Coaching Leadership Development - Essay Example

? Coaching In Leadership Development s Recent studies show coaching being increasingly used for leadership development in organizations (CIPD 2009/10). Discuss possible reasons for this and consider the potential limitations of this approach. Demonstrate an understanding of alternative leadership development interventions. Leadership plays an important role in organizations as it frames the way the entire process is headed and determines the success of the venture. Recent studies show that good leadership leads to success in an organization. And for this, we need leadership development in organizations. Some people are born with the ability to lead and some are not. However leadership development is all about bringing out those qualities of leadership whether it is in a particular individual or an organization. This can come out by various methods be it action learning, educational courses, coaching, or executive retreats to name a few. In the modern era where organizations depend on leaders to head entire projects and tasks, and they are assumed to enforce decisions and shape organization’s future, leaders need to be able to align the employee’s needs with the objectives of the organization, and develop the necessary skills to do so. And everyone possesses the capability of leading, but only those who cultivate that attribute can develop an effective leadership quality. (Giuliani & Kurson, 2002) Coaching has been proven by recent studies as a tool for leadership development. This paper will first outline what coaching is and how it helps in leadership development, while keeping the focus on the positives of coaching. In the second part of the paper, coaching and its limitations are discussed, and alongside it, the alternatives to leadership development are discussed that could be used, and finally, their limitations. (Phillips, 2001) Firstly, coaching is not coaxing or easing someone into performing as misconceived, however it is a process of training or teaching during which the individual is supported to achieve a certain skill while at the same time making a goal visible to them, that they have to achieve. Coaching facilitates growth and learning and there are several methods to it. It may be an informal or a formal process, an informal being one in which a person with greater experience guides the one with lesser experience. Statistics in UK show that 90% companies use coaching and 51% of them consider it to be necessary and crucial for the leadership development process. These skills are often developed and adopted by managers who would influence the organization. (Wooden & Jamison, 2005) A new era brings about rapid changes in the market place and thus organizations and therefore leadership skills have acquired greater importance in the dynamic workplace. Those who employ coaching as a leadership have a greater understanding of themselves usually, since it not only allows them to grow in terms of leading the organization but also to understand their own personality and areas of strengths and weaknesses and work on themselves. (Smith, 1999) Executive coaching is one of the components of coaching that seems to be effective and a good investment of time and money. Competencies that are developed prove to be long term and effective and further inferences can easily be deduced as to what needs to be done to further enhance the competencies. (Dessler, 2012) Also organizations are engaging in downsizing and they have a flatter structure than before since the world is moving to a place where hierarchical structures are considered less effective and lesser manpower is required in organizations. Therefore even though it has its benefits, however, senior managers would be removed more easily and growth opportunities are better but if new managers cannot fill in the shoes of the previous managers and lack the leadership qualities then the entire organization will show a downward trend. Coaching can help build these abilities. (Warrenfeltz, 2000) Also, an organization’s performance depends on the performance of its individuals and a good leader can ensure maximum productivity of the employees, and coaching can be used to instill this knowledge in the leaders and top management. (Greco, 2001) Knowledge is also considered an asset in organizations and it can be built and preserved by coaching methods. Executives and top management also need to be able to communicate and develop their ideas so that employees understand them and work towards achieving the goals that they set out. (Philabaum, 1999) Coaching can also help them develop their ideas better and communicate more effectively. Coaching also develops people for the future, allowing them to try different alternatives till they reach the best one. And it also focuses on emotions such as empathy, self awareness and development as a whole. (Masciarelli, 1999) Coaching can be asserted to influence three areas: a person’s skills, performance and development. Skills are the technical aspects of the job, that need to be developed in a leader, where as performance is the current aspect of a person’s job, and development focuses on the future of the person’s job. (White, 1997) Coaching also develops a person’s confidence in oneself and self-efficacy and those who are confident in their ability can guide people and organizations better in achieving success. They can manage people better as well. Coaching benefits can also be divided into two areas: Coaching benefits for the recipient and also the benefits to the organization. In the recipient it leads to openness to the learning and development processes. They also see the flaws and blind spots that they were initially missing out on. It also helps to reach to the best solution to the problem or a work related issue. It also increases clarity and a sense of accountability and responsibility. Also, recipients become more in tuned to the objectives and goals of an organization. It also improves team work and performance overall and therefore satisfaction and productivity in the workplace. As for the organization, it allows for talent to be used to its full potential, improves the inter department relationships as well as the relations between people and leads the adaptation of the organization to a new culture. It allows the organization to stay on track as well as the leaders since it provides the best possible course of action to reach the organization’s goals and ensures that these goals are followed through with the action steps decided. (DuBrin, 2010) It can also help in all aspects of the individual’s life may it be a work and job life balance, career opportunities etc. And it is an ongoing process that doesn’t end with one individual. That is, it not only has multiple benefits for the individual, but at different stages of their career span, as they move up the ladder as well, they can withdraw some use from these coaching strategies. Also, it doesn’t just help out the recipient, but also those who are below him as he will employ better management styles and practices and be more understanding of his employees. And lastly, even if the employee is rotated or shifts roles, these attributes will have a long-lasting impact on him as they help him grow not just for the organization and its leader, but also as a personal development tool, so he is more open and flexible, as well has a wider knowledge bank and a desire to know more and grow more. (Hiebert & Klatt, 2001) However, there are some barriers to coaching, which is why other alternatives to coaching are explored for leadership development. It is one of the essentials of the coaching activity to see if it is actually effective and how it impacts the organization. However, tracking this effect is a difficult task. (John Whitmore, 2009) A manager also needs to adopt these leadership development techniques in his dealing with others, and in order to do so, he must rely on guidelines due to the fact that standardization throughout the organization of coaching is a difficult thing to ensure and yet it has to be done. It also requires an investment of time and money, that most managers feel they do not have and small businesses feel that they do not have the resources. And the aforementioned point about organizations downsizing themselves will not only lead to leaders being a crucial part of the organization’s path but will also lead them with lesser time and a greater workload, making coaching a difficult tool as this is an ongoing process and also to implement it in the workplace. (Mary K. Schwartz, 2000) Downsizing and a flatter structure of the organization will lead to no room for growth, which is essentially the aim of coaching as a leadership development tool. In addition to that, the organization which follows an autocratic approach and a hostile environment doesn’t lend much support to a coaching approach since people wouldn’t be willing to be open to information and changing their work or leadership styles. Also further, there may be resources that are not available or budgetary constraints that may not allow the organization to adopt coaching as a tool. Coaching requires that a person is receptive to change and openness and this will only allow this technique to be effective, otherwise it’ll fail. (Howard Morgan, 2004) Coaching also doesn’t provide any short term results and so this could be an aspect that leads to frustration in organizations in the short run. There are certain alternative approaches such as leadership action teams. This requires being put in situations with teams to perform in situations which are above their current capability and one person is the leader who will guide the team to success or failure and basically guide the team through the entire situation. This is a new method that has achieved a lot of success because the workplace is dynamic and situations keep changing and leaders always have to be ready. There may not necessarily be time to coach them to reaching their goals, and so learning by doing or action learning is useful in situations where the organization is pressed for time and money and the managers have a great deal of workload already. Therefore, action teams or action learning function as daily tasks of managers and they do not have to go through the additional hassle of being coached or coaching; they reflect alongside their job. Also, it is task oriented and aimed at achieving a goal which benefits the organization. (Kouzes, Posner, & Biech, 2010) However, the disadvantage is that they don’t necessarily possess a skill out of action learning, since it is almost synonymous to their day to day work and there is nothing additional and no reflection. However it can be improved by providing feedback to coaches and managers as well, so that if continuous feedback is given with the action learning, then the entire process will be more useful. Lastly, the situation may be too overwhelming and the manager may not actually learn anything by doing since he doesn’t know how to tackle the situation. (Hannum, Martineau, & Leadership., 2008) Another alternative to coaching is using mentors for the leader’s assistance. The mentors can assist the leaders over a period of one or two years, providing them continuous coaching and training in order to be better leaders. This relationship is only beneficial if the mentor is actually experienced and dedicated to the betterment of the manager and the organization. (Lawson, 2011) Usually organizations ignore this aspect and hitch up managers with someone from the organization who is perhaps from and objective eye, more experienced. But in reality he perhaps has the same caliber and this doesn’t help the mentor, or the manager, or the organization as whole. It isn’t a fruitful exercise till everyone is devoted to the task they are assigned. (Lawson, 2011) For leadership development, a leader must also understand his strengths and weaknesses as well, and work on them, so he can better not only himself but also his subordinates, so that they work as an effective unit. A process called ‘learning the gaps’ focus on the fact that there is performance of the manager, and there is a place where he should be. And what one’s perception is of their effectiveness is different from other’s perspective. A 360 degrees approach will help to understand what the gaps are and how a leader can reach to the maximum of his ability if he covered or filled those gaps by correcting those aspects that are hampering his reaching to where he could be at his best. (Campbell, 2002) A last leadership development tool that is important is the multi-rater feedback method or a 360 degree feedback method. Feedback is always an effective tool for improvement, since you are always guided and critiqued as to where you are going wrong and where you are going right, and you can go in that direction accordingly. However, feedback from different sources is even more effective as you get an overall perspective of your standing, not just from your mentor, or your coach, or your employees, but from all of the aforementioned. This helps to improve performance. However, this feedback needs to be continuous if it is to be effective. Also, one can never be sure if they encompass the entire organization’s perspective in their 360 degree appraisal and one which is free from bias because everyone has a different way of looking at things and not necessarily the correct one. One needs to test the feedback for reliability and validity before subjecting the manager to it. (Gordon, 2007) These are the tools for leadership development however studies show that coaching is now becoming increasingly important due to its long term effects on manager’s capabilities as a leader and their knowledge. References Campbell, D. F. (2002). The leadership gap : model strategies for leadership development. Community College Press. Dessler, G. (2012). Supervision and leadership in a changing world. Prentice Hall. DuBrin, A. J. (2010). Leadership : research findings, practice, and skills. South-Western/Cengage. Giuliani, R. W., & Kurson, K. (2002). Leadership. New York : Hyperion. Gordon, J. (2007). The Pfeiffer Book of Successful Leadership Development Tools. John Wiley & Sons. Greco, J. (2001). Hey Coach! . Journal of Business Strategy. Hannum, K., Martineau, J., & Leadership., C. f. (2008). Evaluating the impact of leadership development. Jossey-Bass. Hiebert, M., & Klatt, B. (2001). 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