Whether you’re looking at public or private organisations, you’ll always find people who have not yet shown their true potential. Thankfully, as a manager there is a solution to unlocking their personal growth and maximising the impact they can have on your institution. All over the world, leadership coaching is increasingly becoming the tool used to facilitate growth within teams.

What is leadership coaching?

Managers and leaders with leadership coaching skills are able to direct and guide others in a very positive way. Instead of adopting a subordinate/senior approach, management coaching involves the manager taking on the role of a guide, helping individuals on their team reach their own goals and achieve success. Rather than simply delegating instructions and expecting people to execute them, managers with coaching competencies know how to empower people, cultivate a culture of learning and help people to consitently enhance their skills.

Why is leadership coaching important? Leadership

coaching can have a huge positive effect on the performance of people in your organisation. Leaders, coaches and institutions from top organisations across the globe understand the importance coaching:

“… the goal of coaching is the goal of good management: to make the most of an organization’s valuable resources” ― Harvard Business Review

• “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It’s helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” ― Tim Gallwey, sports and business coach, and author of the Inner Game series of coaching books
• “In research conducted over the past three years we’ve found that leaders who have the best coaching skills have better business results.” ― Vice-President of Global Executive & Organizational Development at IBM, The Leader’s Guide to Managing People: How to Use Soft Skills to Get Hard Results.

Many organisations struggle to find and keep the right people. Leadership coaching provides managers with the skills to increase the commitment people feel to your team and organisation by creating a positive culture of growth and investment in employees. Helping individuals to grow helps the organisation to retain staff while also ensuring the organisation’s goals are achieved.

Who should consider leadership coaching?

The skills gained through a leadership coaching programme are not only useful to those who are interested in pursuing coaching as a career. The knowledge you acquire is applicable to a number of different roles, including managers, organisation leaders, HR, learning facilitators and any other individuals who simply want to acquire the skills to grow a highly connected and successful team.

This gives leadership coaching graduates a wide range of career paths to choose from.

What are the benefits of leadership coaching?

Here is a list of the benefits for individuals who pursue an education in leadership coaching:

• Acquire the credentials to become a leadership coach
• Develop your own signature presence as a coach
• Understand how to facilitate knowledge transfer, talent development and organisational effectiveness, enabling you to develop human capital
• Acquire the skills to be effective in a senior management position
• Gain new perspectives on personal development
• Understand how to challenge people’s beliefs in a healthy way so that they can grow
• Learn how to improve growth and performance, while enhancing relationship-building and teamwork
• Develop a leadership style that helps to create a more ethical and responsible society

Stellenbosch Business School’s Leadership Coaching programme

MPhil in Leadership Coaching is designed around a number of different elements. These elements include class contact sessions with coaching management experts, collaborative sessions for working with your peers, practical sessions focused on individuals, and knowledge and support that will contribute towards your coaching skills. Each of these factors are carefully balanced, as this is an important philosophy that managers must apply to their work and also to their lives beyond the workplace.

Upon completion of this programme, you will have your own unique style of leadership built upon a foundation of strong ethics and responsibility. This course also provides you with the credentials you need to start your own coaching practice.

If you are interested in improving the lives of the people around you and would like more information about USB’s MPhil in Leadership Coaching programme, take a look at our website or contact us for more information. You can also find out more from one of our alumni who took part in the Leadership Coaching course here.