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Coaching: from challenge to opportunity

Athanassios Mihiotis and Niki Argirou School of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present coaching opportunities and applications in the workplace as well as to point out that organizations that want to leverage the benefits of coaching must be mature enough to have certain processes and practices in place. A further purpose of this paper is to gain some insight regarding several critical success factors are not well understood by organizations and to identify possible areas for improvement for them. Design/methodology/approach – The authors first presents the environment in which coaching was developed, from which disciplines was it affected, and how it was shaped into its current form. Then the authors focus on coaching used as a business development tool and critical factors that play an important role in the effectiveness of coaching from the organizations’ side are presented. The paper ends with some qualitative conclusions. Findings – The value that organizations realize form coaching is proportional to the quality of coaching delivered. Organizations that invest in quality coaches, have, themselves, a clear understanding of what coaching really is and actively support coaching initiatives at every aspect of coaching’s procedure, can reap the greatest benefits from it. Originality/value – Several studies have been conducted to determine the organization-dependent factors that affect coaching and the quality of the result. However, do date it has not been highlighted that organizations that want to leverage the benefits of coaching must be mature enough to have certain processes and practices in place. Furthermore, possible areas for improvement for companies are identified regarding several critical success factors that are not well understood by them. Keywords Workplace, Best practices, Coaching, Business coaching Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction Coaching, which evolved as a developmental practice over the last few decades, is now among the most widely used development techniques in the business environment on an international level. Yet, despite its growing tenure as a developmental practice, executive coaching has remained underutilized by many organizations and does not always achieve desired outcomes and impact. This is mainly due to organizations’ immaturity and lack of knowledge in the proper use of this tool, since there are various critical factors that can determine the success of such an initiative. Several critical success factors are not well understood by organizations and this is derived from the fact that they do not pay adequate attention to the factors that define coaching effectiveness and enable companies to benefit from coaching’s potential outcomes. This paper aims to gain some insight regarding these critical success factors and attempts to identify possible areas for improvement for companies. A further purpose of this paper is to present coaching opportunities and applications in the workplace as well as to point out that organizations that want to leverage the benefits of coaching must be mature enough to have certain processes and practices in place.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: the first section presents the environment in which coaching was developed, from which disciplines was it affected, and how it was shaped into its current form. The second section is designed to familiarize the reader with the essence of coaching. What it is about, which are its

Journal of Management Development Vol. 35 No. 4, 2016 pp. 448-463 ©EmeraldGroup Publishing Limited 0262-1711 DOI 10.1108/JMD-10-2014-0139

Received 29 October 2014 Revised 10 February 2015 22 May 2015 15 November 2015 Accepted 14 January 2016

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0262-1711.htm

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forms, applications and key principles are the questions to be answered in this section. In the third section the paper focusses on coaching used as a business development tool. It presents the different types of workplace coaching and focusses further on executive coaching, which is the most important form. A demarcation of executive coaching from other developmental approaches is also presented and this chapter ends with an explanation of the critical factors that play an important role in the effectiveness of coaching from the organizations’ side. The last section aims at inferring some qualitative conclusions.

2. Evolution of coaching Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins states in his book The Selfish Gene that all life evolves by the survival of replicators that differentiate and adjust to their environments. Such replicators in biological evolution are genes. Considering other aspects of evolution, like culture in humans, he coined the word “meme” to describe a unit of cultural information or idea that can be transferred from one person to another, basically through imitation and telling. Once the idea is created in the human brain, the individual familiarizes with it and if he likes it, starts spreading it. The receiver does the same and the meme propagates itself from brain to brain. Moreover, consistently with natural selection theory, if memes fit the cultural and social values of the time they can develop and survive, otherwise they become extinct (Dawkins, 2006). They also need a means by which to travel. We could say that coaching has been a “meme,” evolved in a changing socioeconomic and business environment and spread rapidly during the past few decades (O’Connor and Lages, 2007).

2.1 Socioeconomic environment The 20th century brought many changes from the beginning of the modern period toward the postmodern period. The modern period was mainly focussed on a scientific, rational and analytical worldview with a mentality of progress and improvement through economic and technical growth. The Industrial Revolution caused a separation of work and family and created industrial mass urban societies. Pursuit of wealth, stability, directive mentality and social responsibility were also some characteristics of this era. In the 1950s, the postmodern period emerged with humanistic and collaborative principles, resistance toward making sacrifices in the name of progress and the climate turned to a service and information-oriented mobile society which allowed reintegration of work and family. Pursuit of happiness and purpose, uncertainty, need for improvement, spirituality and personal responsibility came on the scene and gained importance. It was the same period that organization development and systems theory appeared in business culture. Thus, as the world’s business and social environment changed, the needs of human beings changed as well, and coaching sprung up to meet them (Brock, 2012).

2.2 Root disciplines Coaching has been a child of many parents and was nourished mostly by the root disciplines of philosophy, psychology, business, sports and adult education.

Philosophy provided the foundation for coaching as for all disciplines of the modern world. Western philosophy contributed with the view of reason and logic whereas Eastern philosophy promoted spirituality and oneness.

Psychology, which emerged in the early 1990s, provided many of the essential theories, as well as a practical toolset, with a focus on the individual. From Freudian

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psychoanalysis and subconscious states it evolved, through behaviorist and cognitive stages, to the humanistic sub-discipline, which is one of the principal roots of coaching. It was in the 1950s that Maslow and Rogers came up with a humanistic approach in psychology, which took into account human experience, feelings, values and goals. At the heart of humanistic psychology lie basic principles like each person’s uniqueness, wholeness and ability of choice that later, during the 1960s, set the basis for the human potential movement, which in turn advised employers that people need to be treated well. It was during this period, that major management theories completely changed the scenery of the business sector. Therefore, management, leadership and related business disciplines also contributed to the development of coaching. In fact we could argue that coaching could not have its present form had the business world not provided such a fertile field for its growth.

The contributions of sports and adult learning and development have been very significant too. The sports world provided not only the use of the word “coaching” as a title, but also the fundamental model of the field and pointed out the differences of individual and team coaching, whereas adult learning provided multiple practical methods and educational research from the fields of training and career development (Brock, 2012).

It goes without saying that coaching is essentially a hybrid; a complex field that has its roots in multiple disciplines and has been able to develop in the tremendously changing environment of the late twentieth century.

2.3 Tipping points and important transmitters Coaching was previously referred to as a “meme,” a set of cultural information that was transmitted in the postmodern period through its “hosts” or pioneers. There are various people that originated and spread coaching; others acted as originators and others as transmitters. By the term originators we refer to those who created the principal theories even if they originally developed them for other principles. Transmitters, on the other hand, were basically the first coaches who synthesized theories and models and developed coaching gradually to its current existence. They customized models and concepts and thus led coaching to emerge as a separate field (Brock, 2012).

The first, let’s say, transmitter of coaching was the Harvard educationalist and tennis expert Timothy Gallwey who published his particularly influential book The Inner Game of Tennis, in 1974. The word “inner” was used to describe an internal state of the player’s self and argued that the player in fact faces two opponents, the outer and the inner, with the latter being the most formidable because he knows all of your weaknesses and problems and is judgmental. He then claimed that if a coach could help the individual overcome his internal obstacles, his performance would then arise to meet the goals (Gallwey, 1975). Any form of directive instruction and tuition by the coach was more likely to inhibit the process of learning because it would stimulate the inner part of the player and magnify the fear of failure (Whitmore, 2011). Gallwey’s ideas were quite novel for the time and were not readily accepted, considering that a coach’s role at the time was precisely to instruct players, practice with them and give feedback. Gallwey had made the first exploratory step and had put his finger on the essence of coaching. At the same time, Werner Erhard established EST (“it is” in Latin) training at Esalen Institute, which was a very popular self-awareness training. He is considered one of the most important influencers of coaching, since his ideas and approach to self and personal development impacted management of the time (O’Connor and Lages, 2007).

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Soon after Gallwey, in 1992, Sir John Whitmore, an ex-motor racing champion, published Coaching for Performance wherein he developed one of the most influential models of coaching – the GROW model (an acronym for goal, reality, options, will) – and made coaching accessible to the workplace. He stated that “coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance” and that awareness and responsibility of the individual are basic components for their development and performance (Whitmore, 2011). It is worth mentioning one more important transmitter of coaching, Thomas Leonard, who is mostly responsible for popularizing coaching. He was a synthesizer of the various tools, methods and techniques who later helped establishing the International Coach Federation (ICF), (Brock, 2012).

3. What is coaching? 3.1 Origin of the word and concept Before trying to define coaching as it is today, let’s refer to the origin of the word and concept of coaching. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines the verb “to coach” (in the 1840s) as to tutor, to train; it was first used to describe a private tutor, not related to the university, who “carries” a student through an exam (Morrison, 2010). Going back in time, around 1,500, the very first use of the word in the English language, referred to a particular type of carriage, something that takes you from where you are to where you want to be (Brock, 2012). An interesting finding, that digs deeper into the origin of the word, is that of the Hungarian village Kocs. Kocs held a very important geographical position and was a trading center of the time, so villagers made a horse-drawn carriage in the fifteenth century, called “cart of Kocs.” That particular style of carriage became so popular that the term “Kocs” was soon used for all carriages (O’Connor and Lages, 2007; McLeod, 2003).

Much later, during the 1880s, the term “coach” was mainly used to describe a sports coach. Given that coaching has its roots in the area of sports it also dates back to ancient Greece where coaches trained many of the athletes for the Olympic Games (American Management Association, 2008).

Last but not least, the concept of coaching can be traced back to Socrates, who believed that individuals have their own answers to the questions raised and learn best when they have ownership of their situation. In this way he stimulated critical thinking and passed responsibility on to the individual, with the latter being the fundamental principle of coaching (O’Connor and Lages, 2007). “I can not teach anybody anything – I can only make them think!.”

3.2 Definitions and essential principles Coaching is one of the hottest topics of management, leadership and people development in the past few decades. In this section we will try to understand what coaching really is, state some definitions and delve into its essence.

Starting this journey we will cite some of the multiple definitions available, due to the broad variety of books and schools of coaching that exist and the implicit difficulty of defining a qualitative concept such us coaching:

• “A collaborative, solution-focussed, results-oriented, and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performance, life experience, self-directed learning and personal growth of the coachee” (Grant, 1999).

• “A deliberate process using focussed conversations to create an environment for individual growth, purposeful action and sustained improvement” (Miller and Homan, 2002).

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• “The art of facilitating the unleashing of people’s potential to reach meaningful, important objectives” (Rosinski, 2003).

• “Unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance” (Whitmore, 2011). • “Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process

that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential” (ICF).

All of the above definitions, as well as many more that exist in literature, try to describe the same phenomenon. So, what is this phenomenon all about? What are its characteristics, essential elements, and goals and how are they achieved? These are the questions that need to be answered in order to attain a comprehensive understanding of the nature of coaching.

The first thing that comes to mind is finding an appropriate noun to describe it. Coaching is a process, a technique, a method, a dialogue, a partnership, a service, a discipline maybe. Sir John Whitmore says that is not merely that. It is a way of managing and treating people; a way of thinking; a way of being; while Rosinski considers it an art.

This process usually involves two parties, the coach and the coachee, i.e. the individual being coached, and is usually a one-to-one relationship (however there is group coaching as well). It is probably the only non-therapeutic kind of relationship where the individual, or coachee, has nothing to worry about regarding the other party. The sole interest in the conversation and the only focus is the coachee, not the coach. The coachee does not need to give back the attention he receives (Bossons et al., 2009). It is generally used for development and growth, to improve performance and achieve goals pertaining either to personal or professional issues.

Given that all individuals have the native potential to find solutions to their own problems (humanistic movement), the principal purpose of every coaching interaction is to build the coachee’s awareness, self-belief and responsibility. These three elements are crucial in their entirety in order to unlock the human potential and set the base toward change and goal realization. Awareness is just as much about understanding and clarifying their own thoughts, emotions and actions as it is about other people and the environment around them. Coaches help them broaden the limits of their views and see what is no longer necessary, what might be rearranged and to identify possible gaps that need to be filled (Wilson, 2007). By taking responsibility and ownership of his personal decisions, the individual has an opportunity to learn and develop, and increases his will and engagement toward his goals. This, in turn, helps him build confidence, which is a keystone for unleashing potential and growth. Moving forward, some other key principles of coaching are blame-free, solution focus, challenge and action. Obviously, a judgmental angle in the coaching process would, at the very least, be out of scope and opposing to its fundamental nature. The coach is not there to form any kind of opinion on the coachee’s actions, behaviors or thinking, but instead to remain an external neutral and objective “eye” of the individual who then will challenge them to look for new perspectives in a supportive way (Wilson, 2007). It is an open relationship based on trust, which is non-directive, non-judgmental and full of what Rogers called “unconditionally positive regard” (Rogers, 1961). Throughout the coaching dialogue, a solution-focussed mindset governs; a good coach will support, listen and direct the coachee’s focus to resolving the problems they face. Dwelling on the problem is certainly not useful and it is the coach’s job to shift the focus of the individual to the solution and toward future. On ending this procedure, the coachee

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should be feeling ready to make the change(s) needed and proceed to action, considering that he has set new, clear goals and has gained insight of the situation (Wilson, 2007).

On the whole, these seven principles and key elements of coaching (awareness, self-belief, responsibility, blame-free, solution focus, challenge, action) create an environment in which the individual will learn and behave differently, thus resulting in enhancing that person’s capability of performing or realizing long and short-term goals (Miller and Homan, 2002). The process is 100 percent coachee-led, with the coachee setting the content and agenda and the coach managing and facilitating it.

According to Lenhardt (2004), organizations cannot be satisfied with the logic of objectives and planning and he offers an interesting approach to the coaching concept, which he called “integrative management” and extends the concept from individual perspective of individual coaching to collective phenomenon in team coaching (support for the individual) and team building (support for the team). Lenhardt defines coaching as: “Help, guidance and a co-construction that is offered to a person or team through timely intervention, or more often long-term support.” For Lenhardt (2004), coaching is the major ingredient of creating Collective Intelligence which is the essential concept of “working on a vision.” This perspective is connected to the managerial development and its individual and collective dimension (Lenhardt et al., 2007).

Coaching has a broad spectrum of applications not only for the business environment and corporations but also for individuals who want to improve relationships, make career transitions, change lifestyle and/or empower themselves.

In the next section, we are going to focus on business coaching and its uses. Before going there, the main regulatory bodies created to support the rapid expansion of coaching as a profession are mentioned below.

3.3 Professional associations, accreditation and training bodies The rapid growth of this new discipline soon created the need for both training and accreditation for its supporters and adopters.

The earliest training programs were created during the 1980s, for individuals who were interested in personal growth and improvement. Almost a decade later, coaching training companies shaped programs for those who wanted a career in coaching. In parallel, after 1990, the need for professional associations emerged in order to shape the field of coaching; develop the professional literature around it; create networking and increase its visibility; and acquaint practitioners with the field’s values and philosophy. The number of these associations rose to 20 very soon, which implies the maturity that the coaching field was developing. The variety of these bodies on one hand, allowed coaching to self-regulate with numerous and multiple standards, however, on the other hand, it resulted in no one-code of ethics, credentials and accreditation for the coaching industry, which remains the case today. Apart from the inside “confusion” that this situation has created, it has also had a great impact on clients, regarding qualifications required to become a coach and what constitutes coaching (Brock, 2012).

Some of the most important bodies are mentioned below. International Coaching Federation. Founded by Thomas Leonard, in 1995, as a

non-profit organization, the ICF fulfilled the need for a professional association to act as a source of information, setting standards of practice and ethical guidelines around the profession. Also within its scope is to provide accreditation to ensure consistency in coach training and certification to professionals coached at three levels: associate,

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professional and master certified coach. It also hosts annual conferences and symposiums globally and provides a coach referral service. Based in California, the ICF is the largest worldwide association for coaching with a membership base of over 20,000 (ICF).

Worldwide Association for Business Coaches (WABC). The WABC is the first coaching association dedicated exclusively to serving the business coaching industry. It was founded in 1997 in Canada and sets high standards for membership based on business experience, coaching experience and references. These standards have resulted in attracting some of the most influential business, corporate and executive coaches in the world. It is also one of the few for-profit associations for coaches and provides a three-level coaching certification: registered, certified and certified master business coach. Graduate degrees in business coaching are also available in WABC.

Association for coaching (AC). Based in the UK, the AC was launched in July 2002 as an independent non-profit professional body for coaches, training providers and corporates interested in coaching. There are three types of membership: individual, corporate and organizational. The AC provides a Code of Ethics and Good Practice, a list of core coaching capabilities, conferences, workshops, networking and international coaching journal as well as published books (AC).

European Mentoring and Coaching Council. Founded in the UK in 1992, this organization was created to promote good practice in mentoring and coaching across Europe. They provide ethical standards, support forums, research papers, conferences and a library of continuously updated resources. Four types of membership are available: individual, organizational, provider and academic, as well as two types of accreditation: the European Quality Award and the European Individual Accreditation.

At this point in the evolution of the coaching industry, there are still no regulatory authorities, such as a government body, that could provide concrete accreditation or recognition to both coaching professionals and training providers. An attempted search of how many accreditation programs exist resulted in confusion. This finding, juxtaposed with the fact that qualification, accreditation and certification are conducted on a voluntary basis by anybody in the industry without concern, has created numerous misconceptions among coaching clients. The industry needs to preserve itself and the quality standards of coaching. In doing so, apart from creating more and more vigorous accreditation systems the industry should consider the path toward regulation of the profession (Association for Coaching, 2010).

4. Business coaching As we have seen so far, coaching has grown tremendously over the past few decades, and business environments were a catalyst in this. Coaching opportunities and applications in the workplace are numerous, and so within corporations, coaching found rich soil to grow and flourish.

4.1 Why business coaching? Literature strongly suggests that coaching can both play a key role in improving individual and organizational performance (Evered and Selman 1989; Popper and Lipshitz, 1992) and assisting individuals or teams to reach their full potential through learning and development processes. (Grant, 2006; Anderson et al., 2009).

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We are living in an era of continuous rapid changes wherein the only constant is change itself. By nature, all humans are reluctant to change; coaching helps people accept and promote it. Moreover, given that coaching focusses on the individual and we live and work in a fairly complex system as Grant states, a change in the individual could result in changing the organization (Greene and Grant, 2003).

Another facet of the importance and need for coaching in business is that of executives. Executive leaders play a tremendous role in such times. Their work is crucial to the company’s success; they are expected to have all the answers and produce positive results for the organization. However, executives stand at the top alone, frequently in a turbulent environment. Executive coaches can provide all the necessary support and help their strategy formulation and decision making (O’Connor and Lages, 2007).

Furthermore, corporate uncertainty has increased the level of pressure and stress. In addition to the increased pace in which work is conducted and the long working hours, managers are expected to coach their people to adapt, learn quickly and be effective. Coaching is the only way they can achieve this (Miller and Homan, 2002). Another point is that flat organizations have created the need for a broad spectrum of managerial skills and competencies (especially those of coaching), the development of which can be enhanced by their own individual coaching, as a learning process (O’Connor and Lages, 2007). Finally, the social capital of the organization is nowadays its most competitive advantage. Therefore supervision is no longer enough as a managerial skill. Cooperation, inclusion, empowerment and motivation are of high importance. People need relationships of trust and open communication with managers and peers in order to fulfill their needs and increase their performance. Once again, coaching is the means to that end.

4.2 Types of coaching in the workplace Executive coaching. Coaching in the workplace can be conducted at multiple levels in an organization. Starting from the top toward bottom, executive coaching has its place with top leaders and executives. According to the Sherpa (2010) executive coaching survey.

“Executive coaching means regular meetings between a business leader and a trained facilitator, designed to produce positive changes in business behavior in a limited time frame.” Most executive coaching is primarily aimed at leadership development; enhanced strategic planning; stress and conflict management and executive team building; and is most often delivered by professional coaches who are not part of the client organization (The Coaching and Mentoring network, 2013). Unlike in the past, executive coaches today are mostly used for high-potential executives, not underperformers, and receiving professional coaching could be interpreted as a sign of upcoming success and honor (Coutu and Kauffman, 2009).

Another more analytical and descriptive definition of executive coaching is that presented in the executive coaching handbook: “Executive coaching is an experiential and individualized leader development process that builds a leader’s capability to achieve short- and long-term organizational goals. It is conducted through one‐on‐one and/or group interactions, driven by data from multiple perspectives, and based on mutual trust and respect. The organization, an executive, and the executive coach work in partnership to achieve maximum impact.” Executive coaching involves multiple levels of learning. Apart from supporting the coachee to develop specific capabilities and competences and new ways of thinking, it also helps him develop long-lasting self

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learning habits and mindset that reassure learning continuity even after coaching ends. In the business environment coaching can make significant difference in various contexts such us becoming a board member; high-potential individuals; new-to-role; approaching promotion; when a specific issue is holding an individual back and when an individual should move on (Shaw and Linnecar, 2007).

This procedure is very helpful to the executive who faces numerous issues and wants to develop and increase the company’s performance. Executives are often more willing to express their feelings and thoughts to an external coach, since it is easier to gain trust and build an open relationship when the coach is not part of the organization. Another advantage of using executive coaches is that they bring a multitude of experiences, challenges and viewpoints obtained from different cultures and business environments into the organization (McLeod, 2003). Even more importantly, the capabilities, skills and credentials that external professional coaches demonstrate are of much importance. On the other hand, one of the most important problems of using an external coach is that of the cost that the company undertakes, which may rise up to even $3,500 per hour with a median hourly cost of $500 (Coutu and Kauffman, 2009).

It is worth mentioning that, according to the 2012 Global Coaching Survey conducted by PriceWaterHouse for the ICF, the annual revenue expended on corporate coaching has been estimated at almost $2 billion, and it was projected that there were approximately 47,000 professional coaches globally.

Internal coaching. The term “workplace coaching” refers both to executive coaching and coaching that is delivered to other employees at lower levels inside the organization. Workplace coaching may take place with the support of external coaches, or by internal coaches who are usually HR employees taking up a coaching role. Internal coaching is defined as “a one-on-one developmental intervention supported by the organization and provided by a colleague of those coached who is trusted to shape and deliver a program yielding individual professional growth” (Frisch, 2001).

The effectiveness of internal coaching can be limited by mostly two important factors. The trust and confidentiality issues that derive from an in-company relationship and the lack of experience gained outside the company. Machin has demonstrated the importance of trust in the internal coaching relationship and placed it at the heart of the coaching procedure (Machin, 2010). On top of that, the internal client might view the coach as not credible enough, which further obstructs the coaching relationship and rapport. At the same time, knowledge and practical experience of the company’s policies and culture can be a benefit. In addition, internal coaching can save a significant amount of money for the company and may prove to be more flexible (McLeod, 2003). More importantly, internal coaches may observe the coachee’s progress and adapt the developing agenda effectively (Frisch, 2001).

Manager as a coach. Another form of internal coaching in the workplace is that of the “manager as coach.” Even though the use of coaching skills by managers may not be considered as an official form of internal coaching, nonetheless line and people managers’ contribution to the overall company performance is rather important, and their coaching efforts and applications contributed to the upturn of coaching in the business environment (Grant et al., 2010). Taking into account that their behaviors and practices affect the vast majority of the organization’s employees, this section explores the role of the manager as a coach.

At the very beginning of the question whether a manager can be a coach, lies an intrinsic paradox. Managers have traditionally been the employee’s appraisers who

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hold the paycheck and make the decisions on promotions or pay rises. The nature of the relationship between managers and employees is hierarchical and mostly directive. It comes as no surprise that employees were appointed as managers if they performed well at their previous roles i.e. if they demonstrated a high level of skills and competencies (mostly technical) that were crucial for the role. For example, high performing sales representatives were often promoted to first line sales managers. On the other hand, being a coach requires a totally different set of skills, competences and qualities, not to mention the need for an open, trust and partner-like relationship form, which puts no pressure on the employee and creates an environment for learning and development. Thus, the questioned raised is how can managers be coaches.

Supporters of the idea, such as Whitmore, present coaching as a necessary style of management and practices, by underlining the benefits for the organization, clarifying the different roles a manager has, and specifying when to coach or instruct according to the circumstances (Whitmore, 2011). Such benefits are essential for increasing organizational performance and include higher motivation and engagement of the employees (Christian, 1999); improved individual performance and team spirit; better communication and working relationships; which in turn lead to higher profitability and realizing a learning organization (Association for Coaching, 2010). Wheeler (2011), concluded in his research that the adoption of coaching by line managers does contribute to the achievement of organizational goals, and the Sales Executive Council reports that teams that received coaching more than three times per month were able to exceed their goals by 7 percent, whereas teams that did not receive coaching, underperformed.

Moreover, Hamlin et al. (2008), suggested that effective managers use coaching at the core of their management practice, findings that are also supported by Bond and Seneque (2013).

Yet, some potential barriers and implications as to the effectiveness of managers coaching have been addressed, like conflicts of interest in delivering short-term tasks and confidentiality issues or hidden agendas (Ferrar, 2006). Moreover, coaching according to managers can be time consuming and entails the risk of the manager being challenged on his authority, which might lead in turn to loss of confidence (Alderman, 2010). Lack of emotional awareness, mixed motives for coaching and personal beliefs about coaching, can also hinder the effectiveness of managers coaching (Misiukonis, 2011).

4.3 Successful coaching practices Coaching is not always the most appropriate developmental approach for a company to follow and if it is applied to the wrong needs it would not have any value to the company. Moreover, for coaching to work effectively there are many critical factors that could hinder or foster its result.

It is important to have in mind that during a coaching initiative there are three main stakeholders, namely the coach who provides the service, the coachee or executive who receives coaching and the organization of the executive or, let’s say, sponsor (The Executive Coaching Forum, 2012). The sponsor is actually a collection of interested parties, usually the coachee’s managers, the CEO and/or the HR department. All these stakeholders need to work together and see themselves as partners in a three-way partnership, for the successful implementation of a coaching program

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(Sherman and Freas, 2004). This triangular relationship denotes that coaching is not only a personal intervention targeted to the executive’s development, but also a business intervention and as such, it should be aligned to business priorities, strategy and goals and contribute to business results (Shaw and Linnecar, 2007).

Given that coaching is a three-way partnership, it is deducted that each partner plays a role in the coaching process and their individual contribution to it is of high importance. Factors that affect the coaching outcome either negatively or positively can be attributed to each and every partner but it is self-evident that the organization, as a coordinator and orchestrator of the whole initiative, is the key partner who will set the scene for the coaching play.

To begin with, let’s examine the most important factors as far as the executive – coachee is concerned. Literature suggests that coachees’ being informed and educated about what coaching really is, why it will bring value to both the individual and the organization and exactly how it will be done, is a major determinant of the end result (Wasylyshyn, 2003). Without it, coachees cannot be fully engaged in the process, since they may hold misconceptions about the underlying reasons of the company’s decision and not be receptive to it. That is because coaching has been linked in the past with performance issues and used as a remedial tool to correct an employee’s performance and behavior (Underhill et al., 2009). In some organizations it was even considered a “taboo,” due to the fact that it was communicated and positioned in a negative manner, correlated with poor performance (McGovern et al., 2001).

Another critical factor is for the coachee to be truly willing to change and develop new competencies. As Marshall Goldsmith stated, one of the most common mistakes executives make when working with a coach, is to believe that it is the coach’s responsibility to change the client and find solutions to their issues (Harvard Business Review, 2002). Besides, awareness and responsibility are two of the most important principles of coaching as mentioned earlier in this dissertation. Thus, for the coaching initiative to be effective, as far as the coachee partner is regarded, there needs to be receptiveness to coaching, willingness for change and development and an in-depth understanding of the whole process, so that any barriers and misconceptions are eliminated. Moving on with the coach partner, it goes without saying that who the external professional coach to facilitate the executive’s development will be, is unquestionably essential. According to the AMA survey 2008, the top two reasons that executives terminated a coaching program in the past, were the mismatch between coach and employee, and the questionable expertise of the coach (American Management Association, 2008). The latter has mostly to do with the skills and capabilities that a coach may or may not possess, in order to be able to be effective in a coaching discussion. Accreditations, proven long-standing training and experience and recommendations from other clients are some indicators regarding coaches’ competence and expertise. The former has mostly to do with more qualitative, soft characteristics and attributes of a coach’s personality. A well-know, accredited, skilled and experienced coach may not be the most appropriate for a certain individual. The relationship, chemistry and match between coach and coachee are key ingredients of successful coaching and thus organizations should select coaches with care (McGovern et al., 2001). Thus, it is recommended that companies allow the executive to choose with whom they want to work (Coutu and Kauffman, 2009).That is why some companies have integrated an initial interviewing step in the whole process before appointing the right coach (Ann Houston Kelley, Nomadic Executive Development, 2005).

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Another important factor in selecting the right coach is the absence or presence of sound supervision. Supervision allows the coach to have a formal proceeding of structured reflection with a trained supervisor about their coaching practices and issues and provides the organization with the assurance that the coach maintains independence and professionalism in the coaching process. (CIPD, 2006). Coaches, after all, should be selected and matched to the coachees each time a coaching initiative takes place independently and certain criteria should be in place in order to ensure effective engagement of the two partners and delivery of the coaching results (Sherman and Freas, 2004).

The third party of this triangular relationship, the organization or sponsor, plays – though indirectly – a fundamental role in the coaching outcome. Even though it is not a partner that actively participates in the coaching conversation between the executive and the professional coach, its contribution and engagement in the coaching initiative and process is critical. Let alone that the sponsor is the one who actually pervades all the above factors regarding both the coachee’s readiness and the coach’s selection.

In order for coaching to be able to meet both individual and organization goals, it should be managed strategically. Business needs should be directly linked to the goals of the coaching initiative and shared with all interested parties. The results should also be measured and assessed against initial objectives. And all these should be done in a manner that respects the nature of coaching, fosters a coaching culture within the organization and reassures continuous sponsorship and support of all participants in the procedure (Anderson and Anderson, 2005). It is worth mentioning here that apart from the coach, the coachee and the sponsor, there are some other participants in the coaching procedure whose input is very important. These may include peers, subordinates, and direct or indirect reports of the executive. Their role is to provide open and honest feedback for the coachee throughout the procedure. This input is crucial, since it is the basis of specific goal setting in executive coaching and it is also an indication of its effectiveness when coaching is completed. It is the coach’s job to collect all the information about the coachee and take it into consideration before, during and after coaching is completed (through 360 feedback and other tools), but it is the sponsor’s job to secure an open and honest channel for communication among them that will enhance the effectiveness of coaching (Shaw and Linnecar, 2007). A critical determinant of this is how the sponsor manages confidentiality issues within the coaching procedure. Both the executive and the other stakeholders should be able to share information and opinions with the professional coach without having any fear that it could be disclosed to other parties internally or externally (The Executive Coaching Forum, 2012).

5. Epilogue Taking all the above factors into account and trying to put them in order, we could say that organizations that want to leverage the benefits of coaching must be mature enough to have certain processes and practices in place. First, being clear on coaching’s target outcomes and the reasons it is employed and use coaching for the right people (not problematic employees) and the right reasons. Second, positioning coaching to the company in a positive sincere manner and communicate the initiative to the executive in a productive way that diminishes all second thoughts and misconceptions and reassures his willingness to undergo coaching and his engagement to it. Third, having definite, established high standards criteria regarding the selection of the professional

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external coach who will be employed and ensuring a match between coach and coachee. Fourth, managing and aligning all the internal stakeholders that participate in the coaching procedure with the goal to be clear and open when providing feedback during initial assessment and progress during coaching. Fifth, establishing all the necessary metrics and measurements to quantify the outcome of coaching, when it reaches its conclusion.

In conclusion, the value that organizations realize form coaching is proportional to the quality of coaching delivered. Organizations that invest in quality coaches, have, themselves, a clear understanding of what coaching really is and actively support coaching initiatives at every aspect of coaching’s procedure, can reap the greatest benefits from it.

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