Intelligent Coaching at Roche

In mid-2004, Roche Products Australia was looking for a company that would partner with them to develop an in-house coaching program for their national sales management team. Rebecca Casey, National Learning & Development Manager, was keen to develop a practical coaching program that incorporated EI and would give sales managers the skills to coach across a variety of common workplace situations. This program was not intended to coach for improved selling skills but the skills needed to meet the professional growth and performance improvement needs of their sales representatives. Equally important to Rebecca was the need to deliver a seamless program that would integrate the latest in EI know how with the skills and in-house experience of the Roche Learning & Development team.

Michael Collins from Talent Solutions co-designed the two-day program with Rebecca and Sheryn Clack, another member of Rebecca’s team. The EIQ self-measure was completed by each manager during group briefing sessions conducted several weeks prior to the workshop. The purpose of these 45 minute sessions were to position the program and gain buy-in to the measurement and development process. A key feature of the program was the use of EI-related case-studies based on information provided from the sales mangers. These real-life examples were gathered during individual EIQ debrief sessions held a fortnight prior to the workshop. The workshop itself was co-facilitated by Michael, Rebecca and Sheryn. The co-design and facilitation strategy was designed to fully transfer the program content and delivery to Roche for their ongoing implementation.

The EIQ self-measure was chosen for two reasons. Firstly, it provided a very practical EI framework that was intuitive and related well to the sales environment. Terms like interpersonal sensitivity, motivation and influence were more relevant than the academic language found in some other EI measures. Secondly, this group was unfamiliar with different development tools especially 360-degree instruments. It was decided to minimise the risk of resistance to feedback by choosing the self-measure rather than the 360-degree. This decision paid off as the three facilitators reported little resistance during each individual feedback session.

The workshop was delivered as part of a national sales management meeting taking the opportunity of having all the sales managers in one place. Day one covered the following content: ‘what is coaching’, listening skills, giving and receiving feedback, EI and coaching skills and the coaching process – the GROW model and coaching for performance. Day two focussed on communication and body language, a skills practice involving real-life participant examples and difficult coaching situations with strategies for getting unstuck. The program was application orientated with a high level of participation and involvement to encourage managers to seek new ways to apply EI abilities to their daily coaching situations. This was not a theory lesson and the comments from participants reflected this:

‘Strong facilitation, I would rank this program as one of the best I have attended’

‘I really enjoyed the participation and strong case studies – this was done very well. The group workshops were also entertaining. The body language game was eye opening’

‘Excellent knowledge base. Well presented. Good rotation of activities to help keep participation and energy high. Well done’

Team Profile – Michael Collins

Michael is the Managing Director of Talent Solutions. Prior to launching the company he held a range of senior learning & development and management roles both in Australia and overseas. With a professional career spaning over 20 years he has worked in both government and the private sector and in industries as diverse as financial services and FMCG.

Since 1998 he has consulted across a wide variety of environments including small business, government and large multinational organisations. He has also been responsible for the delivery of major learning and development projects on both a national and international scale.

Michael’s consulting and research interests encompass leadership and team development. As a regular conference speaker his presentations combine sound theoretical knowledge with first-hand experience at making behaviour change work. He has been involved in helping individuals and organisations develop Emotional Intelligence (EI) abilities for several years now. In recent times he has trained over 100 consultants from a variety of backgrounds in how to effectively assess and develop EI capabilities with their clients.

In addition to extensive industry experience, Michael holds a Bachelors degree in Communication, a Graduate Diploma in Business and a Masters of Business Administration majoring in management development and organisational change.