Responsibilities of Executive Coaching in Business Perspective - Essay Example

? xxxxx No. 12345 LITERATURE REVIEW OF BUSINESS COACHING ABC Xxxxx xxxx College Department of Business Management 21April, 2012 Table of Contents Contents Page No 1. Introduction 03 2. Coaching 03 3. Coaching: A Literature Review 04 3.1 Coaching Competencies, Skills, and Responsibilities: 04 3.2 Coaching Models 06 3.2.1 Team Approach Model (TAM) 06 3.2.2 Leadership Development Models 07 3.2.3 Human Development Model 07 4. Conclusion 08 Bibliography 10 1. Introduction This paper presents a brief literature review pertaining to business coaching and examines different attributes, skills, competencies, and responsibilities of executive coaching in business perspective. The review highlights that the application of coaching competencies are so vital and cost effective in terms of on-the-job coaching. In order to go through a brief overview, books, published articles, journals, and online sources have been consulted and an attempt has been made to discuss various coaching models to identify the competencies of Human Development Model as best practices for business coaching. 2. Coaching Clutterbuck & Megginson, (2005:7) defines that “Coaching is an opportunity to call halt to the frenetic pace of doing and to re-focus on being. It enables people to challenge their routines, to take a critical look at what they are doing and why, to identify and commit to new performance goals and to work out how to overcome the barriers that prevent them being more effective in their work roles". Executive coaching is an interim interactive course of action associated with a coach and a manager to enhance the efficient leadership capabilities through the process of self-awareness and execution of new behaviors. This coaching wires the managers to develop their knowledge, skills, tools, and perspectives in the course of assistance, encouragement, and response in the organizational perspective. According to Hall, Otazo, & Hollenbeck (1999), clarity, honesty, and innovations play the key role in successful coaching process but Pilette and Wingard (1997) had different assertion. They mentioned that perception styles, behaviors, and insight for change were the main elements of executive coaching. In literature, coaching and mentoring have been used by many writers interchangeably however there are many scholars who have differentiated them with respect to activities (Burdett 1998; Minter and Thomas 2000). King and Eaton (1999) have described the role of coaching as to support the employee in terms of his or her emotional state and remedial of short term personal problems which are hazards to his or her job performance while Burdett (1998) and Hansman (2002) have taken the mentoring as a long process that emphasizes on the career progression and issues related to different aspects of the whole life. Pearson (2001) agreed with King and Eaton (1999) and distinguished the two processes mainly on the basis of time. For him, mentoring has broad perspective and deals with long term arrangements while coaching (may be some external support and not be part of same organization) is a short term discipline with limited role for the instantaneous performance improvement of organization. He deduced that mentors council whereas coaches instruct their recipients. 3. Coaching: A Literature Review 3.1 Coaching Competencies, Skills, and Responsibilities: Competency is basically an ability of managers to do work at workplaces. Meyer (1996:34) defines competency as the “integration of knowledge, skill and value orientation, demonstrated to a defined standard in a specific context”. Smit and Cronje (2002:18) were agreed with Meyer and referred to a competency as the related skills, knowledge, and value orientation which a manager is supposed to do. For Weiss (2003:10) a majority of managers who fail to perform well in a particular business environment, struggle not on account of less knowledge or technical expertise somewhat they struggle due to having a low level competencies. He further defines the competency as a “personal characteristic, motive, behavior, skill or knowledge that is proven to drive superior job performance”. Thus, a manager is competent provided he or she possesses relevant and sufficient knowledge oh his or her job, technical skills, and most importantly an appropriate approach towards the job. In 2006, Sheppard et al discussed the process of coaching as competency. According to writers, coaching as competency is a short term process composed of certain procedures, techniques, skills, and mind-set and this coaching competency is just like an art which can be learnt, improved, and transferred to others (Sheppard et al, 2006). A competent coach possesses several skills for a successful coaching outcome in building up the leadership qualities in managers. Kilburg (1997) narrated lot of such coaching skills which include that a coach must be knowledgeable, considerate, being respectful, courteous, predictable and tactful, empathetic and friendly, dexterous, and non-defensive. The coach is also responsible to convey his or her knowledge, skills, and technical expertise to the client and makes sure to flourish these skills and competencies in the managers or clients. Katz, Miller, Kiel, and several other scholars further added few more skills a coach must have. Katz and Miller (1996) added that a coach must be honest, watchful, and gentle while Kiel et al, (1996) integrated good rapport building with other skills like assessment skills, communication, and problem-solving. Most of these writers had up to some extent theoretical approach. Diedrich and Modoono had a little different approach. Critically both were more practical oriented rather than theoretical. Diedrich (1996) rightly included practicality as an additional but most important quality in coaching while Modoono (2002) discussed certain practical oriented aspects like compassion, integrity, intellectual horsepower, adaptability to the situation interpersonal and political savvy, listening skills, and approachability were also important characteristics that a responsible coach should have. Experts have tried to distinguish the responsibilities of coaching from the skills. Kampa-Kosesch & Anderson, 2001), said that providing feedback, commitment, forging and understanding of partnership, improving the growth of new skills, supporting diligence toward goals, and to make the managers to take maximum use of environmental support were key responsibilities of coaching. Witherspoon and White (1996) acknowledged that bringing organizational changes is also one of the responsibilities of coaching which involve improving skills and developing the performance keeping the focus on the executive's plans. 3.2 Coaching Models Literature review of coaching exhibited that number of executive coaching models came into view in and after 1996. Most widely known models include Team Approach Model, Leadership Development Models, Human Development Models, Integrative Model, and Compliance Model. All these models possess some similarities and dissimilarities. In terms of theoretical application, perspective, and approach they all vary each other. 3.2.1 Team Approach Model (TAM) It is the oldest model described by Kiel et al in 1996. Critically the model is based on system orientation and team based approach. Although Saporito (1996) also presented TAM, however, he was slightly different from Kiel as along with team based model, Saporito discussed the coaching through external consultants. Both Kiel and Saporito models consisted of three phases. Tobias (1996) and Peterson (1996) presented their theories that consisted of four stages and it was mainly based on support of external coach along with management feedback. 3.2.2 Leadership Development Models This is the model related to executive coaching which mainly deals the development of leadership skills in managerial staff (Brotman et al., 1998). Katz and Miller (1996) presented the model to promote an organizational cultural change for the purpose of diversity insertion. Day (2000), Traynor (2000) and Palus et al. (2003) also contributed to the same model. All these have slight variations in their models; however, main theme which all models contain is improving of leadership amongst organizational managers. 3.2.3 Human Development Model Human Development Model (HDM) is basically related to business coaching and it provides advice, feedback, and positive assistance to both individuals and employees of organization to improve the individual as well as collective proficiency in the business context. Laske (1999a) was the first one who drafted an inclusive composition for coaching which were based on first-order and second order coaching. In first-order coaching, a structural perspective is framed to assist the client in his or her executive role while iIn second order, a more global perspective is structured to foster the leadership skills with respect to organizational issues. Laske faced contradiction from Astorino (2002) who described that in applied psychological sciences a comprehensive research and complete understanding on adult developing theory makes Laske's model stranded. Business coaching possesses a vast horizon and it incorporates executive coaching, corporate coaching and leadership coaching. A lot of well reputed organizations like International Coaching Council and The International Coach Federation etc offer membership-based association for business coaching. Almost 40,000 people in the United States work as business coaches. The coaching industry is progressing at a rate of 18% per year while it did a business of about $2.4 billion in 2007 (businesscoaching.com). Today the business coaching industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world (National Post). Therefore, Human Development Model is taken here as the best model for business coaching in terms of practical applications. 4. Conclusion The main responsibility which lies on the shoulders of managers is to enable the employee to deliver maximum potential to achieve the desired or set targets. In current scenario, the conventional managerial functions like controlling, coordination, and supervision have lost their effectiveness, and therefore, they are no longer cost effective. The literature review highlighted the importance and need of coaching managers in business field instead of simply the controlling managers. This transition, from normal managing to coaching management, shouldn’t be challenging because the review and some researches revealed a strong correlation between business coaching and performance both at individual and organizational levels. Theoretically the literature review has described several coaching models and identified a number of coaching competencies and skills; however, it is pertinent that coaching values like knowledge and skills are considered to be the most important values for successful coaching. It is suggested that in present business scenario, the business world demands the managers to become performance coaches or executive coaches. Human Development Model is the best and closest model to apply in business field to integrate the performance of organization as well as individuals. The serious application of HDM has enough potential to produce leadership coaching competencies among the mangers. Business coaching is not only to enhance the performance level but to promote a cultural change in all dimensions. Therefore, coaching managers should be encouraged to entertain the learning environment and should use emotional intelligence competencies to enhance the overall performance level. Bibliography Astorino, D. M. (2002). Executive Coaching and adult development: An integration of perspectives. Dissertation Abstracts International, 65(05), 2611B. Brotman, L. E., Liberi, W. P., & Wasylyshyn, K. M. (1998). Executive coaching: The need for standards of competence. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 50(1), 40-46. Burdett, J. O. (1998). Forty Things Every Manager Should Know About Coaching. Journal of Management Development, 17(2), 142-152 Businesscoaching.com. Retrieved 2012-03-28 Day, D. V. (2000). Leadership development: A review in context. Leadership Quarterly, 11(4), 581-613. Diedrich, R. C. (1996). An interactive approach to executive coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 48(2), 61-66 Hall, D. T., Otazo, K. L., & Hollenbeck, G. P. (1999). Behind the closed doors: What really happens in executive coaching. Organizational Dynamics, 27(3), 39–53 Hansman, C. (2002). Critical Perspectives on Mentoring: Trends and Issues. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education Kampa-Kokesch, S., & Anderson, M. Z. (2001). Executive coaching: A comprehensive review of the literature. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 53(4) 205-228. Katz, J. H., & Miller, F. A. (1996). Coaching leaders through culture change. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 48(2), 104-114 Kiel, R., Rimmer, E., Williams, K., & Doyle, M. (1996). Coaching at the top. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 48(2), 67-77. Kilburg, R. R. (1997). Coaching and executive character: Core problems and basic approaches. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 49(4), 281-299. King, P. and Eaton, J. (1999). Coaching for Results. Industrial and Commercial Training, 31(4), 145-148 Laske, O. E. (1999a). An integrated model of developmental coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 51(3), 139-159. Meyer, T. 1996. Creating competitiveness through competencies. Randburg: Knowledge Resources. Minter, R. L. and Thomas, E. G. (2000). Employee Development through Coaching, Mentoring and Counseling: A Multidimensional Approach. Review of Business, 21 (1/2), 43 –47 Modoono, S. A. (2002). The executive coach self-assessment inventory. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 54(1), 43 Palus, C. J., Horth, D. M., Selvin, A. M., & Pulley, M. L. (2003). Exploration for development: Developing leadership by making shared sense of complex challenges. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 55(1), 26-40 Peterson, D. B. (1996). Executive coaching at work: The art of one-on-one change. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 48(2), 78-86 Pearson, G. (2001). Coaching: The Latest Buzz Word and Business Fad, or an Invaluable and Indispensable Activity for All Organisations? Available at: http://www.acrpi.com/crf/12-2pearson.html (Accessed March 19, 2004). Pilette, P. C., & Wingard, E. (1997). Strengthening the executive’s leadership skills through coaching. In J. E. Lowery (Ed.), Culture shift: A leader’s guides to managing change in health care (pp. 187–205). Chicago: American Hospital Association Saporito, T. J. (1996). Business-linked executive development: Coaching senior executives. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 48(2), 96-103 Sheppard, B., Canning, M., Melton, L., Anderson, P., Tuchinsky, M. & Campbell, C. 2006. Coaching and feedback for performance. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing Smit, P.J. & de J.Cronje`, G J. 2002. Management principles. Cape Town: Juta Stanley, A. 2006. The next generation leader. Cape Town. New Holland Publishing Tobias, L. L. (1996). Coaching executives. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 48(2), 87-95 Traynor, S.J. (2000). The role of psychologist in leadership development: Training, coaching, mentoring, and therapy. Dissertation Abstracts International, 61(04), 2225B Vongehrconsulting.com. Weiss, T. 2003. Coaching competencies and corporate leadership. New York: St. Lucie Press. Witherspoon, R., & White, R. (1996). Executive coaching: A continuum of roles. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 48, 124-133 Read More