Managerial coaching: A formal process or a daily conversation?

A Dixey International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 2015

Research indicates that the frequency and effectiveness of managerial coaching is failing to meet organisational demands. For companies to leverage the potential benefits a coaching based approach can offer, in terms of performance and employee engagement, it is critical to advance our understanding of managerial coaching such that any potential discrepancy is reduced. Using a phenomenological approach, this study explores how six sales managers experience their role of coach. The most significant discovery was that participants are actively coaching, just not necessarily in a way organisations are expecting or potentially measuring. Rather than follow a formalised process, participants prefer a conversational approach, with the activity conceivably going unnoticed.