It is vital that organisations provide continuous learning support to managers to help them embed newly acquired coaching skills, particularly in the first month, according to research from Sydney University.
It takes about six months before the perceived benefits of adopting coaching behaviours outweigh the perceived downsides, suggest the findings.
Pros and cons
The study of 99 managers found that the Stages of Change or Transtheoretical Model of Change is relevant to workplace coaching.
“Lots of coaches use the model, but there has been virtually no research on its applicability to coaching. I found it does apply to workplace coaching and that it takes about six months before the pros of adopting workplace coaching skills outweigh the cons,” said Anthony Grant, director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at Sydney University School of Psychology.
“This means that people who are responsible for implementing workplace coaching programmes need to ensure ongoing support to make sure managers embed their new skills. Interestingly, the perceived cons of adopting coaching skills actually increased in the first month of adopting coaching skills as people try to adjust to a new way of managing – which means that support in the first month is vital,” said Grant.
Disaffected managers held higher perceptions of the benefits of coaching, and there was no relationship between coaching behaviours and workplace wellbeing, found the study.
“The overall findings suggest that coaching is not a panacea, and that workplace coaching, like many other learnt skills, takes time to master and to produce results,” says the paper.
Prochaska and DiClemente’s (1982) Stages of Change model offers a useful framework for the adoption of new behaviours. It describes five stages
of change: precontemplation – no intention to change; contemplation – awareness of the need to change; preparation – individuals’ commitment to change increases and there may be behavioural changes; action – major behavioural changes; and maintenance – changes are maintained for, say, six months.
The paper It takes time: a stages of change perspective on the adoption of workplace coaching skills was published in the Journal of Change Management, Vol 10, no.1, March 2010.
Coaching at Work, Volume 5, Issue 3