Nobody can deny the growth in coaching in organisations in the past decade. One can't normally do any task, like writing your name, without the potential for receiving coaching or feedback.
So what's going on? Why do people use coaching? Announcements recently about internally organised coaching teams within HR' s functional delivery structure suggests serious attention. But what are organisations engaging in?........
The use of coaching seems to have many reasons for 'doing'. It seems that the use of specialist coaching in sports has crossed over into mainstream organisational practice. However, they are not the same and we need to distinguish the different reasons.
Reasons I find coaching used in organisations include:
Basic help with management competence
Used as a training/development/learning tool
Used as a retention (reward) tool (in conjunction with development)
Used as an acknowledgement tool (ego-stroking - where it develops into mentoring programmes)
Used as a means of solving operational issues
Used as a means of solving organisational issues
Taking the last two first. DANGEROUS. This is classic expediently-driven coaching. Why? Well it has the feeling of something tangible and actionable and gives everybody a warm feeling (so does peeing in your pants!).
More insidiously (and dangerously) at operational level, one can split the 'operational ' management part away from the 'coaching' role part to apparently let managers manage. Yes - I've seen it. Having management qualifications and having spent many years in a people management role, I can vouch that coaching is very much a natural part of the job. PERIOD.
So let's be clear, coaching is part of managing. FULLSTOP. Compensating for poor operational management by creating special roles is a costly compensation mechanism organisationally.
Next up - solving organisational issues with coaching. Yes nice one but complete gibberish. Organisational issues are far more complex for the one arm bandit pulling 'coaching lever' to work (notwithstanding the woolly business cases and lack of measurement/evaluation undertaken).
Coaching as retention/reward etc. Mmmm - more compensation devices........
Coaching is a mixture of content and process. It can only really be done to full effect if the person coaching has a detailed insight into the immediate discipline/subject otherwise it is just process. I'm sorry but that's that. You can't coach purely on process unless you have a deep understanding of the context. Thus in operational terms, you need to understand operationally which is why managers (and first line supervisors to some degree) are best placed to 'coach' employees and management coaches the level below it. It's a pretty simple system.
I would suggest that organisations are making a simple practice into a costly and complicated system which doesn't solve the real issue....
The real issue is........well - unfortunately far too many managers are still promoted without the necesary skills being developed which means that they come up short when dealing with people issues. So instead of preparing management talent and competency before enhancing their role responsibility - it is conveniently 'solved' by providing coaching after the event. The classic expedient cart before the horse......this is a very costly (and eminently risky) process.
For some managers, coaching isn't there either - they are left to sink or swim.
Evidence was recently found in a CIPD report making the press. The actual focus was (not unusually) on diversity - but the real issue which was poignantly missed was that those promoted to a management role were clearly underprepared for their respective new role.
Without evaluation - the growth in this area could soon disappear. If you have a pure coaching role in HR I should be worried unless it has a specific specialism (very few and far between).............
Going back to the beginning re sports coaches. Sports coaches are inevitably those who themselves have been top sports people (with a few exceptions in football). I'll let you draw your own conclusions....
