Custom term paper: Critical Analysis of the concept of performance coaching as a tool to improve individual performance.

2.1 The History of Coaching

Coaching always played an important part in the business development and professional development of employees. In the course of time, coaching evolved. Coaching is an important discipline which has to be taught and which can help modern organisations to improve the individual performance of their employees (Welbourne & Andrews, 1996). In such a way, in the course of time, coaching grows more and more complicated but its role has never changed and it is still of the utmost importance for organisations as well as for the society at large.

2.2 The difference between mentoring and coaching

Coaching, being an important part of the organisational performance, needs to be distinguished from mentoring because they perform different functions and focus on different goals (See App. Table 1). In actuality, the difference between goals and functions of mentoring and coaching may be not striking but still it reveals the fact that coaching may be more important for modern organisations than mentoring. In this respect, the focus of mentoring and coaching is crucial because mentoring focuses on an individual, whereas coaching focuses on the performance. This difference is very substantial taking into consideration the fact that organisation needs the improvement of the performance and individuals are important for organisations but only as long as they can contribute to the positive organisational performance. As soon as an individual becomes ineffective for the organisation or as soon as an individual deteriorates or undermines the organisational performance, this individual is not needed for the organisation anymore. Hence, coaching of such an individual becomes pointless, whereas mentoring carries on because it focuses on the individual, who is the primary concern of the mentor, whereas the performance of the individual is of low, if any, significance for the mentor (Hawkins & Smith, 2006). In stark contrast, the performance of an individual is crucial for coaching. As the matter of fact, the performance is the primary concern of coaching. Coaches view individuals as subjects to the improvement of their performance (Lado & Wilson, 1994). The main goal of a mentor is to teach and train an individual to make him or her better, whereas the main goal of a coach is to teach and train an individual to improve his or her performance.

However, it does not necessarily mean that an individual is of no importance for coaching. In stark contrast, coaching pays a lot of attention to an individual because often through the personal improvement of an individual he or she can improve his or her performance (Reger, et al., 1994). At this point, it is possible to speak about the existence of certain relationship between mentoring and coaching.

custom term paper

Another important difference between coaching and mentoring is the role of a mentor and coach (See App. Table 1). A mentor performs a role of facilitator with no specific agenda, whereas a coach has specific agenda. This means that a coach has to meet specific goals and he or she works within the framework defined by the organisation and its current needs. Normally, coaches work on the improvement of the individual performance of employees. They have specific agenda which includes what they have to achieve, how and what for using their coaching models (Hawkins & Smith, 2006). Instead, a mentor just trains and teaches an individual without any specific agenda.

Furthermore, mentors are self selecting, whereas coaches come with the job. This means that coaches are just doing their job. They may be appointed and an individual does not have an option to choose a coach. In contrast, a mentor does not impose his or her teaching and training on an individual (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 1992). The individual has the option to choose his or her mentor. In such a way, a mentor is not an appointed figure.

In addition, a coach has influence on an individual due to his position. A coach has certain authority and employees have to obey to the coach and follow his or her lead due to his or her position within the organisation. As for the mentor, he or she does not have the formal authority. Instead, an individual values the mentor due to his or her moral authority, experience, knowledge and other factors but not due to his or her position (Reeves & Bednar, 1994).

At the same time, coaching focuses on the performance and teamwork, whereas mentoring focuses on affirmation and learning. In fact, this means that coaches help individuals to learn how to work together and cooperate effectively with each other within the organisation to reach positive outcomes and to improve their performance. In contrast, mentors are concerned with the learning and personal as well as professional development of individuals. Mentors do not perceive performance improvement as the ultimate goal of their work, whereas coaches view it as the core goal of their work.

Finally, specialists (Reeves & Bednar, 1994) point out that coaches’ work is task related, whereas the work of mentors relates to the life of individuals. What is meant here is the fact that coaches work with individuals and train them to reach certain goals set by the organisation, where they work at. In contrast, mentors work with individuals to teach them, to help them to develop their personality, basic skills and abilities, to acquire new knowledge and experience.

In such a way, in spite of obvious similarities in the work of mentors and coaches, it is very important to distinguish them from each other because the ultimate goal of the work of coaches is quite different from that of mentors. The aforementioned differences are very important in regard to the definition of basic roles of coaches and factors that determine the success of their work.

Table 1: Differences between Mentoring and Coaching

Source:                                http://www.coachingandmentoring.com/Articles/mentoring.html

2.3 Coaching Models

In actuality, specialists (Hawkins & Smith, 2006) distinguish numerous coaching models which are applied in different organisations. At the same time, it is worth mentioning the fact that the effectiveness of coaching models can vary consistently because the organisational structure and organisational culture as well as goals of coaching and specific tasks coaching has to meet can influence the effectiveness of the coaching model used. To put it in simple words, the effectiveness of coaching models depends on the organisation and goals of coaching.

Specialists distinguish several types of coaching models (See App. Table 2). In this respect, it is possible to lay emphasis on the fact that, in the contemporary business environment, the GROW model is one of the most widely-spread coaching models. The GROW model includes four stages which aim at the accomplishment of the fundamental goals of coaching, which normally are the improvement of the individual performance and through the improvement of the individual performance it is possible to reach the improvement of the organisational performance. Specialists (Welbourne & Andrews, 1996) point out that it is important to pass through all the stages of the GROW model steadily, one by one.

The first stage is goals. At this stage, a coach sets goals coaching is supposed to achieve. Specialists (Reger, et al., 1994) argue that coaches should not limit goals to the short-run perspective but they should set goals which individuals can reach in a long-run perspective. What is meant here is the fact that coaching goals should not be limited to the coaching session solely. Instead, coaches should set goals, which individuals can achieve and work on after the accomplishment of the coaching session in the course of their professional development. In such a way, individuals can reach positive outcomes of the coaching and they can keep improving their individual performance even when the coaching session is complete. In this respect, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that through setting goals coaches can stimulate and motivate employees to work hard on the improvement of their performance to meet the goals.

The next stage of this coaching model is reality. At this stage, a coach and an individual should define the essence of the problem, the core issue they have to deal with in the course of the coach session. In fact, this is the stage of the problem identification, which is very important because through the solution of the problem it is possible to improve the individual performance of an employee. At the same time, a coach should define the problem clearly and help an individual to confront and tackle the problem.

Furthermore, on accomplishing the reality stage, the coach moves toward the option stage. At this stage, the coach should look for options available to help an individual to tackle the problem he or she has which prevents him or her from the improvement of his or her performance. In such a way, through the selection of the proper option, the coach can help the individual to find the solution to the problem (Neal & Tromley, 1995). This stage is crucial for it opens the way to the improvement of the individual performance after the elimination of the identified problem through the solution found at this stage.

Finally, the last stage is Wrap up or Will. This is the stage when the action starts because a coach starts undertaking steps to reach the goal of coaching, whereas the individual responds to coaching. In such a way, through the mutual work of the coach and the individual the goals of the coaching session can be achieved and the individual can improve his or her individual performance.

However, the GROW model is not the only model of coaching that can bring a considerable success to the organisation using this model. In fact, specialists (Miller, 1998) point out that the GROW model is extremely popular and widely-spread because this model is flexible and allows organisations and coaches to maximize the effectiveness of coaching. What is the most important about the GROW model is its flexibility and applicability in different environment. Therefore, this model can be used in different organisations, in different cultural environment and in different situations.

As for other models, it is worth mentioning classic models, including six levels of coaching (See App. Table 2). Basically, this model passes through six stages in the course of which a coach helps individuals to identify their problem, to grow aware of the negative impact of the problem on their performance and to find a plausible solution to the problem. In fact, the diverse coaching models are based on this principle of the mutual work of a coach and individuals to reach positive outcomes of coaching and to improve the individual performance of employees.

2.4 Coaching supervision

Many specialists (Hawkins & Smith, 2006) lay emphasis on the fact that the overall success of coaching depends on the coaching supervision. The coaching supervision is essential to maintain and control coaching and to introduce changes in the coaching session to maximize its effectiveness. The coaching supervision is generally seen to have three functions (Hawkins & Smith, 2006):

1. Re-sourcing – helping the coach manage the coachee emotions which they pick up when working with clients.

2. Development – developing the skills, understanding and capacities of the coachee.

3. Qualitative – ensuring the quality of the coach’s work.

Resourcing is a very important function because it helps a coach to establish contacts with an individual. The individual should feel confident in the ability of the coach to help him or her to tackle with his or her problems. Often, individuals feel nervous when they get involved into coaching sessions. In such a situation, the ability of a coach to help individuals to cope with their emotions may be crucial for the overall success of coaching (Miller, 1998). In fact, individuals cannot always adequately perceive coaching and the messages the coach sends to them, if they are nervous or when emotions just overwhelm clients to the extent that they cannot understand the coach.

The development is also a very significant function of the coaching supervision because it lays the foundation to the learning of individuals and development of new skills. In fact, it is due to the development function, coaches can develop the desired set of skills and provide individuals with knowledge and experience they need for the improvement of their individual performance.

As for the qualitative function, this implies the existence of control over the work of a coach. The control is essential because it allows the assessing of the quality of the work of a coach. If an individual increases the productivity of work or improves the effectiveness of his or her work after the coach session, this means that the coach’s work was effective and the better individuals work after coaching sessions the higher is the quality of the coach’s work.

2.5 Roles of an executive coach

The diversity of coaching models and challenges coaches’ face in their work leads to the emergence of different roles performed by coaches in their work with clients. Hawkins and Smith (2006) define the six roles of an executive coach:

o       Guiding and Caretaking

Guiding is the process of directing another person along the path leading from where they are presently to where they want to be, providing a safe and supportive environment without unnecessary distractions or interferences from the outside.

o       Teaching

Teaching relates to helping a person develop cognitive skills and capabilities and the emphasis is on learning. It focuses on the acquisition of general skills, rather than on performance in specific situations. A teacher helps a person to develop new strategies for thinking and acting.

o       Mentoring

A teacher instructs, while a coach provides specific behavioural feedback, in order to help a person learn or grow. Mentors, on the other hand, guide us to discover our own unconscious competences, and strengthen beliefs and values, often through their own example.

o       Sponsorship

Sponsorship involves creating a context in which others can act, grow and excel. Sponsorship is about the development of identity and core values, awakening and safeguarding potential within others. It involves the commitment to the promotion of something that is already within a person or group, but which is not being manifested to its fullest capacity.

o       Awakening

Awakening goes beyond coaching, teaching, mentoring and sponsorship to include the level of vision, mission and spirit. An awakener puts other people in touch with their own missions and visions and thus the coach needs to know his/her own vision and mission and purpose (Hawkins and Smith 2006).

Basically, all these roles can be applied in different settings but coaches should remember that there is no perfect role and they need to adapt the role they can use most successfully in the specific situation and environment which they work in. Sometimes, coaches need to combine several roles or change them to reach a success in coaching.

2.6 Case Study

The analysis of the case study (See App. Case Study) was conducted to reveal practical aspects of the implementation of coaching in the real life situation in the real business. The case study involved the Standard Bank ofSouth Africa. The company has proved to be quite successful but, in recent years, the company has faced certain difficulties with the provision of customers with services of the high quality in minimal time. To put it more precisely, the Standard Bank ofSouth Africafaced the problem of transactions delay because of the ineffective use of the available information system and system of electronic payment by the personnel of the bank. The problem threatened to the position of the Standard Bank ofSouth Africain the market because its rivals outpaced the bank due to the effective use of modern technologies, including the development of e-banking and wide use of modern telecommunication systems to make transactions faster and more convenient to customers. In such a situation, the Standard Bank ofSouth Africahad to close the gap with its rivals. To meet this goal, Standard Bank ofSouth Africahad two options. On the one hand, the bank could employ new professionals, who had the higher qualification than employees that were currently working at the bank. Alternatively, the bank could organize the coaching of employees to improve their performance through training to use technologies available to them in the bank.

Standard Bank ofSouth Africaemployed new coaches, who were experienced in the field of coaching and training employees to use new technologies. Coaching was conducted within the bank without involvement any other companies or agencies for coaching bank’s employees. About forty percent (40%) of employees were involved in training in the course of the first year of coaching. The individual performance of these employees has improved since the beginning of coaching and the effectiveness of their work increased by five percent (5%) at average, whereas the next year the effectiveness of their work increased by eight percent (8%).  In contrast, employees, who were not enrolled in coaching, failed to improve their individual performance consistently and the increase of the effectiveness of their work comprised one – two percent (1-2%) at average within two years. In such a way, coaching has proved to be quite effective and, what is more important, coaching helped the company to meet its goals and to maintain a stable marketing performance. On the other hand, the company failed to realize the full potential of coaching because only a part of employees were enrolled in coaching. Remarkably, it is trained employees, who improved their individual performance, whereas individuals, who were not involved in coaching, failed to make improvements in their individual performance. Nevertheless, the company extended the coaching program to enrol all employees into the program. The improvement of the individual performance of employees involved in coaching allowed the company to improve the organisational performance as well but the improvement of the organisational performance was likely to be more significant if a larger number of employees were enrolled in the coaching program.

Figure 1. Coaching Supervision Process