Article Preview
TopIntroduction
As employees look to their leaders for more guidance, accountability, and skill development, coaching seems to be one way more corporations enhance their workforce development (Rostron, 2014). Executive coaching has become a growing executive education trend to build organizational capacity through skills assessment, skills development, and career mapping process for corporate leaders (Belding, 2017). In today’s complex and rapidly changing workplace environment, leadership coaching is about developing high-potential performers (Belding, 2017). As a result of this broader mission, there is a void of recent peer-reviewed research that points to proven and strictly confined methods of how coaches define the scope of engagements, measure, and report on progress (Belding, 2017). The credentials a company should use to select a coach (Belding, 2017).
Since research points to the conclusion that coaching enhances a company's bottom line, how does the coach and professional coaching play into leadership development effectiveness? “A coach often acts as a sounding board, using question frameworks and coaching models to help the corporate leader work out solutions to specific issues (Stout-Rostron, 2012). In Kolb's experiential learning cycle, the role of coaching is to help leaders and managers to reflect on their recent corporate experience so that they work out how to address critical issues facing them. In this way, both “coach and client reflect on the client's experience and behaviors, devising new thinking, feeling, behaviors, and actions” to take (Stout-Rostron, 2012). The issues identified by managers as essential topics for coaching sessions could include:
•developing their leadership competencies;
•developing, motivating, and managing the performance of their teams;
•addressing issues around diversity and corporate culture;
•dealing with workplace conflict and managing difficult people and situations;
•gaining insight into their own personal and professional motivators or drivers;
•coping with high-stress levels; and
•balancing business and personal life demands” (Rostron, 2014, p. 52).
In addition to these factors playing a significant role in developing leaders, the coach-client relationship's nature has been noted to have a substantial impact on coaching effectiveness (McKenna & Davis, 2009). You can also call the connection between the coach and client “rapport.” We see the world through our belief, culture, and even values. Therefore the coach and client have to be mindful of their thoughts and values and how they play a part in the coaching relationship (Rostron, 2014). A coach also needs to be aware of not perpetuating the system's dynamics, although they become part of the system when they coach within an organization. The job of the coach is to be mindful and attentive to the client's needs. The glue of an organization is positivity and relationships because they promote performance. Companies that focus on positive aspects such as resilience, humility, loyalty, trustworthiness, and compassion perform better financially and qualitatively (Horne, 2008). Most of the current research points to the direction that coaching has many positive effects on leaders and the organization; therefore, the time, energy, and money a company, client, or coach spends is well worth the investment.