Coaching leadership.

Under the impact of the third industrial revolution, the structure of society is being networked, and the organization of enterprises is increasingly networked. The post-80s and post-90s employees who pursue independence and focus on themselves have gradually become the main body of corporate employees. In this context, coaching leadership has attracted great attention from the Chinese business community and was rated as the top ten management practices this year.

The July 2007 issue of "CEConline" used "Coaching Leadership" as the title to discuss the characteristics of coaching leadership, and believed that: the way of commanding leadership is to do as I say, and the way of leadership by example is like me In doing so, visionary leadership is doing it with me, relational leadership says you negotiate what to do, and democratic leadership asks what you want to do. Coaching leadership is the most special, there is you and me, it is - I teach you to do it.

In fiscal year 2012, Lenovo Group achieved the best record in history. Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing attributes this in part to the company's strong global leadership. The introduction and implementation of coaching leadership plays an important role.

The Rise of Coaching Leadership

The famous American trend scientist Jeremy Rifkin asserts in his new book "The Third Industrial Revolution" that it is based on the relationship between the Internet and new energy. The third industrial revolution based on the combination will be surging forward.

Wang Qin, researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Enterprise Management Research Office of the Institute of Industrial Economics, believes that "digital, intelligent and customized" manufacturing has become an important feature of the "third industrial revolution", and mass customization will become the main the way production is organized. These characteristics will be combined with business processes to make the organization truly "networked" from "flat".

Entrepreneurs are already feeling the impact of these changes on the way businesses are led. "The third industrial revolution has brought about changes in the social structure, and the entire society has become a network. The top-down centralized management in the past may not work." Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin told reporters not long ago.

The post-80s and post-90s have gradually become the main body of corporate human resources, which has accelerated the sinking of centralized leadership. They have a stronger sense of autonomy and pursue more sense of achievement and respect in addition to material rewards. They have strong work ability, but the subjective initiative of work is relatively weak.

The survey results of the human resources company SHL show that the scores of Chinese graduates in the ability to do things far exceed the global average. The global average is 100 points, and China's score is 154 points. It also far exceeds the average score of 80 points for the BRIC countries. But in terms of willingness to do it, China is only 87 points, 2 points lower than the average score of the BRIC countries. Moreover, in China, the top 25% and the bottom 25% of the population have a very large difference in the score of willingness to do it. The former is 138 points and the latter is only 60 points. Globally, this gap is more than 60 points. Big surprise.

How to lead the post-80s and post-90s who pursue autonomy, focus on themselves, and have strong work ability but poor willingness to work has become a matter of great concern. Among the answers to this question, the comparative advantage of coaching leadership over centralized leadership is increasingly favored by companies.

In the opinion of Feng Yun, CEO of Xinrong (China) Group, coaching leadership is softer than centralized leadership. The reason for this kind of softness is the change of employees' psychology. Improved culture and education have made employees more and more confident in their own ideas and more and more respectful of themselves. In this context, there will inevitably be endless conflicts between an overly rigid management style and increasingly rigid employees. Therefore, flexible management methods will become more and more effective.

Building global leadership

Lenovo's fiscal year 2012 sales, market share and pre-tax profit all hit record highs. The group's full-year sales increased by nearly 37% year-on-year to US$29.6 billion. At the same time, Lenovo jumped to become the world's second largest computer manufacturer this fiscal year, with a market share of 12.9% for the year, a new high. During the fiscal year, Lenovo continued to vigorously execute the “defense and attack” strategy in mature and emerging markets, and achieved balanced growth across all regions, customer markets and product categories. The Group’s full-year pre-tax profit increased by 63% year-on-year. % to $582 million.

Yuanqing Yang attributes this impressive report card in part to Lenovo's strong global leadership organization, which combines a diverse and experienced leadership team with an organizational structure that facilitates frequent consultation and effective decision-making, enabling leaders to Quickly develop their expertise and apply their insights in their leadership roles. Among them, the style of frequent consultation is a remarkable result of Lenovo's implementation of coaching leadership.

Lenovo has a strong tradition of coaching leadership. During the process of Yang Yuanqing becoming Lenovo's successor, Lenovo leader Liu Chuanzhi analyzed his own strengths and weaknesses for Yang Yuanqing through words and deeds, and even wrote letters, inspired him to improve his leadership skills, and effectively played the role of a corporate coach.

In order to help senior managers improve their global leadership capabilities, Lenovo Group has established a "coach pool" for its global vice presidents. All the coaches in the warehouse are world-renowned corporate coaches who have signed contracts with Lenovo. Lenovo vice president-level executives select the right coaches based on each coach's background and personal circumstances, and these coaches will provide them with one-on-one coaching.

Coaching leadership from executives to employees

Song Jie, senior director of human resources at Lenovo Group, believes that managing knowledge workers depends more on motivating them, especially the younger generation born in the 1980s and 1990s. Aspects drive them, and the coaching management style is definitely more effective than the imperative management style. Therefore, Lenovo Group started a coaching coaching training program this year to help managers at all levels gradually use the coaching method instead of the previous simple instruction method when managing their subordinates.

At Lenovo, coaching leadership is implemented within the framework of the Organizational and Human Resource Planning review. In fiscal 2012, Lenovo completed an Organizational and Human Resource Planning review for every business unit and division globally. Through the review process, Lenovo not only strengthens the existing leadership team, but also discovers a new generation of leaders who can accumulate stamina for the company's development and respond to new opportunities related to the company's long-term development. On the basis of the "Organization and Human Resource Planning" review, determine the development agenda of talents and organizational capabilities.

At Lenovo, there are three main ways to train employees: employees accumulate experience on the job and learn by doing, which accounts for about 70%; learn from the success and failure experiences of mentors, coaches, and managers, as well as their guidance and suggestions , which accounts for about 20%; formal training in the classroom or online, which teaches employees key work principles and gets them to take action, accounts for about 10%.

Actually, the second approach, about 20%, is coaching leadership applied to employees. This approach is very effective in increasing employee engagement and engagement. Results of the annual Lenovo Listening to Employee Engagement Survey, held in fiscal 2012, show that its global employees are proud to work at Lenovo and feel deeply embedded in its culture; in particular, they feel guided and supported by managers.