“To be an executive coach, it is
necessary to know that clients are the first and best experts capable of
solving their own problems and achieving their own ambitions, that is precisely
the main reason why clients are motivated to call on a coach. When clients
bring important issues to a coach, they already made a complete inventory of
their personal or professional issues and of all possible options. Clients have
already tried working out their issues alone, and have not succeeded” (Unknown).
Given
the statement above, I believe that coaches provide a tremendous amount of
value to the clients asking for their services. In other words, leadership coaching
can make a difference to the client organization. “The greatest gift a coach
can give a person is insight into their strengths and ways to improve on those
strengths and minimize the weaknesses” (Chandler, n.d.). In monetary terms, a
coach can help improve an individual’s skills and behaviors, which in turn can
result in an increase in productivity and organizational production. In organizational
terms, a coach can provide great value to the organization by developing
employees’ skills. As the statement above mentioned, “clients have already
tried working out their issues alone, and have not succeeded” (Unknown). In my
opinion, this is the best buy-in opportunity a coach can have from an employee,
as he or she is interested and eager to learn how to solve such issues. If the
coach: is flexible with his/her leadership and coaching styles, provides
consistent coaching throughout the sessions, discovers how the employee can
grow within the company by discovering his/her strengths/weaknesses, and by
identifying and eliminating gaps in the performance level of the employee
(Chandler, n.d.), the coach will help the individual reach his/her goals within
the organization. Ultimately, this adds more value to the organization in terms
of leadership.
Since
a coaching plan can help the coacher unlock the true potentials of the
employee, I believe that coaching is a vital aspect of leadership and strategy.
The reason being is because coaching can help the employee gain clarity and an
understanding of the organization’s values, purpose, and mission statement;
understand the concerns of the employee; learn what are the areas of expertise
an employee lacks; unlock the true desires of the employee; hone on leadership
skills; and help develop the skills needed for both strategy development and
leadership. This also helps unlock the employee’s understanding of the
organization’s strategy. If the understanding of the organization’s strategy
lacks, it does not matter how much time is invested in coaching the individual,
the coach will never have that full buy-in and commitment from the employee.
Coaching
can make a huge difference in an organization in both monetary terms as well as
organizational terms. Coaching in monetary terms, as mentioned above, can
translate into more productivity from employees. More productivity translates
to better products and service, which ultimately translates to organizational
cost efficiency and higher profits. In organizational terms, coaching can make
a difference in terms of gaining more commitment to the organization’s goals as
employees now have an understanding of the purpose of the organization and the
drive to learn and achieve what has been practiced throughout the coaching
sessions.
What
coaching means to me in terms of my past organization is that coaching was
barely existent. I mean, we had supervisors that called themselves coaches but
coaching was barely even practiced. In my opinion, it seemed to me that
supervisors waited until employees said something in order to coach them. I
believe that at times you don’t need to be asked to coach but rather see the
opportunity to coach an employee and if the employee is also willing to learn
then it is ok to coach. But, honestly only about two handful of employees
showed and practiced good coaching abilities. My recommendation for my past
organization is to invest time and money into receiving some sort of leadership
assessment. This way the organization can gain an overall understanding of what
areas of leadership the organization should focus on, develop a plan to get
there, plan to promote leadership within the organization, and an understanding
on how to coach in order to help develop employees skills.
Reference:
Chandler, L.
(n.d.). Coach the Whole Person. Advantage Performance Group RSS.
Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://www.advantageperformance.com/2011/07/coach-the-whole-person/
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