Jane Turner, Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University

The use of coaching in organisations has rocketed over the last couple of years. In fact, recent research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) states that 63% of organisations are involved in some form of coaching activity.
 
Coaching is now recognised as a powerful process that can benefit organisations in a number of areas, but what exactly do we mean by coaching?  

All coaching is about helping people to enhance their performance and contribution to an organisation. Executive coaching is typically carried out by an external coach and is normally used for senior leaders in organisations. Being a leader is a lonely place at times and this approach enables the leader to download their issues, in a neutral environment, without fear of negative outcomes. 

This form of coaching will typically involve 6 coaching sessions over a 6-9 month period. Conversations last for approximately 2 hours and begin with an initial fact finding session to create focus for subsequent sessions. At the end of each coaching session actions are agreed for the executive to be working on then reviewed at the start of the next coaching session.

Line managers

Equipping line managers with coaching skills is also now growing in popularity. 73% of the organisations who took part in the CIPD research expected coaching by line managers to increase over the next few years.  That is, coaching used as a management style internally rather than as an external intervention. 

Line manager coaching starts with equipping managers with the skills, knowledge and behaviours to understand, motivate and get the best out of their employees so they effectively become their coach. This form of coaching conversation can take place at any time and is not necessarily as structured as the executive coaching approach. 

This blend of external and internal coaching can create synthesis and momentum if there is clarity in relation to what the organization is coaching for, which is typically skills, performance and/or development. The challenge for organisations is to be able to deconstruct and articulate the vision for leadership and management to external and internal coaches to set out the direction of travel, thereby ensuring alignment of purpose.

So if you’re not using either of these forms of coaching, why should you be considering them?:

• Fundamentally, coaching is a strong driver for improving personal, and therefore, organisational performance. Its whole focus is on improving performance.

• Coaching can help employees to become more self aware, focusing on their strengths and development areas enabling individuals to work on the issues that are potentially blocking their performance.  

• Coaching can help leaders and managers to understand and enhance working relationships to improve leadership and management capability, thus creating a cascading improvement in performance down to the teams they manage.

• Coaching can help leaders work on the strategic issues facing their organisations.  

• Coaching can help shift an organisational climate or culture in times of change.

• Coaching can help improve employee motivation and engagement when the organisation may be going through a difficult time and is increasingly becoming a key recruitment and retention tool for top executives.

So, is coaching right for every organisation? 

Most businesses tend to benefit from a coaching approach, which is why it has gained such popularity over the last few years. Because its focus is on improving performance and enabling people and organisations to do this themselves, rather than relying on external advice, it tends to adapt to numerous business scenarios. 

If you are interested in coaching for your own development, it’s important to find the right person to be coached by. This is a relationship based upon trust, respect and rapport and any qualified coach will work with you to ensure that this is created. 

The most robust qualifications that you would expect a coach to have currently are those gained from an academic institution or accrediting body. Take your time to find the right coach and do your homework in relation to the cost of coaching.

Coaching needs to be a continuous process rather than a on-off intervention if sustained changes are to be achieved. If you are looking to create a coaching culture in your organisation through developing the skills of mangers and leaders as coaches, then you should be thinking about approaching an organisation with a track record of developing coaches within organisations.