Leadership Coaching 2.0: Improving the Marriage between Leadership and Coaching

Abstract

This paper posits that in order for leadership coaching to realize its potential as a method for leadership development and to mature as a coaching specialty, a more robust engagement with the field of leadership and leadership development is needed. It describes the author's journey of exploring the link between his knowledge of leadership and of coaching to enhance his own practice in leadership coaching. This description serves to highlight areas in need of attention in the present state of leadership coaching as it is presented in the literature. It concludes by positing that leadership coaching education programs are ideal locales to address those needs, specifically by convening a shared inquiry among practitioners, scholars and educators on identifying the important links between the fields of leadership and leadership coaching and helping coaches incorporate them as an integral part of their understanding and practice of leadership coaching.

Building Academic Leadership Capacity Through Coaching

“…With respect to leadership development specifically, Passmore (2015) identified the benefits of coaching as knowledge transfer, increase in self-awareness and self-confidence, enhancement of motivation and skills, and improvement in well-being. In the higher education literature, the advancement of arguments supporting the need for coaching of new leaders is widespread (Glasgow et al, 2009;Olwell, 2016;Otter, 2017). Olwell (2016) noted coaching in academia has been used to increase job performance, focus on personal goals, or achieve efficiency and job satisfaction.…”

“…The IOM stressed the importance of leadership development programs as well as mentoring programs to promote a professional culture that values leadership. Despite the growth of leadership development programs specifically geared toward the profession of nursing, both internationally and nationally, little is known about the efficacy of such programs (Otter, 2017).…”

A Coaching Culture Definition: An Industry-Based Perspective From Managers as Coaches

“…This is particularly important given the devolution of HR responsibilities to managers noted by Bainbridge et al (2018) and Trullen et al (2016). Significant benefits have been reported for the outcomes of executive coaches coming into organizations (de Haan et al, 2016; Grover & Furnham, 2016; Otter, 2017) and also for the outcomes of individual managers adopting a coaching approach to individual coaching interactions, whether external coaches coming into an organization (de Haan et al, 2016; Grover & Furnham, 2016; Otter, 2017) or coaching managers (Ellinger et al, 2018; Lawrence, 2017; McCarthy & Milner, 2013; Milner & McCarthy, 2015). While significant benefits have been reported for the outcomes of individual managers adopting a coaching approach to leadership, including enhanced performance (Agarwal et al, 2009), creativity (Herrmann & Felfe, 2014), empowerment (Fong & Snape, 2015), and engagement (Crabb, 2011), there is as yet comparatively little research into the emerging phenomenon of coaching cultures, a term used increasingly over the past 15 years for organizational deployment of coaching practices (Clutterbuck et al, 2016).…”