University of Wollongong Research Online Sydney Business School - Papers Faculty of Business and Law 2013 Managerial coaching: challenges, opportunities and training Grace McCarthy University of Wollongong, [email protected] Julia Milner University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/gsbpapers Part of the Business Commons Recommended Citation McCarthy, Grace and Milner, Julia: Managerial coaching: challenges, opportunities and training 2013, 768-779. https://ro.uow.edu.au/gsbpapers/390 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Managerial coaching: challenges, opportunities and training Abstract Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the growing practice of managerial coaching. Much of the coaching literature is set in the context of an external coach coming into an organisation. However managers are increasingly being expected to coach their employees, a change in role which can create tensions. Design/methodology/approach - This paper examines the literature on coaching managers. The paper also discusses practical implications for coach training. Findings - This paper identifies key differences in the issues faced by coaching managers and by internal/external coaches and recognises the importance of adequate training of managers in coaching skills as an important issue for organizations to tackle. Furthermore, the development of a supportive coaching culture should not be underestimated in facilitating managers to apply their coaching skills on a daily basis. Originality/value - The paper gives an overview of the challenges of the coaching managers, identifies areas for development/consideration of coaching training programs and offers practical suggestions for supporting managers in applying their coaching skills. Keywords era2015 Disciplines Business Publication Details McCarthy, G. & Milner, J. (2013). Managerial coaching: challenges, opportunities and training. Journal of Management Development, 32 (7), 768-779. This journal article is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/gsbpapers/390 Managerial Coaching: Challenges, Opportunities & Training AUTHORS Dr Grace McCarthy, Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong, Australia Dr Julia Ahrens, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the growing practice of managerial coaching. Much of the coaching literature is set in the context of an external coach coming into an organisation. However managers are increasingly being expected to coach their employees, a change in role which can create tensions. Approach: This paper examines the literature on coaching managers. The paper also discusses practical implications for coach training. Findings: This paper identifies key differences in the issues faced by coaching managers and by internal/external coaches. Recognises the importance of adequate training of managers in coaching skills as an important issue for organizations to tackle. Furthermore the development of a supportive coaching culture should not be underestimated in facilitating managers to apply their coaching skills on a daily basis. Originality/value: Gives an overview of the challenges of the coaching managers, identifies areas for development/consideration of coaching training programs and offers practical suggestions for supporting managers in applying their coaching skills. Keywords: coaching, management competencies, leadership development, skills development, communication, trust The popularity of coaching is increasing worldwide, both in industry and in academe (Bresser 2010; Lebihan 2011 ). In the UK, a huge 90% of respondents to the CIPD annual surveys claim coaching is taking place in their organisations, with line managers bearing the main responsibility for coaching in 37% of organisations (CIPD 2009). Companies increasingly state an expectation that managers will coach their employees, with research confirming positive correlations between coaching and employee satisfaction, individual performance and organisational goals (Ellinger et al. 2011; Wheeler 2011). Recent writing on leadership suggests that coaching is linked with effective management behaviours and offers a way for managers to implement leadership theories (Longenecker and Neubert 2005; Anderson et al. 2009; Hagen 2010; Kinicki et al. 2011). Research has also identified specific coaching behaviours as desirable in leaders, e.g.: - Using listening skills and communication to involve others, setting clear performance expectations, self-awareness, (Sparks and Gentry 2008) - Subordinates having regular conversations with leaders or coaches where individual and organisational goals are discussed, leaders give constructive feedback, both positive and negative, and leaders reflect on their own leadership practices (Larsson and Vinberg 2010). Coaching is clearly a feature of workplaces of the future. However, m uch of the research relating to coaching is in the context of the external coach who comes into an organisation to coach individual executives. Less is known about internal coaches, coaching employees who are not their direct reports, and even less of the coaching manager. Specifically more insight is required regarding the challenges that coaching managers face - this paper provides an overview of these challenges. Furthermore, these challenges and implications need to be translated directly into training material for coaching managers. Coaching research is published in a broad range of disciplines, both in dedicated coaching journals and in general management, HR, training, learning and development journals, making it difficult for the coaching manager to get an overview. For the purpose of this study, the following databases were searched for peer reviewed full-text articles, without restriction on dates: Emerald, Business Source Complete, Proquest, Informit, Sage Journals, Sage Journals, Taylor & Francis, Science Direct, Wiley and Web of Science. The search terms used were: ‘coaching manager’, ‘managerial coaching’, ‘manager as coach’ and ‘leader as coach’. Recent coaching monographs were also reviewed. The role of the coaching manager is, according to Cox et al.Bachkirova and Clutterbuck, ‘the most difficult and controversial coaching role’ (2010:3) and the most problematic according to Bresser (2011). The significance of this paper lies in its exploration of the challenges facing the coaching manager and the implications for training managers how to coach. SCOPE There are many different definitions of coaching, but as this paper relates to the context of coaching in organisations, it will use the definition of the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (2007): ‘Business coaching is the process of engaging in meaningful communication with individuals in businesses, organizations, institutions or governments, with the goal of promoting success at all levels of the organization by affecting the actions of those individuals.’ Coaching managers are managers who coach their team members in a work context. The person being coached is referred to as the coachee. Effective coaching, according to Hunt and Weintraub, ‘is much more powerful and useful than merely providing feedback to someone with a performance problem’ (2002:2). They claim that the coaching manager promotes reflection and learning, encouraging employees to take ownership, to develop and to engage in the organisation for which they work. The coaching manager may conduct formal coaching sessions or take the opportunity for informal coaching on a daily basis (Hunt and Weintraub 2002; Ellinger et al. 2010; Wheeler 2011). Such coaching by managers is increasingly popular, with Clutterbuck (2009) reporting that a majority of organisations surveyed claimed that line managers could be effective or very effective coaches, while in his earlier paper, Clutterbuck (2008) suggested that the trend to equip all managers with coaching and mentoring skills was likely to accelerate, and indeed that some of those managers would develop sufficiently high levels of competence to enable them to provide support to other coaching managers. Although Bresser (2010) sees coaching skills as part of a line manager’s normal leadership style, and a natural way of implementing an empowering style of leadership, he argues that line manager should not normally act as formal coaches. In contrast, Baker-Finch (2011) found that the small number of managers she surveyed were comfortable conducting formal coaching sessions with their staff for which they had prepared in advance, but lacked confiden ce or t ime to use their coaching skills in everyday conversations with their employees. CHALLENGES OF THE COACHING MANAGER Although there is a strong demand for coaching managers, managers may be reluctant or sceptical if they have not been coached themselves (Ladyshewsky 2010). However if managers have had a positive experience of being coached, they are more likely to want their team members to experience coaching and to want to develop their own coaching skills (Knights and Poppleton 2007). While training in coaching skills is a good first step, it is not sufficient, according to Longenecker (2010). Similarly Lindbom (2007) says organisations need to create a culture supportive of coaching to ensure the on-going application and role modelling of coaching