The Importance Of Coaching Management Essay

This chapter will include recommendations following the analysis and findings of the last chapter. Suggestions about the coaching function of PMS will be further elaborated so as to help the organisation. A conclusion will also be included so as to sum up this study.

Importance of coaching

First of all, it is crucial that all the employees of the organisation are provided with the opportunity to learn more about coaching. Even though the majority of employees and managers opted for the definition of coaching as per Parlsoe (1999), we can still notice that a few seem to define coaching as counseling or others. Therefore, they should be sensitised. This can happen through focus group or creating more awareness about the function of the PMS. Managers should especially have an in-depth knowledge about coaching as they would be the one to coach other employees. Also, coaching should not be imposed on employees as this may create negative feelings and they might not appreciate it when they are being coached. Instead, they should be given the chance to know more about the benefits of coaching.

Coaching Process

Without a proper process, coaching cannot be fully exploited and thus would not bring the expected result which is to improve performance. A coaching process is used to guide both the coach and coachee during the coaching process. Each stage is important as it allows a good flow if information in both directions and allows both the coach and the coachee to determine whether coaching is bringing in results.

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In this context, the establishment of a coaching process is essential. HR can in collaboration with the managers devise a most appropriate coaching process which could be used. This process will include well designed stages that managers would have to follow while coaching.

Coaching Culture

As pointed out in the previous chapter, the coaching culture of the organisation is at the tactical stage (Megginson and Clutterbuck, 2006). From the findings, it is clear that organisation is aware of the importance of setting a coaching culture but however, the level of understanding of what would be involved remains low. For coaching to be embedded in an organisation’s culture, just recognising its importance is not enough. Everybody has to play their respective roles. For instance, the HR professionals are at the best position to develop strategies for coaching to occur and also aligning it with the objectives of the organisation. Therefore the intervention of HR is essential. They could set up the structure for coaching to take place. Additionally since coaching requires a 360 feedback, HR could work in this direction to enable such process to run smoothly.

But the intervention of HR only is also not sufficient; the participation of top management is required. Leaders and managers need to embrace coaching. They should be the one to build coaching accountability. Furthermore, the participation of employees is mainly required. Employees should recognise the importance of coaching of a coaching process as well as accept it. Employees should be willing to be coached.

Training Managers

It is vital that managers are trained so that the can be good coaches. From the findings, it is seen that 40 % of managers do not even agree that coaching form part of their duty. As such, it should be made clear to the managers whether they need to coach their subordinates or not. These managers should be more exposed to coaching and its benefits. By understanding more about coaching, the managers would have a clear view of what is required on from them. When a manager engages himself to coach, he needs to be clear about the procedure to be undertaken. He ought to follow certain well defined and meaningful stages of coaching.

Besides, managers can be trained to be coaches. In this context, the help of external coaches could be required. During the training sessions, they would increase their knowledge about coaching and know more about all the aspects of coaching. Moreover, the managers would learn how to tackle each stage of the coaching process. They should also be empowered with particular coaching models and techniques that they would be able to use to coach their subordinates. However, coaching is not only about processes and models or techniques. There are certain soft skills that coaches need to acquire to be able to coach. These skills would help them to better communicate with their coachees. It should also be noted that managers should adopt certain roles while coaching. 83.3% of managers agree that they do not adopt any role while coaching and this may hinder coaching. Managers need to be acquainted with the roles of facilitator, assessor, supporter and advisor as this would highly be beneficial for them. Alongside, while adopting these roles, managers may better communicate with their subordinates.

If a manager is only following a certain process without engaging himself, the results may not be as expected. As a coach, a manager additionally needs to build a relationship of trust with his coachee. As stated by Ulrich (2008), coaching is a relationship ultimately. Therefore, there should be a two-way communication which would allow a good flow of information. This information would in turn be helpful in knowing the following.

Where the employee stands for the time being?

What are the areas where the employee needs to improve?

Is coaching being helpful and the right approach?

Whether the employee wants to improve?

What are the actions to be taken to improve performance?

Coaching style

As seen in the analysis chapter, even though a PMS is implemented, coaching is not being carried out at all the levels. Some employees state that they are not being coached. Additionally, the question raised to know more about the coaching culture of the organisation brought mainly “neutral” as answers. This shows that there is not really a coaching culture at the CEB. In an organisation, where coaching culture is at such a stage, there need a lot of improvement to reach a point where coaching occurs naturally. In this context, am appropriate coaching style should be adopted. When we talk about inexperienced individuals, a hands-on style is best suited. But if we are talking about highly experienced individuals, a hands-off style is more appropriate. But since we noticed that managers have not totally acquired the skills needed to coach, they first of all need to enhance their skills and find a coaching style which is appropriate for them to deliver coaching.

Summary

This chapter concludes all the recommendations. There are certain areas that need particular attention for coaching to take place and to be carried out well. Finally, we can say that for coaching to be successful and consequently bring in positive results, the contribution of each and everyone in the organisation is vital.

6.0 Conclusion

In the light of the above, we can deduce that coaching can have a significant impact on employees’ performance. Literature shows that coaching should be carried out in a certain way and includes a process which is constituted of several stages. Organisation can benefit from coaching when the organisational culture fosters coaching and when managers are good coaches.

In the analysis and findings, we saw that coaching is being carried out partially at the organisation. A certain percentage of employees firmly state that they are not being coached but also say that coaching can improve their performance. This indicates that employees are aware that coaching can help in improving their performance. Also, some managers who coach their subordinates mentioned that they did not adopt any role while coaching other employees. Furthermore, a number of managers also said that they did not make use of the soft skills needed to coach. This point to the fact that they are not totally prepared to be good coaches. Nonetheless, they agree that these skills should be developed so that they can play their role of coaches.

Recommendations were then made following the findings. The main points included in the recommendations were, the importance of coaching and raising awareness among employees. Also, more awareness should be raised about the coaching process, the coaching culture, coaching style and training of managers.

This research enabled us to know how coaching was being carried out at the CEB and where should the organisation focus even more to be able to use coaching as a tool to improve performance.