Coaching as Part of Training and Development - Report Example

Coaching xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecturer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Contents Contents 1 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Coaching as part of training and development 5 2.1 Analysis/Assessment 5 2.2 Designing 6 3.0 Conclusion 8 References 9 1.0 Introduction Coaching has a proven impact in the current dynamic world of business. Add coaching to a training program and people will learn more; six times more than other cases. Add coaching to an initiative and people will concentrate more on the initiative (Chidiac 2006). Researchers term it as the midwife for change; as it anticipates change, knows when it arrives and prepares for it. Coaching is defined as a goal-focused, practical form of personal one-to-one learning process for both organizational authorities (top management) and other employees. The aim of the process is to improve performance, to develop or improve executive behavior, enhance career and prevent derailment. Coaching is a comprehensive process comprising of five main steps that need to be incorporated in order to effectively achieve the goals of the process; establishing relationships, assessment, development planning and goal setting, implementation and training. There are two main types of coaching approaches used across organizations. The first one is the external coaching and involves hiring external coaches to drive the process. To many, it seems logic as internal people may be too busy to contemplate taking extra time to carry other activities besides their normal tasks. In addition, coaching is perceived as a long learning process that would require a lot of time to study and master therefore discourages many people form venturing into it. Nevertheless, there are many challenges and serious limitations in hiring external coaches. According to research nearly 100% of the large companies utilize external coaches. However, it has been noted that only 1% of these companies have access to formal, highly qualified and competent coaches. In addition, the cost of hiring external coaches is prohibitive in comparison to internal coaching. Schlosser et al (2006) maintains that training an internal coach is worthwhile as he would in turn train other employees in the organization at very low wages or even none as compared to external coaches who train individual employees in the organization at high costs. Therefore, the cost of internal coaching can be brought to the realm of existing training and development budgets. Another limitation to usage of external coaches is the complexity in logistics in terms of managing the wide-scale initiative. The process of hiring coaches is similar to the process of staffing. The process basically contains many details especially with regard to scheduling, managing contracts, reporting and payment. Outsourcing for coaches is indeed a risky proposition. This is because the whole process of coaching is eternalized, the coaches do not spend considerable time in the organization thus might not understand the organization’s landscape and do not consider the company’s interests at heart. The second form of coaching is internal coaching. Although not widely used, it has been considered superlative over external coaching. Frisch (2005) asserts that empowering managers and leaders with coaching skills and making them deliver them to employees through formal coaching, is the most effective way of ensuring development of the organization. Even if this is done a few hours a week it produces broad systemic impacts across the organization. Generally, there are many benefits of teaching leaders to coach employees rather than transferring the coaching process to outsiders. Organizations that have come to the lime light are now incorporating coaching into their training and development strategies. 2.0 Coaching as part of training and development Coaching is closely related to training and development in many aspects. Similar to coaching, the purpose of training and development is to improve employee capabilities thus the overall organizational performance. It is the process of improving the skills and knowledge of employees and targeting the investments which occur in the form of effective and productive employees. In addition, training and development focuses on individual edification similar to the principle of coaching. Therefore, coaching, specifically internal coaching, can be considered part of the overall organizational training and development strategy (Horner 2006). In actual fact, the two concepts have been used interchangeably in many companies. The process of training and development occurs in four major steps; analysis/assessment, design, implementation and evaluation (Lehman 2007). 2.1 Analysis/Assessment This is manager prerogative which entails a complete understanding of the current situation facing the organization, establishing the desired situations (goals) and determining the gaps in employee skills, knowledge and attitudes. Employee’s strengths and weaknesses/limitations are established in the context of the way in which employees operate. Generally, the coach will observe employee behavior while encouraging them to engage in self-evaluation. According to Jarvis et al (2006), external coaches can gather information about an employee by interviewin coworkers of the employee and by using psychological instruments such personality inventories which enable him to profile the employee’s leadership style and dispositions. On the contrary, internal coaches use less formal methods of assessment. They often rely on mere observation of the employee as they interact on a daily basis. The analysis stage is shaped by the purpose of the coaching. Coaching is in many cases driven by two major factors; deficiencies styles of leadership and to facilitate critical transitions through major change efforts. Internal coaching is necessitated by difficult situations that an employee might be facing. In such circumstance, employees and coaches are likely to engage in attributional analysis. However, attributional analysis is not the preferred approach as it often leads to erroneous inferences. The success of the assessment hence subsequent stages is based on the ability of the coach and his client to accurately diagnose the employee’s current skills and situational constraints that will be imperative in designing the coaching exercise. The personality of the coach, as the assessor, plays a critical role in the success of the assessment process. A notable characteristic that hinder effectiveness of the process is self-image (Blackman 2006). People tend to compare themselves with others and place judgments on them based on how good the others compare with them. For instance, a coach who has weak decision making skills but excellent interpersonal skills is likely to place more emphasis on interpersonal skills and overlook other factors. Another factor hindering coaches in making sound decisions about the behavior of an employee is culture. The employee being coached also has the responsibility of making his or her own assessment and providing the relevant reasons for engaging in the coaching process. Accurate assessment is needed so that the right coaching approach is used. 2.2 Designing Designing as a part of the larger training and development strategy is a fundamental step that falls right after the assessment process. The primary task in designing is to analyze the information gathered from assessment and use it to establish the training program needed in the coaching process. Designing is quite essential in development of a coaching framework. The four main tools used in designing the framework are coaching culture, internal coaching, managers and coaches and external coaching (Schlosser et al 2006). Coaching culture is all about strategically integrating the coaching process into the organizational learning and development capabilities. It will include evaluation of the senior leadership development, transition, talent management, performance management, on-boarding and skills development. A chain of coaching can be developed whereby CEO’s and other executives get coached through external coaches and they in turn coach senior and middle managers who in turn will coach other employees (Clutterbuck and Megginson 2005). Scaling internal coaching is another strategy that is used in designing coaching frameworks. The benefits of internal coaching as earlier mentioned are unmatched and they include retention of in-house development benefits, knowledge sharing, ease of roll out and reduced costs. Developing coaches from leaders is easier to do in volumes. It enables building of connections, reverses the stressful impacts of their roles and develops them positively. Essentially, each leader can coach one or two internal employee. The employees can select their coaches based on the coaching requirements. The initial implications of internal coaching are getting leaders routinely trained, building infrastructure and getting sign off to build a lasting plan (Knights and Poppleton 2007). Developing managers as coaches can be considered as a one of the management core competencies and linked to the roles or the Human Resource. This implies that managers will undergo intensive training programs to equip them with necessary skills important for coaching. External coaching is mainly applicable for C-suite executives especially in situations where politically sensitive information is required or where experience or specialized skills are needed. 3.0 Conclusion Coaching is quite imperative in enhancing organizational training and development strategies. Through assessment, managers or coaches are able to determine knowledge and skill gaps in the workforce hence map the relevant approaches required to fill the gaps. Analysis takes into consideration the training objectives, if they are in line with the organizational goals, employees needed to learn, constraints, project risks and delivery options. In addition to that, coaching facilitates the design of training and development strategies. Basically, it lay down the program structure, sequence, duration and time scale. It establishes the hierarchy of training and development within the organization by identifying who needs to be trained first, in what area and at what time. With these findings, it is evident that coaching is quite helpful in developing a well articulated training and development plan. References Blackman, A 2006, Factors that contribute to the effectiveness of executive coaching: the coachee’s perspective. The Business Review. Vol 5, No 1. pp98– 104. Chidiac, M 2006, Getting the best out of executive coaching: a guide to setting up a coaching process. Development and Learning in Organizations. Volume 20, No 3. pp13–15. Clutterbuck, D, and Megginson, D 2005, Your organisation: where is it on the road to becoming a coaching culture? Training Journal. Volume 1, pp18–21. Frisch, M 2005, Extending the reach of coaching: the internal coach. Human Resource Planning. Volume 28, Issue 1. p23. Horner, C 2006, Coaching for the better. Training & Development Methods, volume 20, Issue 4, p.535-539 Jarvis, J, Lane, D, and Fillery-Travis, A 2006, The case for coaching: making evidence-based decisions on coaching. London: CIPD. Lehman, L 2007, A.D.D.I.E. A proactive approapch to employee training and development. Retrieved on 22nd May 2012 from http://www.risingsunconsultants.com/images/white_papers/PDFs/addie.pdf. Knights, A, and Poppleton, A 2007, Research Insight: Coaching in Organizations, CIPD report, November. Schlosser, B, Steinbrenner, D, Kumata, E, and Hunt, J 2006, Leadership development: a Coaching approach to growing sustainable Leadership Capabilities. 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