In modern work life a coaching approach to leadership is constantly growing. Managers are trained in coaching methods and use them frequently to support and challenge their staff. And still external coaching is growing alongside. Why is coaching something you would want to make sure your employees take part of? And why would anyone want to spend money on external coaches when a coaching approach is already part of how you lead?
In this article I will give my view on why you do want coaching to be a natural part of the competency development package in your organisation and why you don’t want to do it all yourself even though you may have a quality coach training of your own.
First of all. Let’s have a look at what the effects of coaching actually are. And I am not talking of the bottom line results often measured as return of investment (ROI) in business coaching. These results exist as well and you may very well benefit from them but studies measuring ROI often focuses on business coaching per se and then the results are directly linked to the turnover and results of the organisation. In this article I will focus on other aspects of coaching ROI.
A meta study at Amsterdam University 1 shows that coaching has significant positive effects on five both theoretically and practically relevant individual-level outcome categories: performance/skills, well-being, coping, work attitudes, and goal-directed self-regulation. All outcomes with effect sizes ranging from g = 0.43 (coping) to g = 0.74 (goal-directed self-regulation). These findings indicate that coaching is, overall, an effective intervention in organizations raising parameters you as a manager benefit from increasing, financially, in terms of employer branding and in efficiency.
As you go along employing brilliant people to come together, bringing the results your organisation is striving for, you want them all to come in with commitment, energy and their full attention to the team and the goals. Gone are the days when coming to work, do your hours and leave in the evening was all that was expected. Recent research I participated in as research assistant at Centre of Leadership in SmĂĄland at Linneaus university showed that among the most important things employers were looking for in employees was the ability to independently work towards shared company goals.2
In modern worklife we expect our employees to bring their whole person into work, strive and develop throughout their career, pushing our shared efforts to new heights in a competitive world. And our employees expect us to offer a workplace that gives the opportunities to learn, develop and grow as a person while performing the tasks at hand. The Why is just as important as the What.
This poses new challenges on leadership and competency development. If we want people to engage in work fully and whole heartedly, we also need to have structures in place to support managing not only the actual tasks but also ones’ emotions, stress responses, relations and coping strategies. This is where coaching comes in. In regular training new skills can be taught. Mentoring is a god way to share experience from seniors to newer staff and bring different perspectives together in mutual learning conversations. But these methods have one thing in common. They focus on transferring knowledge. In coaching knowledge is built. Brought to awareness. Connected to actual day to day situations and to the inner wisdom of the person, allowing for new knowledge to rise.
Coaching creates a space to reflect on tasks and processes with the purpose of better understanding through one´s own lens how to move forward. Every person has a unique set of talents, experiences and life lessons that form patterns of strengths and challenges. In coaching these patterns are activated, respected and at the same time strengthened or rewritten depending on whether they support or inhibit the goals of the coachee. A thought-provoking conversation with a professional speaking partner well trained in holding the space for someone to learn from their own situation, without polluting the learning experience with an outside agenda, brings safety to truly challenge oneself. An opportunity to find ones’ strengths within, increasing self-reliance, independency and resilience. When it is all about me in a safe space, we can allow ourselves to lower the guard and let weaker spots and less competitive traits be visible. What is visible is also workable.
The simple reason you as a manager cannot be as efficient as an external coach in this is that you by definition have an agenda of your own. Among your daily tasks are overseeing employee performance, ensuring organisational goals are met etc. Even though you may decide to leave all of this outside the coaching room, it is still there in your prejudice and even more, in the mind of the employee. As your client there will be limits to the level of openness, and thus also to the learning given a chance to occur. In conversation with an external coach limiting beliefs can be challenged without fear of giving oneself away in ways that affect future career moves, salary or work reputation.
This is part of the reason coach – client confidentiality is of such importance. You as a manager may choose to start, check in and/or end coaching programs with triadic conversations where you, the client and the coach together sets expectations and checks in with the process. The coaching process however will go on without you, and client has the choice of what and how results will be shared with you from insights and learning.
The way I see it, it is the brave and the wise leaders who brings in us external coaches to support staff. Having that courage will show your employees you trust them, expect greatness and are willing to give them the space and the resources to develop the specific tools they need to be able to sustainably perform at their best.
Do use your coaching approach leadership to build the climate you want and lead your team. Then add the external coaches when recruiting new staff, moving employees into new positions, expect them to perform at high level under pressure without burning themselves out or to stay energized and committed throughout a long career in your organisation. Having a coach will bring higher performance/skills, well-being, coping, work attitudes, and goal-directed self-regulation. Guess you and your organisation will benefit from that, won’t you?
Want to talk about what bringing coaching to your staff could be? Welcome to book a spot in my calendar and I’ll happily have that conversation. Free of charge and no strings attached. Book it here.
Lena Gustafsson,
professional coach and passionate about understanding and developing a sustainable modern work life.
References:
1 Theeboom, T., Beersma, B., & van Vianen, A. E. (2013). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1-18 (synopis).
2Forslund et.al (2022) "Förnyelse på småländska".
For the Swedish readers: here are some articles for further reading. Unfortunately only available in Swedish.
An interview with me in my role as a manager made by ICF Sweden: Coachande ledarskap.
An article from ICF Sweden on the role of coaching as competency development in modern work environments: Coaching – kompetensutveckling för det moderna arbetslivets krav
And a couple of articles I wrote as part of ICF Sweden editorial committee: Bredare användning av coach i svenskt näringsliv
Varför coachning som metod passar så väl in på svensk arbetsmarknad