Saphie Alim, A4032674

Evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a coaching system

COACHING AND MENTORING

Saphie Alim

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Evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a coaching system

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Table of contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 2 1. 2. 3. 4. Coaching as part of the organisations knowledge management system........................................ 3 Role of coaching into the organisations training and development strategy ................................. 5 Costs, benefits and drawbacks of a coaching system ..................................................................... 9 Recommendations for a coaching system implementation.......................................................... 11 Background and challenge ................................................................................................................ 11 Allocating coaches ............................................................................................................................. 13 Assessing the programme ................................................................................................................. 14 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 15 References ............................................................................................................................................. 15

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Introduction
In todays fast-paced an challenging market, companies are realising how crucial it is to encourage knowledge management so as to develop knowledge sharing and thereby optimise performance. In fact, employees need to know what their knowledge assets are and how to manage and make use of these assets to get maximum return and higher performance. With the growing interest of organisations for training and development, knowledge management has become a catchword in todays business world. Therefore, many modern knowledge based organisations are now looking at coaching and mentoring systems as a means of managing the explicit and implicit knowledge within their company in order to gain competitive advantage. However, despite their common interest in developing individuals knowledge, coaching and mentoring are different. According to Gower (2009), coaching consists of one-to-one development discussions between coaches and individuals. It provides people with feedback on both their keys assets and their weaknesses focusing on improving performance, encouraging personal development and enhancing employees skills. But even though personal issues may be discussed, coaching mainly concentrates on performance at work. The coaching approach also assumes that clients are self-aware or can achieve self-awareness. It is clear that coaching enables people recognise and use their skills. It empowers employees to resolve issues that may hinder their performance so that they can successfully achieve goals. At the same time, coaching encourages managers to build closer relationship with employees in order to develop trust; it teaches managers how to listen to employees that foster personal growth and skill development. Good coaches are supportive encouraging employees to open up without being judgmental (Gower, 2009). Mentoring on its part consists of the development of the whole person and driven by the individuals own work or life goals while coaching is much more about achieving specific objectives. Mentoring programmes are much more about guidance and facilitation rather than formal training. Like coaching, the rationale behind mentoring sessions is to provide employees skills they need to achieve high performance. Coaching and mentoring are both crucial for companies as they help organisations retain top talent employees and obtain better results through people and processes. Mentoring as compared to coaching is generally informal and unstructured. Mentoring is less skillbased and essentially focuses on a relationship-based process. The mentor is far less likely to have a direct-line relationship with the mentee unlike coaching. In a mentoring relationship, the distance is desirable. Rather than being a major part of an individuals job role, mentoring is usually an extra element that gives the opportunity to the mentor to ensure knowledge transfer and share his or her experience with less experienced individuals. The report will focus on coaching and will essentially highlight the pros and cons that organisations that companies may gain or face implementing and using coaching system. The role of coaching will be discussed and recommendations will be suggested for a manufacturing company which aims to implement such a system.

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1. Coaching as part of the organisations knowledge management system

Coaching is widely defined as a system which encourages learning and development of employees within organisations. It also enables questioning and listening, problem solving and testing of data. In addition, experts describe coaching as a tool that gives the opportunity for feedback on performance issues and allows employees assessment. It is also said to be a key performance indicator that drives discussion on performance issues as well as the knowledge and skills required to successfully achieve tasks and goals. In fact, it is described as a performance management (PM) framework that enables any team leader to guide individuals supporting them both effectively and efficiently during the PM process. It encourages explicit and implicit knowledge transfer through effective and formal means which mainly consist of interaction between people. Coaching is therefore a training pack that is designed to ensure that managers (coaches) are able to transfer tacit and explicit knowledge to employees (coachees) so as to create substantial value and to reinforce cohesion within the staff encouraging knowledge sharing, understanding and listening to one another. This explains why coaching system is portrayed as a means of managing the implicit and explicit knowledge. Knowledge management can be understood through the relationship between knowledge and data mining and information. Data (raw facts) are collected from business transactions and activities in order to be structured into useful and accurate details to become meaningful information. Knowledge is thus created from this compilation of structured, filtered and indexed data that leads to precise information through a relative model of understanding (knowledge). Knowledge management is a process which enables companies to gather, organise, refine and disseminate knowledge in terms of documents, resources and individuals skills. It is also considered as a facilitator of information access and sharing. Knowledge management involves the ability for businesses to effectively understand and analyse the relationship between content, activity, people and topics so as to produce a knowledge map report. A prime example of this is the consulting company KPMG that has succeeded in providing to its managers the ability to organise and locate relevant content and expertise required to address specific business issues and tasks for projects management. Coaching is the performance management framework that will allow a comprehensive knowledge management practice training coaches who will manage the tacit and implicit knowledge stored in organisations. A distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge is critical to gain a better understanding of the working mechanisms of knowledge management and thereby the correlation between coaching and knowledge conversion. Knowledge conversion describes the interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge as well as how they interchange into each other in the creative activities of human beings. Knowledge is subsequently created through the social interaction of these two types of knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be easily articulated and expressed through words, codes and numbers; it can be shared through hard data which are available to individuals and easy to distribute within an organisation. In addition, explicit knowledge is embedded in procedures and can be found on the Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 3

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internet, in books or in other visual tools and oral means. Lubit (2001) supports this approach when he argues that explicit knowledge is codified and stored in the organisational memory and can be transferred with reasonable accuracy unlike implicit knowledge. Conversely, tacit knowledge is highly personal knowledge possessed by an individual that may be hard to visualise and to communicate to others. It is embedded in the humain brain and requires extensive personal contact. This may be due to the fact that people possess a theoretically infinite number of mental models that allow them to interpret data and to perceive information. Hence tacit knowledge is often individualised and highly specific in scope. Parikh (2001) also claims that implicit knowledge is difficult to disseminate to others in a working environment. That is why coaches are needed to effectively communicate them to staff through knowledge maps, mentorship networks or video conferencing. The specificity of tacit knowledge clearly shows that this is a unique asset that is very hard to imitate by other companies. Given this premise, it can be logically seen that tacit knowledge can be a source of competitive edge if a company succeed in managing its intellectual capital base. This can be achieved by uncovering the tacit knowledge of its employees and turning that into explicit knowledge available to others and that may be utilised to enhance the strategic agendas of the firm. To make wider use of the tacit knowledge of employees, managers are urged to identify the knowledge possessed by individuals within the organisation. The rationale behind this is to create and encourage interactions and thereby information sharing between knowledgeable individuals that will enable the firm to effectively achieve tasks, to transfer knowledge from one part of the organisation to another and to create new knowledge that may determine the firms success. The role of coaching will be to ensure that both tacit and explicit knowledge are communicated to employees by managers (coaches) in a manner that is easy to understand. Coaching system will thus provide to managers the required skills to help them enhance understanding of who knows about what in a workplace. A prime example of such effort is the creation of a yellow pages within Samsung, the global electronics company. The purpose of this is to provide to individuals a listing of qualified experts with different kinds of knowledge within Samsung many business units. Today on the Samsung intranet, people can now enter key words for a specific knowledge field. For instance, it can be knowledge about the design of optical units for CD/DVD players and recorders and the yellow pages will collect a list of relevant experts within Samsung Group who have claimed that they have such knowledge. Contact details are provided for each expert listed so as to allow any employee in Samsung who wants to gain knowledge in a particular area to get in touch with the identified expert. Getting in touch with experts will enable employees to learn and thereby gain knowledge. This interaction will be an opportunity for both experts (coaches) and individuals to reflect upon their knowledge, behaviour and technical know-how. It can be logically understood that coaching includes improvement of individual performance and communication, providing support, promoting effective teams, developing individuals for more senior jobs and making the best use of resources. Coaching system is thus a performance management framework that increases involvement and ownership of the learning process as well as the potential to improve career development of individuals while supporting them. Managers coach employees to build their skills and knowledge as well as to give remedial instructions when performance deficiencies necessitate it. Coaching is needed by organisations to facilitate learning by tapping into a persons knowledge and underlying skills. The Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 4

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purpose is to help companies grow and adapt to a changing environment through knowledge sharing. This is the reason why coaching is considered as part of the organisations knowledge management system. Another point worth mentioning here to highlight how vital coaching has become in todays business world is the key role it plays in knowledge conversion. Not only does coaching maximise knowledge transfer, but it also increases the skill levels providing learning channel that effectively facilitate knowledge conversion in a workplace. Core skills can therefore be transferred very effectively. In addition, coaching is essential for organisations knowledge management system for succession planning; it also helps maintain critical knowledge. In fact, coaching can ensure continuity of performance when relevant experts leave the organisation as core and unique skills (implicit knowledge) have been transferred. Contextual learning becomes evident and cross training of individuals can successfully be achieved. Accordingly, customisation of skills in relation to the core activities of the business is retained. Finally, the ability for the firm to identify fast track candidates and new talents and prepare them for new positions is improved by coaching system which stimulates sharing knowledge.

2. Role of coaching into the organisations training and development strategy

Performance coaching is part of organisations development strategy. It refers to leadership development, teaching staff (managers, leaders and supervisors) the skills and behaviours that are essential to perform their tasks as efficiently as possible so as to obtain highest results for their personal development and the company. Coaching can thus be used as a tool for training and development within organisations. It can be part of a long-term effort to promote employee development which consists of development needs that can range from personal qualities to transition support and developing technical skills. In fact, employees needs are clarified by coaches in order to understand what is going wrong and which skills or what need(s) to be improved. Using effective coaching system to provide ongoing support to employees so as to develop their skills and knowledge is an essential tool for any manager in todays business world. Coaching is particularly vital for senior managers development, particularly those who are having a very hard time accepting the fact that they have some weaknesses or they lack ability, skills and motivation to achieve goals. Therefore, they feel uncomfortable admitting that they need any development and training to overcome their weaknesses and thereby enhance their performance. For instance, by setting up ongoing peer group coaching sessions which encourages interaction, staff feels more able to explore ideas, develop different solutions and accept negative remarks and thereby constructive feedbacks. Not only it is less threatening to employees, but they also seem much more confident and opened to discussion regarding real life work issues and challenges that they are currently facing. Evidence has shown that not only do both parties benefit from coaching, but it is also an excellent means to encourage individuals to make time for conscious development activity, an aspect that would never normally be included in their list of daily tasks and priorities. Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 5

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One of the criteria that managers (leaders) are assessed on is their ability to ensure effective knowledge transfer while developing staff. Most of chief executives who are effective at meeting high goals such as expanding the business or boosting the sales downplay the importance of preparing their replacements. When they leave, it becomes a serious disadvantage for the firm since they leave with their tacit knowledge. As a result, no one is prepared to take over and this can hinder the business growth as well as its whole performance. Consultants are often hired by organisations to coach top executives so that they can learn how to effectively transfer their skills to their colleagues. This kind of coaching focuses more on interpersonal skills and leadership styles than on technical know-how to help managers guide their staff. According to Connor and Pokora (2007), skills can best be acquired through 5 levels. These levels should be fully addressed to allow staff to successfully gain competences. Coaching training program addresses each of these levels in developing coaching and mentoring skills, which consist of action planning, commitment testing, challenging, goal setting, focusing and prioritising as well as active listening, six core requirements in todays business world. An effective training programme should therefore include:

Learning about skills

This stage enables mentors to give a short overview of the learning programme as well as their competences to participants and thereby to get to know each another by sharing their experiences.

Recognising skills
This step consists of a real-time demonstration of skills by mentors to individuals. Real issues are demonstrated during the training session and participants are encouraged to identify skills they see and raise any questions. They are also encouraged to appreciate, critique and explore the trainers mentoring skills recommending solutions to overcome the identified weaknesses.

Practising skills
Participants are divided into small groups of three, taking turns to be mentor, observer and client. Each of these roles allows the individual to learn skills and to acquire some knowledge in a particular area. Each group is guided and supported by a facilitator. When playing the client role, individuals brought their real-life issues showing the common problems which occur in day-to-day business operations. Typical issues involve making a career choice and crucial decisions, balancing work and home, working with different people and handling a difficult work relationship. These issues provide a brief overview of challenges faced by many organisations in the workplace. Working with real case studies and experiences real problems of professional life enable participants to acquire first-hand experience of managing appropriate boundaries and using the skills in a time-limited context. It also provides them a direct personal experience of helping and being assisted.

Trying out and using skills

Participants are urged to identify key skills to practice, and appropriate situations in which to practice in order to submit a report to mentors on their experience on trying out skills in real-life situations.

Using naturally
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During a follow-up day, several months after the training session, participants are required to give some feedbacks about the impact of the training programme on their approach at work. For example, the may be asked to state What were their weaknesses before the training session? What are they now doing differently? Have skills and knowledge from the training programme been integrated into new ways of working? This skills development sequence clearly shows that coaching is not about talking about what to do; instead, the emphasis is on how to improve skills and to share experience so as to obtain the best results. The focus is on doing things. At Orange France where this framework has been experienced, most participants were satisfied as they gain knowledge from this skills development sequence. They have particularly appreciated the way the training programme made them aware of their unconscious incompetence turning it into unconscious competence (tacit knowledge) which can be a key asset for Orange France. In fact, at first, participants are unaware of their lack of skills as it is not something they have tried (this is called unconscious incompetence). Then, the skills development sequence helps them to concentrate and thereby to stay upright, for few minutes (conscious competence). Finally, they just get on the bike and ride it, without thinking about it and the skill becomes automatic (unconscious competence). It is hard to reach the level of unconscious competence; most participants reach conscious competence in basic skills. The supportive learning climate ensured by mentors and coaches helps individuals feel more comfortable to move through this learning curve. It is clear that training and development are part of organisations development strategy since as people develop skills, they develop themselves. As stated earlier, skills development is consistent with personal-developmental or goal focused approach of coaching. An evaluation of coaching training at Orange France revealed that 87 per cent of participants reported that personal development is vital to successfully coach or mentor. Given the importance of training and development in coaching, it can be agreed that they are effective in creating opportunities for selfinsight and self-development to staff. Experiencing a skills development sequence on a training programme may bring an added advantage for the trainee coach or mentor, who can reflect on their experience of the method and thereby improve it to better encourage the sustainable learning and knowledge transfer. Many techniques are used to encourage personal development within organisations: learning journal, career lifeline and psychometric instruments and questionnaires. At Orange France for example, career lifeline is the most used technique. This approach includes drawing a line or visual representation of career, past, present and future in order to point out highs and lows as well as relevant events. It is therefore an opportunity for Oranges employees to reflect on the development of their career while taking into account other factors in life and considering future direction. Lifeline career on a training programme is designed to encourage participants reflect on their lifeline in a small group of individuals, who will help them identify themes, influences as well as key factors in their career. This technique has been highly effective at Orange France. This shows how powerful the career lifeline is in coaching; therefore, its inclusion on a training programme is necessary in providing first-hand experience of using it themselves and facilitating other participants. In addition to being a useful tool for employees development, coaching is also an effective approach which enhances management development. The first argument is that it enables leaders to leverage Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 7

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the organisations human capital creating substantial added value and developing sustainable competitive advantage. Management development is essential within organisations as supervisors and managers have a direct impact on how staff feels about working for the firm, their needs, their ability and motivation to achieve tasks. Coaching for management ranges from helping poor performers enhance to capitalising on high-potential executives and employees by keeping them challenged and urged them to maintain and improve their competences on a continuous basis. Coaching is a two-way street which allows both leaders and supervisors to share the responsibility for good results and greater performance. Highly effective performance coaches are patient, optimistic about human nature and base the coaching relationship on trust. Furthermore, they offer opportunities to individuals to take risks and learn from their mistakes speaking candidly and encouraging personal ownership and accountability. Finally, they know their strengths and weaknesses and continuously strive to leverage people skills and abilities so as to overcome weaknesses which may undermine strengths. Last but not least, evidence has shown that training and development can increase involvement, commitment, motivation and the willingness to learn at work if the learning environment is favourable. The training journey goes hand in hand with coaching journey. Thus, an efficient and effective coaching session includes a working agreement and ground rules that are accurately communicated and agreed at the beginning. This enables participants to be more confident and less distrustful. They are more motivated to take the risk of letting go old prejudices as well as negative behaviours and they feel safer enough to try out and to accept new ones. Participants also understand the appropriate boundaries for disclosure being aware that confidences will be respected. This makes them confident enough to challenge respectfully and be challenged. Participants have to be on time and cancel only in case of emergency. Trainers communicate these issues to individuals who have to respect them and agree on them. At Orange France for example, training and development have significantly increased performance; they have also helped understand the root cause of poor performance within the organisation. The purpose of this was to effectively conduct performance coaching session at Orange France. Poor performance was due low ability and motivation. A prime example of this is that an employee with 100 per cent motivation and 75 motivation ability is more likely to achieve good to above average performance. However, there is a strong likelihood that an individual with 25 per cent ability will not perform the expected standards, no matter how highly motivated he/she is to succeed. At Orange France, managers found a way to overcome this issue by identifying a strategic plan to provide to these employees the skills they need to perform well. Employees had also been assessed whether they were in the right position or not. Keys factors that hindered employees performance have also been highlighted: evidence of strong effort despite poor results and lack of improvement over time in spite of ongoing training. Coaching has thus enabled Orange France to re-motivate its employees and to increase their involvement and potential on the basis of this diagnostic. Finally, during coaching session, different approaches can be used to enhance employees development making training sessions more efficient and effective. The catalytic approach is the most used by companies as it improves reflection and draws solutions to problems out of their staff. At Accenture France for example, coaches use every opportunity to ask employees questions such as What do you think? How would you deal with this situation? What do you want and need in Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 8

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terms of respect, trust, skills and empathy? The most successful coaches know that they need to be catalysts who help employees think for themselves since an essential part of todays business work is knowledge work. To get people involved and motivated to achieve their tasks, managers need to ask them questions designed to stimulate their ability to think by themselves. Accentures coaches favour the observation approach where the coach acts as a reflector. He is patient, supportive, careful and methodical and considers different options to enhance employees reflection. He also has strong communications skills that help him transfer knowledge to individuals in a manner that easy to understand. Thus, employees can be developed by managers on a continuous basis through coaching skills that will increase staffs motivation and commitment at work.

3. Costs, benefits and drawbacks of a coaching system

Coaching system includes many advantages which make it one of the best ways to increase performance and motivation in organisations. First of all, it allows achievement of goals in a company as it teaches employees practical methods to approach and thereby understand issues so that they can successfully overcome them and maintain their motivation. In addition, it favours personal growth by helping employees learn faster and acquire both tacit and explicit knowledge in a reasonable period of time. As a result, individuals can grow much more quickly than if they were left on their own tutor. Furthermore, employees get to structure their own implementation plan and coaches help them measure success. Coaching can also be done in groups or individually favouring interaction between individuals. Moreover, coaching helps summarise and document the ongoing dialog between top executives and subordinates on performance and development. Past employees strengths, achievement and contributions are also documented as well as areas requiring improvements and shortcomings. These elements help enhance organisations performance to meet results expectations. Another point worth mentoning here is that coaching enables organisations to link individual behaviours with organisational objectives, plans and values (Gower, 2009). For instance, in combination with new job descriptions, coaching provides process for communicating accountabilities to employees and holding them accountable, thereby establishing an organisational culture more concentrated on outcomes and results. Additionally, it sets specific goals for projectrelated activity for employees and teams. These goals are related to elements of strategic plan and are therefore in coherence with organisations development strategy. It is therefore vital for managers to effectively drive coaching sessions in order to lead their staff forward and anticipate or solve different problems that employees may face while achieving their tasks. At MTN Cameroon, a telecommunications company where I did my internship in 2009, employees were required to do more with fewer resources. An internal event to welcome new employees was to be organised but the budget allocated for this event was insufficient. Employees were therefore demotivated. A directive coaching session has been organised to discuss the issue with the staff. This session has enables MTN to maintain motivation within its company.

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Coaching also enables companies to empower individuals so that they can become effective leaders. The purpose is make them grow as quick as possible. In fact, developing leadership skills is essential in todays business world. Thus, coaching is part of business growth as the more effective are the leaders, the higher the sales within a company. Sales growth is one of the most consistent differentiators between companies. Coaching is useful for sales growth as it can stimulate sales by enhancing executives skills, the way they manage people and knowledge transfer as well as the way they motivate individuals (Parsloe and Wray, 2008). However, coaching can have many drawbacks. One of the negative aspects of coaching is personal matching. Training with coaches always includes a working relationship with them. The problems of personal contact in a pressurised environment with another human being can sometimes become awkward. Some coaches may not necessarily get along with their coachees and this can dramatically affect the coaching session and thereby the standard of coaching received by and individual. Furthermore, there may be conflicting goals. Employing an external coach is not as easy as it appears. Companies must be clear with the goals they are trying to achieve in employing a coach. If the goals do not match each other, for example, an employee may want to run a marathon but simultaneously may want to have more time to relax in; this may make the coaching difficult. Another disadvantage of coaching is the standard of teaching. An external coach needs to be accredited as well as having a proven track record. The coach must have strong coaching and communication skills. A coach who does not have those skills is a coach who has poor teaching methods or does not know his or her subject well. This is more likely to hinder individuals growth and performance rather than boost them. Last but not least, recruiting an external coach may be very expensive and coaching costs may not be affordable for small and medium company for example. To overcome this issue of costs, internal coaching can be implemented as it is less expensive. Internal coaching involves the development of a team of coaches within the organisation. This team is often affiliated to the Human Resources department. Sometimes, managers who have leadership positions take on the added responsibility of coaching one or more executives and supervisors. In addition to being less expensive than external coaches, internal coaches have the advantage of already understanding the companys internal dynamics, goals and values. Accordingly, they can easily overcome the business issues or prevent them. They are usually aware of the executives context: threats and opportunities, weaknesses and strengths and they understand the organisations culture and structure. Furthermore, if they have leadership experience within the company, they may find it easier to gain the respect of others and build reports. Sometimes, communicating with coachees and trying to show them their weaknesses may be difficult. Thus, an internal coach may find it easier to communicate with employees and thereby to win their trust. On the other hand, internal coaches are widely believed to have less coaching skills than external coaches as they appear to be less experienced. That is why they are most often portrayed as coaches at a higher risk of injury since they lack specialisation, strong knowledge in coaching and thereby confidence(Parsloe and Wray, 2008). Therefore, they are less capable of identifying problems and reacting effectively and adequately to embarrassing and complex situations. That is to say that they may lack a cross-organisational perspective that would enable them to put executives attitudes in the context of what is good, ethical or normal in other organisations. Their report may be biased as they are likely to be blinded by their experience in the firm. Moreover, they may considered the Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 10

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coaching assignment to be less necessary than their other tasks and may pretend having less time available for coaching. This leads to poor coaching performance and internal coaches might not take the necessary time to ensure that they understand the individuals needs. Subsequently, they cannot listen to employees as they should normally do. Another argument against internal coaches is that they are more likely to miss signs of personal problems such as marital decline, traumatism and depression since they generally lack relevant professional training. Aside from that, if the executive (coachee) is an influent leader within the organisation, he or she may have some authority over the internal coach and the coach may hence be less inclined to confront serious issues. Conversely, if the internal coach is a subordinate at a lower level hierarchically, the executive (coachee) may be less inclined to seriously take into account the recommendations and guidance of the coach. Last but not least, due to the other responsibilities and allegiances of the internal coach within the organisation, the employee (coachee) may have less confidence that the issues discussed in the coaching sessions will remain entirely confidential (Kentleton, 2010). Because of these adverse effects of internal coaching, it is advisable to approach the development of an internal coach carefully, with low expectations. Although they engender fewer costs, internal coaches need training on feedback tools, coaches behaviours as well as coaching techniques. They also need a recommended coaching process and clear guidelines for listening, handling sensitive issues and coping appropriately with difficult situations, communications skills and maintaining confidentiality. Finally, they need to be given the authority to invest the necessary time to prepare for the coaching sessions and thereby conduct the meetings as effectively as possible.

4. Recommendations for a coaching system implementation

Background and challenge
We are AS Consulting, a small knowledge based service and Consultancy Company that offers advice and training in knowledge management and enhancement issues to the SME Sector. Our client is a medium manufacturing company named CLMN that needs to enhance the way it trains and develop staff as new employees find it difficult to adapt to AS Consulting philosophy. In fact, new comers feel they are not assisted enough during their induction week and existing employees seem to be demotivated and less enthusiastic when achieving their tasks. Moreover, some of them do not have all of the required skills or training to perform their duties. This leads to lower performance and low achievement in terms of goals. To overcome this growing issue within CLMN, it has been suggested that establishing a coaching system might be helpful both to assist the company in developing staff and in helping them improve their management of knowledge assets within the manufacturing firm. As part of the performance management initiative, we are asked to help CLMN implement a coaching system including a training programme so as to manage their staffs performance through coaching, feedback and problem solving. Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 11

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The rationale behind this approach is to reduce some of the perceived ambiguity and arbitrariness that staff feels and optimise the consistency by which leaders and supervisors manage the performance of their subordinates. Furthermore, if such a system is successfully implemented, the productivity of employees might be increased given the importance of the more hands-on approach to performance management that coaching involves. Last but not least, this approach is entirely in line with CLMNs business strategy as the manufacturing firm has an overarching people development strategy in support of its corporate strategy. The expected outcome here is to re-motivate employees increasing their performance, involvement. CLMN aims to get exciting employees about their career planning, bringing commitment and energy into their attitude. Also, this programme is expected to provide further development opportunities for employees who have the potential to become internal career coaches. Managers will be coached for this purpose to improve their behaviours. During the coaching session, the following characteristics of an effective manager will be addressed:

The ability to communicate company goals, values and vision to employees is essential for
CLMN leadership. Technical and management credibility is crucial for managers to gain the respect of their subordinates so that they will be listened to and followed by their employees. It is vital for managers to have leadership skills in todays business world. While that sounds obvious, managers especially those at the lower levels need to lead, and not simply perform tasks. To meet the firms goals, they need to motivate subordinates and know how to delegate. Only a good leader can effectively achieve this through a shared vision, learning and a desire for personal mastery to realise potential. This will help CMLN strengthens commitment to the long-term fostering the personal motivation of its employees through personal mastery. Furthermore, as coaching encourages team learning, the skills of groups or teams of individuals to look the larger picture that lies beyond people perspectives will be developed. We recommend internal coaching as it is less expensive. In addition, internalizing the process will allow CLMN to develop its continuous improvement. This will enable the firm to look constantly for creative solutions as part of its day-to-day operations. To deliver high quality coaching, CLMN needs to select and develop coaches. Staff can self-nominate to become a career coach, but the application of each employee must be agreed by the line manager. We recommend that employees complete an application form and go through a telephone assessment process with the management team. The line manager is required to select the most successful candidates by indicating on the application form what asset the applicant would bring to the career process coaching of CMLN. The selected employees (potential coaches) will attend a twodays workshop run by the Business Coaching Foundation of CMLN using tools with a major focus on career and personal development. However, it might be difficult to predict how much interest is likely to emerge for the coaching programme and thereby how many coaches should be trained in each area. Once up and running, career coaches will be able to join the network of CMLN career coaches and may have the opportunity to share learning and discuss major barriers to their personal Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 12

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development. This will be achieved through twice-yearly peer-to-peer support sessions organised by the management team. Informal support may also be given during the year. Managers will be asked to meet each coach after their first session with a coachee to review the session and thereby get feedback from the coach. After the third session, managers must ask the coachee for feedback on the coaching programme and the process. Last but not least, the feedback will concentrate on the coach performance including his or her ability to listen, to communicate clearly, to understand and to be supportive, empathic, detached, directive and patient. This brings us to the next point of our part which will concentrate on coaching skills which are core requirement for a successful coaching system.

If CMLN aims to deliver high quality coaching, its coaches must be talented. The following areas which would allow the coach to work effectively are further outlined:

Excellent communication skills - with appropriate language, body language, eye contact and
vocabulary including nonthreatening demeanor Appropriate body language - with eye contact and nonthreatening demeanor Active listening - with engagement in the dialogue; the manager must also recap regularly to ensure he or she understands what the coachee is trying to communicate and above all to identify the issue and avoid misunderstandings

Clear expectations - with agreed agenda and focus, the manager should ensure he or she
understand what he or she is expected to achieve

Openness a good manager must show the willingness to explore other possibilities and
experiences to support the coachee

Valuing - with respect for opinions and ideas of the coachee, the manager must encourage
sharing rather than confrontation

Personal qualities - including a sense of humour, enthusiasm, optimism and honesty

These qualities should operate throughout the whole of the performance coaching programme but would be specifically essential during the review stages. Here, when giving feedback following a lesson observation, the coach would be able to support the coachee onto the next stages of the session. This is when real learning is observed.

Allocating coaches
Each of the 25 trained coaches can have two coachees, equating to three to four hours of coaching per month. Matching of coaches to coachees will be undertaken on the basis of hierarchic level at CLMN (looking to match more senior coachees with more senior coaches) and directorate; the purpose is to ensure that coach and coachee are in different directorates to strengthen relationshipbuilding across the company). Monicar France is using the same system since 2007 and it has been proved to be successful.

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Assessing the programme

The programme can be evaluated in several ways. Both coach and coachee review each session and deliver feedback to the career development specialist of CLMN. As the programme develops, managers can use the network of career coaches to provide feedback on the programme and to gain suggestions for its further development. She also plans to implement A broader evaluation process could be further implemented later this year using recent research such as the KPMG white paper on evaluation of coaching as KPMG is one of best knowledge management consultancy firm in the world. The rationale behind this evaluation is to identify areas that need to be improved. Coaches for example can use different approaches to provide feedback to the line manager. They can realise reports or arrange meetings monthly for example. The monthly conversation can be documented so that staff can have access and learn through it. Many factors may determine coaching system success. Thus, the line management should take them into account to increase the chance of success of the coaching programme. These factors include organisational structure, learning organisation, personality types management, infrastructures (resources), coaching recruitment, prejudice of diversity of culture as well as the stakeholders expectations and agreement. But in this paper only four of them (stakeholder acceptability, coaching skills, learning and the purpose of the coaching) will be developed as they are vital in any coaching system. Unlike the other factors, we strongly believe that they are indispensable that means if one of them is missing, the coaching system will be dramatically affected. Firstly, the purpose of the coaching should be clearly defined to avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding. This is related to the objective of the coaching as well as the coachees needs. As Parsloe and Wray (2008) argued, a successful personal development plan must answer to the following questions: What is to be achieved? How will it be done? Where will it be done? When will it start and end? Who will be involved? Who needs to agree the plan? The purpose of the coaching should also be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-framed (Parsloe, Wray, 2008). Aside from that, the purpose should be in line with the business strategy. If not, the whole performance of the organisation may drastically be affected. Also, top executives must ensure that coaches have required skills to coach as if coaches are not qualified, there is a strong likelihood that coaches will be unhappy and this may lead to demotivation and thereby underperformance at work. The coaching session is also unlikely to produce a result as the coachee may leave the session earlier. This may happen when the coach is not supportive and patient or when he or she lacks of communication skills. Another point worth mentioning here is learning as knowledge that individuals need should be assessed before the coaching session. The type of knowledge should be identified (tacit or explicit knowledge). The gap between the desired performance and the actual performance should also be evaluated so as to define the issue and the learning style to help individuals gain the knowledge they need. To evaluate that, interviews appraisals are recommended in order to analyse individuals attitudes, their learning perspectives and thereby their expectations. This assessment is important as individuals may not have the same needs and levels of knowledge. Therefore, different tools might be used to assess each category of individuals. For instance, the GROW model is a powerful technique for coaching learners who already have some basic knowledge and expertise on the issue involved. This approach which is less directive mainly concentrates on de the coachs development. However, this model might be too time consuming for less experienced learners. This approach required time and patience and cannot be rushed. That is why it should be used with careful attention.

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Last but not least, although the primary relationship in any coaching activity is between the coach and the coachee, this is not the only crucial relationship. Other key stakeholders involve managers and a representative executive (most frequently and HR practioner) that represents the companys interests. As both these parties are interesting in enhancing employees performance and meeting the goals, their contribution and acceptability concerning the coaching programme is essential. The stakeholder model (Hay, 1995) includes HR, coaches, individuals and line manager who should reach an agreement and define the purpose of the coaching programme together. However, in situations where the manager is the coach, the model is more complex. It becomes essential to ensure guidelines on confidentiality and information flow early on to develop trust between an individual and a coach and the other multiple stakeholders (Hay, 1995).

Conclusion
Coaching and mentoring are essential for any business to train and development staff as effectively as possible. This report has clearly shown how crucial coaching has become for businesses in todays business world. To implement a coaching system successfully, CLMN needs to take many factors into account including coaches skills, stakeholders expectations, the type of knowledge, learning within the firm, etc. Therefore, it is to be hoped that CLMN will consider both advantages and disadvantages of coaching before implementing such a system.

References
Books Connor, M., Pokora J., 2007, Coaching and mentoring at work, developing effective practice, 4th edition. Glasgow: Mc Graw Hill, pp. 859-1008. ELLIOT, A. (2006) How coaching drives high performance at Portman. Strategic HR Review. May/June Parsloe, E., Wray M., 2008, Coaching and Mentoring, practical methods to improve learning. Haslington: British library, p. 27. Kirman, C., 2009, Improving learning transfer. London: Gower publishing, p. 49. Krewson, H. (2004) Integrating coaching, training and development with talent management. In: BERGER, L. and BERGER, D. (eds). The talent management handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill. Websites Kentleton, R., 2010, Benefits of coaching in the workplace. [online] (11th May 2010) Saphie Alim, A4032674 Page 15

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Available at: http://www.coaches-learning-center.com/executive_coaching_benefits_11.htm [Accessed 26 November 2010]. Mc Call, C., 2010, Coaching and mentoring for excellence. [online] (28th September 2010) Available at : https://www.leadership.opm.gov/programs/Skill-Immersion/CMFE/Index.aspx [Accessed 29 November 2011].

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