More on coaching

Recently, the LDA had a debate about coaching, following on the podcast interview. The wise Emma Weber represented the pro argument, while the LDA’s own Matt Richter was con. (Note that these are false divides, we explore the topic for the sake of unpacking issues.) Superb moderating from Kat Koppett was a bonus!  As the discussion went, it uncovered more on coaching, without yielding any finality (for reasons we’ll explore).

So, one of the problems emerged immediately, getting into definitions. Matt pushed a bit on the ‘like sport’ notion, where coaching has lots of specific knowledge, while Emma was more on the domain-independent side of coaching. What emerged was that different people have different definitions. Some folks (like me) put coaching further on the domain-dependent side, with mentoring being the more abstract. However, it’s clear others view coaching as the more advanced and deeper side.

This divide isn’t new, but it does provide some barriers, not least to research! As that issue came up, Kat pointed us to a study that began by saying “However, the coaching research suggests a large variety of processes and outcomes, lacking clarity on the primary psychological dimensions most impacted.” Their meta-analysis suggested that “executive coaching is a powerful instrument for organizations to support positive change and personal development.” Which is a good thing, for sure. Their definition does seem to err more on the general side, which is interesting. And, to my own understanding, an important lesson.

One issue that stuck with me was thinking through the range of development. After the formal learning experience, I think there’re times when folks need to be observed, and provided some feedback as they perform. It became clear that the domain-independent model wants the learner to recognize for themselves when they’re not doing well and need to ask for assistance. Yet, a crucial inflection point is making that transition, and I believe that folks aren’t there right away. Similarly, we may not have the resources to add in all the complexities to a particular model for this task initially. So, we expect coaches (read: supervisors and managers) to help develop understanding. Maybe that’s not coaching, by definition, but it’s a task.

I’ll agree at some point you can start guiding folks to their own improvements, but I suspect that only comes when some base level of understanding is reached. We should be clear about this type of interaction as well as the one advocated for coaching! Similarly, we need clarity on labelling! We didn’t end up coming to any finality on that, sadly.

An issue I hadn’t thought about, but became important in the discussion is the issue of appropriate coaching. Clearly, some approaches to coaching don’t work . Knowing when you can expect the coachee to be capable of domain-independent coaching would be one important criteria. Knowing how to ask questions appropriately is another. My concern here is that there are a fair few models about coaching, and with the terminological and empirical barriers, how do you determine the best methods? If we’re to be evidence-based, how can we be?

I can’t say we came to any conclusions, but I do feel we unpacked more of the issues, and did give ourselves some guidance as to what to do when, even if we don’t have agreed upon names for it all yet. Coaching is important, of both types. The data from that study shows coaching can help. We know also that extending the learning experience through feedback on performance helps. We just need to figure out how best to combine them so we know more about coaching. Those are my thoughts , at least, I look forward to yours.