Sherwood coaching workshops

Earlier this year, Sherwood held a number of coaching workshops attended by law firm partners and HR professionals.

In particular, we looked at:

• How coaching differs from other ways of supporting the development and performance of people, and at how it can complement them
• The principles on which coaching is based, namely assisting people to fulfil their potential by raising their self-awareness and sense of responsibility for taking action
• The difference between coaching (not dependent on direct experience of the coachee’s situation and often sourced externally) and mentoring (based on shared experience and sourced either externally or internally).

What coaching feels like

Simon McCall from Sherwood demonstrated what a coaching session actually sounds and looks like in a live “demo” with Simon Beddow, a partner at Ashurst. This showed how using a coaching style enables someone to move from wrestling with an issue, to developing options and then deciding on practical action remarkably quickly, with the coach adopting a questioning rather than telling/advisory approach.

Howard Morris, a market sector group head at Denton Wilde Sapte, described his experience of being coached (by Des O’Connell of Sherwood) and the benefits he gained as a result. His insights included the observation that at first he did not realise that he was being coached and that it might have been off-putting if he had! He particularly appreciated the role of the coach in providing a supportive and non-judgemental sounding board and also being a source of discipline for following through on action he had decided to take.

Coaching as a way of supporting strategic change

John Renz of CMS Cameron McKenna explained how he had led a structured firm-wide coaching initiative in his firm as part of a wider strategic review and change management programme.

John’s key messages were:

• The coaching programme was explicitly placed at the centre of implementing a business strategy that requires change of behaviour where necessary, and consistent excellence in performance
• That business strategy was adopted following an extensive process of analysis and debate involving all partners
• It is essential to link ‘coaching’ to firmly rooted commercial imperatives and to view it as a ‘hard-edged’ business tool
• The coaching is linked to specific ‘events’ in the implementation of strategy, and has clear behaviours and outcomes associated with it
• Senior management, business group heads and practice support heads are all being coached as well as others with key roles in the firm, and all new partners
• The firm made public (internally) the fact that these individuals are being coached and thereby raised expectations of change in their behaviour amongst partners and others in the firm
• Coaching was also supported by an intranet coaching toolkit and a guide to coaching distributed to all partners in order to create a common understanding of what is meant by coaching
• The progress and impact of the coaching is regularly reviewed with those receiving it but is also made visible by monitoring relevant performance measures – such as feedback from both staff and clients
• “Sheep dip training” is no longer sufficient
• Coaching for the HR team had also been important.

Our thanks from the Sherwood Coaching Team to all those who attended and contributed.
Contact: Tony Reiss, Simon McCall, Des O’Connell or Sally Woodward