Business leader’s perceptions of team coaching on team learning: the case of a multi-national organisation operating in South Africa

Abstract

The world is continually presenting changes, urging business leaders to conform to the changes. For business leaders to accustom to these changes, learning is needed. For this reason, multinational organisations employing these business leaders have to pursue a team coach capable of coaching business leaders as a team. Team coaching on its own is not sufficient, data needs to be gathered to assess some of the following aspects, (1) whether business leaders have been able to learn because of the team coaching, (2) whether the business leaders have been able to change certain behaviours because of the learning, and (3) what could contribute to business leaders perceiving TC differently to BLS who have experienced the same TC program. This data gathered is essential for future decision making, explicitly for multinational organisations, these decisions entail whether to coach business leaders in subsidiary locations, whether team coaching has influenced the learning of leaders, whether leaders changed behaviours such that they will adapt to any changes presented by the world. And for coaches wishing to pursue a career in team coaching. With TC introduced to multi-national organisations MNO, these organisations have to be open to creating an environment that encourages leaders who have been coached to practise what they have learnt in the TC sessions in a real-live situation. These organisations have to create an environment which is free from judging leaders, one that views errors as an opportunity for learning. This environment creates a safe space for leaders to learn. Organisations may introduce a coach and not create a learning environment for those coached to implement what they have learnt in the coaching sessions. This inability to create a learning environment for leaders could mean that these leaders may not learn beyond the coaching sessions. Apart from the environment encouraging leaders to learn, leaders themselves must be open to learning. An environment might be created encouraging the Created by Pearl Ntsakisi at the Wits Business School 3 learning. If leaders are not prepared to learn the coaching initiatives introduced in the business might not be practised by the leaders coached. Leaders may perceive the TC coaching differently to BLS coached. Several factors influence this, such as the beliefs of the leaders being congruent with that of the coach and the leaders having a good relationship with the coach. A coach that is skilled needs to assess these aspects and be able to influence the perspective of leaders not aligned with the coach. It becomes essential that the coach selected to coach leader has the skill to coach leaders to learn and change behaviours. MNO must be able to create a learning environment for leaders to learn and leaders must be open to learning, to implement what they have learnt in the coaching sessions. All these three factors ensure TC contributes to the learning of leaders and that leaders can change behaviours as result of the TC.