Public Sector Coaching
Coaching has a reputation as an expensive tool for senior executives, however more public sector organisations are making this kind of professional development service available for their employees.
A Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development(CIPD) Training and Development Survey found that the most common recipients of coaching were:
- Junior and middle managers (64%)
- Senior managers (52%)
- Directors (37%)
This shows that there is a growing recognition that supporting staff across a range of disciplines helps improve performance, retain committed and experienced people and assists those employees who are stuck in their career or unclear about how to progress into more senior positions.
Who uses coaching in the public sector?
Public departments, charities, the NHS, primary care trusts and schools and colleges are all using coaching. Health Clinicians, Social Care Practitioners, Educators and Managers at all levels can benefit from coaching.
Employees in public sector organizations share a number of common issues:
- The work is service driven and has an underlying principal and value structure that prioritises a service culture
- A diverse workforce is increasingly becoming the norm in urban areas and also in more suburban and rural communities
- Change is constant and employees need to develop skills to mange this effectively
- Managing conflict is part of the work or present in a organizational context
- There is a need to make targeted interventions to manage poor individual performance
- There is a need to improve team performance
- Coaching helps meet employee demand for continuous professional development.
We believe that the programmes that we offer can help employees to manage these needs through:
- Supporting and motivating people to develop themselves through continuous professional development
- Providing opportunities for a range of people from different cultural backgrounds to explore how they manage their relationships
- Helping people to find their own solutions to problematic communication or conflictual interpersonal relationships and situations
- Facilitating managers to 'take a fresh view' on complex or difficult scenarios related to employee performance and cultural difference
- Helping new managers or people moving into senior management positions to focus on building their skills and defining career goals.
Clients are likely to achieve results from coaching if:
- They are committed to challenging themselves
- They value good working relationships
- Tthey or their staff are responsive to development and change
- They value direct and empathetic feedback