Research Paper: Coaching as a Leadership Style: Unleashing the Workforce Talent

Research Paper By Sonali Banerjee Dutta
(Executive Coach, INDIA)

Introduction to Research

Leadership plays a critical role in the success of any organization whether formal or informal, enterprise or a nation, groups or for masses. Research in this area has been going on for centuries. Plato, Aristotle or others. It’s also considered that the leadership traits are inborn and beyond the reach of people. This idea that leadership is based on individual attributes is known as the “trait theory of leadership”. The trait theory was explored at length in a number of works in the 19th century. Most notable are the writings of Thomas Carlyle and Francis Galton, whose works have prompted decades of research.[4] In Heroes and Hero Worship (1841), Carlyle identified the talents, skills, and physical characteristics of men who rose to power. Coaching likewise is as old as existence of mankind, however has gained considerable structured approach in last few decades.

Definition of Leadership vs. Coaching

As per the Wikipedia, ‘Leadership is

organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal.

The leader may or may not have any formal authority. Students of leadership have produced theories involving traits,[2] situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values,[3] charisma, and intelligence, among others. Somebody whom people follow: somebody who guides or directs others.’

Leadership is defined as an art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.

As per the Wikipedia, Coaching, when referring to getting coached by a professional coach, is a teaching or training process in which an individual gets support while learning to achieve a specific personal or professional result or goal. The individual getting coached may be referred to as the client or coachee, or they may be in an intern or apprenticeship relationship with the person coaching them.

Objective of the Research

There is a lot written about leadership and coaching as separate disciplines. In fact even coaching the leadership is also a much talked about area from a succession planning or talent management perspective. This research explores the opportunities in terms of adopting coaching as a leadership style to bring about more efficacies in any environment. Hovering over executive coaching, mentoring of top talent, grooming the pipeline of leaders, catching them young are some of the critical aspects.

This research is dedicated to explore the different styles of leadership and how coaching can augment the styles or stand as a unique leadership style itself.

Leadership in different spheres of life can yield phenomenal results, yet with the increased complexity in life and human expectations, the journey has been challenging.

Coaching on the other hand has given great results as the individual proactively takes ownership to move the needle and make things happen. Thus this research is to explore synergies in these two disciplines to bring about effective utilization of differentiated human potential.