Abstract
Coaching is an important process that allows a professional to develop his skills and abilities. It allows a professional to liaise with a professional coach to understand how he needs to improve his skills to make them more suitable for the organization he works for. Successful programs are only possible when a coach and his client know what they need to do to attain better outcomes. In addition, both parties need to agree on specific guidelines they are going to observe before coaching begins to avoid unnecessary conflicts. This will make them well prepared to deal with various challenges they are likely to face during the coaching process.
Introduction
Professional coaching is the process by which a professional establishes a working relationship with a professional coach to find out more about his personal and professional capabilities and how they are likely to impact on his long term success. Coaching enables an organization to institute high quality learning processes that improve the competence of all employees. Professional development programs must be well structured to respond to specific conditions a professional faces in his work. This paper discusses the importance of professional coaching and how it enables professionals working in different organizational environments to understand themselves better.
Methodology
The main methodology that will be used will be a review of published secondary sources that discuss coaching programs at length. This review will seek to gather more knowledge regarding the subject to find out its relevance in modern organizational practices.
Fundamental Issues
Professional coaching is a broad discipline that requires beneficial partnerships between a client and a coach. Professional instructors help their clients to explore different possibilities so that they can acquire competitive skills that help them succeed in their careers in the long run. As a result, they collaborate with individuals to help them explore different goals they have set so that they understand how they are beneficial to their long term development.
In effect, this process allows an individual to reflect on the inner purpose that drives him to succeed in different endeavors (Lawrence & Whyte, 2013, p. 7). In addition, a professional development consultant encourages a client to think more critically about specific actions he intends to undertake to achieve his objectives. This allows a professional to identify specific risks and benefits he is likely to experience from his career. In the long run, this process allows a professional to invest time and resources in developing his personal skills to ensure he becomes more competitive in his career.
Professional coaching enables an individual to understand his personality to find out how it differentiates him from other people with similar skills. As a result, he is able to understand specific factors that motivate him to attain good results. In addition, he is able to look at his intellectual background to find out if the skills he possesses are likely to give him the competitive edge he needs to achieve good results.
It is important for a person to identify specific issues in his personal and career life that make him not to achieve his professional targets (Lawrence & Whyte, 2013, p. 10). This approach allows an individual to find out specific changes he needs to make to become more competitive in his chosen career. As a result, he is able to reflect on specific factors that he needs to be aware about to attain good results.
It is important for an individual to share his feelings and experiences with another person to find out if he is on the right track. This will help him to embark on a path of self-discovery to understand his own personality better. As a result, this allows him to find out the nature of relationships he needs to build with other people in the organization he is working in.
In addition, he has to evaluate benefits and disadvantages he experiences from current relationships he has with other people. It is also important for a person to understand how to deal with specific issues that are important for his professional growth (Hawkins, 2008, p. 29). As a result, he needs to set timelines that guide him on how to perform various activities that are important for his career growth. Consequently, this approach allows an individual to take more control of his life.
The process of choosing a coach is complex and requires a person to understand what he intends to get out of the learning process. An individual must assess different professional development experts to settle on one that is suitable to work with. A reliable expert needs to have a good background that shows specific results he has achieved after assisting various people to discover their talents.
He must have the necessary credentials that show he is qualified to execute his responsibilities effectively (Hawkins, 2008, p. 33). Additionally, a professional must find out techniques which a particular instructor uses in his work and how they are likely to help him get good results. Consequently, this approach will help a person to understand specific issues he needs to address to achieve good results in the long run.
Factors that Influence the Coaching Process
Many organizations are taking their employees through professional coaching programs to get good results in their respective industries. As a result, such employees are taken through learning processes that make them aware about the workings of internal systems in their organizations. This allows an individual to have a clear focus on overall organizational objectives that have been set and how they are aligned with his personal goals (Gregory, Beck & Carr, 2011, p. 27).
Furthermore, an employee is able to understand challenges that exist in the industry and what he needs to do to set high personal and professional standards. Consequently, an employee is able to formulate long and short term career strategies after working closely with a consultant. Therefore, this helps him to find out specific behaviors he needs to change to achieve his career and personal goals.
A result oriented learning process focuses on the results to be achieved by a professional from various learning activities adopted. This entails a professional working closely with his coach to understand the nature of goals he has set and specific results he expects to get out of these goals. This allows both parties to come up with an effective plan that outlines specific timelines within which an individual expects to achieve certain goals and specific actions he needs to take to achieve them.
Moreover, both parties also agree on indicators to be used to assess progress being made by an individual learner from the learning program (Gregory, Beck & Carr, 2011, p. 30). Therefore, a professional must be ready to make different sacrifices to attain good results out of the process. Consequently, this enables a professional to take more responsibility by focusing on important actions he needs to execute to develop his personal skills and abilities. As a result, this helps him to find out specific accomplishments he has achieved due to the close working relationship he has with his instructor.
In some instances, professional coaching is done to enable an individual to understand key business processes that are followed in the organization he works in. Therefore, the design of the program focuses on increasing an employee’s individual contribution to internal organizational functions. In the long run, this approach allows a professional to understand strategic objectives his organization is pursuing and how they are aligned with his long term expectations.
This enables a professional expert to work closely with an employee to make him understand the significance of his organization’s objectives (Palmer & Whybrow, 2007, p. 67). As a result, this enables an employee to understand the role he needs to play to enable the organization he works for to achieve its objectives in the long run. Therefore, this allows him to focus on improving his professional competence so that he attains good results in the long run.
The competence of a professional coach allows him or her to serve clients appropriately. An employee that goes through high quality learning programs acquires valuable skills in leadership development, team building, conflict management and workplace relationships. These competencies can be transferred from an instructor to a professional to make him more knowledgeable in his workstation (Palmer & Whybrow, 2007, p. 72).
Therefore, a trainer must encourage a professional to provide feedback on specific challenges he is facing in his work. In addition, he needs to communicate with his client so that they agree on methods to be used and whether they satisfy their expectations. In the long run, this approach allows a professional to understand the effectiveness of the training process he is undertaking and if it makes him more competent in his duties.
For a professional coaching program to be successful, both parties need to observe high standards of integrity in their dealings. This ensures that both an instructor and his client adhere to clear guidelines that stipulate the nature of their engagement. It is also important for both parties to be open with one another to ensure they understand the importance of the task they are undertaking.
Consequently, this allows both parties to share information to ensure they achieve good results from the learning process (McGivern, 2009, p. 24). In addition, both parties need to cultivate trust between them to ensure the professional development program they are undertaking is credible. An expert needs to ensure that dealings he has with his clients are confidential and he must avoid divulging some sensitive details which may tarnish the reputation of his client. In addition, he needs also to avoid being judgmental when he interacts with clients to enable them to express their ideas freely.
A training expert and his client need to exercise good judgment to ensure results obtained from the learning process are responsive to the situation being solved. Since they explore different perspectives, both parties need to use dynamic tactics that enable them to overcome various challenges they encounter. In addition, both parties should be prepared to deal with conflicts, opportunities and other issues that are likely to crop up as they engage with one another (McGivern, 2009, p. 26).
Therefore, this will encourage them to have an open mind during the process to ensure they are willing to accommodate new perspectives that are likely to lead to better outcomes. As a result, this will make a professional undergoing this process to take calculated risks which he is capable of handling. Consequently, this allows a professional to have a clear perspective on what he can achieve and the amount of resources he needs to attain good results.
Important Guidelines
All parties in a coaching process must observe some guidelines to make the process more effective. Confidentiality is an important guideline that needs to be observed by both parties to ensure the process attains good outcomes. Both parties must agree that they will not divulge information discussed during the professional development process to outside parties to maintain high levels of trust between them.
However, some situations may require both parties to consult with other people so that they get additional perspectives on how to deal with problems that crop up. Both parties have to agree before consulting other people to ensure they are in a position to safeguard high standards of practice that guide the learning process. As a result, this will ensure both the expert and his client control information they are sharing to avoid any future disagreements between them (De Haan, 2007, p. 86).
It is advisable for both parties to sign a contract that clearly stipulates their responsibilities before the process starts. This will ensure that both parties are willing to be held accountable for their actions during the process. The contract should specify the purpose of the coaching program, measures to be used, timelines and the manner in which information obtained from the process is going to be used.
In addition, total costs to be incurred for the service, payment formats and other additional issues must be agreed upon by both parties before the program begins. Lastly, both parties must agree on feedback processes, punctuality and how they are going to handle cancellations of meetings. As a result, this will allow them to agree on suitable locations for their meetings which are convenient to their schedules (De Haan, 2007, p. 89).
Both parties must agree on specific assessments they are going to use to ensure they attain good results from the program. The assessments adopted can focus on various criteria such as: personal behavior, leadership style, cultural backgrounds and a willingness to learn. It is important for the assessment model adopted to conform to the expectations of both parties to ensure the learning process achieves good results (Cox, 2013, p. 106).
Feedback can also be made part of the professional development process to enable a coach to evaluate progress being made by a learner. As a result, this will enable both parties to take time and reflect on how they can use information gathered more appropriately to ensure they get good results in the long run. Consequently, both parties will be able to identify areas that need to be given more weight to ensure a professional gets good results out of the coaching process.
The professional coaching process is guided by a set of goals which are agreed upon by all parties involved. The main implications of this research will guide organizations and employees to understand the goals they want to achieve and the processes they can use to achieve them. This will enable both parties to have a long term focus by building strong relationships that help them achieve their goals effectively.
As a result, they will be able to use data obtained from the coaching process to understand specific priorities they need to be aware of and the progress they are making in their work. This will help employees to use their creative thinking skills to achieve better results in different activities they are doing to help them achieve long term performance excellence in their workstations (Cox, 2013, p. 111).
This research has made me understand the importance of continuous learning and development processes in an organization. These processes allow employees to acquire important skills which make them become more competitive in their duties in their respective workstations. Professional development programs equip employees with the ability to understand what they are capable of and how it makes them more effective in their specific duties.
As a result, an organization is able to understand specific conditions that need to be improved to enable employees to attain positive outcomes in different activities they are required to do (Cox, 2013, p. 115). Consequently, this allows both parties to review goals and objectives that are important for their success to ensure they address specific trends and conditions that exist in the industry.
Conclusion
Professional coaching allows a professional to identify his strengths to find out how they conform to his long term career goals. By developing a close working relationship with a coach, a professional is able to understand specific actions he needs to undertake to ensure he attains good results in his professional activities. Consequently, this leads to a process of self-discovery which allows a professional to improve his personal competence in the long run.
References
Cox, E. (2013). Coaching understood. London, UK: Sage.
De Haan, E. (2007). Relational coaching: Journeys towards mastering one to one learning. San Francisco, CA: Wiley.
Gregory, J., Beck, J., & Carr, A. (2011). Goals, feedback, and self-regulation: Control theory as a natural framework for executive coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 63 (1), 26–38.
Hawkins, P. (2008). The coaching profession: Some key challenges. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 1(1), 28-38.
Lawrence, P., & Whyte, A. (2013). Return on investment in executive coaching: A practice model for measuring ROI in organizations. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 7 (1), 4-17.
McGivern, L. (2009). Continuous professional development and avoiding the vanity trap: An exploration of coaches’ lived experiences of supervision. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 3, 22-37.
Palmer, S. & Whybrow, A. (2007). Handbook of coaching psychology: A guide for practitioners. London, UK: Routledge.