Research proves that those who take part in coaching or mentoring, either as the client (coachee/mentee) or the coach/mentor, not only show greater career advancement but also becoming a coach/mentor can bring advantages to an individual in many areas of life.
Coaching and mentoring in organisations takes many forms. Research shows that these come from several sources and have pros and cons:
Line manager as coach – not always effective as they often won’t have sufficient time to dedicate to the coaching relationship. Organisations need to have robust processes and systems in place to support such an approach.
Coaching role model – senior managers receive training and act as role models and champions for the coaching agenda within the organisation.
The expert coach – experienced employees are rewarded for transferring knowledge and skills to others. Potentially a similar issue to line manager as coach.
The internal coach – a professional coach working full time within the organisation. May be constrained by authority structures, competing loyalties etc.
The performance coach – typically an external professional brought in to achieve task-specific behavioural change in a relatively short time.
The developmental coach – also an external professional brought in to focus on broader, longer-term changes.
The benefits of being coached or mentored:
Coaching has a significant positive impact on behavioural change. Brown et al., (2003) discovered that employees find it particularly useful to have support when articulating goals and identifying specific plans. It can help them to overcome obstacles to performance (Fillery-Travis and Lane, 2006), it is developmental and results-orientated, it fosters self-directed learning (Vidal-Salazar et al., 2012; Grant, 2006), and it offers an energising space for personal reflection, which facilitates change and development (Western, 2012).
The tangible benefits of coaching and/or mentoring include better understanding of the business, greater understanding of how one is perceived by colleagues, greater problem-solving skills, and greater personal satisfaction. (Quast, 2011)
Career progression
One study of a workforce of around one thousand employees carried out by Fisher (2007) over a five-year period found tangible benefits in terms of promotion and career advancement:
Both mentors and mentees were approximately 20% more likely to get a pay increased than people who did not participate in the mentoring programme.
25% of mentees and 28% of mentors received a pay increase – versus only 5% of managers who were not mentors.
Employees who received mentoring were promoted five times more often than people who did not have mentors.
Mentors were six times more likely to have been promoted to a bigger job.
To be an effective coach, one needs to develop some essential key skills. An understanding of how adults learn (relevant to both client and coach) or andragogy, is essential, and important to the longevity of the relationship. Cox et al. (2014, pp. 6–8)
In essence, understanding how adults learn can bring self-realisation and self-actualisation to both coach and client. This realisation is then used to bridge gaps in understanding and knowledge, improve practise, and facilitate self-development. Many who become coaches see it as an epiphany in their personal development and leadership style.
Benefits to those that take on a coaching role or adopt a coaching style of leadership:
(Connor and Pokora, 2017) found that coaches feel benefits such as a sense of personal accomplishment, and the satisfaction of helping others to develop their own careers and/or personal lives. Coaches become more self-reflective which leads to an improvement in interpersonal skills, particularly listening skills. They also believe that the job of coaching is challenging and provides continuous learning. For an internal coach, usually someone with a management and/or leadership role, these benefits are benefiting both employees in the relationship in that organization.
It is proven that leaders with good coaching skills and/or who have been coached, are more successful in career advancement. Grover and Furnham (2016), responding to the demand for empirical evidence and better understanding of the processes and efficacy of coaching by businesses, carried out a systematic review of the effectiveness of coaching using practitioner reviews over a ten-year period. Coaching is effective as “a number of individual level outcome measures (have) been found to increase through the use of coaching, including, wellbeing, career satisfaction, and goal attainment.” KCM 80-20 is strongly committed to the belief that well-being should be at the heart of all coaching and mentoring. We understand that well-being means different things to different people, and that changes in personal circumstances can often change one’s definition of well-being. A skilled coach will help a coachee to identify those factors that determine their well-being.
Adopting a coaching approach
An interesting study was made of the effectiveness of ‘train-the-coach’ courses. Jordan, Gessnitzer, and Kauffield (2017) investigated the effectiveness of a group of 57 coaches all trained in the same group over five months. The group were trained to help senior school students identify career pathways. Questionnaires were used by the coaches and their ‘clients’ to measure improvements. The results show that coaching not only benefitted the school students (104) but improved the efficacy of the coaches themselves regarding their own career related outcomes.
Compared to other executive training methods, coaching is a very effective technique for developing the management competencies that an organisation needs, due to its ability to modify managerial behaviours in a directed, personalised way, and make such changes last.
One of the most important benefits of coaching and/or being coached, is becoming self-aware and empathetic, as posited by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council:
A leader who is self-aware is able to build relationships, and develop the many transferable skills of a coach…. he/she demonstrates awareness of their own values, beliefs, and behaviours; recognises how these affect their practice and uses this self-awareness to manage their effectiveness in meeting the client’s objectives…. Finally, the coach/leader gathers information on the effectiveness of their own practice and contributes to establishing a culture of evaluation of outcomes. (taken from EMCC, 2018 Capability Indicator)
There is no substitute for experience and solid foundations
Parsloe and Leedham (2017, p.28) adapted The Smart Performance Pyramid (Cross and Lynch). At its base are four key factors: (i) the skills of the coach, (ii) the personal attributes of the coach, (iii) the application of a (rigorous) process, and (iv) the coaching environment.
Organisational benefits flow from individual benefits, and these can only be achieved if the foundations are in place. Whether an internal coach or an external coach, the following pre-requisites distinguish an effective coach from an ineffective coach. There is no substitute for experience, and no hacks available for bypassing these essential pre-requisites:
CP: The coaching process, including clear structure and discipline, being mentally challenging and stretching. One size does not fit all. An agile approach is essential. See the previous blog for the four stages of good coaching.
CA: The coaches personal attributes, such as: knowledge, experience, qualifications, being inspirational, having belief in the learner’s potential.
CS: The skills of the coach, such as: listening, questioning, giving clear feedback, establishing rapport, providing support.
CE: The coaching environment, providing: a safe, supportive place to discuss confidential and sensitive issues; time and space to think and reflect.
When reflecting on the coaching and mentoring within your organisation, or after being coached or mentored, you will have a perception of its effectiveness based on that experience.
As you can see, this is a holistic approach. Coaching is a way of being. It is not a quick fix, short term, stand-alone activity. It should become part of your organisational and/or individual culture if its benefits are to be realised. Van Nieuwerburgh and Campbell call this ‘the coaching way of being’. The skilful application of a framework or model does not necessarily mean that only one framework/model should be used or indeed that the process should be rigidly applied, rather, it is being able to show agility and flexibility to transition between different approaches to best suit the client’s needs that determines how skilful and successful a coach is. Achieving inner personal benefits are the essential starting point towards achieving outer personal benefits that result in the development of new hard and soft skills, and changes in behaviour, that ultimately lead to organisational benefits. St John-Brooks posits that the inner personal benefits (rewards) fall into four main categories;
1. making a contribution
2. being part of something bigger
3. personal growth and development, and
4. increased organizational awareness.
In summary, coaching and mentoring is a way of being that, if adopted as part of your organisations culture, brings many benefits.
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