A research scientist is having trouble focusing her boss on her important medical research, wasting valuable time. Can coaching get his attention?
THE ISSUE
Dr Monica B is a senior research scientist, running a lab in an academic institute, researching rare diseases.
From working hard at school to attaining her PhD, Monica has always been focused and purpose-driven, her ambition being to find answers for people suffering with rare medical conditions.
But Monica is grappling with her need to influence the decisions of her boss, the principal investigator (PI), who holds the funding for her lab and who appears to have different priorities and ambitions
of his own.
Monica needs to recruit two more analysts to ensure her research is accurate and true. Once published, the research must stand up to scrutiny if it is ever to reach the people who need it.
However, in her one-to-ones, the PI appears to show little interest in this, preferring to spend time telling stories about his influential network and the pressure from investors to move quicker and show results. She wonders whether he is secretly hoping to position himself for a Nobel prize.
Monica feels blocked and frustrated by this issue. It’s taking up space in her brain which she needs to be pin sharp.
How can coaching find a path through this?
THE INTERVENTIONS
Amanda Hobbins
Amanda Hobbins Coaching
Having a clear sense of purpose and putting in a lifetime of hard work to get to this point, Monica may be experiencing strong emotions, making it harder for her to think clearly about how to influence the outcome.
When clients appear to have a results-orientated preference it can be tempting to start by coaching the subject, rather than the person. In this instance I’d invite Monica to explore and identify her emotions using an Emotions Wheel, a useful tool to expand emotional vocabulary. Finding the right language will allow Monica to distance herself from her emotions, develop greater insight into her inner narrative, and create space for clear, rational thinking.
Exploring emotions can be draining for some people, particularly those not familiar with thinking in this way. I’d check in with Monica about how she is feeling now before contracting to move on to coaching the subject. I’d consider asking what influence tactics Monica has tried so far, introducing the nine influence tactics, to give her a lens through which to view her current style.
Research has shown that while the most commonly used influence tactic for leaders is Rational Persuasion, it is Influential Appeal that proves to be the most effective. I’d reflect back to Monica that she and the PI appear to have some differences in their values set and that rationalising her case around what matters most to her may not be the strongest argument for him.
I’d invite Monica to think about what values and beliefs are driving each of them and consider how she may experiment with Influential Appeal to land her message in the PI’s value system.
Veronica Munro
C-Suite executive coach, Leading Minds Ltd
Monica’s current strategy to get what she wants is not working. Her PI is not interested in what she has to say. He also isn’t connecting that what she needs and wants may be a possible solution to support him and the investors getting what they want, ie: to ‘move quicker and show results’.
In the interest of time, which is important to the PI and Monica, I might introduce her to a highly effective linguistic approach to enable her PI to connect positively to the ‘solution’ she is offering him. This includes TOWARDS and AWAY FROM language patterns to achieve a particular outcome. (A TOWARDS strategy identifies with what someone wants and the AWAY FROM strategy identifies with what someone doesn’t want or seeks to avoid.)
How could this work? It is quite clear that the PI is motivated by moving things quicker and showing results. It is unclear whether or not he fears the opposite, ie: failing and things taking longer. So it’s important to use the language of both strategies. The conversation could sound like this:
MONICA: “PI, I know we both want to get the project completed quickly and show results to our investors, and we want to avoid missing targets and failing to deliver these. So, if I can offer you a solution to achieve these goals, would that be helpful to you?”
PI: “Yes, of course.” How could he not say YES to this offer
MONICA: “So what I need to do to support you achieving this is ensure we get additional specified resources as soon as possible and deliver these results more quickly. This would work, wouldn’t it.” Note this is a statement / command, not a question
It’s not foolproof, however if Monica understands how this could work for her and enters into a positive upbeat emotional state to deliver this, her PI might just say YES and give her what she needs to do it.