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Tapping into Coaching To Improve Organizational Performance

Coaching is gaining popularity---just over half of the AMA/Institute for Corporate Productivity 2008 survey respondents say their organizations have coaching programs in place. Of those that don’t, over a third have plans to begin coaching programs in the future. What are your organization’s plans?

The desire to improve individual performance and productivity is the most widely cited reason for using a coach according to the survey. Developing leaders, improving succession plans, and increasing skill levels are other frequently cited reasons behind coaching adding up to improved Organizational Performance according to 56% of the survey respondents. Additionally, it was found that the more an organization has clear reasons for using a coach—be it leadership development or boosting engagement—the more likely it is that coaching will be seen as successful. In short, organizations that have a well-defined purpose for using coaches are more likely to also report having successful coaching results.

Most everyone is familiar with individual coaching—the coachee and the coach working towards goals either defined by the organization or by the coachee. However, coaches are reporting a shift from Individual Coaching to Group Coaching. Group Coaching is a facilitated process led by a coach and created with the intention of maximizing the combined energy, knowledge, experience and wisdom of the individuals who choose to join in order to achieve organizational objectives or individual goals. Group Coaching also strengthens participant’s capacity to ask powerful questions, explore and tap their own knowing. It also widens access to resources, information and approaches to challenging situations. “Group Coaching focuses on choice, peer relationships, co-creating the agenda, creating an environment of trust and confidentiality and commitment to action with the coach holding the agenda for the group,” states Ginger Cockerham who facilitates a group coaching course at the University of Texas and is a mentor to other coaches wanting to offer group coaching.

Some benefits of Group Coaching are: It’s cost effective, Just in Time Solutions, Participants benefit from the combined wisdom of each other for profound peer learning and lastly the built in accountability through “peer pressure” to keep commitments and attain goals. People also involved in group coaching have reported that having others that share the same challenges be it being a better leader or being a better sales person as being very powerful to moving forward with their development.

Participants for group coaching may be people from the same organization or geographically dispersed from various organizations and often the sessions are virtual. You may be asking yourself what brings them together? It tends to be an issue, theme, goal or topic that the participants share in common. Examples: Leading with Impact(a virtual coaching group for leaders), Emerging Leaders(a virtual coaching group for men or women on the rise), Personal Strategic Planning, Getting Organized, Delegation, Dealing with Stress, Being a Strategic Partner for HR, Increasing Sales—the list can go on and on from being specific to broad. All participants come together to gain clarity and achieve goals with the advantage of the synergy and resources generated by the group! Often group coaching will offer individual 10-15 minute laser sessions for the participants of the group in order to still provide that individual attention. Organizations are offering coaching to all levels within the organizations.

Group Coaching like Individual Coaching is often offered in addition to a facilitated development program to enhance the results of the program. A study conducted in 1997 concluded that coaching and training combined produced a productivity increase of 88% while training alone produced increases of 22.4% (Olivero, Bane & Kopelmann; Public Personnel Management, Washington.).

About Jane Weddle

Company: Weddle Performance Group

As a Sr. Performance Consultant and Coach, Jane Weddle works with Executives, Presidents, Leadership Teams, Human Resource Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Sales Executives, Managers and other Professionals as a valued advisor and service provider to build tailored solutions to their most pressing organizational and people-related issues. She is an insightful resource for developing answers to your most pressing individual, team and organizational issues. Weddle holds a BS degree in Social Work and a MA degree in Human Resource/Organizational Development. She holds, numerous train the trainer certifications, is a certified coach through B-Coach, and a certified behavioral analyst through TTI. Prior to starting her own company she worked for the State of Nebraska, Molex Incorporated and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

She has 20 years experience in human resources, organizational development, human performance improvement, strategic planning, quality management, continuous improvement & problem solving, team building & development, group facilitation and coaching with organizations ranging from state government to global manufacturing. Weddle Performance Group clients have included state government, manufacturing, banking, non-profit, and service industries.

Many organizations focus on technical initiatives to reduce waste and cut costs. Jane believes in maximizing those efforts by also tapping the potential of an organization's human capacities and organizational processes.