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• The coaching and mentoring process

• Organisational benefits and the business case for coaching

• Coaching and your organisation's strategy

• Personal benefits from coaching

• Coaching ethics

• Picking your coach -- qualifications and suitability

The coaching and mentoring process

Coaching is a short-term collaborative partnership which aims to enhance personal learning and understanding. It aims to unlock and maximise a person's potential through achieving goals, solving problems, learning and personal development. It does this through a series of conversations that --

• reflect on personal performance, career and organisational issues that are normally not focussed
  on or addressed

• develop new ways of dealing with specific issues

• assess the effects of these new ways of acting, and

• consolidate learning and attitudes so that successful new ways of acting can be
  repeated in future.

Coaching is mostly used to develop high potential performers, facilitate transition to leadership roles,
and provide a sounding board for leaders who are exploring new ways of acting or working towards new goals.

Mentoring aims to transfer learning and expertise through personalised access to usable management knowledge and expertise. It offers solution focussed key ideas and information, relevant to current needs, as and when needed, and when the person is ready to use it.

We use our management expertise and experience to provide mentoring in concert with coaching to facilitate the coaching process. We do this by providing a sounding board for managers as they explore leadership strategies, and by guiding them as they develop their leadership skills through applying and then reflecting on new practical techniques.

Organisational benefits and the business case for coaching

These are several ways of assessing these benefits. All give direct or indirect evidence that coaching is effective and that there is a strong business case for coaching. Click here for details. Many benefits flow from developing leaders' emotional intelligence, so that they better understand themselves and others, and can work and lead more effectively.

Studies show that successful coaching needs good rapport between coach and coachee, and it is good practice to ensure that the coachee's development fits with organisational strategy.

At Insight Leadership Coaching, we recognise that good personal rapport and strategic alignment are the most important factors for getting organisational benefits. We work with you to achieve this. Before starting coaching, we use our organisational expertise to discuss with you an appropriate coaching program, and we use our experience and network to propose a suitable coach for each coachee. During the coaching we monitor rapport and alignment, and will suggest alternative coaches or recommend changes to programs if it seems advisable.

Coaching and your organisation's strategy

In line with the guide published by the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, we emphasise the importance of aligning coaching objectives and plans with the organisation's strategic goals. This generally involves preliminary discussion with, and feedback to, the coachee's manager in three-way conversations. It may also involve general discussion with the coaching sponsor (e.g. HR department). CIPD research also supports the view that coaching works best when there is a supportive culture and climate in the organisation. We can advise on establishing a coaching climate.

Personal benefits from coaching

Successful coaching generally leads to increased purposefulness, self-assurance, confidence and motivation in carrying out work roles. Your understanding of yourself and others grows as your emotional intelligence develops. So your individual work and interactions with others may be easier and more effective, and work becomes less stressful. There often are positive interactions between this personal development and your increased effectiveness at work --  each has a positive effect on the other, and together they may lead to enhanced professional ease, effectiveness and well-being. This can carry over into personal aspects of life, so people are able to respond better to new challenges and issues, and have an increased sense of personal well-being. This is good preparation for the goal of being able to self-coach oneself after the coaching assignment has been completed, so that ongoing personal and professional development becomes part of a flourishing life.

Coaching ethics

As a Member Coach in the International Coach Federation, we comply with the ICF's ethical guidelines. We -

• act professionally as coaches

• conduct relationships with clients on a professional basis

• respect clients' confidentiality and privacy, and

• avoid, or disclose and appropriately deal with, actual or potential conflicts of interest.

Click here for details.

Picking your coach -- qualifications and suitability

A feature article in the Australian Institute of Management magazine Management Today lists the following checklist for assessing coaches:

• Does your coach have specific training in coaching? Where from? And what did it entail?

• Who are their previous clients and how satisfied were they with the coach's work?

• Check their testimonials.

• At what level in organisations have they coached?

• Does the coach display an understanding and commitment to ethical practice?

• Does the coach articulate theories and models or do they simply have a proprietary process they implement?

• Does the coach's skills match your specific needs?

• Are you ready to accept change?

• Are you prepared to take responsibility to undertake any agreed strategies and actions?

As well, we add two further questions:

• Does your coach have qualifications and experience in management, organisation development and leadership, as well as training in coaching?

• Do you have good interpersonal rapport with your coach?

We invite you to ask these questions, and will suggest other possible coaches if there doesn't seem to be a good fit between you and your prospective coach.

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