issue one
Dear readers
Welcome to a new academic year and the first issue of Coaching Matters. Our
coaching community is growing fast and it’s great to see so many i-coach
academy graduates putting their skills into practice and spreading our coaching
philosophy. Those of you who are part of this growing community will appreciate
that learning never ceases which is why this newsletter will provide not only
news but other valuable resources to help you hone your talent: feature articles
reflecting the latest developments in coaching research and best practice,
news from the community, book reviews and dates for your diary, when you will
have the chance to take part in workshops, master classes and information community
events.
I hope you enjoy reading the newsletter and I look forward to receiving your comments, ideas and suggestions for future issues; it’s very much your newsletter and I welcome your input.
Best wishes
Caroline Horner
UK Coaching Community Shares Research
I-coach’s Community is growing fast and today our numbers stand at 101, all committed to dispelling the myth that coaching is a fluffy perk for top management. Earlier this month, the Community met up to share some of its latest research. Helen Dunlop, Organisation Design and Development Consultant at BAA, shared the results of her research study, “An Exploration into the Perceived Effects of Team Coaching in the Construction Sector”. Given the absence of empirical research on team coaching in the business context and the criticality of effective teamwork to the success of the organisation under research, her study sought to explore two key objectives. The first to determine what effects team coaching had at the individual, team and organisational level and the second, to identify what factors contributed to such effects.
Gary Palmer, managing director of Aquarius Executive Coaching outlined his research study carried out at a Times 100 company. The company had already embarked upon a £1 million assessment, development and accreditation programme in response to a driving business need to improve its competitive position in the marketplace. The research, “Can we predict who the good coaching managers will be?” set out to identify what it is that makes an effective coaching manager and how that effectiveness can be measured. The study sought to explore some means of identifying and predicting whom effective coaching managers might be. Having identified coaching best practice, using the International Coaching Federation coaching skills as a benchmark, the next step was to observe managers in the workplace and evaluate their coaching skills against the benchmark. This data was then compared with previous but recent management assessment activity to establish correlation and set out a predictor.
Shaun Lincoln, director of Coaching and Mentoring at the Centre of Excellence in Leadership also joined the community to discuss his latest research, “Leaders as Coaches – the challenges and rewards of developing internal coaches in complex organisations.” The focus of Shaun’s research was to explore the challenges and rewards of using internal coaching for individual and organisational development and to challenge the unwritten assumption in many internal coaching programmes that line managers are best placed to coach the people they manage. It posed three fundamental questions: can task manager and development coach be the same person? If so, what unwritten rules and grammars of behaviour need to change, and what aspects of organisational culture and climate need to shift and how? And what are the individual and organisational benefits of ‘off-line’ coaching?
Issue 2 of Coaching Matters will explore some of the research highlighted in more detail.
Middlesex University Awarded £2.5m for National Centre of Excellence for Teaching and Learning
How will the Centre for Excellence in Work Based Learning (CEWBL) benefit students?
The CEWBL will receive an annual revenue of £500,000 over the five years of the CETL initiative and a capital grant of £380,000. This will enable us to further develop excellent practice in the National Centre for Work Based Learning Partnerships (School of Lifelong Learning and Education) and the Work Based Learning Unit of the School of Health and Social Science and to develop this distinctive Middlesex approach to work based learning in other Schools of the University.
We will be exploring curriculum innovations, for example customized programmes to meet a wider range of employer and employee needs. The quality of our teaching resources will be further improved and the CEWBL will develop the innovative use of technology to enhance communication between the University and work locations. Coaching is an important part of the CEWBL agenda. CEWBL will work closely in partnership with i-coach and the Professional Development Foundation to develop the study and professional practice of coaching as part of the higher education curriculum. Coaching models will be developed and used as part of the enhancement of individual tutoring.
We believe that the CEWBL will have a major impact upon the quality of work based learning at Middlesex University and be at the forefront of leading edge practice in work based learning nationally and internationally.”
Professor Jonathan Garnett
Director CEWBL
Coaching Notes
Recently, Prof. Mike van Oudtshoorn visited the University of Pennsylvania to deliver two lectures at its Centre for Organisational Dynamics based in the School of Arts and Sciences. Mike shared his views on building a profession for coaching and discussed i-coach’s experience of creating academic programmes in the field of coaching at masters and doctorate level. He also considered the challenges common to professional disciplines seeking academic recognition for professional practice.
Professor David Lane and Annette Filery Travis are writing a book in partnership with CIPD’s Jessica Jarvis entitled Making the Case for Coaching: Does it Work? Jessica acknowledges that there is a bigger drive for greater professionalism in coaching from HR professionals who want to ensure they are getting a high-quality service and are hiring professional recognised coaches with the right qualifications. To support their efforts, the CIPD has drawn up professional HR coaching standards and is in the process of developing standards for executive coaches that it plans to discuss with members later this year.
i-coach is keen to hear from prospective candidates for its autumn/winter academic programmes starting in November in South Africa and January in the UK. Please contact caroline@i-coachacademy.com for further details
Book Reviews
Thank you to all those who have been sending in their recommended books to read. Here are just a few. We are also looking for volunteers to provide us with book reviews so do get in touch.
Heifetz, R. & Linsky, M. Leadership on the Line
A great book on the personal
challenges that leaders face in the new world of work. the sub text is staying
alive through the dangers of leading. they give lots of practical ideas of
what leaders need to do to take care of themselves while leading others. Linsky
was in politics and Heifetz an orchestra conductor and they share many wonderful
examples from those two worlds as well as their own personal stories to make
the theory come alive. They were both involved in the centre for Creative leadership
at some point of their professional lives.
Hornby,M. (2000) 3 Easy steps to
the job you want. UK:Prentice Hall
This book bears some similarity to Best
Year Yet –in that it presents many activities
requiring the person to reflect and take stock. It is geared towards working
out what job you want to look for, but in the process you are asked to take
a broader look at you life and relationships. There are 2 easy exercises that
have worked well for my clients. The one is taking a lifeline and making a
guesstimate of when you might die, pinpointing where you are now and contemplating
what you want to happen in the remaining time.
Kets de Vries, M. The leadership
Mystique
In this poetically written business book Kets de Vries brings together
the worlds of psychotherapy and business.
- he holds a phd in economics and is a qualified psychotherapist (!!) he
explores things like career dynamics, executive stress and the dynamics
of organizational
change. His approach brought some fresh insights for me into leadership
and organisational dynamics that are useful in helping with diagnostic stage
of a coaching relationship.
World News
Meet i-coachNewYork
icoachNewYork has had a busy several years! The 2005-06 year has just begun with a great deal of momentum. For those not familiar with our activities, here is a summary.
We offer a basic course in coaching called Coaching Theory and Practice. CTP is offered at New School University as a credit-course within the Organization Change Management master’s degree. CTP is also offered in conjunction with the Management Department, in the Zicklin School of Business of Baruch College, which is part of CUNY [City University of New York]. At Baruch it is offered as an “executive education” course, which means it is non-credit and open to the public. You can find us at www.zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/coaching. More than 60 people have completed the CTP course. A new class of CTP students was initiated in September at New School University; the Baruch CTP class begins in October.
In the spring of each year iCoachNewYork offers the Professional Coaching Programme. PCP is a 12-week, intensive programme that includes a “live” coaching assignment and professional supervision. Completion of PCP leads to a Professional Coaching Certificate granted by iCoachNewYork and Baruch College, CUNY. Eighteen people have completed PCP to date.
iCoachNewYork also provides coach development programmes for corporations.
Bob Lee, Mike Frisch, Jeremy Robinson and Karen Metzger make up the faculty in New York. All are practicing coaches, and have been involved with coach education for a number of years. You can read more about us by visiting www.icoachnewyork.com
We look forward to hearing more about what our colleagues are up to around the globe!
Best wishes
Bob Lee
News from i-coach South Africa
i-coach academy in South Africa has been running since 2001 offering a two year masters programme in Coaching accredited through Middlesex University – a programme similar to what is offered in the UK. In 2005 i-coach academy began to deliver the first year of its MA in association with the University of Stellenbosch Business School Executive Education www.usb-ed.co.za, based in Belville on the outskirts of Cape Town. This partnership allows participants who successfully complete year one of the programme an opportunity to receive a Certificate in Coaching Practice from i-coach academy & USB-ED. Alternatively, those who wish to develop further and consider a career as a professional coach can move seamlessly into the second year and continue their journey towards a master’s degree in Coaching. Currently this programme is accredited through Middlesex University in the UK but i-coach is working hard with USB to establish a locally accredited masters qualification in South Africa. This year will see the second cohort of masters student graduates. To date, i-coach academy has worked with 66 students across the country and 2005 will potentially see 29 masters students and 6 doctorate students graduate with masters and doctorate qualifications in Coaching – a first in the world.
i-coach establishes The van Oudtshoorn Scholarship
i-coach academy has set up The van Oudtshoorn scholarship to acknowledge
the contribution made by Prof. Mike van Oudtshoorn to the field of coaching
in South Africa. The scholarship will provide one individual with the opportunity
to develop his or her skills in coaching that could potentially lead to a career
as a professional coach. i-coach academy is keen to receive applications from
a diversity of areas where coaching plays a role, such as education, sports,
government, NGOs as well as the business community.
New study hits instructional coaching for six
i-coach student Paddy Upton has recently studied the experiences of cricketers in the light of the latest thinking in business coaching and psychology. His thesis set out to determine whether the instruction-based, performance-focused coaching methods, which prevail in South African clubs, might impede the players’ professional and personal development.
Twenty-one senior provincial cricketers, of whom eight were also national players with an average of about 100 caps, provided information about of all four national coaches as well as 36 provincial coaches. The findings were analysed with reference to the “integral approach” to understanding human behaviour of Wilber (2001) and the “spiral dynamics” of Beck and Cowan (1995).
In general, players thought that provincial coaches employed too much instruction and too little collaboration, whilst national coaches seemed to have the balance close to the ideal. Both classes of coach tended to neglect players’ personal thoughts and feelings, concentrating too much on performance. The good coaches were those who knew each player personally as well as having good man management skills and technical knowledge. They were good communicators and listeners and they respected and understood their players as well as the game. Poor coaches were inflexible and authoritarian and, at worst, hypocritical or dishonest.
The study describes the development of both players and coaches and appropriate methods to adopt at each stage. It even explores factors that may contribute to or help prevent cricketing suicides. A positive conclusion for business coaches is that their more up-to-date methodologies are closer to the cricketers’ ideal than those of recent sports coaches.
Diary of events
Community members attend EMCC Conference
30th November – 2nd December 2005, Zurich
Some of the best minds in contemporary coaching and mentoring will be attending this year’s EMCC annual conference to share their thoughts, cutting edge research and case studies as well as running practical workshops.
Shaun Lincoln, an i-coach Mprof student will be speaking with his colleague Kim McGuire on Leaders as Coaches on Thursday, December 1st, 15.00-16.00.
Caroline Horner, director of i-coach academy and Sam Humphrey, head of global coaching at Unilever will be presenting their story on the role i-coach has played in helping Unilever to select the right coaches within its organisation. The presentation is scheduled for Friday, December 2nd, 9.00-10.00.
Eunice Aquilina, another of i-coach academy’s Dprof students will be presenting a case study on supervision for coaches at the BBC in collaboration with her colleague Liz Macann on Friday, December 2nd, 14.10-15.10.
Those interested in further information about the conference can visit the EMCC website, www.emccouncil.org.
Meg Wheatley in London
Dr Meg Wheatley and Mike van Oudtshoorn will be tackling why good leadership has become more difficult to sustain in the 21st century at a one-day seminar on December 10th 2005.
The seminar, “Coaching for Leadership and Leading as a Coach in Uncertain Times” will explore the challenges today’s leaders are facing.
From December 7-9, Meg will be running a three-day workshop at The Royal Lancaster Hotel. The event, “Changing Intelligently” is the first of its kind to be held in the UK and will give delegates a unique opportunity to learn with Meg and Myron Rogers. Delegates will learn specific techniques to deal with the complexity of change as organisations respond to increasing turbulence. The seminar is designed for leaders, managers and their teams as well as consultants and their clients.
If you would like information on any of the above events or any forthcoming events, please contact caroline@i-coachacademy.com
Feature Focus
Delivering the Best
Coaching has fast become a significant part of many organisations’ learning and development strategy as world-class companies are increasingly looking at ways to optimise the performance of their critical talent. These are the people who will make the difference between the success and failure of a business, from top management downwards. This, in part explains the recent rise in the use of executive coaching. However, due to its relatively recent emergence and growth, few HR professionals have in-depth experience of managing coaching activities, and in particular selecting and supervising external coaches. So, many practitioners are struggling with a variety of issues that are preventing them from gaining full value from their current coaching activities. Among the challenges noted are confusion around the terminology in use, a lack of agreement about what a good coach looks like, engaging different stakeholders in coaching relationships, ensuring a good match or fit between coach and client and drawing up contractual arrangements and evaluating the impact of activities. All of these are significant challenges for HR professionals if they are to leverage the value to be gained from a really successful coaching assignment.
Caroline Horner has been working with Unilever to apply learning from her
work assessing professional coaches. This is part of an education programme
to design a selection process for coaches working at the executive level within
Unilever. Caroline has worked with Sam Humphrey, head of global coaching at
Unilever to design the process. Sam is responsible for developing the coaching
frameworks and processes and for setting standards for coaching within Unilever
to ensure that coaching meets the business needs. The company currently has
28 coaches on its Global Preferred Supplier List.
Said Sam: “We recognise that coaching is still in its infancy and that as an unregulated profession that has become commoditised, it is difficult to know where to go and who to buy coaching from. There are no barriers to entry and the market has become increasingly crowded with coaches. It was a question of striking a healthy balance of actioning a buying strategy to find the right coaches with the right integrity and the right skills. There is clearly an issue of minimising the risk of damage that the wrong coach could inflict on the business and its executives but the truly elusive goal is to maximise the opportunity, to move away from small impact coaching and strive for hugely impactful coaching for both the executive and the business.”
Caroline and Sam acknowledged that it was not lack of skill in selection that was missing from Unilever, rather the understanding of coaching
i-coach worked with Unilever to determine what coaching was expected to deliver for the company. It mapped their coaching levels against i-coach academy’s masters level professional coaching criteria to determine a set of criteria appropriate for the role demands of leaders at different levels within the Unilever structure. .
To date, the process has been run three times in the UK and once in Australia.
With selection complete, the matching process starts. Said Sam: “Matching is crucial if the coaching intervention is to be successful. It is essential to ensure that the coaching need is explored, firstly to ensure that coaching is the appropriate intervention and secondly, to identify if there is a coaching approach that will work better with the particular issue and/or the particular client. Once a short list is complied, the executive will meet at least two coaches before making a selection.
“The business leaders who participated in the assessment centre process
were surprised to learn that coaching at this level is a complex process. To
date, 69 have taken part in the i-coach academy/Unilever assessment process
and 28 have got through.”
For Unilever, the process has achieved great results. The investment in time
in the selection process has paid off. People may interview well and then
fail at the next stage of the process, there is such a fundamental difference
between talking well about how one coaches and delivering good coaching.
Positive coaching
The programme has been well received at Unilever and is having a positive impact on the business. To those cynics who claim that coaching is a fad, those at i-coach academy and Unilever say that until the market matures, there are many coaching glitches to be sorted. Unilever has taken the step of trying to define what purpose coaching serves at different levels in the organisation so that coach selection criteria are clearer and more informed selection decisions can be made. If organisations continue to let themselves be overwhelmed by this new and growing market, they will continue to miss the real value added opportunities that coaching can bring.
Editorial note:
Issue 2 will be published in January. If you would like to contribute to Coaching
Matters, please email your suggestions to michele@michelebaylisspr.fsnet.co.uk.
Any stories, research or activities relevant to coaching will be considered
for inclusion.