What Type of Executive and Leadership Coaching is Right For Your Organisation?

Sitting with coaching colleagues last week at a Coaching development event at Ashridge Business School we started to debate internal coaching (typically leaders coaching their employees or peers) versus the use of external coaches (typically hired as professional leadership coaches to deliver approximately 6 to 8 sessions of one to one coaching); the similarities and differences between the commonly talked about ‘Performance Coaching’ and the more recent term ‘Relational Coaching’ and to what extent relational coaching could be conducted within the context of a performance coaching conversation.

The role of the HR Business Partner has been established now for many years however, the challenge of being an agent for the continuous transformation of corporate culture improving capacity for change and success remains a critical priority and improved approaches for achieving this are always welcome. Many organisations have moved towards building internal coaching capability to help achieve this which is a highly positive move in encouraging empowering leadership styles and positive working cultures. The overall effectiveness of internal coaching remains to be seen as there are many challenges such as; the perceived lack of time to do the coaching; the lack of objectivity regarding the organization from the coach; concerns about confidentiality and the degree to which coachees perceive they can be honest with their internal coaches without it affecting their careers.

As HR Consultants as well as Coaches, we believe this debate can be assisted by the following questions, which in turn will help organisations refine their coaching strategies:

• What type of coaching takes place between internal leaders and their staff? To what extent do we believe employees hold back from being honest about their real challenges for fear of it affecting their career progression within the business? 
• If ‘holding back’ is a reality then what are the typical outcomes of these coaching conversations? 
• For what type of objectives does internal coaching work well for?
• For what type of objectives is internal coaching not the best solution?
• Where does bringing in external coaching resource work best? 
• How can we ensure we access the best-fit coaches for our objectives?
• How can the use of external coaches compliment and support our internal coaching strategy?
• How will we measure success?

Having coached clients for 8 years now across a large variety of sectors we believe that one on one coaching produces positive results fast in the areas of improved performance brought about by a changes including; behavioural changes, an increase in coping mechanisms and shifts of mindset and attitude.   Organisational coaching is a relatively new field and whilst there are studies beginning to emerge regarding its effectiveness academics often look at the vast research and studies within the field of psychotherapy as a comparison which undoubtedly show quantitative evidence of its success.   We would argue however, that many of these studies are principally referring to the type of coaching conversation that we would call ‘relational’, reinforcing the suggestion that the relationship is a key indicator of successful outcomes. A key author on Relational Coaching, Eric De Haan (2008, p6) suggests, relational coaching would focus on topics such as:

• how the coachee works with others and makes sense of organisational life;
• how the coachee acts in specific situations, such as those involving, managing, negotiating, giving advice or exerting influence;
• how the coachee handles difficult situations, such as with colleagues and clients;
• how the coachee forms judgements and makes decisions.

Coaches are advised to enter into and build up the coaching relationship as consciously as possible as this is the key factor determining success. The coach would then help to move the client forward choosing from numerous methodologies and change occurs where the client makes new decisions and creates new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving so that old patterns can be changed. To achieve this high quality critical working alliance, trust and confidence in the confidentiality of the conversation has to be in place.

Performance Coaching as a field has many models attributed to it, not least the GROW model which was created by Graham Alexander, Alan Fine and Sir John Whitmore and sold to Corporates in the 1980’s. It is often seen as an excellent problem solving tool and able to deliver quick solutions. 

The two approaches seem poles apart however, Eric De Haan (2008, p18) suggests that GROW is one of the methodologies used within the relational approach however it wouldn’t be suitable for situations where there are non specific issues to be unpicked or emotional issues with the coachee.

Generally, it seems to us that aspects of the relational approach can be picked up and used within a performance coaching framework however it seems more comfortable to see many of the performance coaching models as a subset / methodology within the relational coaching approach.

Our discussions reinforce the overall worthiness of both internal and external coaching as an effective development tool for individuals, teams and even cultures. We would recommend that organisations are clear about the exact type of coaching they are encouraging and what it will and won’t deliver. A different type of coaching for different development requirements and contexts seems an optimal way forward. We are aware of coaching colleagues (in house as well as external) who are conducting research in to exactly this issue so if anyone would like to know the conclusions please email Karen at: Karen@kga-associates.com and quoting ‘Coaching Research Results’ and we will provide a summary for you as soon as it is available. Alternatively, if anyone would like their organization to be part of research opportunities in to the field of coaching we would be delighted to talk to you. 

Karen Griffin & Carrie Stockton are Directors of KGA Associates and have provided Coaching, Training, and HR consultancy for up to 15 years across a large range of industries following successful in-house careers in HR and Management Development. If you would like more information about our various coaching programmes or indeed any other part of our offering please visit our web site below or alternatively call us and we would be delighted to chat to you. 

KGA Associates
www.kga-associates.com
0870 2407862