COACHING

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 ...