HRD Support

Coaching in combination with other management and business activities can go a long way toward building the capacity of your managers. For an example of a workshop that can be offered in your organization to build coaching skills in your managers by offering a coaching clinic or by going to www.learning-exchange.com for blending coaching with training and workshops.

Leadership Coaching Questions and Answers

What is coaching?

Coaching is a powerful, synergistic relationship between a coach and a willing individual which connects at the deep personal level of beliefs, values and vision, and which enables, through a process of discovery, goal setting and strategic actions, the realization of extraordinary results. Coaching is a body of knowledge, technology, and a style of relating that focuses on the development of human potential. Coaching is interdevelopmental in that the collaboration develops both the coach and the individual being coached.

What is leadership coaching?

Coaching in the organizational setting uses the synergy of the organization and its members to enable them to transform their capacity for learning and renewal into achievement of breakthrough results. Leadership coaching is central to a cultural transformation process that shifts the landscape of the workplace from one where people receive direction from others to one where people commit to doing things they care passionately about. Everyone wins, and organizations achieve competitive advantage when organizational members' creativity and potential are realized.

Why is leadership coaching being used?

Intense global competition, advances in computer and telecommunications technology, product and service innovation, and the emergence of the customer as a central player in the organization, have created a new corporate imperative. To sustain competitive advantage, indeed to survive, organizations will be compelled to continually innovate with unprecedented speed.

Rapid responses to marketplace will be possible only in those organizations which promote continual improvement and growth in knowledge within their cultures. To do this, organizational leaders and members alike must radically shift the way they think and act in relationship to work. They must place a new emphasis on learning and the harnessing of individual and collective creativity. This will require anew type of workplace relationship. Coaching provides both a technology and a process for such a relationship, and is one of the cornerstones of organizational transformation.

What are the benefits of coaching for the organization?

Results in improved workforce retention and recruitment

Is applicable to all parts of the organization

Uses a common language which everyone can relate to

Emphasizes the unique potential of individuals

Is a vehicle for establishing internal and external networks and partnerships

  Enhances communication with internal and external customers

Promotes focused development and performance discussions

Facilitates the building of shared vision

Are there any disadvantages for the organization?

The transformation to a coaching based organization requires commitment and sustained sponsorship at all levels of the organization. There can be unevenness in getting everyone on board, and this can be initially unsettling to the organization's culture. The process encourages the development of persona leadership throughout the organization. This can be difficult for those who remain vested in traditional organizational structures, which emphasize direction and decision making from the top. There will invariably be organizational members who are reluctant to enter into a coaching relationship due to internal obstacles. Coaching is not a quick fix program for serious organizational of individual performance problems.

How is coaching different from training?

Training is the process whereby individuals deliver a prescribed curriculum with specific expertise to others, often for the purpose of preparing them for particular roles or skills. Training does not typically take into consideration the uniqueness of peoples' existing skills, motivation or commitment, and it does not usually result in radical shifts in peoples' thinking and actions.

How is coaching distinct from mentorship?

Mentorship is a supportive relationship in which a more experienced individual passes on his or her knowledge, wisdom and experience to an individual who is a novice. Often, mentoring relationships are utilized to pass on informal organizational cultural norms and to assist the individual in making connections which are important to career advancement. Mentoring relationships are not usually interdevelopmental and may foster dependency on the part of both the mentor and individual. Mentoring tends to reinforce traditional organizational structures defined by hierarchy and top down decision making.

Can everyone in an organization be coached?

It would be nice to be able to say that the answer to that question is a resounding “yes”. Unfortunately, 15-20% of individuals in an organization are probably not coachable. This could be because they are not willing, have serious performance problems, or are planning to retire or move on to another job. The good news is that as the organization begins its transformation, these individuals won't find it very comfortable to remain because standards are naturally elevated, and the organizational culture expects more from everyone. The even better news is that the organization then attracts and retains higher caliber than previously.