How the practice is becoming an essential tool
Coaching is at last shaking off its just-another-HR-fad label. It is steadily becoming an essential tool in organisations’ learning and development strategy toolboxes, and its use by line managers is likely to increase even further in the near future.
It is certainly an exciting time to be involved in coaching. People are starting to accept that it isn’t only a “nice to have” learning initiative; it is something that has the potential to make a significant contribution to their business.
The results of the CIPD’s Training and Development 2005 survey confirm the rise of coaching and illustrate its growing role in organisations’ learning and development strategies. It is no longer the preserve of a small minority of companies either. The research found that coaching by line managers was used by almost 90 per cent of the sample, while 64 per cent of the respondents used external practitioners. And the use of coaching has not yet reached its peak. Coaching activities, along with e-learning, represent the largest growth areas in training and development, according to the survey.
The amount of coaching carried out by line managers looks set to rise significantly during the next few years, with 74 per cent of respondents reporting that they expected to increase their use of these activities and only 1 per cent expecting to reduce their efforts.
There are some signs of a slowing demand for external coaching. Thirteen per cent anticipate some decrease in activity, while only 36 per cent expect an increase.
External coaches will always be an important resource for organisations because few managers have the expertise and breadth of experience of external coaches – or their perceived greater neutrality and confidentiality. But it seems that the major focus for the next few years is building internal coaching expertise by developing the skills of managers and internal coaches.
Although the use of coaching is widespread in UK organisations, there is some way to go before the majority of organisations have fully integrated and successfully organised their coaching activities. Only 6 per cent of organisations using coaching have a written strategy on coaching for all staff, according to the CIPD’s Training and Development 2004 survey.
Of course, each organisation will have its own reasons for introducing and using coaching, but by far the three most frequently cited objectives are to improve individual performance, productivity and skills, according to the CIPD’s Training and Development 2004 survey.
This research helps put some of the coaching sales propaganda into perspective. For example, other reported organisational benefits of coaching, such as improving staff retention, reducing the costs of training and helping employees to achieve work–life balance, hardly register at all as objectives for using coaching.
Looking to the future, it is likely that coaching will play a major role in leadership development. Although coaching is not the most frequently used activity for developing leaders (about one-third report using internal and external executive coaches as part of leadership development activities), it is considered to be among the most effective, according to the CIPD’s Training and Development 2005 survey.
External executive coaching is considered to be the third most effective means of developing leaders, with 84 per cent of respondents rating it as effective. Internal executive coaching is close behind, with 80 per cent considering it to be an effective means of development for senior executives.
With two-thirds of organisations reporting a shortage of effective leaders, it seems likely that executive coaching may continue to be an area of growth over the next few years.
Win-win solution
The popularity of coaching has been fuelled by press coverage, but one of the prime factors behind its success is the tantalising promise of a win–win solution to workforce development, offering the scope to help employees reach their potential while improving the competitiveness and productivity of the business as a whole.
Its appeal has also been boosted by widespread organisational change, with flatter organisational structures requiring employees to make large leaps in performance when taking on new roles and the rapid pace of change requiring them to continually adjust and adapt their skill sets.
But despite the obvious appeal of what coaching can offer, its reputation has suffered because of “cowboy coaches” flooding the market: coaches in name only, who lack the requisite training, experience and knowledge base. Naturally, the business community has become both wary and cynical.
The situation has been exacerbated by in-fighting between professional bodies and associations vying for status and position. With no leading industry body and no single voice of authority, HR practitioners face a lack of objective sources of information, guidance and advice.
The rapid pace of development and the complexity of the coaching market means HR professionals are still struggling to make sense of how best to manage and make the most of coaching activities, according to CIPD research.
The vast majority of HR respondents to the CIPD’s Training and Development 2005 survey report finding high-quality coaches “a difficult task”, the lack of regulation “worrying” and the terminology confusing and off-putting. There was also a lack of agreement about what makes a good coach, engaging different stakeholders in coaching relationships, and evaluating the impact of activities.
HR professionals face significant challenges in drawing up frameworks that ensure value for money and that are aligned with their organisation’s strategic objectives.
It is not the concept of coaching itself that causes problems, after all it is difficult to deny the value of one-to-one consultation and support for someone’s development. Such an approach has played a key role in personal effectiveness programmes, 360-degree feedback, career counselling and, more recently, mentoring schemes. The scepticism that has plagued coaching can be put down to its rapid rise and the flurry of excitement that has resulted.
Coaching has become the largest growth area in HR development activity and sceptics are still waiting for it to falter. But coaching has gradually started to shake off some of its negative press. Coaches are keen to raise the reputation of their industry and weed out practitioners who operate unethically. Professional bodies and associations have been working enthusiastically on codes of practice, ethics, guidelines and standards to raise levels of practice. From the demand side, organisations have realised they need a more discerning and educated approach to managing their coaching activities and dealing with the still fragmented and confusing coaching industry. By setting themselves high standards at the procurement stage, they have helped to improve practice. A lot has been learnt and progress is being made, but there is still a long way to go.
Who is involved in the delivery of coaching?
Organisations are using a combination of internal and external practitioners to deliver coaching, including external coaches, specialist internal coaches, line managers and peers, as well as members of the HR department. They are also using a variety of coaching practitioners to deliver coaching to different employee groups, depending on specific need.
Businesses are increasingly prepared to develop coaching skills within the organisation in order to build capacity and internal expertise. The majority of coaching is provided for middle and junior managers and is delivered by internal resources, primarily by line managers. Executive coaching, although heavily promoted and discussed in the media, is only a minority activity within the spectrum of corporate coaching. Use of external coaches tends to be reserved for coaching senior-level or high-potential employees, or to help an organisation develop its coaching capabilities by designing and delivering internal coaching skills programmes.
Does coaching work?
When asked about effectiveness, 84 per cent regarded coaching by line managers as “effective” or “very effective”, while 92 per cent judge coaching by external practitioners to be effective. Interestingly, although coaching by line managers is more widespread, coaching by external coaches is considered to be more effective as a means of learning.
The CIPD’s Training and Development 2005 survey supports the high level of belief in coaching reported by the HR community in the previous year’s survey. HR practitioners strongly believe that coaching is an effective way of promoting learning and can have an impact on the organisation’s bottom line. If managed effectively, coaching is believed to have the ability to deliver tangible benefits to staff and the organisations they work for.
Altogether, these results form a very positive endorsement by the HR community of coaching as a means of learning. But there is still a lot of work to be done if the positive beliefs about the potential contribution of coaching are to be realised. Few organisations have a strategy for their activities – only 5 per cent of respondents claim to have “all” their line managers trained to coach their team members – and, worryingly, very little evaluation is taking place.
Unless coaching is managed and designed effectively, the results may not measure up to expectations. If this is allowed to happen, coaching could become increasingly bedevilled by accusations of hype and false claims of success.
Not many organisations would claim they have already successfully embedded coaching, although many are investing heavily with that aim in mind. But implementing coaching initiatives is a costly business, financially as well as in time and effort. It is important to be able to substantiate claims that the gains from coaching far outweigh the costs.
Until coaching can answer its critics by revealing evidence of the value it delivers to organisations, such questions about the contribution of coaching to individual and organisational performance are unlikely to go away. The continuing success and belief in coaching is likely to be determined by its ability to deliver demonstrable value.
To counter criticisms and avoid being labelled “cowboy coaches”, more and more coaching professionals are asking searching questions about the theoretical foundation of their services. At the same time, buyers and users of coaching services have become progressively more sophisticated and have started to use much more rigorous coach assessment and selection processes. They are also requesting facts and data about the effectiveness of coaching.
As a result of these factors, there has been a push for coaches to ground their services in evidence-based approaches and a call for more research on the impact of coaching in a variety of organisational settings.
With such pressure coming from all sides, practitioners working for organisations are now strongly committed to exploring the impact that coaching has on staff and organisations. They know that the extent to which coaching becomes a mainstream component of organisational practice is dependent on the degree to which it can be shown to improve business performance.
Although worldwide interest has been high, research into the practice and impact of coaching in business settings appears to be lagging behind the practice itself.
There is a broad base of research about coaching more generally, particularly from the sports world and in educational settings, and this tends to suggest that coaching is effective in improving aspects of an individual’s behaviour. There is also a wealth of research relating to specific elements of coaching, including the use of specific techniques and tools such as goal-setting. But much less is known about the impact of coaching in business settings. Rigorous research data is surprisingly hard to find and specific literature on coaching in organisational settings particularly sparse.
If coaching is to be taken seriously, it is essential that it is based on sound research evidence and theory. This is not something reserved for “ivory tower” academics working in universities. It should concern everyone involved in coaching, as it is crucial for their credibility.
Now that the initial hype and excitement is dying down, it is important to ensure that coaching doesn’t become another flash-in-the-pan HR activity that fails to fulfil its potential. We need to demonstrate that coaching is having a significant impact both on individual and organisational performance.