Become the best coach you can be: the role of coach training and coaching experience in workplace coaching quality and quality control

Sandra J Diller,Eva Jonas,Siegfried Greif,Hazel J Brown,Jonathan Passmore

doi:10.1007/s11613-020-00662-8

Abstract

This paper explores whether coach training or coaching experience leads to better coaching quality and quality control. In two large studies, both coaches (N1 = 2267) and personnel managers who book coaches for their company (N2 = 754) answered questions about coaching quality and quality control. The results show that more coach training leads to not only a better self-perceived coaching quality (Study 1) but also a better other-perceived coaching-quality (Study 2); moreover, more coach training positively affects quality control. It is remarkable that coaching experience showed no significant relation regarding other-perceived coaching quality and quality control. Study 2 further revealed that references lead to more recommendations but not to a better coaching quality or quality control. Thus, coach training is an essential factor when selecting organizational coaches. Further research is needed to understand the impact of different approaches to coach trainings on coaching outcomes.

Highlights

Coaching is an expensive personnel development format that is expected to help the client in his/her development
This result could mean that more experienced coaches perceive themselves as very highquality coaches but may not be aware of their actual coaching quality due to a lack of quality control: People without this awareness hold an inherent self-belief in the quality of their work (Kruger and Dunning 1999)
We hypothesized that the higher the level of coach training, the higher the others perceived coaches’ coaching quality (H1) and the higher the level of coaching evaluation (H2)

Summary

Introduction

Coaching is an expensive personnel development format that is expected to help the client in his/her development. As the profession of “coaching” is unregulated and lacks a clear definition, barriers to entry are low: Anyone can call themselves a coach and use the term ‘coaching’ to describe what their practice, their practise may be closer to training or mentoring than to coaching (Meindl 2016). This unregulated coaching market has led to the challenge of intangibility, inseparability, and heterogeneity: Coaching is difficult to grasp as a service, difficult to separate from other services, and differs reflecting the coach’s individual background (Greif 2017, 2018).

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