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The Role of Leadership Coaching

We sat down with professor and master coach Jim Gavin, PhD to discuss the role that coaching plays in organizational leadership.
September 21, 2018
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Jim Gavin Jim Gavin

Although coaching is a relatively new field, leaders engaging with skilled professionals in order to gain traction on professional issues is age-old. Before coaching came on the scene, consulting psychologists helped executives think through the issues they were experiencing in their professional lives. While there is some overlap between the older approach of executive coaching and leadership coaching, critical differences can be found in the skillsets of coaches and their flexibility in work styles. As Gavin describes it, “The methodology of the psychologically-based consulting resembled the mind-set and processes of psychotherapy. Coaching by contrast draws from the rich resources of leadership studies, organizational behaviour, adult learning, psychology, systems thinking, and a myriad of other disciplines. More pragmatically, coaches communicate with their executive clients with impressive versatility to ensure reliable connection. They rely on the web for virtual communications to complement face-to-face conversations.”

There are multiple reasons why a leader may seek out a coaching relationship. Regardless of a leader’s background and current position, he or she will sooner or later encounter issues and scenarios for which a competent “thought partner” will be invaluable.

Categorizing Coaching

Based on the needs of the leader at a particular point in time, different forms of coaching may be beneficial. “There are, in one sense, as many different approaches to coaching as there are coaches,” Gavin says. However, the following five types of coaching can serve as a guide for organizations and leaders when exploring a coaching plan for leaders.

Leadership coaching focuses directly on growing a leader’s skillset. New roles and challenges call for competencies that a leader may not yet have exercised. Gavin describes it as “a strategic process of facilitating the growth of competencies within the individual that are necessary for success at the leader’s current level or the next.”

Performance coaching helps leaders work on specific performance issues. Sometimes leaders feel as if they are ‘in over their heads’ and not performing at par. In contrast to leadership coaching, performance coaching is often indicated when deficits show up in a leader’s current profile. Gavin says that “performance coaching may address such matters as interpersonal dynamics, creativity, communication, and shifting focus from managing to leading.”

Career and transitional coaching are about helping leaders shift from one role to another, from one unit to another, or perhaps from one part of the globe to another. “Career or transitional coaching may be advisable when leaders are at various types of career crossroads, and they need to sort through the different values, needs and approaches that are present in these pivotal moments,” Gavin says. Every transition in our lives brings with it a menu of potential changes. “When something dramatic alters in leaders’ work lives, they may no longer be able to accurately read the roadmap or the rules of the game. A coach can help,” says Gavin.

Third-generation coaching helps leaders define their purpose and identity in relation to the organization. In contrast to first- and second-generation coaching, which are based on tangible goals and outcomes, Gavin describes third-generation coaching as “more existential.” It answers questions like, “How do I most want to contribute? What does my organization most need from me right now? And how can I balance what work asks of me and how I ultimately want to be in the world?” Third-generation coaching seems most aligned with the needs of senior executives or other leaders who are focused largely on the “big picture.”

Personal development coaching is about coaching the leader as a whole person, not only as an employee in the context of the workplace. “The whole person comes to work,” Gavin says. “No matter what topic a leader brings to the coach, coaching always touches every area of that person’s life.” Personal development coaching offers space for leaders to address whatever may be arising in their lives at this time with the ultimate purpose of enhancing their contributions to the organization, their families and society at large.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Coaching solutions are based on the leader’s unique situation, which highlights the versatile methodology of modern leadership coaching. The leader does not have to adapt to the coaching method, but rather the coaching method is customized to the leader’s needs.

Coaches tailor the format of an executive coaching experience to the needs of the leaders involved. In addition to the more intimate one-to-one coaching sessions, group, and team coaching also have a place in leadership development. The John Molson Executive Centre Coaching page discusses in more detail some of the different environments in which coaching can occur.

Labelling the Issue

An almost infinite variety of topics show up in requests for leadership coaching. In a broad sense, these topics include efficiency, adaptation, innovation, business development, relationship skills and work-life balance. However, the issues that leaders present rarely encompass the full depth of their needs. “Leaders rarely open the coaching conversation with a request to find deeper meaning in their work or with a concern about self-doubt,” says Gavin.  “Yet, more often than not, leaders want to delve into the purpose of their work, the relationships they are building, their dreams and aspirations, along with managing doubt, uncertainty and the normal dilemmas of modern life.”

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