The essence of this book is about how to plan and prepare for implementing a coaching initiative.
It explores how to embed coaching throughout the organisation by monitoring and coordinating various processes such as coach selection and how to evaluate, promote and extend the scheme’s reach.
The work’s main contribution to the field of coaching is in its thorough and comprehensive approach to the topic, which makes it ideal for coaching champions or project leaders tasked with getting a coaching initiative off the ground.
People who will benefit most from it are likely to be HR directors, organisational design, learning and development champions and keen line managers who are tasked with taking in-house coaching forward, but don’t have much experience in the field.
What feels original about the book is the author’s undoubted credibility in the field, gained from many hours of practical consultancy work with a range of clients and sectors.
A wealth of knowledge in developing sustainable coaching initiatives has been amassed and the learnings from those experiences have been neatly drawn together to save us time and energy in having to re-learn the lessons.
A number of short case studies are also cited as examples of this kind of collaborative work and they are, generally, useful.
What feels slightly re-cycled material (for some), however, is the many references to known tools, theories and methods such as Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation.
Although these references do serve a purpose as they introduce more widely-used techniques from related fields, the authors could have saved space and time in repeating themselves by just mentioning the tools and enabling readers to follow them up themselves.
Because of this, however, I found myself skipping through pages of information that I already knew.
The book itself, meanwhile, is organised in three parts – ‘Contexts’, ‘Implementation’ and ‘Outcomes’.
Part 1 – ‘Contexts’ provides a definition of what coaching is, why it’s useful, where it might fit in and what a coaching agenda might comprise.
It sets the scene for implementation by covering quite a lot of known ground, especially for people who work in the L&D and coaching consultancy world, but it will prove useful for those who may not be used to putting forward business cases within a corporate environment.
Also included in the chapter are for and against arguments on the ‘manager as coach’ scenario. The topic of developing a coaching culture is likewise aired and explores what coaching is and what it is not. The uses of coaching as a management style and for general staff development purposes are also highlighted.
In addition, the authors explore the benefits that coaching can bring, which includes return on investment arguments, and posit that coaching must ‘fit the needs of the organisation’ (rather than be adopted as a fad or good idea).
They also recommend that the coaching ‘agenda’ should be identified early on, before implementation, and should be of value to both individuals and the organisation. Establishing ways to evaluate outcomes is likewise deemed crucial in order to avoid subsequent disappointment and ensure that a suitable ROI is obtained.
But a large and interesting chunk of the book also focuses on why coaching works, a claim that is brought up-to-date following recent discoveries in neuroscience.
All in all, the authors cover the coaching agenda well and cite a coaching network within US high tech vendor, Hewlett Packard, as a useful example of where such schemes fit in with the company culture effectively.
Moreover, because the possible business uses of coaching such as managing talent, helping new staff during their first 100 days or assisting people in building up competencies are stated clearly, this section would likely prove helpful to practitioners in building a business case internally.
Interestingly, however, based on the experiences of more than 40 organisations that have already introduced coaching initiatives, it appears that only those with a clear stated purpose for such activity could confidently state that they had received a positive return.
This situation seems to imply that some organisations commit to coaching initiatives without really knowing why, but do so without demonstrating the rigour required to prove their value.
Part 2 – The ‘Implementation’ section of the book includes the steps that practitioners need to take in order to introduce a coaching initiative. They range from needs analysis and recruiting coaches to engaging stakeholders and planning for the initial implementation.
The section even discusses whether to consider introducing an accreditation process in order to provide credibility and formal recognition for internal coaches in their role.
Personally, however, I found the number of checklists and diagrams provided a distraction rather than an aid, although others might find them helpful.
Part 3 – The ‘Outcomes’ chunk of the book is largely about the constant need to evaluate and ensure that the case for coaching is sustainable on an ongoing basis. It also explores why coaching can go ‘off the rails’ and how to match supply with demand.
Finally, the work ends by giving readers food for thought on learning, developing coaches via supervision, introducing further possible change and planning for future needs.
In summary
‘Managing Coaching at Work’ is a good addition to the bookshelf for those interested in helping to create the conditions for culture change through coaching. It provides a lot of practical frameworks and checklists to help you plan and implement the key steps for introducing a sustainable coaching strategy.
There is an abundance of support and guidance in the appendices, plus website references and pointers to several free downloads.
Overall, I’d say that this work would be particularly appealing to internal coaching champions who are creating an overall people development strategy in order to help take the organisation forward.
Value for money? I’d say “yes”. By saving valuable thinking and experimentation time, it’s well worth a read.
- The reviewer this time was Peter Welch, director of consultancy, Peter Welch Coaching, and founding member of the Association of Coaching Supervisors.
- If you’d like to read a book and pen a review for HRzone.co.uk, please visit the book club page and choose one that appeals to you. Email editor@hrzone.co.uk to get started.
