Posts tagged " #coaching "

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November 1st, 2018 Posted by Coaching No Comment yet

Results of Study on Managers and Coaching

Coaching has an identity problem in organizational settings. Everyone knows about coaching and may even use the term to describe how they work with people, but few are actually coaching. A new study demonstrates that managers believe they are coaching when they are actually just telling people what to do. Worse, because peers reward their micromanager-as-coach approach, the wrong behaviors are reinforced. The good news is there’s a fairly easy solution to help managers begin to coach and see powerful results. 

While teaching coaching skills for more than a decade I’ve witnessed firsthand the massive shifts in how leaders communicate after receiving a little training. Yet, I was still surprised by the study reported in Harvard Business Review called “Most Managers Don’t Know How to Coach People. But They Can Learn.” The findings are so dramatic, I want every leader, manager, and organization to be aware of them. Here’s what the study uncovered and my take on it.

Consulting and Micromanaging is the Default Leadership Style

The study began by asking managers to have a short coaching conversation on the topic of time management. Videos were made of these conversations. The managers, their peers, and expert coaches were then asked to evaluate the manager-coaches based on these coaching qualities:

  • listening
  • questioning
  • giving feedback
  • assisting with goal setting
  • showing empathy
  • letting the coachee arrive at their own solution
  • recognizing and pointing out strengths
  • providing structure
  • encouraging a solution-focused approach

Expert coaches watched the videos of the managers coaching and evaluated them. In large part, the managers gave advice or a solution. The authors of the study called it micromanaging-as-coaching. The managers thought they were coaching and rated themselves as such. This first finding demonstrates the default coaching behavior among untrained managers is a consulting, advising, or micromanaging style.

Coaching that is consulting isn’t going to produce excellent coaching results.

Read more at:

https://keithwebb.com/fascinating-results-of-study-on-managers-and-coaching/#more-4955

An approach into the efficacy of Executive Coaching

October 27th, 2018 Posted by Coaching theory No Comment yet

“Using random assignment and a switching-replications design in a corporate setting, this study compared the effectiveness of two approaches to executive coaching: goal-focused and process-oriented. Goal-focused coaching is based on goal-setting theory, which concentrates on identifying a task to be accomplished, whereas process-oriented coaching emphasizes interpersonal processes more than specific content or goals. Sixty-four senior executives and their supervisors (dyads) from a multibillion-dollar company were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: (a) goal-focused coaching, (b) process-oriented coaching, (c) goal-focused control group, and (d) process-oriented control group. Participants and their supervisors each chose 1 of 8 leadership competencies from the organization’s performance-management system as the coaching objective. The coaching consisted of 4 face-to-face, 1-hr coaching sessions over a 4- to 6-week period. The 16 executive coaches in the study received precoaching training to ensure consistent delivery of the two approaches. The results showed an increase in leadership competencies and behaviors for the coaching groups but not for the control groups, as rated by the coachees only. Contrary to prediction, however, there was no significant difference between the approaches of goal-focused and process-oriented coaching on leadership competencies or behaviors. Furthermore, there were no differences between the two approaches in the postcoaching follow-up. Implications of the results for executive-coaching theory, research, and practice are discussed.”

 

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000115Williams, J. S., & Lowman, R. L. (2018). The efficacy of executive coaching: An empirical investigation of two approaches using random assignment and a switching-replications design. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 70(3), 227-249.