Event reviews

Citation

Smith, K. (2011), "Event reviews", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 10 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2011.37210aae.004

Event reviews

Article Type: Resources From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 10, Issue 1

Leadership Coaching: Developing Elite Performance, Association for Coaching UK Conference, London, UK, 8 July 2010

Over 300 coaches gathered in the University of East London’s conference centre for the first single-themed conference run by the AC UK. Proceedings commenced with an entertaining account from Adrian Furnham of University of London of the “Dangers of Derailing Behaviours”, where he gave voice to the unspeakable: that a fair number of the leaders in our organisations are likely to have crossed the threshold into psychological disorder, by overplaying the strengths that had taken them to the top. He contended that we might acquire different leaders by not only selecting in people with characteristics known to be associated with effective leadership, but also by paying equal attention to selecting out based on those characteristics we don’t want in our leaders.

Jonathan Passmore from the University of East London next asserted that the search for a universally applicable model of flawless leadership is illusory and unhelpful. Instead, we should be open to a variety of perfections. Against the imperfections and instability of the twenty-first century, Alex Linley from the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology proposed a strengths-based model of leadership. Drawing on research in positive psychology, he took us through a framework of six principles, ranging from cultivating an abundance mindset, which directs attention to possibilities and creates new energy; to organisational stewardship, where leading organizations carry a responsibility for their impact on the physical environment, the well-being of employees and on society.

Models for moving forward

Two contrasting sessions stood either side of the lunch break. First, Christine Williams, NASA lead on coaching, balanced the earlier theoretical inputs with her case study on setting up a leadership development program in NASA, which unusually included agreed protocols for using the corporate intelligence gathered through coaching. Anthony Grant, director of Coaching Psychology Unit, University of Sydney, tellingly explained how ROI is a profoundly misleading and inadequate measure of coaching effectiveness. He urged us to construct evaluation studies combining a broad range of methods to prove the value of coaching, encompassing measures of well-being and organisational culture and treating both quantitative and qualitative as equally valid.

We moved further into psychological territory as The Thinking Partnership’s Ian Roberts provoked us to relinquish “authenticity” as an individualistic search for a role and situation where we can be true to ourselves; and consider it as created in the relationship between the self and others. In the face of at times combative questioning, Roberts very skilfully used the exchange between himself and the audience to demonstrate in the moment the model he was offering us, where authenticity arises in the space between defiance and compliance.

Katherine Tulpa from Urban Coaching concluded the day by inviting us to consider what makes top teams different to other populations for coaching and, drawing on her own practice, presented us with a series of tips on working with them.

Ken SmithCoordinator of the Coaches in Government Network and an AC accredited coach.