Coaching and Mentoring

Coaching and mentoring are something we’re passionate about and are the underpinning methodologies of our sustainable learning approach because:

WE KNOW that a coaching style of management encourages accountability and responsibility as individuals recognise their own capabilities

WE KNOW that a coaching style of management increases the satisfaction and morale of staff, releases managers and leaders from the operational elements of their work so they can focus more on developmental and strategic issues, and increases the personal and professional awareness of both parties

WE KNOW that coaching and mentoring develop commitment rather than just compliance to organisational aims

WE KNOW that coaching is becoming more and more the management style of choice in organisations that have to respond flexibly to change and need to use the full potential of their staff

WE KNOW that employers are increasingly looking for evidence of coaching skills in the managers they recruit, and for formal coaching qualifications in the coaches and mentors they employ

WE KNOW that one of the best methods of developing practical leadership skills is through mentoring and coaching

WE KNOW that coaching skills have a clear alignment with transformational leadership skills, Human Performance principles and other leading organisational development approaches

IN FACT, WE KNOW ALOT! About coaching and mentoring, about behaviour change, about organisational learning, about organisational development, about reflective practice, about supervision, about ethics, about mindset…. ..and we apply all this knowledge to make our Beehive ‘Coaching and Mentoring for Management’ programmes practical, relevant, challenging, intensive, stimulating, supportive, and effective– the best package of personal and professional development you could want!

1. What will an ILM accreditation in coaching do for me as a practitioner?
   The move in organisations is to use accredited coaches, that conform to recognised coaching standards. ILM accreditation is an external quality mark that is recognised by buyers and will differentiate you from the vast number of self-styled “coaches” out in the market place
2. What will an ILM accreditation in coaching do for me as a senior manager?
   Coaching skills are compatible with transformational leadership skills. ILM accreditation gives you the confidence that your coaching/transformational leadership skills hit a high external benchmark for quality, and adds to your marketability by providing evidence of your performance management skills as well as your functional specialism

Why use coaching for leadership development?

Because leaders in today’s world of unprecedented change have an increasingly demanding role. They are not only expected to focus on results but also to continually review performance, provide vision, offer inspiration and motivation, respond flexibly to change, and ensure the development of their managers and staff.

In a competitive environment where continually demonstrating added value and improved results is critical for progression, it is not enough o rely on past successes. Many leaders reach their positions through a combination of technical expertise, professional qualifications, and experience, all necessary for good leadership. Outstanding leaders, however, acknowledge their continuing need to learn and grow. They are open to increasing self-awareness and recognise that honest feedback, challenge and support are essential for personal and organisational growth.

Unfortunately it is the decision makers with the most influence in an organisation who are often the most isolated. They may not get the feedback, challenge and support they need to do their job most effectively. They operate under strict time pressures, making it harder to commit time and energy to their own development. This can lead to it being neglected in the face of the more urgent demands and priorities of the job which is where one-to-one leadership development in the form of a coaching partnership adds value. 

'Coaching in Context' - how coaching is used in organisations

The CIPD Learning and Development Report 2012 revealed that managers found coaching the most effective learning and talent development practice in organisations, along with in-house programmes. We were really interested in understanding more about the role of coaching within our client and other organisations. We undertook our own research into this and the results make fascinating reading - download a copy    Coaching in Context Survey

'Nightmare employees'

The research showed that coaching had helped managers deal with their most difficult people management issues, including nightmare employees - those people who take up a disproportionate amount of management time and energy and impact on team morale. ‘The results of the research were very exciting’ said Sara. ‘We wanted to know just how organisations were using coaching and mentoring and what benefits they found’. Co-director Mark Sykes added ‘We know coaching works but even we didn’t expect the effects to be so varied and wide reaching’.

Coaching addresses the top three people-management issues in organisations

The research showed that some of the ways organisations had found coaching helpful included:

Change management - This was the top people-management challenge facing respondent organisations, along with leadership and management development, performance management and cost cutting. Almost 80% of respondents stated that they saw that coaching could help address their top people-management issues, and those who disagreed only did so because cost-cutting and lack of promotional issues were the outside the remit of coaching

Improved management effectiveness - Those managers who had had coaching themselves described how coaching had been performance enhancing for them because it raised their awareness of how their behaviours affected others. It was this insight that enabled them to deal more effectively with their nightmare employees

Avoiding tribunals - Lack of coaching and training had led to one organisation being found wanting in an employment tribunal. This led to them extending coaching throughout the organisation

Noticeable change in leadership style - Coaching at leadership levels had helped to invigorate burnt out, cynical managers and leaders, providing something new in the area of management and leadership development. This had led to a noticeable change in leadership styles

Cost effectiveness - “Even a finance director had been convinced of the benefits, saying that he had seen big reductions in cost as a result of coaching and that coaching had ‘definitely been cost effective’! We felt that was really significant.” said Sara.

Download a copy of the results    Coaching in Context Survey

Human Performance (HU) and coaching

Beehive has worked with Magnox Ltd in the nuclear sector on its HU agenda. Human performance is 'a unique blend of behaviours, managing organisational defences, safety culture, and preventing errors to avoid or mitigate the impact of events and accidents'. (HU practitioner training standards) . We see clear alignment between the specific principles of HU and our 'sustainable learning' OD approach of developing a learning mindset and embedding learning activities such as coaching, for example:

People are fallible, even the best make mistakes – which requires a problem solving not blame culture - coaching supports this

Error-likely situations are predictable, manageable, preventable – but for the ones that don’t conform to the rule book people need to understand and be resourced/confident enough to apply the principles themselves

Individual behaviour is influenced by organisational processes etc – and organisational processes are the result of individual behaviour, so buy-in and commitment at the individual level is crucial

People achieve high levels of performance largely due to encouragement and reinforcement of leaders, peers and subordinates- 'leadership is central to safety' Dr James Reason. That's why we focus on developing coaching skills at leadership levels, and leadership at all levels

Events can be avoided tby an understanding of the reasons mistakes occur and application of the lessons learned from past events - that comes through the embedding of learning activities - review, enquiry, coaching, feedback and the experiential learning cycle as outlined in our sustainable learning approach

Commitment v Compliance

Coaching helps build commitment to and not just compliance with error avoidance techniques and the safety agenda.

With compliance the process is: Told to do something - Resentment or obligation - Follow without question - Don’t understand why - Blames others - covers up - Waits to be told what to do - Can lead to Complacency

With commitment the process is: Chooses to do something - Understand why - Clarity of purpose and outcome - Ownership - Seek responsibility - Increased discretionary effort - Continuous improvement

As Dr James Reason says -

‘A pretty good SMS with 100% buy-in is better than a perfect system with 0% commitment’

We can help you build commitment to your SMS. For more details contact us at info@beecld.co.uk