*This is a guest post authored by Annette Czernik, senior consultant at RELEVANT Managementberatung.
This year’s Coaching Day 2019, an international two-day congress for the coaching industry, was held November 15 and 16 in Munich, Germany. Once again, the event focused on future-oriented topics relating to agility, digitalization, and leadership. The diverse program was designed by the International Coach Federation (ICF) Germany with various speakers, experts, and insiders. RELEVANT Managementberatung was involved in different ways.
Panel Discussion
The panelists on the panel “Coaching & Digitalization – Opportunities, Threats & Ethical Aspects” discussed the introduction of digitalization into the coaching process in a very controversial way. There was a lot of curiosity but also restraint and resistance.
ICF Germany Prism Award
One of the highlights of Coaching Day 2019 was the presentation of the second Prism Award of ICF Germany, sponsored by RELEVANT. You can read about the importance of the ICF Prism Award here.
The Prism Award 2019 went to Adidas and Vodafone for their outstanding coaching programs. The jury’s special prize, awarded for the first time this year, went to Volkswagen for its differentiated system of interlocking coaching offerings, which was recognized as the “lighthouse of the industry.”
In his laudation to Adidas, René Kusch, PhD, said, “Other coaching programs can learn a lot from Adidas. In the competition for the German Prism Award, the jury particularly emphasized your commitment to the evaluation of the seemingly soft topic ‘coaching process.’ You have calculated the return on investment of your measure at 130%. Even if numerics cannot always take everything into consideration, numbers are the language that secures our community a place at the table of line managers. Your program is a great example of how coaching can make a real difference.”
Dr. Kusch praised Vodafone’s coaching program: “Vodafone is part of the spearhead of digitization in Germany. Your presentation will give us a glimpse of how Vodafone is helping to shape technological progress — perhaps we should say technological revolution. You are the first to put [5G] into operation. What is possible with it all fascinates me. Among other things, it is one of the prerequisites for autonomous vehicles. You have just teamed up with UnityMedia. The mobile phone industry is undergoing considerable upheaval. Your concept Coaching @ Vodafone is geared to the changes and challenges [the industry is facing]. You describe [strategic self-awareness] as a core competence at Vodafone. Your coaching uses content and methods to promote [Vodafone’s core competences]. Consistently. And it’s so fresh and modern that you don’t immediately notice this theoretical foundation.”
Workshop: “How to Develop Humility in Alpha People”
On the second day, as part of HR BarCamp, RELEVANT held a workshop, “How to Develop Humility in Alpha People,” for interested attendees. The main focus was on charismatic managers, who typically show self-confidence, determination, and visionary thinking.
Charisma ensures that managers in companies are recognized. However, too much charisma can become a weakness. Many charismatic leaders with power become narcissists, which can have devastating effects on others.
Today, there are fewer ways for narcissistic leaders to hide misconduct. To meet the demands of the fourth industrial revolution, companies need leaders who can be effective through others. Humility allows leadership teams to deliver business results, be productive, and be effective.
In an interactive workshop session, we explored our views on
- The difference between individual emergence and team effectiveness at work,
- How emerging and effective leaders can be identified in organizations, and
- How the coaching abilities of overly charismatic leaders can be improved with an empirically proven approach and discussed with candidates.
We enjoyed the intensive exchange with the participants and continued some of the discussions afterward. Strategic self-awareness is important to everyone, and we are delighted that we can make a significant contribution to this with the Hogan assessment suite.
If you are interested in delving into our workshop topic, we would like to give you access to our article, “Our View on New Leadership: How to Develop and Assess Humility in Charismatic Leaders,” which we wrote with Robert Hogan, PhD, and Ryne Sherman, PhD. We are proud of the article with all modesty, and we are looking forward to your feedback!
We took a lot of food for thought, ideas, and insights from Coaching Day 2019. It was touching to see the joy of the winners of the ICF Germany Prism Award. And we were pleased about the possibilities of looking at the quality of coaching from different angles (e.g., with regard to ethics, the use of diagnostics, standardized processes, etc.). Next year we will be there again, and we are looking forward to it.