I am looking forward to the Coaching at Work conference as an opportunity to pause and reflect more deeply on the opportunities and challenges facing those leading a coaching approach in organisations. As my work is mainly in the education sector I see the conference as a chance to immerse myself in the experiences of those from other backgrounds. In the way that travelling abroad helps us understand more about our own country, I expect that my virtual travel to the conference will throw into sharp relief the current reality for those using coaching in education. Through exploring the experiences in other sectors I aim to bring a critical eye to underlying assumptions about coaching in schools and leave the conference with ideas about how practice could be developed.  In preparation for my ‘journey’ I have reflected on some of the opportunities and challenges that I currently notice in my work as a coach and leader of coaching training.

Opportunities

The value of coaching is increasingly being recognised in the business and education sector. The changes resulting from Covid-19 are seen by many leaders as creating an opportunity to strengthen coaching in their organisation. The recognition of the importance of attending to the well -being of colleagues along with the understanding that work practices will need to change to respond to the ‘new’ world create a powerful rationale for strengthening the use of coaching. This has resulted in leaders in education and business setting up opportunities for their staff to participate in coaching sessions during the last few months to help them adapt to the changes. In addition leaders are considering how they can build coaching into the organisation’s professional development so that it becomes part of the ‘way that we do things around here’.  This recognition of value, and commitment to embedding coaching offers powerful opportunities for the colleagues involved and their stakeholders be they customers or students.

Challenges

Of course, there are always challenges to be considered and I notice that a couple of themes are emerging for those leading coaching during this period. These relate to clarifying who the coaching is for and deciding how the impact of the coaching is judged. Less high on the agenda of leaders is the challenge of nurturing and challenging their coaches. However, this is something that I believe warrants attention.

Who is the coaching for?

In business, coaching figures such as Hawkins and Smith (20) and  Blakey and Day (2012) have highlighted the importance of coaching attending not just to the needs and goals of the coachee but also the stakeholders of their organisation. Similarly, in education the evidence about effective professional development has highlighted the importance of student needs acting as the starting point for the setting of teacher and leader professional goals (Cordingley et al. 2015). Covid -19 has not only reaffirmed the importance of attending to the well-being of workers in every sector but has contributed to an increased awareness of the importance of attending to the needs of the earth (AC et al. 2020). Of course these needs do not completely sit in tension with each other but a key challenge for leaders is developing practices in the organisation that enable the needs of the coachees, the direct stakeholders ( be they customers or students) and the planet to be balanced.

How do we judge the impact?

The recognition of the complexity of evaluating coaching in a way that moves beyond coachee immediate reactions features in the literature in both business and education.  The importance of a multi layered approach that considers impacts on coachee and stakeholders over the short and long terms is increasingly understood. The importance of evaluation being used to support improvement of the coaching (a formative function) rather than being a summative judgement is also an increasingly emerging theme in the education world. However, whilst there is growing understanding, there is still a long way to go in consistently embedding practical and manageable strategies. So a key challenge for leaders is in setting up practical ways to embed and balance the collection of evidence of the impacts on coachees, stakeholders and the planet, and balance the formative and summative functions.

How do we nurture and challenge our coaches?

In the enthusiasm to strengthen coaching within an organisation the ongoing professional development of the coaches can easily slip off the radar. Coaches may be reticent about seeking support as they see themselves in the role of the enabler At this time when others are in life threatening situations coaches may also underplay their own needs. Yet we know that coaching those who are experiencing challenging situations whilst also navigating the realities of even the released lockdown (such as carrying out home-schooling) places its own demands on the coach. The value of supervision in nurturing and challenging coaches is increasingly recognised but uptake is still low (Hawkins et al. 2019). A key factor can be the resourcing demands. Whilst some leaders are building supervision into their provision, I believe a key challenge is embedding practices which balance the needs of the coaches, coachees and stakeholders and planet in a sustainable way.

As I virtually travel to the conference and participate in the sessions I will be endeavouring to listen out for these and other themes, so that I can return with a fresh perspective on practical ways to respond to the opportunities and challenges of developing coaching in the educational workplace.

By Rebecca Raybould

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-raybould-23101a62/?originalSubdomain=uk

References

AC, APAC, APECS,EMCC and ICF (2020) Agreed Joint Statement on Climate Change. Available at https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.associationforcoaching.com/resource/resmgr/email_images/global_new/AGREED_JOINT_STATEMENT_on_CC.pdf

Blakey, J. and Day, Ian (2012) Challenging Coaching: Going Beyond Traditional Coaching to Face the FACTS  Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Cordingley, P., Higgins, S., Greany, T., Buckler, N., Coles-Jordan, D., Crisp, B., Saunders, L., Coe, R. (2015) Developing Great Teaching: Lessons from the international reviews into effective professional development. Teacher Development Trust. 2015. Available at http://www.curee.co.uk/node/3187

Hawkins, P and Smith, N ( 2006)  Coaching, Mentoring and Organizational Consultancy McGraw-Hill Education. UK.

Hawkins, P, Turner, E & Passmore, J (2019) The Manifesto for Supervision. Henley-on-Thames: Association for Coaching, and Henley Business School. ISBN: 978-1-912473-24-3  Available at  ( https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.associationforcoaching.com/resource/resmgr/home/manifesto_for_supervision_20.pdf