The Role of Coaching in Leadership - Essay Example

? Reflection report Khawla Aloqalaa 10245983 Introduction From the case study, I learned that coaching is an important aspect of leadership in international and local business management. Ellinger, Ellinger and Keller (2003, p. 436) stress the importance of coaching as an effective organisational response to the demands of a significantly dynamic and volatile environment: “the concept of coaching has emerged as a new paradigm or metaphor for management” (cited in Agarwal, Angst, and Magni, 2009, p.2110). Coaching can directly impact performance (Agarwal, Angst, and Magni, 2009), proper leadership behaviours (McDermott, Levenson, and Newton, 2007) and development of leaders (Boyatzis, Smith, and Blaize, 2006; Hamlin, Ellinger, and Beattie, 2008). This essay integrates theories and experiences on coaching. Reflections: Coaching, learning, and the learner In order to respond to changing customer demands, workplace learning, as a subset of the greater literature on knowledge management, has becoming increasingly paramount. One of the most common approaches to workplace learning and leadership development is coaching. Coaching is a “process through which supervisors may communicate clear expectations to employees, provide feedback and suggestions for improving performance, and facilitate employees’ efforts to solve problems or take on new challenges” (Heslin et al., 2006 cited in Liu and Batt, 2010, pp.269-270). It trains people through regular interactions that help employees take up effective work skills and behaviours. The study by Liu and Batt (2010) propose a model, where they stress that there is a positive relationship between coaching and job performance (Agarwal, Angst, and Magni, 2009; Kets de Vries, 2005), but the former note there is weak empirical evidence, because these studies employed perceptual measures and approximated performance differences between individuals, as product differential treatments of coaching (Liu and Batt, 2010, p.271). Liu and Batt (2010) contend that “coaching stimulates a positive, development-oriented process that should result in an individual’s performance improvement over time.” Specifically, they theorise that the “amount of supervisor coaching an employee receives is positively related to individual performance over time” (Liu and Batt, 2010, p.271). I agree that coaching impacts individual performance over time, depending on numerous factors, such as teaching and leadership style of the coach and the learning style of the subordinates or trainees (Agarwal, Angst, and Magni, 2009). I experienced coaching several subordinates and it helped a great deal that I focused on knowing them first, before I developed my coaching approach. For instance, some people are very independent workers. They do not appreciate constant monitoring from their coaches. Others, however, need more direct coaching. The fundamental concept behind interpersonal relationships and coaching effectiveness can be explained by the process consultation approach. Hackman and Wageman (2005) talk about different coaching theories, such as the process consultation approach developed by Schein (1969, 1988 cited in Hackman and Wageman, 2005, p.270). Schein argues that proficient interpersonal relations are indispensable for effective task performance and that group members themselves must participate in analysing and improving those relationships. The consultant, or in this case, the coach, engages member involvement in examining group processes on two levels concurrently: 1) “the substantive level”- to study how human processes are influencing work on a particular organisational problem, and 2) “the internal level”- to better comprehend the team’s own interface processes and the ways that team processes cultivate or encumber effective group functioning (Schein, 1988, pp. 11–12 cited in Hackman and Wageman, 2005, p.270). Lee (2009) argues that a skilled, shrewd facilitator, who moulds interpersonal skills and dispositions essential for effective team work, can make the distinction between a group that is a “collectivity of individuals” and one that generates the cohesive and trust bonds that enable greater outcomes. This is why I believe that coaching should be learner-centred, because intimate relationships are based on knowing people as individual human beings too (Komaki, 1998). One can hardly be a good coach to people one thinks are “strangers.” Coaching is similar to teaching people, where coaches can have greater impact on their students, if they take time to know their personalities, communication, and learning abilities and styles. Without this knowledge, coaches will simply relay knowledge and skills, without properly understanding its impact on their trainees (Kets de Vries, 2005). Another model of team coaching relies on the model of individual behaviour. One is the application of Argyris’s (1982, 1993) theory of intervention to team-focused coaching by Schwarz (1994 cited in Hackman and Wageman, 2005, p.270). Argyris argues that there are several factors needed for successful interventions, namely the “validity of the information used in the process, the necessity for client choice of intervention, and the requirement for internal commitment” (cited in Weatherbee, Dye, Bissonnette, and Mills, 2009, p.209). Furthermore, Argyris and Schon's theory of organizational learning (1974, 1978) asserts that an organisation and its members can take advantage of an interventionist's efforts at advancing learning (cited in Diamond, 1987, p.153). Schwarz uses Argyris’s (1982, 1993) theory of intervention and proposes that coaches should offer feedback to a team in ways that assist members discover new and more effective team behaviours, particularly in how they give and receive feedback (cited in Hackman and Wageman, 2005, p.270). The coaching process is composed of three phases. First is studying actual group behaviour through observing behaviours that are obstructing the group’s work and determining behaviours not currently exhibited that might assist group work (Hackman and Wageman, 2005, p.270). Second is demonstrating to the group what has been observed and checking inferences about the importances of those behaviours (Hackman and Wageman, 2005, p.270). Third is assisting group members choose whether they wish to modify their behaviours and, if so, how they can proceed to this decision (Hackman and Wageman, 2005, p.270). The model provides a number of detailed ground rules both for the facilitators’ behaviours and for team members’ behaviours, such as giving particular behavioural examples for points made, and inviting questions and critiques. On my end, I have provided feedback as a coach and as a learner. As a coach, I know how important it is to examine group behaviours and deduce underlying motivations. These observations and deductions can help me form assumptions about their personalities that they have not revealed yet. However, it is also important to verify these observations and deductions. Fulmer and Hanson (2010) highlight the importance of measurement tools in coaching and feedback that is systematic and objective is one of these tools (p.24). They stress that high-tech industries, in particular, are keen in using measurements to monitor and evaluate leadership efforts and performance management, and the same should also be applied to coaching methods and strategies. I realized, however, that it is also important to engage individuals in changing their behaviours. It is not enough to identify what has to be changed. As Schwarz stresses, coaches should also ask learners if they want to change certain behaviours (cited in Hackman and Wageman, 2005, p.270). This form of acknowledgment is fundamental to changing behaviour. Argyris calls this as the inevitability for client choice of intervention and the prerequisite for internal commitment (cited in Weatherbee, Dye, Bissonnette, and Mills, 2009, p.209). The clients are the learners and they must be committed to changes. Furthermore, they should also identify the right interventions for changes to fruitfully occur. Conclusion I have learned a great deal from these theories and studies, especially in applying feedback mechanisms, interpersonal relationships, and learner participation in coaching. I will use this learning to ensure that I will also focus on interpersonal relationships when coaching people. I will also engage my learners more in the social and professional level, so that we can work as a team, as we learn as a team. Reference List Agarwal, R., Angst, C.M., and Magni, M., 2009. The performance effects of coaching: a multilevel analysis using hierarchical linear modeling. 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