Coaching is a hot topic these days, and that’s no surprise considering the pace of change. To be agile and adapt quickly, we often need help pivoting. That’s why creating a coaching culture is a popular topic. Organizations strive to create an environment where people can constantly coach one another for optimal performance, but there are many types of coaching in the workplace to consider, and they are not all equal.
Let’s investigate the different forms of workplace coaching and their values:
- Humanist coaching is focused on helping leaders reach their full potential. You’ve probably heard the term self-actualization and that’s what this one is all about. It relies heavily on the relationship and trust between leaders and coaches to create success for the leader. Humanist coaching takes on a therapy-oriented perspective. Often, the leader being coached may already be in the midst of crisis, and the coach helps the leader find stability and confidence. While this is great for the leader, it doesn’t necessarily help them achieve the organization’s goals.
- Adult development coaching focuses on the different stages of adult development. The coach determines where the leader is in their development and helps the leader move toward a more mature understanding of authority and responsibility, as well as a greater tolerance for ambiguity. This is a therapeutic coaching strategy centered on the experiences of each stage of adult development. This coaching approach doesn’t necessarily equate to furthering the organization’s goals.
- Cognitive coaching addresses the maladaptive thoughts that can get in the way of a leader’s success. This therapeutic approach to coaching requires a coach to challenge the way the leader thinks about the actions of others in nonproductive ways, hindering their own performance. This approach has its place at the right time for the right leader, but it doesn’t address holistic behavior change.
- The positive psychology model for coaching has surged in popularity over the last few years. This strengths-based approach requires a coach to help the leader expand existing strengths to build positive emotions, creating greater happiness, and in the process, higher levels of performance. While it can sometimes be used to achieve specific goals, this approach is primarily designed to change an individual leader’s perceptions and attitudes in a more positive direction.
- Systemic coaching takes into account a wide range of factors that affect performance. It focuses on looking at patterns that may impede a leader’s performance and seeks to disrupt them. It also highlights the importance of making small changes that can add up to big results over time.
- Goal-oriented coaching is the type of coaching in the workplace many of us are most familiar with. It aims to help leaders regulate and direct their interpersonal and personal resources to better attain goals. The primary approach helps the leader form well-crafted goals and develop an effective action plan.
Combining the Best From These Approaches
Each of these approaches varies in terms of how directive, solution-focused, and dependent they are on the relationship that is established between the coach and the leader. And while each approach has shown some level of effectiveness, the value that’s delivered to the leader by the coach can be improved upon for each of them.
That’s where a new coaching style comes in, one that takes the best aspects from each approach to creates something more attuned to the challenges of today’s leader. Enter a new form of workplace coaching: adaptive coaching. Learn more about adaptive coaching in DDI’s blog.