Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Case Study Overview
- Area of Focus
- Assessment
- Proposed Action Plan
- Conclusion
- References
Introduction
There is a plenty of published works that enlighten the coaching as a rapidly emerging field. Coaching models, desired effects, and established theoretical frameworks, all of which are covered in the literature. Nevertheless as an approach to establish the main difference between coaching and consulting, it can be said that the latter uses established schemes and solutions while coaching is mostly used in situations where the subjects of the analysis are human resources in situations of uncertainty, with the key words being detection, correction and adjustment.
In that sense, theoretical frameworks are helpful in assessing the directions and the goals in coaching while a real case study is a practical demonstration of the way the acquired theoretical framework is in practice. In that regard, this paper is a prepared case study of a business acquaintance with the purpose of demonstrating the action plan for coaching and the stages of its development.
Case Study Overview
Robert R. is 36 year old web developer and a partner in a company with a staff of 30 employees that works on developing web applications for different companies implementing e-commerce in their work. Robert started as a programmer in the company, and over the period of eight years became a leading designer and one of three partners in the business.
With a lot of new ideas in his mind, Robert is thinking of keeping his position in the company as a consultant working distantly, while devoting the rest of his time for new entrepreneurial venture in advertisement and marketing field. In that regard, there were some uncertainties existing in implementing his, plans. These uncertainties consisted of unstructured plans, the apprehensions of the lack of support from friends and family, and misunderstandings with the current business partners.
Area of Focus
As established by Hudson, the area of focus for Robert is performance coaching which deals with reaching goals, performing well, choosing the right actions and effectively executing them. To be more specific, the area of work coaching, in the case of Robert is dealing mostly with entrepreneurship. Additionally, concerning the doubts that Robert might has in regards of the effect of the changes on his surroundings, the area of focus should also cover aiding Robert to cope with the changes “not only in work settings but anywhere that people are struggling to cope with change.”
As there was already an established semi-professional relationship with Robert the issue of coaching relationship and opening were out of question. Therefore, in order to establish an action plan an assessment model must be chosen. In that regard, the five element model proposed by Flaherty in “Coaching : evoking excellence in others” (2005) was chosen as a basis for the assessment.
Assessment
During the first session with Robert, all the information was gathered to implement the assessment procedure. According to this session the elements of the model were assessed as following:
- Immediate concerns – the immediate concerns for Robert were found to be his new venture, where he thinks that his potential is not fulfilled limiting himself only to his current job. The lack of experience forced Robert to hang in the position of designing the plans on paper lacking determination to proceed to the stage of realization.
- Commitments –Robert is committed to his job and the specialization he has chosen at the start of his career. In that sense, despite the fact that he needs to expand his professional skills, he is committed to the work that he is performing currently in the company. This commitment is also linked to his relationships with his partners, in a sense that he feels the weight of duty toward them and their opinion on his venturing. Additionally, Robert is committed to his family, his wife Melissa and his two daughters. This commitment can be seen through the risk of ignoring the needs of his family at the starting stages of venturing as well as the risk of losing money, where the decrease of the income from his current job as well as the required investments for the venture might put the financial stability of his family at risk.
- Future possibilities – Robert sees his future as a free entrepreneur without creativity limitations on his designs. Improving the financial situation is an important aspect as well. The field of marketing and advertisement which he took courses in combined with his talent as a developer and a designer would give him the possibility to avoid the monotonous routine that he often is exhibited at his current work position.
- Personal and cultural history – This element is somewhat influenced by the fact that Robert took the job in his current position when he was inexperienced where his partners believed in his abilities and skills and promoted him to a partner in the company.
- Mood – The overall Robert’s mood is divided between enthusiasm of starting something on his own and at the same time skepticism that questions his intentions. Additionally, there is a feeling of guilt for partly leaving some of his responsibilities at the company.
Proposed Action Plan
The action plan was constructed in the form of short, i.e. about thirty minutes, one-on-one interviews, where the goals, the plans and the tasks were structured and categorized based on importance. Considering that Robert is already in the middle of a particular process, and thus the goals set was to help him get the results with minimum outside interference.
A part of the interviews will be discussing with Robert the immediate concerns and why he thinks they hamper in his proceeding with his plans. The following part would be the realization of the effects that can be reached if these problems were removed as well as the reasons of their occurrence. In the last stages, the interview will consists of outlining the actions and the procedures necessary for the problem to be removed, i.e. in the Robert’s case constructing a plan and an analysis of his future venture to ensure the absence of risk, a dialogue with his partners to clear things out and etc. At last a deadline and an interview will be assigned to analyze the outcomes of the implemented changes and the adjustments that might be needed to correct the plan.
Conclusion
It can be seen that by taking a practical approach in assessing the importance of coaching and its influence, the coaching process is rather a flexible tool that can be adjusted based on the needs of each client. Although the main purpose was coaching for performance it can be seen that coaching for being was also implemented proving that they are both necessary parts of every coaching task.
References
Flaherty, J. (2005). Coaching : evoking excellence in others (2nd ed.). Amsterdam ; Boston: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Hudson, F. M. (1999). The handbook of coaching : a comprehensive resource guide for managers, executives, consultants, and human resource professionals (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Peltier, B. (2001). The psychology of executive coaching : theory and application. New York: Brunner-Routledge.