Understanding Good Practice in Workplace Coaching

Abstract

Abstract. Workplace coaching is growing rapidly and many organisations use it as a way to motivate and support their employees in their careers. This paper is a theoretical paper that draws upon the authors' experiences of workplace coaching. The author discusses the main aspects of successful workplace coaching while it summarises the most important behaviours and attitudes of an effective workplace coach.Keywords: Workplace coaching, coaching reflections, lessons learnt IntroductionNowadays the main aim for most organisations is to grow and expand. However, identifying and developing the leadership capacity to achieve this has proven for many a challenging task From a different angle coaching is a term often related to the sports industry. Athletes often pay astronomical wages to the best individuals in their field to coach them. In most of these cases the coach does not manage them or tell them what to do but rather the coach's job is "to get the best out of them" by transforming physical and psychological strengths into competency [7] and [2]. The coach's job is to support, guide and motivate the coachee to gain a better understanding of oneself in order to enable them to reach the peak of their capabilities [8] and [9]. We can apply this same philosophy in workplace coaching and thus summarise that workplace coaching can help an individual to realise their strengths and weaknesses while enabling them to find the answer to what works better for them rather than giving them the answers ready on the plate. After all coaching is about unlocking people's potential with the intention to improve/maximize their performance; a coach does not teach but rather helps the coachee to learn [10].Coaching can be a challenging endeavor for the coachee as well as the coach. It is essential for the coach to have a clear understanding of his/her role and responsibilities as well as being equipped with the desired behaviors and characteristics that can enable all parties involved to gain the best experience from the coaching sessions [11], [12] and [13]. The main aim of this paper is to gain an understanding of good practices in working place coaching. Good Practices in Workplace CoachingThis section reviews various aspects of effective workplace coaching and it starts with understandingFrontiers in Management Research, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 2017 https://dx.doi.org/10.22606/fmr.2017.12001 37Copyright © 2017 Isaac Scientific Publishing FMR workplace coaching. It also discusses the process of effective workplace coaching while it concludes with various difficulties that can arise during workplace coaching and provides some suggestions on how to overcome them. Understanding Workplace CoachingCoaching can help coachees to develop themselves in such a way that benefits them as well as their organisation by focusing on results and how to get these results [14] and [15]. According to [16] coaching in the workplace can empower individuals and encourage them to be more motivated and committed to what they are doing. These can be extremel...