In Chapter 8: Leadership Coaching, Karla Reiss discusses the value of coaching as embodying the best components of professional development. She presents the view that coaching is personalised to the needs of the leader to realise the goals of an organisation. She explains that coaching is necessary for transformational change, and should be viewed as “a process, leadership style, and continuous improvement strategy” (Knight, 2008, p. 168). She recognises the need for studies on the effect of coaching on leadership in schools, and presents research from industry which shows that coaching has a positive impact on the leader and the organisation in a broad range of areas including job satisfaction, beliefs about coaching, organisational structure, relevant skills, and tenure.
Reiss states that every leader can get better with coaching. Coaching is individualised and contextualised with a focus on flexibility and growth mindset to help leaders deal with changes and achieve their mission and vision. Leaders can also apply a coaching approach to their leadership through weekly meetings to discuss goals, progress made, perceived obstacles, and paths for continued progress. The most important skills of a coach are listening and questioning to learn about the person being coached, the situation, and the context to support the coach in coming up with individualised solutions that will lead to success.
This post is part of a larger series based on the book Coaching Approaches & Perspectives edited by Jim Knight. This post is based on sections of Chapter 8: Leadership Coaching. Visit the Coaching category for other related posts.
Book Citation: Knight, J. (Ed.). (2008). Coaching: Approaches and perspectives. Corwin Press.