Professors get into group coaching

Text by Jari Jokinen Photos by Matti Immonen

The merger of three universities into Aalto University has also created pressure to change academic management. Group coaching has proved to be an excellent way to develop leadership and management.

Kirsi Peltonen, who has a professorship in the Department of Mathematics and Systems Analysis at Aalto University, was among the first participants in the new training programme for professors. The group coaching opportunity presented itself at exactly the right time in March.

“I can’t say whether it was spring fatigue or just general exhaustion with certain things. When I received the e-mail about coaching, I decided to sign up immediately,” Kirsi Peltonen says.

Peltonen was not familiar with coaching as a training method. She says she got excited about it because the e-mail managed to say exactly the right things about the coaching opportunity.

“We have a wide variety of training opportunities here at the university, but this e-mail had something that stopped me deleting it right away. The idea oozed good spirit and described a field of operations similar to the one I was thinking about just then.”

Peltonen has had purely positive experiences with the coaching, which already ended. The six-person group hit it off immediately, and discussions opened new perspectives into work.

“I don’t know whether all groups succeeded this well. I’ve never been involved in a similarly unbiased discussion promoting nobody’s personal interests. And the training showed me that I’m not struggling with these issues alone. Regardless of different universities or personal backgrounds, the problems that professors have in their work seemed to be the same,” Peltonen says.

Academic leadership to the foreground

Aalto University is going through the same kind of change management process as the corporate world, with the organisation looking for better and more efficient leadership.

The university started operations in January 2010, merging three formerly independent universities – Helsinki School of Economics, the University of Art and Design Helsinki and Helsinki University of Technology – for the purpose of creating a top university. The objective is to create opportunities for strong, multidisciplinary teaching and research.

Aalto University has about 20,000 students and 4,500 staff members. There are about 300 professors.
The universities had already been using various leadership and management training programmes. The big new university also sought leadership models from abroad, but the ball was passed back to them. Foreigners expressed an interest in what Aalto University was doing.

“Basically, the key to the issue is academic leadership. It is not much talked about and can’t be compared to hierarchical leadership, even though it incorporates profitability and accountability,” say Kaija Meriläinen, Head of Personnel Development, and Mikaela Stelwagen, Head of Leadership and Competence Development at Aalto University.

Professors have long thought that academic freedom and leadership cannot be part of the same equation. On the other hand, good leadership can be considered as boosting creativity. This is what the group coaching aimed for.

“There was a great deal of interest among professors, and the first two groups were filled in no time,” Meriläinen says.

“We invest heavily in leadership development and also in the creation of a consistent Aalto University culture. We aim to gather participants in the training from all three campuses,” Meriläinen points out.
Aalto University has several different coaching groups for, among others, professors, researchers, supervisors and seniors. The group coaching emphasises learning together and networking.

Shared everyday problems

The professors’ group coaching meetings were held at Psycon, which Peltonen considered a good solution; you can distance yourself from your work more easily on uncommon ground.

It is also important for coaching that the topics are raised from within the group. The first meeting is for people to get to know each other and learn about the contents of the training.

“At the first meeting, I brought up issues that had been bothering me, and I’m sure the others did the same. It may have been a confusing mix of all the things you do and things you usually just don’t think about. It’s often difficult to take things out of the context on which you’re working at the time. We delved into things that aren’t really part of professional expertise yet are always present in it,” Kirsi Peltonen says, describing the group’s first meeting.

She was surprised to find out that everyone else was struggling with basically the same problems, even though people had different backgrounds and careers.

“It became clear that not everything is due to your own indecision or inability. We were all in the same boat.”

“Key topics of discussion included time management, prioritisation, changes in the organisation and the resulting requirements, which are sometimes contradictory. You should be highly skilled in everything, and at times you feel that you can never do your job well enough,” Peltonen says.

The coaching group got together six times, with each member providing the introduction to one session. The topics were the distribution of financial resources; the leadership system and the department’s management group activities; the organisation of the operations and what to do in uncertain situations; the professor’s duties, priorities and time management questions; personality differences in interaction; and motivation and marketing of research activities and results.

Peltonen says that all the topics raised concerned everyone.

“We often easily digressed from a concrete topic, but the coach was able to discreetly guide us back to the heart of the matter. Instead of offering ready-made models, the coach encouraged us to discuss things,” Peltonen says, thanking the coaching group consultant.

Peltonen is also happy about the fact that the discussions did not get bogged down in details or get personal; nobody got hurt.

The significance of leadership increases amid change

Academic leadership has been addressed at Aalto University’s Aalto Leaders’ Dialogue seminars. Heads of departments have been asked how they see academic leadership. Some have even raised the question of whether a creative, academic environment even needs leadership.

“However, the significance of leadership is emphasised in an extensive change process, and the establishment of Aalto University was also a triggering factor in leadership development. All training sessions have been linked with the university strategy,” Mikaela Stelwagen says.

Kaija Meriläinen reminds us that at universities, many top experts may find themselves in the role of leader or supervisor without even wanting it or having had any leadership training. And because research mostly depends on external funding, profitability requirements have also increased. This has of course occurred before as well, but the role of accountability has now increased.

“What’s more, the same person can be your supervisor, subordinate or colleague in different research projects. Situations like this can be compared to project leadership in the business world,” Meriläinen says.
Aalto University’s group coaching has been in the pilot phase this year, and the feedback encourages its continuation. The programme is already marketing itself.

“Word about positive experiences gets around over coffee and lunch and in the corridors,” Meriläinen says.

Learning that suits you

What is good coaching? Peltonen immediately brings up equality, unbiasedness, confidentiality and tackling issues that concern yourself.

“In our discussions, no one had a personal agenda and there were no gaming politics.”

Peltonen says that the last meeting raised the idea of arranging another meeting for the group in, for example, six months.

“We should go through whether we really learned something or whether the feeling of well-being was only in the heat of the moment, something that will easily be forgotten when you get back to work,” Peltonen says.
In Professor Peltonen’s opinion, coaching cannot be compared to traditional lecturing, where the trainer stands on a podium and tries to convey his thoughts and procedures to the trainees.