The Heart of coaching: a coaching model for managers

The coaching sector has mushroomed in the lastfive years. In the 1990’s working as a chief executive I never thought aboutwhether I needed an executive coach. Now, sitting on the opposite side of thetable to senior managers I have come to believe this is an indispensable partof their personal development. Coaching’s popularity has spread to managers,who are keen to add the approach to their range of skills. The work of writerssuch as Goleman (2002) has highlighted the benefits of coaching as one of a varietyof styles that successful managers use. He suggested that when combined withdeveloping a clear vision, sharing this vision with others, and involvingothers to build plans, managers can build long-term strength in organisationsthrough using a coaching approach. Many managers have recognised this but havebeen struggling to get coaching to work for them. In most organisations,managers try to apply coaching but lack a framework or model, and this tends tomake coaching feel more ‘tell’ then ‘ask’, even when the manager labels theirapproach as ‘coaching’. For organisations which offer a developmental style theGROW model is ubiquitous. Once learned, managers have limited space to furtherdevelop what they do, or to think more widely about the questions they ask. Tosupport this developmental need we have developed a manager’s coaching modelwhich is rooted in the behaviouralist traditions of GROW, but helps managers tothink through what they should be doing at each stage. GROW is a simple, robustgoal focused model well suited to coaching (Passmore 2003) which we hope willbe enhanced through this application framework.

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