John Bailey, UK Director of Coaching at KPMG talked to HR Zone about why coaching is firmly on his people agenda.
HR Zone Q1: Why should delegates attend the seminar on Building a Coaching Culture at the CIPD’s HRD 2006 conference?
Bailey: The session will give participants an honest perspective on what two organisations are actually doing to build a coaching culture. It will provide some rich and valuable learning based on real experience as opposed to theory.
HR Zone Q2: What can HR professionals and trainers take from the talk? What is the transfer of learning?
Bailey: The session will help HR professionals and trainers to reflect on their own experiences and focus on how to build on their own successes to date in the context of the culture of their organisations.
HR Zone Q3: Is coaching here to stay?
Bailey: Coaching is here to stay. It is clear that organisations and individuals appreciate its value in the many forms it can take – ultimately providing everyone with access to conversations with others which maximise their effectiveness in their role, enabling them to capitalise on their strengths and fulfil their potential and career aspirations.
HR Zone Q4: Has the ‘cowboy’ image of coaching damaged its reputation at all?
Bailey: I believe this is a risk and one that is increasingly talked about. We should place more focus on helping people to be wise buyers of coaching by them understanding their needs and accessing the coaching resources that meet these.
HR Zone Q5: How does KPMG use coaching to get ahead?
Bailey: Coaching is an integral part of our people agenda – our coaching strategy involves continuing to:
- Enhance the coaching skills of all our people, particularly performance managers.
- Develop the internal coaching capability we need (comprising professional internal coaches and HR and learning and development consultants.)
- Ensuring we are wise buyers when using external coaching resources.
HR Zone Q6: How does coaching fit into the wider learning and development strategy at KPMG?
Bailey: Coaching is regarded as a key element of our learning and development portfolio – to complement and reinforce the extensive offering we have in place.
HR Zone Q7: Is coaching a one-size fits all learning solution?
Bailey: Absolutely not – the value of coaching is that it is bespoke to the needs of the individual. People should be able to access it in the form that meets their needs and those of the organisation. The vast majority of coaching will take place on the job – sometimes a more formal coaching arrangement is required.
HR Zone Q8: Does everyone benefit from coaching?
Bailey: Everyone can benefit – the individual, the team and the organisation.
HR Zone Q9: What are your final thoughts on the coaching issue?
Bailey: Coaching should be readily available to everyone because its sources are so broad. The challenge is to get people to appreciate all these sources and use them according to their needs.
John Bailey will be speaking at the CIPD’s HRD conference on Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 15.30 – 16.45 together with Janet Craig, HR Manager – Management Learning and Development.
