Coaching and empowerment as organizational development tools
With the economic recovery of the European and Asian economic powers after the Second World War, companies are once again immersed within a strong sphere of competition. With the increase in production generated by investment in technology, the problems of companies began to focus more on problems of productivity of human capital than problems with production.
That is why the trend of business administration is focused on solving the problems of the hired staff, so that they can be deeply involved in the organization and be inclusive participants in decision-making. Previously, the employee of the company was considered as an element that contributes work to the company in order to satisfy their individual interests. However, the new management trend suggests that employees should be considered collaborators and establish that their individual benefit is linked to the company's benefit.
How to get the company's employees motivated to achieve that communal benefit? Human relations within the company depend largely on the specific policies that regulate organizations. Therefore, the way in which employees are treated will have an impact on productivity.
Companies in their common organization are led by a selected group of individuals, who make market decisions, competition, and internal practices. The decisions of this select group are the guide for the other members at the bottom of the organization chart. Is it possible that the employees of the company can think of a world where they do not respond to orders and incentives, but rather that they can be proactive and seek in their decisions the way in which the common benefit is found?
To ensure that companies have effective employees in competitive situations, it is necessary to use specific tools that encourage behavior. Investing in the development of individuals requires specific techniques.
Within the business context, there are two techniques called "Coaching" and "Empowerment" whose combination seeks that the members of the organizations have a higher level of commitment and effectiveness within the company's objective. How can we define these concepts and how does their application benefit the company?
What is Coaching?
Within the language of the administration, the adaptation of neologisms and anglicisms is frequent due to the strong influence of the American schools of thought and the neutrality of English as a form of communication. However, the word coaching comes from anglicism "Coach" which means "train".
The most outstanding exponent of Coaching is Sir John Whitmore, who is the founder of the company “Performance Consultants International” and is best known for his career as a thinker of leadership development and organizational change. With the creation of the GROW model, which is a favorite of administrators and managers around the world, he has become one of the most influential authors of the method. (Performance Consultants, sf)
Whitmore (2002, p. 19) mentions that the term has an origin in the sports field and mentions that its essence can be defined in “Unlocking a person's potential to maximize performance. It's about helping him learn instead of teaching him. ”
Therefore, Whitmore (2002) defines coaching as "It is helping and accompanying an organization, person or group in its spiral of movement, change, learning, talent release, transformation and expansion of consciousness" This kind of thinking within of organizations shows that individuals have capacity that has not been developed, but that they can be according to the way in which the managers of the organization are willing to promote the growth and individual capacity of individuals.
The sporting influence on Whitmore's thinking comes from his performance in auto racing in the UK, during his career as a car racer he is worthy of several titles, after his retirement as a racer, Whitmore is employed as a sports psychologist (Wikipedia, sf)
One of the foundations of Coaching is the GROW model which is established in the book “Coaching for performance”. This model is a question system, which is designed to guide individuals towards learning.
The GROW (Performance Consultants) model is one of the most successful coaching models ever created, however, its own author mentions that GROW by itself is not coaching, but it is a way in which coaching assumptions can be structured..
The name of the model refers to an acronym whose meaning is Goals (goals), Reality (reality), Options (options) and Will (will). Working with these four scenarios, the GROW model encourages the individual awakening of:
- Own aspirations The current situation and aspirations The possibilities and available resources The actions that must be carried out to achieve personal and professional goals.
The GROW Model has 4 steps established, in each of the steps a key question is asked to the individual in order to guide the objectives. Each of these objectives seeks to establish the form of organization and the behavior of individuals within the process. (Performance Consultants, sf)
What are your goals?
This question seeks to identify and clarify the type of goal to be achieved, allows an understanding of the aspirations and clarifies the desired result of the coordinated efforts.
What is the reality?
The current situation is recognized in terms of the actions that have been carried out, clarifies the results of the actions taken previously and provides an understanding of the internal obstacles that limit progress.
What are the options?
This question identifies possibilities and alternatives in addition to seeking to develop a variety of strategies for progress.
What will be done?
This question provides an understanding of what has been learned and has been modified to achieve the original goals, Creates an index and an action plan to carry out the goal, shows possible future obstacles, considers the constant fulfillment of achievements and the necessary development for the agreed actions in addition to showing and highlighting the goals that have already been achieved.
Therefore, coaching is a tool that shows how to be a better leader. According to the ideas developed by Whitmore, the best leader is not the one who can be aware of all the company's processes, but the one who knows how to educate his collaborators so that they can be better problem solvers.
New organizations should have elements that are capable of meeting the organization's challenges with their own ideas, rather than expecting tasks to be provided to them by higher ranks. The need for organizations to have rational thinkers who are capable of solving complex problems leads to using techniques that force critical thinking.
Lead by Coaching
How can a manager use coaching to guide his collaborators to achieve success? According to Whitmore (2002, p. 165) The manager must establish an appropriate relationship with the team members who are in charge.
If the leader wants to encourage openness and openness, it will require openness, but if the manager requires the team to trust him, it requires showing that he is trustworthy. Teams still expect self-critical leadership behavior, so they may be confused when faced with the proposed situation.
Therefore, to apply coaching it is necessary to achieve express team cooperation. How can teams succeed in overlapping their individual interests and seek to unite to achieve a certain goal? Whitmore (2002, p. 166) establishes a list of responses to achieve coordination:
- Discuss and agree on the definition of common goals for the team. Develop a set of basic rules or operating principles for all members. Reserve time on a regular basis, for a community work meeting. Examine members' views on shared social activities Establish support systems to address emerging problems Develop a common interest outside of work Learn a new skill together Practice community skills Hold group discussions about group meaning
With these options and exercises, a leader can generate greater cohesion in the group and develop an awareness of individual and collective responsibility.
What is empowerment?
The word "empowerment" is an anglicism that can be interpreted as "empowerment". This word can be interpreted as "Grant the faculty" or "Give the power of a certain act". The meaning of this word does not have a direct translation into Spanish, but it has ideas close to the original meaning.
When conducting a review of the administrative literature (Hernández & Hernández), it can be found that for the authors Lloyd and Bethelot, they manage that empowering an individual means “That authority should be given to make decisions and act, without having to seek approval every time ”in addition to adding the concept of“ Letting people use their own intelligence, experience, intuition and creativity, to help the organization improve and succeed.
Later, Terry Wilson mentions that empowerment consists of:
"Enhance the motivation and results of all employees of a company through delegation and the transition of power." This idea suggests that the individual should be made to feel like the owner of her work.
Empowerment can be considered as the movement that seeks to empower people, it seeks to strengthen the leadership role that gives meaning to teamwork. Does this movement replace pyramid hierarchies? Are you trying to replace these structures with self-directed teams?
According to what Johnson (Hernández & Hernández) described, the characteristics that undergo the empowerment process are described by:
- The activities and authority of the position that belong to each collaborator are known. The responsibility lies with the employee himself and not his immediate boss. The positions generate value because the collaborator gets involved in the job. The position and role are known. of each piece of the organization.
So, in Johnson's vision, work within the empowerment system works to add value to work and each member is a functional piece of the production system.
The problem of empowerment arises when it is not possible to establish a system of interest of the collaborators about the work of the company. It is known that individual benefit is a priority in the search for human benefit. How to make the communal benefit of the company mean an individual benefit?
The following problems can be detected within the organization:
- Hardly anyone on the company staff gets excited about the aspects of work. Items that excite staff are usually off work. Staff only care about their pay, vacation and pensions. The general attitude of work is "Don't do something. you don't have to. ”During the workday, people tend to save effort. No one assumes greater responsibilities than necessary and no one will mind generating a system of improvement in the short term.
To attend to the current problem, you can choose to take the following measures:
- Establishment of quality circles. Implementation of motivational courses. Establishment of higher salaries. Improvement of life at work. Pyramidal organizational changes to horizontal organizations. Organizational reengineering. Introduction of total quality systems. Implementation of suggestion boxes. communications. Greater security measures.
Apparently, empowerment seeks to integrate work into the worker's life, by making him appreciate that the success of his work will influence his personal goals. Is this possible? After all, individuals hardly select their professions according to their dreams, they do so according to the possible income they can obtain. How to integrate the system within the production process?
Integrate the Empowerment to the operational staff
First, you must understand how interpersonal relationships work within the company. The relationships that the leader maintains with the personnel must have two attributes: they must be effective for the achievement of the established objectives and they must be solid, so they must remain over time and not be changeable.
This assumes that the leader must approach relationships in such a way that disagreements are not generated, and that these relationships do not depend on certain circumstances. A leader should not change the dealings with individuals only for personal reasons such as disagreement.
Second, empowerment does not mean that discipline must be reduced. It is necessary to promote order, structure as well as the clear definition of roles, in which the roles and responsibilities are specified.
Therefore, even when it is endowed with a greater capacity for problem solving, the structure of the company should not be neglected, nor should misunderstandings be given, as well as breaches of trust by granting more capabilities to individuals.
Finally, it is important to mention commitment and its relationship with leadership. Employees must have loyalty to the company, perseverance and energy to complete the objectives.
In this case, it is important to have established the rules to promote the inclusion of individuals in the company, otherwise; They will decide not to fully enter the process of individual responsibility.
Relationship between coaching and empowerment: A reflection
Both tools have similarities in the way they understand the organization and work systems. If both systems are to be applied within the company, it would be possible to obtain highly trained operational personnel in the objectives of the organization, who would also be suitable for decision-making and acceptance of responsibility.
This combination of techniques may seem ideal, the implementation problem is fundamentally in the logic of the organizations, at what point would the collaborators accept greater responsibilities without this representing an increase in their status or in their income? The problem with giving employees greater responsibilities is that they will also require greater incentives to prepare in the best possible way.
Modern organizations require creative individuals who can overcome present challenges. However, they also require roles and structures, as well as work systems. Without work systems or without job managers, creation and assignment would depend solely on the goodwill of the worker.
Clearly, coaching and empowerment techniques can be applied within organizations dedicated to solving problems such as a consultancy or a company that is dedicated to the development and design of products, but how to introduce these techniques within a production system?
With the technology revolution, people move away from the maquilas and more machines are used. How to apply empowerment in repetitive systems? It seems that there are certain organizations where it is possible and preponderant to establish systems of common responsibility, but there are others that can be developed with common chains of command.
Bibliography
- Hernández, M., & Hernández, Y. (sf). Empowerment in the organization: A first approach. Obtained from http://www.uv.mx/iiesca/files/2013/01/empowerment2005-1.pdfMarciniak, R. (sf). Business management. Obtained from https://renatamarciniak.wordpress.com/tag/analisis-macro-y-micro-entorno/ Performance Consultans. (sf). Obtained from Performance Consultants International: http: //www.performanceconsultants.com/sir-john-whitmorePerformance Consultants. (sf). Performance Consultants. Obtained from http://www.performanceconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/GROW-Model-Guide.pdfRobbins, S. (2008). Organizational behavior. Mexico: Pearson.UAM. (2016). Group concept. Obtained from https://www.uam.es/personal_pdi/psicologia/cmessina/LECTURAS/grupo_2.pdfWhitmore, J. (2002). Coaching, The method to improve people's performance. Mexico:Paidós.Wikipedia. (sf). John Whitmore. Obtained from
