Coaching...in China

I used to work for a company which provides Executive Coaching services, as well as Coaching Skills workshops. I learned much about formal coaching skills and processes over the last few years. Lately at my customer’s site, I’m finding that I am giving a lot of formal and informal coaching sessions to Chinese “subordinates” and “coworkers” ¹. My experience with coaching has been very positive, yet I have not used any of the “skills” or coaching processes which I learned previously.

I’ve searched the English web for articles on non-sports oriented coaching in China. I found:
China Success Stories: Executive Coaching in China²³. This article is about how to select an Executive coach. But within it, Mr. Gallo spells out what he sees as the competencies of a good coach, which include:

• Listening skills.
• Trustworthiness.
• Business Acumen.
• Intuitiveness.
• Flexibility.

“Formal” coaching skills, as I have learned them, are mostly about creating habits as well as procedures to increase listening, trust, and flexibility during a structured coaching session. Intuitiveness and business acumen are more like general competencies which a coach needs. Some people learn advanced skills. A good friend of mine teaches Neuro Linguistic Programing (NPL) in South China. I have a simpler process which I use for younger (under 40 years old) coachees.

I ask my subordinate how they want their careers to develop. If they say they want to advance, I say “well buddy… if you want to get to a management position, I will help you get there. I will put you on the track. It will happen. But you need to start thinking and behaving like you are in that position now. You can’t behave like an operator and expect to get promoted to a manager.” This is what I said to three people last week. Just like that. But in Chinese. I call this the “where do you want to be” conversation. I mostly deliver this people who need a “good kick”; for better or worse, I usually don’t need say this to good performers because they know where they want to go.

I find that saying the “where to” question seems to have a very powerful effect on my team-mates mainly because they never heard it before. Really. In their careers to-date, they have never experienced anyone sitting down with them and asking them how their career’s should develop (I actually usually have this conversation while walking around a factory with the coachee…not in my office… I think better on my feet). Most Chinese people never have this type of conversation with their managers because so few managers – including Western managers – never think about people development.

There is certainly a lot more to coaching than this. Really good, skilled coaches listen to the coachees, and then use practices to get them to speak out their thoughts and expand their viewpoint. The goal might be self-reflection and developing self-awareness. The aim might be improving leadership skills. Or imparting skills to deal with a specific business problem. BTW, I’m able to engage in this type of conversation with people while their regular managers cannot do so (I manage a “matrixed” team for a client). This is in-part because of the trust I have developed with the team, and in-part because they know I do not have a long-term stake in the company, so I am an outsider and less biased.

I found this: (from 2006):Business Coaching in Mainland China and Macao⁴ Although I don’t agree with everything said in this post. The author, Mr. Keith To, wrote something which I find interesting:

Nearly every single book about coaching you can find in the bookstores will tell you to coach using curiosity and intuition. How about coaching someone who has very little curiosity or intuition? This is typical of Chinese people. In our country (and many other Asian countries), parents taught us not to be curious. Curiosity is equivalent to danger and is deemed impolite. We have also been educated not to speak if we are uncertain. We keep our intuition to ourselves. So, are curiosity and intuition really critical in coaching?
[...]
Curiosity nor intuition works very well for the Chinese, even though the coach is willing and able to provide both. Why? Because the Chinese don’t talk much! Perhaps unlike North Americans, the majority of the Chinese population is extremely reserved, particularly in the context of a business environment. They think thoroughly before they speak, and then they speak cautiously. They are reluctant to answer questions they consider irrelevant, and the more curious the coach is, the more questions the client might consider irrelevant.

I respectfully disagree with some of the generalizations which Mr. Keith To makes. I do not believe that Chinese people are any more reserved than Americans, although they certainly have more “power distance” in the workplace. On the other hand, I’m always surrounded by many people who have no curiosity nor intuition. I would say of factory management teams, their curiosity was burned out of them long ago. Furthermore, being Engineers, they tend to believe only what is accompanied by hard data.

Often there is no benefit to coaching. This includes coaching unethical employees, and employees that refuse to be coached. About a year ago I was asked to meet with an HR Manager who wanted to set up some Executive Coaching for the Production Manager of her small company. I asked the HR Manager to describe the Production Manager. She said the manager , played favorites with his subordinates, hired incompetent relatives to key positions, took bribes from operators in return for coveted overtime work, and always lied to the (foreign) GM. I asked why does such a man need coaching. The HR Manager responded “This manager is great at managing up. He is the only one here who speaks English. And I don’t have the power to tell the GM that he is being fooled”. I offered to give coaching services to the GM. That didn’t happen.

How do you coach someone who seems to lack curiosity, drive, and intuition? Based on my experience, here are some ideas:

• Find a neutral third party to coach. Managers are usually not the best choice to coach their direct subordinates unless they already have an open, mutually respectful relationship.
• Find a way that is a little bit “shocking” in order to wake people up. I give the “where to” speech because I want people to think about the long-term future…something people don’t think in China.
• Understand that identified bad personal performance may be tied to many complex factors. Coaching should be an opportunity to examine more than the coachee, but also the environment the coachee works in.
• Understand that poor performance maybe because trust was broken in the past. The coach must be humble and prepared to admit his/her part in those issues.
• For coaches and managers new to China, learn where “face” issues are. Never cause your valued subordinate to lose face…it will not improve performance. This does not mean you can’t embarrass people sometimes. But you have to know the limits.
• Lack of curiosity is quite possible an Organizational Development problem affecting a whole company, not just individuals. If you can, you need to address the” environmental” problems.
• Always use empathy, righteousness, and fairness in all your dealings.

These are my suggestions. Anyone have better ideas?