Business coaching: What the books say and what coaches actually do

This article is a reprint of a Coaching Research in Practice (September, 2018). All ReciproCoaches receive complimentary limited-time access to each new issue (10 per year). For unlimited access to more than 10 years of Coaching Research in Practice archives, purchase a membership or a subscription.

Like most burgeoning industries and professions, in the field of coaching there is some expected variation between theory and practice. Different coaches use different models, tools and methodologies. However, when there are patterns in the variations of practice across coaches, it is those variations that can in fact lead to the evolution and development of the coaching process itself.

This issue of Coaching Research in Practice reflects on a recent study of business coaching practice. It provides an outline of business coaching process, tools and models, as per the current literature, and reports on empirical findings that highlight how current business coaches’ practice aligns with and diverges from the literature, thereby closing with a suggestion of a revised business coaching process.

COACHING RESEARCH

In their study of “Business coaching processes that facilitate the successful implementation of business improvement projects” (2018), Klopper and Van Coller-Peter define business coaching as “occurring within an organisational context with the goal of promoting success at all levels of the organisation by affecting the actions of those being coached” (p. 21).

From their review of the literature, Klopper and Van Coller-Peter identified a generic process framework for business coaching as well as tools, models and forms used in the key process steps. These included the following key process steps (p. 23):

Entry contracting
Initial brief (identification of needs and outcomes) and initial goal setting and assessment
First meeting (building rapport)
Planned sessions, implementation and action planning
Review, re-contract or closure evaluation

Some of the tools, models and forms used within the above steps included questionnaires, profiling tools, assessments, surveys, 360-degree feedback tools, inventories, checklists, action plans, evaluation forms, self-analysis and observation.

Through interviews with 6 business coaches (2 internal and 4 external) from two countries and different backgrounds, the process, tools, models and forms employed by these coaches were mapped against the above. Here is an overview of some of the more interesting findings:

“Models and tools used by coaches are very specific to each BC [business coach]” (p. 25).
55% of the elements within the generic process described above were utilised by the business coaches.
45% of the process elements the business coaches employed were not described in the above generic process. This variation occurred mostly within the “Planned sessions” phase and mostly in the “Models & Tools area” (p. 25).
“the elements included in the original generic framework for Steps to Take were more aligned to current practices than the elements in Models & Tools” (p. 25).
Business coaching process is more generic in nature and with more correlation among coaches, whereas there is more variation between coaches in use of models and tools.
During entry contracting, all elements were used, but five new elements were uncovered: “internal goals for the improvement project, introductory meeting, briefing on company approach, pre-training or orientation, and coach-specific methodology” (p. 26).
During the initial brief, which was largely addressed during entry contracting, most coaches used a mix of one or two tools and all coaches applied a new element in “creating alignment between the client goals and the organisational goals” (p. 26).
During the first meeting (with the coachee) half the coaches felt it too soon to set goals, while the other half considered it imperative.
During planned sessions, implementation and action planning, feedback to the manager/sponsor as agreed was least utilised. While the literature suggested this to be crucial, “the BCs contracted in a way that shifted the responsibility for feedback to the client” (p. 27). In addition, within this stage, the generic only included three elements, while in practice, 26 elements were identified.
During the phase of closing/review and evaluation, which proved to be very generic, the consensus was that the “measure of coaching outcomes requires overall improvement” (p. 27).
There seemed to be no difference in process between internal and external coaches, nor was professional background or coach training influential in this regard.

Finally, the paper closed with the presentation of a revised business coaching process (p. 30) as follows:

Contracting with the organisation
Orientation and introduction to coaching and approach
Contracting with client
Assessment
Coaching Implementation o Individual coaching o Group/team coaching
Evaluation

IN PRACTICE

After reading this article, you may like to consider how your approach to business coaching aligns with or differs from i) the literature and ii) current business coaching practice.

Even more valuable, but beyond the scope of this article, were the lists of tools and models which were too extensive to be included in this article. Therefore, whether you are a business coach or not, a very valuable action, as a result of reading this article, would be to take a look at the original paper yourself and reflect on your understanding of the models, theory, tools and techniques identified on page 23 and 27.

To take this a step further, you could also do the following:

Rate your familiarity with each model, theory, tool or technique identified.
Spend some time investigating any model, theory, tool or technique you are not familiar with.
Rate your use of each model, theory, tool or technique identified.
Intentionally apply any model, theory, tool or technique you have not utilised before or which you are not utilising frequently enough.

By doing any or all of the above, you will most definitely expand your coaching toolkit.

Reference:

Klopper, S., & Van Coller-Peter, S. (2018). Business coaching processes that facilitate the successful implementation of business improvement projects. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 16(2), 20-31. doi: 10.24384/000563

Translating coaching research into coaching practice,

Kerryn Griffiths (PhD – The Process of Learning in Coaching)
Global ReciproCoach Coordinator

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