The biggest obstacle of coaching effectiveness
Posted on December 04, 2012 by Josh Kuehler, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
Henry Ford said, "If you think you can or can't do a thing, you're right".
If we think about what should make leadership coaching (or any type of coaching) effective, we can rationalize that three things are needed: Coachee responsibility, Coach’s skills, and chemistry between coach and coachee. This is the same style of thinking that leads management to conclude, “Well people need and like money so we’ll use a pay for performance program”. They use less effective incentives because it seems rational and logical.
Well, researchers tested the notion that responsibility, coach’s skills, and chemistry lead to coaching effectiveness. They sent a short 8 question survey to 700 leaders who participated in a 360 degree feedback and coaching program. In their qualitative research, they asked questions such as:
What were 2-3 things that your coach did that you found most effective?
What were the biggest obstacles you encountered when trying to implement your [action] plan?
What helped you most in implementing your [action] plan?
Three categorical responses were offered regarding the things a coach did that were most effective: Interpret results, Inspire action, & Professionalism. Those seem to echo coaching skills specific to leadership coaching or executive coaching. Assimilating feedback and straightforward explanations help coachees understand what their 360 degree feedback results mean.
The researchers also asked what obstacles they experienced and what facilitated their action plan. The biggest obstacle was also the biggest facilitator: Themselves. It would seem that you can either help yourself earn what you deserve and take action or you can be your own worst enemy.
What specifically about ourselves gets in the way?
Attitude
Personality
Staying committed
Habits
Reverting to old behavior
What specifically helps us help us?
Change in mind-set
Reevaluation of information
Seeing positive results
Henry Ford got it right when he said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right”.
http://internalconsistency.com/2012/12/04/the-biggest-obstacle-to-coaching-effectiveness/
