Coaching in Professional Contexts

Christian van Nieuwerburgh, Christian van Nieuwerburgh, Author

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781473906716, 9781473906709
• eBook ISBN: 9781473942684
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy Counselling
• Index: Psychology

Have your students mastered the underlining theory and skills of coaching practice but wanting to get a flavour of what coaching actually looks like in different real-life settings? 

Then you have come to the right place! Whether they are wanting to find out more about the use of coaching within the private or public sector, within health care or education, Christian van Nieuwerburgh and his team of expert authors will take them on a unique journey into all of these coaching contexts and beyond.

Challenging the idea that a coach can work in any setting without a detailed understanding of the field, this book:

• addresses the importance of understanding professional context when coaching, exploring current debates and considering the hows and whys of using coaching in a certain context
• provides tools and knowledge to enable readers to adopt best practice techniques from a range of fields
• delves into the personal and professional challenges that will inevitably arise.

Whether a practising coach or a coach in training, this practical guide will provide your students with the ideal ?way-in? to all the different contexts in which they may wish to coach.

1 The Importance of Understanding Professional Contexts

Christian van Nieuwerburgh

What is Unique about Coaching in Professional Contexts?

The premise of this book is that it is helpful to consider the various ways in which professional contexts can impact on the experience of coaching. Right from the outset, it is important to reflect on this premise. Is it true that a coaching programme in a hospital is unlike a coaching programme within a university? Is coaching a senior executive within a multinational bank essentially different from coaching a senior executive working for a professional services firm? The process of drawing together the experiences and thoughts of a wide range of practitioners and academics to create this book has helped to start to formulate a considered response to these questions. Firstly, as you read this book, it will become apparent that particular contexts have nuances and perspectives that seem to be more pertinent than in others. This may be due to the nature of the business or the predisposition of the people who choose to work within a sector. Secondly, you will note that the ethos of coaching and some of its principles feature across all the professional contexts covered in this book. So we start our exploration of coaching in professional contexts with a challenging paradox: coaching is at once different and the same across professional contexts.

As you read through the book, please keep an open mind, noticing what is consistent and what varies. Although purists might argue that a coach does not need to know anything about the coachee’s profession, executive coaching does not take place in a vacuum. It usually involves conversations about the challenges and opportunities of working and leading in fast-paced complex systems. While knowledge of these systems may not be a prerequisite for effective coaching within such contexts, the commercial reality is that a coach without professional credibility is unlikely to get business.

We will be approaching these questions from a number of angles, explicitly and implicitly. These discussions are informed by the real-life professional experiences of many of the contributing authors. Your own thoughts and experiences should be brought to bear in this process.

This book is rooted in professional practice. It is written by practitioners and for practitioners. By the word ‘practitioner’, we mean all professionals who share an interest in the use of coaching within organisational settings. This includes executive coaches, executives, managers, leaders and human resources (HR) and organisational development (OD) professionals. The contributors have experienced coaching within professional contexts from these various angles. The passion of the chapter authors is inspirational. It is clear that each is driven by a commitment to create flourishing workplaces through the use of coaching interventions – professional contexts that encourage engagement and motivation.

How Should I Read this Book?

This first chapter will provide a broad introduction to the book, raising interesting questions for consideration and proposing some key definitions. Every chapter is summarised below in order to support you to focus your attention on those most immediately relevant. One of the purposes of this book is to provide practitioners and students of coaching with insights into the context of most interest to them. At the same time, it is hoped that reading about coaching within alternative contexts will spark new thoughts and possibilities. Coaching in Professional Contexts is structured so that some ‘generic’ chapters provide a theoretical frame for context-specific chapters. By generic, we mean that the chapters relate to coaching in organisations, regardless of the professional context. Chapters 2 to 4 relate to all professional contexts. Chapters 5 to 12 consider the use of coaching within specific fields. Chapters 13 to 17 will be of interest to anyone introducing coaching within an organisational setting. Many chapters are supported by case studies written by practitioners with direct, recent and relevant experience of the coaching under discussion.

So you, the reader, may wish to approach this book in a traditional manner, working your way through it from start to finish. Alternatively, you could start with an area of particular interest and then dip into other professional contexts out of interest. It is also possible to read the ‘generic’ chapters before reading context-specific chapters. As a team of authors, our intention has been to support the most effective use of coaching within organisational contexts. While we are all committed to finding ways that coaching can engage and motivate people within professional contexts, we are also keen to ensure that you will find this text interesting and relevant. So, any way that works for you is the best way of approaching this text.

What is Coaching?

It is not possible to avoid this question. And yet often it is not sufficiently discussed in professional contexts. The reality is that the term ‘coaching’ is used liberally to mean a broad range of interventions and approaches. This is the unspoken reality that many prefer to ignore. Due to its confidential nature and disparities about the way in which coaches are trained (if they are trained at all), there is sometimes little clarity about what is actually taking place under the banner of ‘coaching’. On the one hand, this is welcome news for those who wish to see coaching taking place in as many contexts and within as many situations as possible. On the other hand, professional associations may be concerned about the quality assurance of interventions labelled ‘coaching’. While we hope to see the continued growth of coaching within professional contexts, we believe that the lack of agreement about terminology can get in the way of successful implementation of coaching initiatives and programmes.

There are many excellent definitions of coaching being used. Perhaps best known within professional contexts is the phrase coined by Sir John Whitmore: ‘Unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance’ (2009: 11). His book, Coaching for Performance, may have been the catalyst for the surge in the use of coaching in professional contexts in the UK soon after the first edition was published in 1992. In fact, the GROW model presented within this book is probably the most-used coaching process within organisations worldwide. With this in mind, it is essential to note that Whitmore’s notion of coaching for performance was underpinned by a belief that this should be brought about simply by raising coachees’ awareness and increasing their sense of personal responsibility. Whitmore follows up the well-known quote above by being very clear that coaching is about ‘helping them to learn rather than teaching them’ (2009: 11). In other words, coaching is a largely non-directive conversational intervention.

I have noted elsewhere that there is broad agreement in the literature that coaching:

1. ‘Is a managed conversation that takes place between two people.
2. Aims to support sustainable change to behaviours or ways of thinking.
3. Focuses on learning and development’. (van Nieuwerburgh, 2014: 5)

While coaching and mentoring are similar conversational approaches that share many of the same skills (Willis, 2005), we propose that one (coaching) takes a primarily non-directive stance while the other (mentoring) is generally more directive. It is recognised that there is some overlap in the interventions and that both coaching and mentoring are effective and necessary ways of supporting the development of professionals. However, this text will focus on the use of coaching within professional contexts.

Executive coaching is a conversational process that leads to a change of thinking or behaviour with the aim of improving outcomes in professional contexts. It is the role of the executive coach to create an environment in which the coachee can reflect deeply and generate new ideas and personalised solutions. As opposed to life coaching, the concept of three-way contracting (between coachee, organisational client and coach) is central to executive coaching. This ensures that the coaching supports both the coachee (the client who receives the coaching) and the organisational client (the person who represents the entity that pays for the coaching). So the primary purpose of executive coaching is to support the client to achieve more of their potential and maintain or enhance their wellbeing within their organisational context.

How were the Professional Contexts Chosen?

It is acknowledged that not all professional contexts are covered in this book. The military, charitable and hospitality sectors, for example, do not appear. The various professional contexts included were chosen for two reasons. Firstly, it was important to include contexts in which coaching was being used extensively. Secondly, the choice was driven by the availability and expertise of the chapter and case study authors. A later edition of this book will no doubt include a greater number of professional contexts.

Controversy and Confusion

The field of executive coaching is flourishing and continues to grow despite a challenging economic climate. However, the surge in interest and growth has led to a situation that has been described by the Harvard Business Review as a ‘Wild West of Executive Coaching’. Despite the best efforts of an increasing number of professional associations, there is a reputational challenge facing the industry. We propose that some of the reasons for this are the confusion of terminology (e.g. executive coaching vs. consultancy vs. leadership mentoring), the ease of entry into the profession (i.e., anyone can call themselves a coach), and the fact that the ‘brand’ of coaching is seen as attractive. This has meant that some people and a number of consultancies have simply re-branded what they do as ‘coaching’. This makes it difficult for:

• researchers to study the effects of coaching (as the interventions may vary);
• clients to know what they are buying;
• the profession of coaching to be seen as credible and trustworthy.

This book tackles some controversies head on. Firstly, there has been much debate about whether managers can act as coaches. An entire chapter is dedicated to this issue. Secondly, the status of academic research into coaching in organisations has been contested. This is also addressed directly in a chapter on the topic. There is no question that academic research is needed to generate relevant theories and inform practice within organisations. Of course, it is important that research and theories should be rooted in practice and also directly inform practice. Finally, throughout the book, there are a number of ‘myth-busters’ in which authors challenge some common misperceptions within the field.

What is Covered in the Chapters?

Chapter 1: The Importance of Understanding Professional Contexts

This chapter answers some questions that may be helpful to address straightaway. Key definitions are presented and a brief overview of every chapter is provided so that readers can make decisions about how to use this book to best effect.

Chapter 2: Coaching for Optimal Functioning

In this key chapter, Gordon Spence discusses ways that coaching can be used to support sustained ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Editor and Chapter Authors
• Acknowledgements
• Companion Website
• 1 The Importance of Understanding Professional Contexts
• 2 Coaching for Optimal Functioning
• 3 Manager as Coach: The Challenge
• 4 Coaching for Career and Professional Development
• 5 Coaching in the Financial Services Industry
• 6 Coaching Within Professional Services Firms
• 7 Coaching in Local Government
• 8 Coaching in Healthcare Settings
• 9 Coaching Patients
• 10 Coaching in Schools
• 11 Coaching in Higher Education
• 12 Integrating Coaching and Positive Psychology in Education
• 13 The Current State of Research
• 14 Coaching for Wellbeing at Work
• 15 Supervision for Learning
• 16 Towards a Coaching Culture
• 17 Towards a Philosophy of Coaching?
• Index