Conduct one-to-one coaching over the telephone

Hello, how are you? It's your coach calling

As confidence grows in coaching as a development intervention, so the telephone option is being used as a viable alternative to face-to-face meetings.

"This is partly due to US influences," says West Bromwich Building Society general manager, Paul Turner.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that phone coaching has become more popular in the US since 9/11, when frequent plane travel became less attractive. As in all trends, we tend to follow the States. We are also more familiar with the idea of life coaches, who tend to phone clients."

Turner has developed his own approach to telephone coaching for managers, which he runs as 'workshop sessions', using e-mailed slides and presentations to talk through key topics that are agreed in advance.

At Ashridge Centre for Coaching, part of Ashridge Business School, director Erik de Haan gives a cautious welcome to the increase in telephone coaching.

"I was sceptical because it removes the opportunity to register the non-verbal signals that we pick up in face-to-face conversation," he says. "But I am very enthusiastic about it now after trying it with several clients, as long as the coach and client respect the physical reflective space needed for coaching and continue to have regular face-to-face meetings."

De Haan adds: "Telephone coaching can work because there is something very powerful about the voice entering the mind of the coachee more directly. But I would recommend several face-to-face coaching sessions before embarking on phone conversations," he says.

Concentration and confirmation are two techniques necessary to make telephone coaching effective, says Oakridge Training and Consultancy managing director, Tony Sweeney.

"I tend to verbalise feelings and emotions more in a conversation than face- to-face. I check how people feel about particular issues by paraphrasing or I clarify my own perceptions. Telephone coaching is about checking the emotions and feelings behind the content," he says.

Like De Haan, Sweeney believes that both parties must already have a rapport before undertaking coaching by phone.

Eileen Arney, learning and development adviser at the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, says that if coaches and clients cannot meet face-to-face, they should exchange CVs and information beforehand to gain an insight into the other person.

Arney's other caveat is that the ease of telephone coaching should not lead to snatched conversations. "Both parties need to make it clear that they have provided the space for the call."

Flexibility is seen as one of the great advantages of phone coaching, says Carole Gaskell, managing director of Full Potential Group. "Some clients opt for phone calls at home before or after work," she says. "It is also popular with executives waiting in airport lounges."

However, the greatest possible advantage, according to Gaskell, is that "the logistical nightmares" of matching up diaries and travel arrangements are removed, so more emphasis is placed on matching appropriate people rather than convenient geographical locations.

Like all types of coaching, a disciplined approach is necessary, she says. "The agenda for coaching is fixed because the client completes a questionnaire before each session to capture the successes and challenges since the previous one. This questionnaire helps to focus the minds."

Telephone coaching sessions tend to be shorter, says Sweeney. "A face-to-face session can take up to three hours, with a short break, whereas a telephone session is usually one hour."

There's one other telephone coaching bonus: it should cost about half the fees charged for face-to-face sessions.

by Stephanie Sparrow

Case study: Elizabeth Arden

Telephone coaching forms the basis of an account manager development programme at cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden.

The programme was devised by national training manager Anna De Vere, who is coaching 15 account managers on one programme.

She focuses on the personal and professional tensions of their store-based role. This involves managing up to 10 in-store consultants and being responsible for the Elizabeth Arden brand.

De Vere starts the programme by getting the 15 account managers together for a full day's face-to-face session to identify and build on personal, team and sales goals and to think how they will increase their business by 15% over the programme's 12-week period.

"Then they have a week to compile a 10-step strategy for achieving their goals."

She uses the managers' strategies as a basis for each 45-minute phone coaching session, typically held every fortnight. "We look at where they are and what they have to do to move forward," De Vere says.

She believes that the distance which telephone coaching affords can augment its effectiveness. "Telephone coaching focuses the mind on 'how are we going to turn things around' and makes direct language very easy."