CIPD - Going global with Standard Chartered Bank

Research

Standard Chartered is a global company of 44,000 employees operating in 56 countries. With a large global footprint and significant growth aspirations, the organisation perceives leadership development as essential to the future success of the business. To develop its leadership talent, Standard Chartered introduced a 'strengths-based' approach to leadership development in 2000.

As part of this ongoing initiative, the organisation has a network of 200 'Strength Coaches' spanning the globe. The coaches are all HR relationship managers, who were invited to become Strength Coaches as a component of their role. To become a coach, individuals must attend a four-day training course and complete ten coaching sessions over four months, with one audio-recorded session, and they must commit to ongoing professional development.

Sarah Jones, Group Head of Leadership Development, leads the coaching network and its supervision. Jones says: 'Providing support for the coaches requires a global network of 34 "team coaches" who each provide ongoing supervisory support for three to seven coaches. Team coaches are selected from the 'cream of the coaches' with at least two years' Strengths Coaching experience. We look for people who are deeply committed to their own personal development in the area of coaching and the development of others.'

The team coaches are expected to meet each coach for one and a half to two hours every three months as a minimum. If a coach would like more support, they can arrange additional meetings with their team coach. Most of these are face-to-face meetings, but they can be by telephone or video calls. Some supervisors use groups and some run 'surgeries' when they're in the country. The typical supervisory meeting includes:

reviewing coaching clients: what I've done particularly well and would like to repeat in my coaching; what I've done less well.
providing support in relation to situations that have been stretching
challenging the coach: 'what was on your mind?'
reviewing the current business pressures: 'are there any themes that are emerging?'

Coaches are encouraged, within the bounds of confidentiality, to bring feedback to the supervisory session from clients they've coached. Coaches are also required to tape at least one session per year and bring it for review.

To facilitate management of the coaching initiative and coaching supervision of the team coaches/supervisors, there are seven Leadership Facilitators who provide ongoing supervision for the team coaches.

The team coaches note the organisational themes discussed as part of the supervision. Periodically, these are fed back to the HR and Organisation Effectiveness teams. The Chief Executive takes a keen interest in the feedback related to the organisation's ongoing efforts to develop effective leadership.

Since Strengths Coaching is integral to HR, the team doesn't calculate the cost of the coaching and supervision as a 'separate line' item. Jones emphasises: 'Strengths Coaching is critical to our leadership development strategy. Coaching supervision is essential to coaching; we can't afford not to do it. The supervision process helps us ensure that a coach working in 'x country' would never feel like a lost soul. Knowing that they're supported as part of an international network helps the coaches to feel confident and to know that they are key to our strategic strengths approach. This is passed on through the coaching to the leaders they work with. We're keen to ensure that employees perceive individual attention and development. This results in higher staff engagement and we see the results in stronger business performance and lower employee turnover.'

To optimise the benefits of coaching, Jones recommends:

Provide your coaches with great training – it's a challenging role.
Be clear about the target population for coaching and the performance outcomes you'll focus on.
Ensure you only work with numbers of 'coachees' that your coaching population can give appropriate attention to.
Make sure both coaching and coaching supervision are part of an individual's objectives or it's unlikely to get done.

And about coaching supervision:

Set supervision in place from the beginning.
Pick the best of the coaches to be supervisors. Being a supervisor should hold kudos.
Consider using external supervisors while your own coaching population gains experience.
Ensure that both the supervisors and coaches understand what supervision is and what it's not.
Have a clear timetable of activity that is monitored.

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