Interview with Pilar Colilla, president of AECOP Spain
On this occasion I want to share with you the conversation I had with Pilar Colilla Rubio, president of Aecop Spain, (Spanish Association of Executive and Organizational Coaching), about this powerful development tool: executive coaching.
In my opinion, executive coaching is a tool for transformation, acceleration of change, accompaniment to develop people’s potential.
It is a privilege to have the opportunity to chat with Pilar, a person who is close, committed and dedicated body and soul to promoting people’s talent. A person who shines and makes shine. I hope you enjoy his reflections as much as I do.
Interview with Pilar Colilla
His professional career can be summarised as working for the development of people in organisations. Member of ACEC (Association of Corporate Executive Coaches) and Master Corporate Executive Coach certified by MEECO Leadership Institute. She is an Executive Coach at Instituto de Empresa. CDR Executive Coach certified by CDR Assessment Group and Certified Coach by Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholders Centered Coaching.
In the field of associations and non-profit entities, she has worked at Aecop Spain since 2011 and also at AEDIPE, (Spanish Association of People Management) in the Valencian Community and as national director of its magazine Dirigir Personas.
In the field of business associations, he was a member of the Executive Committee of FEVES, (Valencian Federation of Social Economy Companies) and has participated in numerous forums for reflection on Valencian and Spanish companies from a multisectoral perspective. She has been a founding partner of GSM Didalia, a company in the field of Social Economy, and a member of the management team, as well as director of its magazine Punto Sociocultural. In addition, for more than 30 years she has been a trainer in various training programs in companies, with her own training company.
Follow the interview with Pilar Colilla
Q: What is executive coaching for you?
A: For me, executive coaching is the one that considers the professional part of the person, their work facet and achieves their full integration between what the person is and the person in “their world of work”. It allows them to develop in their working world 100%, without there being a divorce between “person self” and “working self”.
Q: How is coaching different from other development tools?
A: What strikes me most about coaching is the deep freedom and respect for the subject of the process, which is the coachee. Until I discovered coaching, I had not known a process more respectful of your own will. Other tools or methodologies tell you what to do, but they don’t ask you, “What do you want? What do you want to be? How do you want to be perceived?” I like about coaching that deep respect, that feeling of freedom, that knowing that you have in front of you someone whose role is to “listen without judging” and let the other see, that the other through their own conversation realize what they need. I realize how much we need to be able to talk without feeling judged.
Q: Where do you think it is such a powerful tool?
A: For me, when the person discovers what they want to do, what their goal is, how they want to feel, how they want to be, what they have to do to achieve that, then change is imminent. The simple fact that you realize that you have the right to ask yourself what you want to do with your life, your career, your present and your future… it already represents a change in itself. Many people do not live their lives, but “life lives them.” That is why the thought that they can decide how they want to live their own life, the fact of asking themselves: is it legitimate for me to ask myself what I want to do with myself? That already means a great change for them, realizing that they can be the masters of their own path and take their own responsibility in this regard.
Q: What do you think you have to take into account when choosing that partner on the road? When you are going to do a coaching process, what do you value in a coach?
A: In the context of AECOP, which I represent, it is very important that this person, the coach, is professionally solvent and that he or she is endorsed and recognized by an entity with credibility. Not only is it taking into account their training and certification, but you can also investigate and discover who that person is, what characterizes them and what values govern that entity that supports that person. In that sense, I think it is essential to have that external reference that an association like Aecop gives you. In addition, for me it is very important to know how to detect the honesty and ethical commitment of the professional we are going to choose. And many times those things can be detected almost from minute one.
Pilar Colilla, president of AECOP Spain
Q: For a company that has never done coaching processes before, what things are important for you to know about these processes?
A: I think the company should know that through executive coaching the people who work in the organization can be much better in their performance because they can know what they are excellent at and optimize it and what they can improve and polish it. And this necessarily makes them more productive, more satisfied and with a greater sense of belonging to the organization that gives them the possibility of finding their way and developing their talent. Once the person has traveled that path in the company, if the process is well done and the company has internalized the “coaching look”, the desire to help your immediate collaborators to develop to the fullest automatically occurs. Therefore, it is like a waterfall, it is a chain reaction. You intervene with a person, but that person, in turn, will help your team to be even better at what they can improve.
Q: Can it sometimes happen in the processes that the person wants to leave your company?
A: On some occasions it may happen that the person wants to leave because they believe that there is no interesting challenge in their company, there is no possibility of further development, there is no career plan that motivates them, and that is worked on in a certain way. Other times it happens that the person realizes that their values and the organization are not aligned. And this is a difficult point of return. That is, when the coachee discovers that his problem in the organization is that his personal values differ from the values that govern organizational behavior, a turning point inevitably occurs.
Follow the interview with Pilar Colilla
Q: How do companies accept the confidentiality commitment that must be in place in the process?
A: In general, fine, especially if the coach is clear that his or her commitment to confidentiality with his or her coachee is an essential part of the process and essential to create the necessary climate of trust between the two. But I think there is still a long way to go. Sometimes companies find it difficult to understand that the coach is not an instrument in their hands, that they are committed to rigorous ethical principles that govern their professional practice and that they cannot require them to transmit what happens in the process or reveal aspects subject to this commitment of confidentiality with the coachee. The coach works in a neutral and independent way and the information that the company may have from the coach is limited and must be carefully delimited when setting expectations and outlining the service agreement or contract. Sometimes it can happen that the executive coach, especially if they do not have much experience in this area, is not clear about the difference between client and coachee and the commitment they have with each one. The commitment to the coachee is as the protagonist and recipient of the process. The commitment to the company is as a customer who hires and pays for the service. With each one, the commitments are different, but in no case is the transfer of information to the company about the confidentiality content of the coaching sessions justified.
Interview with Pilar Colilla
Q: How long do you think it takes to get results? Can these results be measured?
A: I believe that when the coachee is really committed to the process and the coach is good, in three months or sooner you can start to see results. You can begin to perceive changes in the coachee’s perspective, point of view, with respect to oneself and one’s environment, for example. Many times we do not realize how others are perceiving us and when we discover it and change the inappropriate or unwanted behaviors, even if those changes are subtle, have a great impact on our collaborators.
On the subject of measurement, there are tools to measure the results, including calculating the ROI of a coaching process but, as with everything, the measurement must be carried out at the right time. On the part of the company, I believe that these results should not be measured before six months and, if you really want to see the impact on the organization, it is better to wait a year, because it is not so evident. We are talking about changes in vision, perspective, behavior, you can perceive the change, but the effect that this change has on the organization is not so immediate.
Q: When is it more advisable to carry out a coaching process and when is it not?
A: In my opinion, a coaching process is appropriate whenever you have to face a change in the organization, of whatever kind. For example, a new boss comes in, there is a renewal of the board of directors, there is an acquisition or merger, etc. That is, when the coachee is going to change to one side or the other, not just “up” or “down”, or “laterally” in the organizational chart. Not everyone can or wants to change to positions of more responsibility, even if the organization wants to. And regarding when a coaching process is not recommended, I think that it should not be carried out when the coach detects that there are “covert” motives or objectives on the part of the organization. For example, when it has already been decided by the company that the person has to leave the organization and the coaching process is an excuse. You cannot work in a process with a person to generate an expectation of development when the organization has already lost confidence in their change or in the improvement of their capabilities, it makes no sense.
Q: Why the existence of an association like Aecop?
A: Coaching is not a regulated profession, there are no official studies, there is no frame of reference for society that delimits what executive coaching is and what it is not, what should be done and what should not be done. There is no competency framework that prepares you for certain characteristics as a regulated professional, so that everyone who wishes to can access to know this discipline within a legal framework. There are many postgraduate and master’s courses on executive coaching in Spain, but there is no official recognised university training on executive coaching. In these circumstances of “troubled river” there is a risk that “everything fits” within the denomination “coaching”. Therefore, professional associations such as Aecop have the obligation to set the framework and be the reference for society of what are the limits that circumscribe this professional field to avoid precisely that “everything fits”.
The interview with Pilar Colilla continues
Q: What is the mission and main objectives of the Association?
R: The mission and main objectives of AECOP are focused on guaranteeing the exercise of quality executive coaching and defending and giving prestige to the profession; promoting executive coaching as a tool for the development of people in organizations; to claim the framework of reference that tells society, professionals and the market what coaching is and what is not; to mark a very clear ethical path that serves as a guarantee to the market and that protects good practices, (which means that bad practices have their consequences) and above all, to present itself to the socio-economic fabric as a partner guarantor of success. That is, the company that has a “coaching culture”, that is, that has a development perspective, focused on the fulfillment of its workers, their personal and professional well-being, so that they feel good, fulfilled, (with a purpose in the organization consistent with their personal one), has a guarantee of success.
Q: What are the main challenges that AECOP is currently facing?
A: Currently for me the main focus is that society and the socio-economic and professional fabric recognize us as the entity that represents that frame of reference that gives guarantees; also that the professional considers us the reference for the exercise of his work; and that society and companies perceive the benefits that executive coaching represents. How do you do that? Well, by being very present where this type of debate takes place, insisting, listening a lot to the company and its needs and claiming our role as interlocutor with the company, asking it what it needs to see how we can help it. There is a lot of talk, for example, about “retaining talent” in companies, but we have to ask ourselves why talent is leaving. That is where the “coaching gaze” of the organization plays an essential role, which focuses on the development of the person, with a way of being and being in which you allow the person to direct their own development process and help them discover where they want to go.
Q: Would you like to add any ideas to finish?
A: Yes, I would like to conclude by saying that we are not alone, that ours is not an isolated battle, that all over the world the people who are dedicated to working alongside the company are saying the same thing. The company and society would benefit greatly from considering executive coaching as a business partner and as an essential part of their employer branding strategy.
And you, what comments or reflections would you like to provide on these ideas?
What do you think of the interview with Pilar Colilla?
