Reflecting on Office Behavior

When Stribley decided to take on an executive MBA program at Wharton in addition to her job, her coach helped her figure out how to balance everything. She proposed that she work a compressed workweek, so she still worked full time, but took Fridays off to study. It was something she never would have let herself do without some guidance.

Booz Allen hired a consulting company this year to study the return on its coaching program. The study found that all of the leaders applied what they learned to improve their own development, while 53 percent went beyond that to make significant improvements in their relationships with teams and peer members.

The benefits were $3.3 million in the year 2003, while the coaching for last year's 45 participants cost $414,310. That means the return on investment was 689 percent, according to the study.

"This is just the beginning," said Vernita Parker-Williams, program manager at Booz Allen. "Being able to provide one-on-one tailored development" is invaluable, she said.

But you don't have to tell Janet Lyman, a principal at Booz Allen, about that. She had been told she could be a bit more patient with people, a little less direct and a touch more empathetic. When she acquiesced and worked with a coach in late 2000, she realized how valuable the process was and wanted to share it with the team she managed.

In one discussion, her coach explained to the group that employees should approach conflicts by first pointing out what the two parties agree upon. While discussing this, a co-worker noted that perhaps they could use this tactic in a difficult meeting the next day, when they were going to try to hold on to a client who was about to take business elsewhere.

The team held an emergency meeting and changed its entire approach for the next day's gathering. "We knew it would be a tough meeting," Lyman said. But by pointing out the commonalities first, then approaching the disagreements, the larger group came to a satisfying conclusion: The client kept Booz Allen and awarded them two contracts.

Most people who joined the program came in as a result of a review, when their boss suggested they get a coach. And many of them did not jump into the process enthusiastically. "I came at this as a doubter," said Marty Hill, vice president. But he said he quickly recognized the value in it and asked his leadership team to improve some of the interactions within the group.

Now, after 30 years as a manager, he is thinking about retirement. "What really gets you up in the morning is wanting to build a legacy, make an organization good for the people who are in it now, so they have chances to do things in their careers," he said. "And this experience has made me much better at being able to transmit those values to the people I work with."

"I work with a lot of technical, intellectual all-stars," said Leslie Williams, who coached Lyman and her team. "They have an underdeveloped understanding of the subjective part of business: the relationship side. That's where leadership happens."

Which is why Stribley didn't mind putting up a few baby pictures on her wall. Her coach helped her see things that her boss was not able to articulate. "I didn't have to change who I was," she said. She just had to adjust how she was perceived.

Granted, Stribley did not turn into Glenda the Good Witch right away. At first, she said, "I felt like I was declawed." She held back from giving feedback and messages. She would spend a couple of days figuring out how to approach someone, whereas in the past she would state her feelings as soon as she had them.

But since then, she has calibrated herself, she said. "I tend to make decisions about what's right for the business first, and people second. That's okay. But there's a lot of leeway in that," she said. "Now, people who join the group think I'm a real Care Bear."

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