach Training
Although this is a common scenario, every client has their own unique lived experience and every organisation a unique set of values, culture and unwritten rules about ‘how we do things’. Reflecting on the disconnect between the CFO’s assessment, Vivek’s ambition and the personality profile results, my initial thought is one of curiosity.
The first step would be to re-contract and include Vivek in the contracting agreement between the CFO and coach. This would involve exploring what can be shared between the three parties and the desired outcome from the coaching. Boundaries and confidentiality are agreed, with an emphasis on a collaborative coaching partnership.
The approach to this coaching scenario is that the learning is happening at an individual level and in dynamic engagement with wider systems, both organisational and personal. Therefore, the coaching is context based and not just content or issue based.
Once the individual work with Vivek starts it’s crucial that the partnership feels psychologically safe so that he can be fully open and transparent. During the first one-to-one coaching session it’s important to create this safety. I’d ask the client if he wanted to explore his personality profile or whether he wanted to focus on something else, bearing in mind the overall agreement with the CFO. This is a way of evidencing to the client that they’re in the driving seat of the coaching. I would also reinstate the confidentiality agreement, once we start working together.
As the client has indicated a desire to progress in his career, our work together would explore cultural fit and what could be getting in the way (personal and organisational systems). We may also do some coaching around his sense of belonging and inclusion in the wider system. Circling back to the CFO, within the scope of the confidentiality agreement, we could share any systemic issues requiring wider attention.