The Coaching and Employee Performance - Essay Example

Contents Contents Introduction 2 Reasons for Choosing the Research 3 Research Aims and Objectives 3 A Brief Review of Literature 4 Methodological Approach 7 Sampling 7 Data Gathering 8 Data Analysis 8 Possible Limitations 8 Structure of Dissertation 9 Plan for Research 9 Bibliography 10 8.Rogers, J (2008). Coaching Skills: A Handbook. 2nd. ed. London: Open University Press 10 Introduction Today’s competitive environment is really challenging and demand comprehensive understanding of the various complex managerial issues that need immediate attention of the managers. The skill gaps between the current skill level of managers and the skills required to perform the job at optimum level are widening and as such there is a great need to train the managers to upgrade their skills and improve the efficiency levels. What is also however, important to note that there are different methods of training the employees as well as the managers and in case of training the employees, managers can serve as better coaches to provide training to job incumbents. This is because of the fact that managers often understand the business better than the trainers and can provide a practical insight on the significant issues faced by the firm.(Cox, Bachkirova & Clutterbuck, 2009). With the emphasis on the providence of coaching to the employees, managers therefore attempt to improve the efficiency as well as effectiveness of the employees. However, it is argued that despite such tendency to coach and improve the efficiency of the employees, not all managers’ coach their staff. The obvious reasons can be different and this research study will attempt to understand as to whether the coaching by managers really add value to the sales staff and their performance and what can be different methods and criteria against which this can be assessed. As such this research study therefore will attempt to provide clear and concise discussion of the issue by surveying the existing literature as well as conducting primary research. Reasons for Choosing the Research The authors’ company is focused on helping clients to achieve their sales objectives by training their salespeople in new methodologies. They also provide coaching training for the sales managers and advocate coaching as a way of embedding the new learning. Their experience indicates that though Sales managers intuitively know that coaching can help to improve performance, they often find that managers simply do not do it. Since the author is involved in this type of profession therefore the personal reasons for choosing this research include achieving the broader understanding of the issue in order to better design the training and development programs in order to assist the clients to better manage their sales force and improve its performance. What is also important from a personal point of view is the fact that this research will provide author a comprehensive ground to understand training and development from strategic perspective and further explore this issue. Research Aims and Objectives In the training industry (where the author works) it is often cited that Manager Coaching is a key component to embedding new behaviors. It is also asserted that sales performance against target increases in line with how often the salesperson receives coaching (H.R.Challey). The aim of this dissertation is to examine the research that has been conducted into the value of Coaching on performance and to test the conclusions made. The authors’ intent is to determine from a sales managers’ perspective what is meant by ‘coaching’, the value it adds to business results and how often they coach their staff. The author believes that by examining the available research and comparing it to what Managers really do we will be able to determine 1. Does coaching improve results 2. Are Managers actually coaching their staff 3. What are the impacts on business results A Brief Review of Literature The overall definition of coaching is still a debatable issue and requires a comprehensive understanding of as to what exactly comprise of the coaching process and how it can be inculcated into the overall organizational process. (Stober & Grant, 2006). The confusion over the formal and informal methods of coaching therefore requires a comprehensive understanding of the term first. This confusion over the exact definition of coaching may also be a direct result of the fact that we are in middle of something called intellectual revolution. This confusion is basically related with the fact that it is often associated with the sports but its applications can be extended to other forms including education as well as business. (Ives, 2008). This also due to the fact there is emerging dichotomy between the two terms of mentoring as well as coaching and both are often interpreted in the same manner. Ives (2008) outlined different approaches to define the term coaching and as such the approaches include coaching from humanistic approach, behavior based approach, adult development approach etc. “Whitmore (2002 p. 97) portrays coaching as “optimising people’s potential and performance.” According to Evered and Selman (1989), “To coach means to convey a valued colleague from where he or she is to where he or she wants to be.” Parsloe and Wray (2000 p. 183) summarise: “to focus, motivate and support others in achieving their goal”, whilst Grant (2003 p. 254) defines life coaching as a “collaborative solution-focused, result-orientated and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of life experience and goal attainment in the personal and/or professional life of normal, non-clinical clients.” According to these definitions, coaching is an intervention aimed at helping the coaches to focus on and achieve their clearly defined goals. The coach uses open-ended questions and to inspire motivation and commitment” (Ives, 2008). Thus overcoming the weaknesses of the employees to make them more effective for the organization is considered as one of the most important aspects of effective management. (Keegan & Lahey, 2001). It is also important to note that there is a growing emphasis now being placed on the coaching as an alternative method of upgrading the skill and performance level of the employees. This is because of the fact that coaching provides a bettter insight into how the people percieve the performance and how it can be improved because coaching offers managers an opportunity to closely work with the employees and better understand their overall skill shortages and how to overcome them. (Phillips, 1996). In order to effectively incorporate the culture of coaching on more informal manner, it is important that the managers must have the ability to understand the requirements of the employees i.e. in terms of their overall requirements for guidance. This also allows developing a comprehensive framework for understanding what employees actually want and how managers can be effective in utilizing their own strengths to coach them. (McKergow, 2010). In order to increase the profitability of the firm and the performance of the sales force, it is critical that the coaching shall be of high quality and shall be of developmental nature. (Richardson, 2008). In order to effectively implement the coaching strategies, it is therefore important that the managers must develop individual coaching strategies for their employess in order to improve their performance and skills level. Further, the overall success of the coaching also depends upon the individual motivational level of the employee also and how effectively he or she can manage to inculcate the training received into his day to day activities. (Longenecker, 2010). To become an effective coach, it is therefore important that the coach must know his employees well and must be able to monitor the performance of the employees on the individual level. Individual monitoring and overseeing therefore require that the overall cohort of employees to be coached at one single point in time must be smaller enough to allow the manager to develop effective coaching strategies.(Rogers, 2008). “While it is a coachs job to monitor all three dimensions of the performance equation, effective coaches start by ensuring that their employees are properly supported so that they can perform effectively. An effective leader will ensure that their employees have the equipment, tools, information, supplies, authority and/or sanction they need to get the job done. All of these factors set the stage for employee performance and are the primary responsibility of any manager who is serious about improving the performance of their employees. Starting here is critical; because it tells employees that their leader is willing to equip them for success as they approach their work and sends a message that the manager is serious about the success of the employee. Equipping people to succeed just might be a coachs most important job that is not always given the attention that it deserves.” (Longenecker, 2010) Methodological Approach This research study will be both qualitative and quantitative in nature wherein Author will not only survey the existing literature on the training and coaching but will also attempt to interview various sales managers in order to understand and explore as to how coaching can contribute towards improving results for the firms and whether managers are actually coaching their staff and what possible impacts this coaching can have on the overall performance of the firm. The qualitative aspect of this research study will involve performing the extensive survey of existing literature. Focus will be on the development of a framework which can provide a clear and concise understanding of how the literature supports the major research questions and aims of this research. This aspect of research therefore will be performed through qualitative research techniques such as observation and surveying. The quantitative aspect of this research however, requires that a quantitative data must be gathered through primary research. This will include taking interviews and circulating questionnaires and the results will be analyzed accordingly. Sampling Sampling will be done on selective basis as the Author intends to select 15 sales managers from a variety of businesses and industries. The focus will be on larger companies where sales managers might have teams of between 6-12 people. The major criteria for sampling therefore require that the author has the access to the managers and it is possible to do selective sampling rather than random sampling. The reason as to why the selective sampling will be performed is due to the inherent weaknesses of this research i.e. lack of access to diversified base of sales managers due to time and cost constraints. Data Gathering Data will be gathered through conducting interviews and by developing a questionnaire. The questionnaire will be developed in general to specific format and will be circulated to Sales Managers. The questionnaire will then be analyzed using modern statistical software such as SPSS. Data Analysis The results from interview as well as questionnaires will be properly coded and evaluated using modern statistical techniques. The important techniques to be used include use of t-statics tests in order to prove the major hypothesis of this research. T-Statistics will be used because overall size of sample will be less than 30 and it will be more convenient to use Two tailed T-test to obtain the results. Possible Limitations One of the most important limitations of this research study can be the fact that this research study will be specifically focused on managers belonging to one particular geographical region therefore its results may not be replicated in other areas of the world. Further, access to Managers may be restrictive as Author believes that due to their tough schedule may not be accessible. Apart from this, author also envisages that cost and time restrictions will have major limitations on this research study. Due to lack of adequate budget, this research will only undertake selective sampling because author prefers to access those sales managers who are easily accessible and reachable. Structure of Dissertation The proposed structure of the dissertation is as follows: 1. Introduction 2. Literature Review 3. Methodology 4. Data Analysis 5. Discussion 6. Conclusion Plan for Research At the initial phase of this research, author intends to perform an extensively survey of the existing literature on the coaching and employee performance. The survey of literature will take up almost two weeks to complete after which author intends to develop questionnaire/questions for the interview. Data gathering will take almost four weeks because it involves interviewing different managers belonging to different businesses and industries. The last phase of the research will involve interpretation of data and discussion on the results. On the whole, the author intends to complete the whole research project within a time span of two months. Bibliography 1. Cox, E, Bachkirova,L, Clutterbuck, D (2009). The Complete Handbook of Coaching. Illustrated. Ed. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. 2. Ives, Y. (2008). What is ‘Coaching’? An Exploration of Conflicting Paradigms. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring , 6 (2), 101-113. 3. Keegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2001). The real reason people wont change. Harvard Business Review , 85-92. 4. Longenecker, C. O. (2010). Coaching for better results: key practices of high performance leaders. Industrial and Commercial Training , 42 (1), 32-40. 5. McKergow, H. (2010). Manager as a Coach. Coaching at Work , 5 (2), 52. 6. Phillips, R. (1996). Coaching for higher performance. Journal of Workplace Learning , 8 (4), 29-32. 7. Richardson, L. (2008). Sales Coaching: Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing , 24 (7), 208. 8. Rogers, J (2008). Coaching Skills: A Handbook. 2nd. ed. London: Open University Press 9. Stober,D, Grant, A (2006). Evidence based coaching handbook: putting best practices to work for your clients. Illustrated. ed. Chichester: John Wiley . Read More