Why make coaching an institutional priority? The benefits of coaching Universities as "Thinking Organisations" Developing institutional coaches Relevant examples Managing change

 

Why make coaching an institutional priority?

Coaching is an approach that can be beneficial at different scales, from the individual up to the institutional. Making coaching an institutional priority can help develop effective leaders, increase effective decision making and improve student performance. Although there is an investment involved in incorporating coaching into the management ethos of an organisation, the impact can be substantial.

The benefits of coaching

There is growing evidence that coaching is an excellent means of both developing leadership skills and supporting individual self-leadership. Read more...

Universities as "Thinking Organisations"

The concept of a Thinking Organisation was developed by Nancy Kline in her books Time to Think and More Time to Think. With its emphasis on enabling clear thinking it is a very appropriate model to use in a university setting. Read more...

Developing institutional coaches

Unless you have internal expertise in your institution, you will initially need external support. A good strategy is to engage external coaching expertise to develop an internal coaching training programme, so that you can develop an internal coaching pool. You can also train staff through formal courses such as these, so that they are competent to deliver shorter courses, such as this one, for other staff. Not all staff will become coaches but the aim should be to give all an awareness of coaching principles so that they can use these in their interaction with students. 

As you develop a coaching pool, make sure you have a plan in place to develop your coaches and provide them with necessary support.

Relevant examples

You may find all our case studies interesting, as they are all examples of the value of coaching within a higher education institution, but in particular, check out Case Study 3 where our team of student coaching ambassadors share their ideas for embedding coaching in learning and teaching.

Managing change

Introducing a coaching culture represents significant institutional change. You can manage this using tools such as Appreciative Inquiry, in order to get colleagues to take ownership of change.