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Does coaching help to bring career development?

Coaching is a goal-oriented change process by used by the human resource departments increasingly for purposes such as leadership and career development for employees. The assumption behind this practice is that professional development translates to organisational development. The global coaching market was worth $2.849 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 having grown 21% since 2015 according to International Coaching Federation’s (ICF) global study 2020. In practice, a coaching process takes place usually between two individuals: coach, who constructs question based discussions with the coaching subject, coachee, to empower coachee to create and follow-up strategies for meeting the pre-set coaching goals.

How does it work then? Ideally, coaching questions reveal the potential buds for personal growth. Hardly any of us work in isolation, thus our personal growth has likely effects on our inner drive, ways of working and people we work with. However, finding solid, scientific evidence of this link between coaching and career development is still hard to find.

In career research, career development is often observed and known as  career capital. Career capital concept is defined to consist of three ways of knowing: “knowing how”, “knowing why”, and “knowing whom” (DeFillippi and Arthur, 1994) and has been confirmed by several scholars (Suutari and Mäkelä, 2007, Dickmann and Harris, 2005; Inkson and Arthur, 2001). One of these three pillars of knowing  refer to individual’s skills, competences and knowledge as “knowing how” (DeFillippi and Arthur, 1994, Dickmann and Harris, 2005). “Knowing why” on the other hand relates to self-awareness of identify, choices, motivation, and energy (DeFillippi and Arthur, 1994, Inkson and Arthur, 2001), whereas “knowing whom” refers to social network relevant to coachees’ career (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994).

Dickmann and Harris (2005) suggested that coaching and mentoring could enhance career capital in the context of global careers. Why then is coaching not used more widely for career development purposes? The respondents of the ICF’s Global Study 2020 saw three major obstacles in its wider adoption: limited support from senior leaders (50%), inability to measure impact of coaching (42%) and the lack of budget for coaching activities (38%). Without evidence, the support and budget from the senior leaders is likely to remain difficult.

To find empirical evidence of coaching impact from the systematic literature review of 49 peer-reviewed articles on coaching, I mapped 21 articles that presented evidence of career development building in one or more pillars of the career capital concept. “Knowing whom” pillar however did not appear to be directly impacted by coaching in these articles. Outside the mapped studies, similar finding has been concluded in Salomaa’s (2017) study on international careers, despite the research result that “knowing whom” appears to play an important role in long-term global careers (Makela and Suutari, 2009). On the other hand, these pillars have not been specifically measured either when gathering evidence of the coaching impact. Salomaa’s study is the only one of its kind so far studying career capital development through coaching; yet it was based on narrative analysis of general coaching benefits rather than on systematic questions testing the career capital development.

Within the mapped studies, impact of coaching towards “knowing how” and “knowing why” becomes evident in the study of Wales (2002) which shows that the coaching of leaders leads to substantial increase in the effectiveness of the links between self-development, management development and organisational effectiveness. Subsequently, the studies of Thach (2002), Luthans and Peterson (2003), Smither et al (2003), Fielden et al. (2009), Fischer and Beimers (2009), Grant et al. (2009), Nieminen et all. (2013), Anthony (2017) all showed coaching to improve leadership competence, e.g. “knowing how” and “knowing why”. Having said that, positive leadership development also appears to improve the leader’s social behaviour and thus have the “knowing whom” aspect linked to it. Therefore, drawing from the existing empirical research on coaching, “knowing whom” (among other pillars) deserves a specific study to test the strength of coaching as a relevant human resources tool to increase the career capital.

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Kirja-arvio: Urheileva lapsi – vastuullinen vanhempi

Sain ystävältäni Kiiralta kirjan luettavakseni: “Urheileva lapsi – vastuullinen vanhempi”, ja siitä toivottiin heti referaattia. Ei tullut referaattia, tuli analyysi omin maustein.

Omien lastemme kanssa olemme kukin omalla tavallamme elämäntaidon valmentajia, halusimme tai emme. Sisällysluettelosta (kuvat alempana) päätellen tietokirjailija Tiina Lehmuskoski tietää mistä puhuu. Ensisilmäyksellä minua puhuttelee luku 15.: “Onko tässä mitään järkeä?”
Omien valmennettavien suhteen tunnen hyvin harvoin epätoivoa, mutta lapsen kilpaurheiluun liittyen… Se menee enempi tunteisiin. Tiedän aiheen tärkeäksi, koska kaikki tuntemani nuorten urheilijoiden vanhemmat haluavat olla vastuullisia.

Kirja on helppolukuinen. Se on selkeästi kirjoitettu ja toimitettu, vain yksi kirjoitusvirhe osui silmääni, olenko siis täydellisyyteen pyrkivä suorittaja? Kirja vaatii jo heti alussa vanhempaa itsetuntemuksen äärelle ja kivuliaasti muistuttaa pitkin matkaa, kuinka opimme esimerkeistä, halusimme tai emme. Tämä asettaa sekä vanhemmat että valmentajat kriittiseen asemaan – hyvätkin neuvot menevät hukkaan jollet itse arvosta eli noudata niitä.

Lisäksi kirja suorastaan pakottaa kysymään, mitkä ovat sinun tavoitteesi lapsen urheilu-uralle? Entä lapsen? Mitkä valmentajan? Miten lapsen laji valikoitui? Kirja rohkaisee tutkimusmatkalle, ja kyllä, syyllistää lukijaa. Monta kertaa. Ehkä syystä, mutta näen, että motiivien tiedostaminen on tässä se pääpointti. Ei tarvitse syyllistyä, on ihan ok tarjota lapsilleen lajeja, jotka itse kokee mielenkiintoisiksi. Toisaalta on ajanhukkaa, että lapsi kilvoittelee tietyssä lajissa saavuttaakseen vanhempansa hyväksynnän (sen sijaan, että oppisi tuntemaan itsensä).

Sitten sohaistaankin muurahaispesään. Missä on sinun rajasi siinä, minkälainen valmennus on sopivaa? Entäpä kun lapsi saa rasitusvamman – kuka siinä tilanteessa on vastuussa siitä, miten tilanteeseen on tultu, nyt ja aina? Arvaapa. Moni ulkoistaa asian ammattilaiselle eli valmentajalle mielummin kuin kysyy vaikeita kysymyksiä ja tekee mahdolllisesti radikaaleja ratkaisuja valmennuksen ja samalla usein yhteisen yhteisön suhteen. Eikä valmentajillakaan ole helppoa – olepa itse jatkuvasti katseen alla arvioinnin kohteena. Tänään kuulin pojasta, jota valmentaja ei peluuttanut koska hänen polveensa oli koskenut. Arvatkaapa oliko iskä raivona penkillä istuttamisesta! Tiedän myös valmentajan, joka ei uskalla leikityttää lapsia etteivät vanhemmat suutu kun kallista jääaikaa käytetään lasten mieliksi. Kirja peräänkuuluttaakin kokonaisvaltaisen vastuun lisäksi avointa uteliaisuutta valmennusta kohtaan, mutta samalla myös etukäteen sovittuja pelisääntöjä siitä minä hetkinä aiheesta pidetään palavereja.

Tiedostavan vanhemmuuden lisäksi kirjan parasta antia oli tekninen sisältö. Tiina Lehmuskoski laajentaa perinteisen ravinto – harjoittelu – lepo -kolmion Aki Hintsankin oppien suuntaisesti käsittämään myös levon, unen, kehonhuollon, yhteisöllisyyden ja omaehtoisen liikkumisen tasapainon, jonka laadusta ja ylläpidosta vastuussa ovat vain ja ainoastaan vanhemmat. Myös urheilumenestyksen reseptiä väitöskirjassaan tutkinut Susanna Rahkamo päätteli, että menestyksen avaimet löytyvät sosiaalisista suhteista, harjoittelumotivaatiosta ja psyykkisestä palautumiskyvystä. Tässäkin valossa Tiina Lehmuskosken kirjan alussa esittämät kysymykset siitä, kenen motivaatiolla ja millä fiiliksellä lapsi urheilee, ovat erittäin relevantteja. Suosittelen tätä kirjaa pakolliseksi oppimääräksi sekä urheilevien lasten vanhemmille että valmentajille. Ehkä tässä on jotain järkeä!

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GROW

GROW is the coaching model made famous by John Whitmore’s book ”Coaching for performance: GROWing Human Potential and Purpose – The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership ”. This book originally published in 2002 is essential reading to anyone interested in coaching and probably the most quoted book in the academic studies of coaching. In Google Scholar, the book has been referenced 1294 times to date and according to Amazon, sold over 500,000 copies. I came across this book when I first started coaching studies in the University of East London and since then have recommended it to many. The book describes the concept of GROW – Goal, Reality, Options, and Way forward. The model itself is very useful behavioural coaching approach for turning issues into action.

In practice, the steps follow quite naturally yet they overlap easily – speaking of a goal quickly translates to talking about current state of affairs and then jumping to available options. Where does coaching then add value here if it is so natural? Coaches role is to chair the dicussion especially in the beginning and by relevant questioning and therefore provide the structure for the discussion to bring awareness about the topic. The art is in the details – noticing the cues for hesitance, reflecting strong faith on client’s ability to arrive at the solution, having the courage to probe on seemingly sensitive topics and to be disciplined about the selected approach. Lazy coaching is worth no coaching at all. It is just a chat.

With GROW model, I find it very useful to spend quite long time in the Goal part to get the client to really describe and internalise the desired outcome. Depending on the significance of the goal, it may be useful to steer the conversation to explore the impact on different stakeholders. In the coaching situation it may appear that the client is jumping already to the consequent steps and the easiest way out would be to let the client lead. However, I see it as the coach’s duty to ensure that the client truly undestands the implications of their goals; for example what and how much they are ready to give up to get to their goal? Later in the process you will see that time invested here pays off in terms of quality of decisions taken in the course of the coaching.

Reality step looks into now – what are the facts? This step opens also the opportunity to look at the resources available. Knowledge, skills, strengths, networks, support and the possible lack of them. Now that we know what we have, how to close the gap? Options step invites to discuss different roads available to the goal. The coach’s duty here is to guide the client to perform SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) on each option. In one end, there is the option not to do anything at all whereas at the other end, it is sometimes useful to have also the most outrageous option listed out to unblock creative thinking.

“Way forward” step answers the question “What will you do?”. Here, depending on the subject matter and the type of person, it may be useful to also ask “when” and “how” questions about the implementation. To reveal possible threats, you may wish to ask questions about what is preventing the plan from happening or to indicate in scale from 0-10 the likelihood of the client implementing the plan. If it is anything less than 10, it is useful to discuss the tumbling blocks and ways to overcome them.

Now there you have the concept of GROW! In Australia, the colleagues (Growth Coaching International) formed the additional letters T and H to GROW. T stands for Tactics (when and how) and H for Habits. Like mentioned before, I have incorporated the tactics under the Way forward step. Discussing how to make the desired change permanent will certainly add value when a sustainable change is required rather than a one-off action.

Have you used the GROW method, what are the realisations you have made about it?