Workplace coaching to develop leadership flexibility: the impact of after-event review

Abstract

PurposeThe main goal of this study was to determine whether coachees assigned to complete an after-event review (AER) to prepare for each coaching session would experience greater development in their leadership flexibility than participants assigned to a group experiencing process-oriented coaching without AERs.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained using a quasi-experimental design with multi-source and longitudinal data, including 46 coachees and 103 external raters.FindingsThe AER was associated with greater improvement in leadership flexibility (forcing-enabling duality). In contrast, participants who did not use AER had lower leadership flexibility as assessed by external respondents. Leadership flexibility was associated with team performance and vitality.Practical implicationsResults show that during this process, clients' ownership of their development plan is reinforced, as is their capacity to internalize this process of reflection once the coaching is finished, thus allowing the development to continue beyond the approach.Originality/valueThese results are among the first to suggest that a specific structured facilitation process used by coaches may be more effective in the development of coachees than regular process-oriented coaching.