Fifteen years ago coaching was launched in the Australian business community; but in the early days tended to be remedial and reserved for organisations’ ‘problem children’. It took a further 5 years or so for this stigma to wear off and by the early to mid 2000’s coaching had morphed into an essential development tool to leverage talent in organisations. Executive coaches sprung out of nowhere and cries for regulation of the industry became deafening.
Executive coaching has become an essential accessory to the executive’s suite of development options
For a while it seemed that every out of work senior exec declared themselves “ a coach”. Coaching articles filled the media in our favourite business magazines and papers, most extolling the virtues of coaching; while some highlighted what they saw as dangers. It was at this point organisations and individuals rightfully became cautious, wary, critical and savvy when it came to engaging coaching services.
Today executive coaching has matured and for many has become an essential accessory to the executive’s suite of development options. Many organisations have formalised their executive coaching offerings and protocols, some with formalised coaching panels. A coach often conjures up an image of someone observing a top athlete with stop watch in hand; for others it may represent a reward or sign of value in the organisation or a retention tool and yet others may view it as a pathway to further success and upward mobility. You may ask, “who wouldn’t benefit from having someone alongside them who sits outside the company politic who’s only agenda is to help you succeed?” The answer is very few but coaching isn’t for everyone and motivation is a key determinant.
deliberatepractice recently interviewed human resources managers, directors and general managers over a variety of industries and human resources topics. Below are some of the findings directly related to the executive coaching survey questions:
Coaches are generally used to develop competence for the following:
- Negotiation.
- Communication.
- Engaging others.
- Developing leadership behaviours.
- To augment and help broaden feedback received on development programs.
The following factors influenced people’s decisions to use a particular coach:
- Familiarity with the business.
- Ability to have a meaningful conversation.
- Trust.
- Ability to meet tight deadlines.
- A strong results focus.
- Not fluffy but willing to go deeper and understand underlying motivations and actions.
- Personal style of the coach.
- Level of seniority.
- Underlying model and expertise.
- A human resources or psychology background combined with commercial acumen.
Whatever your mental image of coaching is, it’s here to stay and frequently asked questions include:
- Who can and should benefit from coaching?
- How to identify, evaluate and select a coach that is right for the coachee, application, situation and context?
- What does value look like and how to measure performance, returns and overall success of coaching interventions?
- What protocols are needed when engaging a coach including confidentiality and disengagement?
If you are considering engaging a coach to assist with behavioural or skills based coaching applications you should be sure the coach has a researched and evidenced based methodology together with appropriate protocols and ethical guidelines underpinning their coaching practice. Research continues into the effectiveness of coaching; however recent studies clearly point to the benefits of coaching where evidence based coaching models are used.
deliberatepractice can assist you with all your coaching requirements from policy, strategy, implementation and engagement of coaching services. We use a theoretically driven and evidenced based solution-focused coaching framework and approach tailored to the organisation’s requirements and the coachee’s specific development needs. It is a facilitative and collaborative process between the coach and coachee, where the credibility of the coach in the eyes of the coachee is paramount. deliberatepractice’s coaches and mentors are fully qualified and experienced and importantly have the credibility to be effective. We carefully match our coaches with coachees and have a strong track record of success with both skills and behaviourally based coaching with individuals at all levels.
For more information please contact Greg Smith at greg.smith@deliberatepractice.com.au to discuss how coaching may help your people and organisation.