Leadership Development Interventions - A Review of Coaching
Table of Contents
Introduction1
Coaching1
Effectiveness of coaching2
Knowing your people2
Monitoring performance3
Support3
Customization4
Functions of a coach4
Nurturer5
Trainer5
Motivator5
Alternative interventions for leadership development6
Nine conversations in leadership6
Action planning7
Multi-rater feedback8
Conclusion9
References10
Leadership Development Interventions - A Review of Coaching
Introduction
Leadership is a practice. This means that like any other practice such as art, music and athletics, this too increase with repetition. The more you repeat the effective behavior the more it gets embedded in the personality. Coaching is an effective strategy of leadership development and is increasingly being used by more and more organizations. In the recent years, the number of organizations employing coaching as a leadership development intervention has increased by 10 percent in the UK and those using it in the US have increased by 95% (Boyce & Hernez 2010, p. 139). The paper discusses the impact of coaching as a popular effective leadership development intervention, the reasons for this success, the limitations of it and the alternative leadership development interventions.
Coaching
Coaching is essential in that employees have a tendency to perform lower than their true ability if they are not told that they need to perform up to a certain level. If they don't know what to change they will not be able to change it. Managers have a role to coach the people who report to them. They have to remain proactive. Employees at all levels of the organization need effective coaching. Coaching is important for the success of the manager (Baron & Morin 2009, p. 85). Most managers understand that performance is a function of three key factors; these are ability, support and motivation. Ability may be defined as the skills possessed by the employees that help him perform his job. Motivation refers to the level of interest and commitment that an employee shows towards his job. Support refers to the tools, resources and information needed to perform the job. This motivation and support comes from coaching.
In this context, it is imperative to state that coaching should not be confused with counseling as they are two different concepts. However, the objective of the two is the same. Both are aimed at improving the performance of the employee. While counseling is directed towards personal problems, coaching is more about dealing with the issues in the ability of the employee to do a certain work.
Effectiveness of coaching
The effectiveness of coaching depends on the approach of coaching of the person who employs it.
Knowing your people
In order for coaching to deliver the results that it is expected, it is essential that the coach knows his people. Most managers have the tendency to maintain a distance between the employees who report to them. This is essential, professional and even desirable but this does not mean that the manager should not make efforts to know their employee (Alvey & Barclay 2007, p. 18). Effective coaching requires that the manager has a clear idea about the level of motivation, competencies and excellence as well as the work ethic in each of his ...