“Coaching gurus”, like “management gurus”, are a derivative of the information age. This article looks at the business of consulting, which often has questionable results, to learn about coaching in business. In spite of the bad press, consulting firms are a billion dollar business. Coaching in business is becoming a significant threat to consultants. It is a growing industry, and, like management gurus, could be here to stay.
The flawed advice provided at times by consulting firms is flawed because it does not necessarily address the “designed errors” in the company: it either fits in or bypasses the “skilled incompetence”. Secondly, it might be flawed because the “causal design” of the advice is suspect and is not presented for testing and validation. Yet, it is accepted and paid for, flaws, assumptions and all.
“The DNA of Successful Companies”
Every consultant company and practising business coach has the answer to the question “how can I/we be successful?” Whether they have it in book-form or not, does not matter: they have the DNA for your success. Even though since the early 1980’s, words of caution has been raised (Turner, HBR. 1982) the business of “management gurus” is still a growing business. “Look at the income of the consultancies, the sales of management books, or the intake of business schools and all the trends are up. Most managers in the West have realised that, in a world in which new products can be copied instantaneously and wages can easily be undercut, the only lasting source of advantage is superior management. This realisation is spreading to the East, too. The founders of business empires in places such as Hong Kong and Singapore might have been able to rely on personal connections and political influence to build their empires. Their successors, however, need more formal management skills to prevent those empires from falling apart or stagnating.” (Micklethwait and Wooldridge, p.374)
Buckingham and Coffman (1999) have this to say: “ The flood of answers is rising and threatens to swamp even the most level-headed managers. In 1975 two hundred books were published on the subject of managing and leading. By 1997 that number had more than tripled. In fact, over the last twenty years authors have offered up over nine thousand different systems, languages, principles, and paradigms to help explain the mysteries of management and leadership.”(p.53)
“This barrage of conflicting, impressionistic, and largely anecdotal advice is overwhelming, but it rarely enlightens. It lacks precision and simplicity. Something is missing, even from the most persuasive advice. There are volumes of case studies and “here’s how I did it” personal success stories, but very little quantitative research and virtually no standard of measurement. “ (Buckingham and Coffman, p.53).
The facts are that people who are accountable for results are convinced that the perfect answer “is out there”. In this context management and coaching gurus are an epiphenomenona of the information age: they are the people who know more, or who can do it better because they know more.
However, “There is an even more important reason why the ..(gurus).. will enjoy an ever expanding demand for their services. Even if managers do learn how to thrive on chaos or control their destiny they will still be confronted by that most intractable of problems: the cussedness of human nature. Managers are constantly embracing techniques that promise to control the uncertainty at the heart of their jobs – and constantly having to embrace more new techniques when their charges refuse to do as they are bid.” (Micklethwaite and Wooldridge, p.374).
From some of the criticisms I have heard about (business-) coaching gurus, it is as if this young discipline is today where consulting gurus were in the early 1980’s, when the likes of Turner (HBR.1982) urged, “consulting is more than giving advice”. It seem that today the credentials for entree as a coaching guru in business are “expertise,” or “knowing more about…”. And this is where the “flawed advice” becomes the issue.
Bibliography:
Argyris, Prof. Chris (1985): Strategy, Change and Defensive Routines. Pitman Publishing,
Mass. USA.
Argyris, Prof. Chris (1999): On Organizational Learning, 2nd. Edition. Blackwell
Publishing, Mass. USA.
Argyris, Prof. Chris (2000): Flawed Advice and the Management Trap. Oxford University
Press, UK.
Buckingham, Marcus and Coffman, Curt (1999): First, Break all the Rules. @Gallup
Organization. Simon and Schuster, UK Ltd.
Micklethwaite, John, and Wooldridge, Adrian (1997): The Witch Doctors. Mandarin
Paperbacks, Random House, UK.
Turner, Arthur (1982): “Consulting is more than Giving Advice”. Harvard Business Review,
Sept-Oct. 1982.