Coaching in Organizations: A Status Report (Past, Present and Future)
18 Coaching World | February 2012 | www.coachfederation.org
Personal vs. Organizational Focus
First, do Rachel and Sam focus on the mess through the lens of Sam’s personal
life and issues? Do they attend to his stress and his inability to craft a life where the
priorities of home and work are in balance?
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Research
Sam further indicated that he hopes Rachel might assist him in mapping out
a strategy for building better relationships with the men and women whom he
supervises. While his organization has never done much with coaching services,
There were many issues that Sam wished to confront during his coaching sessions
with Rachel – after all everything was a mess. Many years ago, Don Schön wrote
about the messes being confronted by contemporary professionals. These messes
are multi-dimensional, requiring multi-disciplinary perspectives and multi-strategy
approaches to the coaching process itself. As Rachel and Sam face the initial task
of deciding how to proceed and where to leap into the mess, they must make several
important decisions that reveal something about the contemporary state of this field
called professional coaching.
Marketing
Before making a commitment to Sam, Rachel began asking some questions
regarding why he wanted a coach, what he would hope to accomplish with the
coaching session, and how the payment for coaching services was to be structured.
Sam indicated that he had been talking with his wife during the past month about
work-related stress and, in particular, about the contradictory demands being made
on him by the president and other vice presidents of his health care organization.
His wife, Marnie, suggested that he consider hiring an organizational coach. Marnie
works in an organization that offers coaching services. Sam told Marnie about his
chance encounter with Rachel and Marnie immediately encourages Sam to give
Rachel a call.
Rachel and Sam established the contractual obligations and began working together
for two hours once a week. They initially met at Sam‘s office, but given the frequent
interruptions of these coaching sessions by members of Sam‘s staff, Rachel and
Sam decided instead to meet in a conference room located in a building that was
owned by the hospital, but was located several blocks away from Sam‘s office. The
coaching sessions inevitably began with Sam‘s sigh and eyes cast toward heaven.
Then something like everything is a mess would come out of Sam‘s mouth and the
work would begin.
Benefits
Though Rachel had not given Sam a business care, nor even attempted to solicit his
business, she received a phone call several days later from Sam. He sounded very
hesitant on the phone, indicating that he didn‘t want to intrude on Rachel‘s life and
noted that he had gotten her business phone number from the Habitat office only
after he had lied and told them that he need to call about the coordination of work
schedules for the house they were building. After exchanging some pleasantries,
Rachel reassured Sam that his phone call was not at all intrusive. With that
reassurance, Sam got down to business. He indicated that he wanted to hire Rachel
as his coach and wondered if this were possible, given that they were working on
Habitat together. Sam indicated that if it were necessary, he would drop off the
Habitat project and begin work in several months on another Habitat project.
Sam believed that he could obtain funds to support the coaching services and that
Kurt, the President of his organization, would approve of this allocation of funds. Kurt
is a strong advocate (at least on paper) for developmental services in his hospital.
Profiles
difficult right now, given the crises in American health care. Sam offered a sigh and
a quite turn of his eyes to the heavens above. Then they both went back to work on
something they could accomplish that was quite tangible – building a home for a
deserving family in St. Paul.
Leadership
Before making a commitment to Sam, Rachel began asking some
questions regarding why he wanted a coach...