Recommended reading

Citation

Nolan, S. (2012), "Recommended reading", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 11 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2012.37211faa.013

Recommended reading

Article Type: Recommended reading From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 11, Issue 6

Creating a Coaching Culture,Peter Hawkins,Open University Press,McGraw Hill Education,ISBN-13: 978-0-33-523895-8,ISBN-10: 0-33-523895-5

In this book, Peter Hawkins, Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, takes a practical approach to addressing the issue of how to create a coaching culture.

While coaching is a well-established practice, there is increasing pressure on organizations to show a return on investment in external and internal coaching from an organizational perspective. The next stage of coaching needs to be different in order to demonstrate its impact, not just on individual development, but also on the strategic and commercial development of the organization. The author believes a new coaching model is therefore required, whereby coaching is a joint endeavor between the coach and client in service of a strategic objective, such as increased leadership capacity, organizational change or better serving of stakeholders.

The author’s practical approach includes a seven step guide to creating a coaching strategy and aligning it to the wider organizational culture change, serving as guidance to senior executives, HR professionals, coaching managers and coaches. The book includes over 25 case studies from a range of organizations and countries, demonstrating how they have successfully used coaching strategies to increase the effectiveness of their businesses.

The next generation of coaching

Hawkins demonstrates that creating a coaching culture is about more than just “doing” coaching. Instead, coaching needs to be embraced at a senior level in the organization, embedded into the organizational strategy and cascaded through the organization’s systems and relationships, including with suppliers and customers. This complex requirement for the next generation of coaching is made simpler through the book’s practical approach of presenting an overall framework and then breaking it down into steps. In the final chapters, the author looks at how to get all the elements working together so that a coaching culture is created, and not just a lot of different coaching activities.

The advice in this book is based on the author’s experience of more than 30 years of helping organizations develop a coaching culture, as well as four years of dedicated research. Much of the advice is the result of interviews with HR executives, coaching managers and coaches, many of who shared their own experiences through case studies. Case organizations featured in the book cover a range of industries and sectors, from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tesco and Yell Group to the Department of Heath UK, Metropolitan Police, the National College for the leadership of Schools and Children’s Services and the BBC.

It is a useful addition to current practical coaching literature and will be of interest to HR and coaching professionals as well as those responsible for organizational change strategies. Readers will be equipped with information to assist with formation, implementation and monitoring of an organizational coaching strategy.

Sara NolanEditor, Strategic HR Review