To stay ahead of the modern challenges and competitive environment, individuals both on a personal level and as team members need to be equipped with modern-day skills and techniques. Especially, to be prepared for the opportunities that come by unexpectedly. One of the powerful tools to facilitate such preparedness is – Coaching!
Coaching as a tool and its importance!
Coaching is one of the most important and enriching approaches that individuals and organizations of today focus on. It is a practical way forward with many beneficial aspects to it.
- Improves individual performances for personal growth as well as enabling teams to work for common objectives and collective progress.
- Empowers people to rediscover their inner and hidden potential by helping them think of ways and ideas on a deeper and much wider level, something which they had either previously ignored or completely underestimated themselves to be capable of doing.
- Establish purposeful relationships among people belonging to diversified backgrounds by helping them connect through highlighting mutual goals, interests, and objectives.
Coaching Project
In order to better understand how the impact of Coaching on business students, we take into account for the purpose of this article a recent project designed for coaching a set number of participants and then recording their opinions and judgments on how this program impacted them.
The participants that took part in this online engagement are of two categories:
- Undergraduate students (International Business School in South Korea); &
- Certified professional coaches (ICF & other ICF accredited institutions)
Purpose of this Coaching Project
Coaching itself is a broad arena having various beneficial dimensions.
The purposes that this project particularly focused on and the resultant possible outcomes expected from this project were –
- Understanding how the individual participants found the overall concept of coaching and its value to them; &
- How it affected the overall experience of the student participants and their emotional intelligence.
Survey types and sources
- Pre-coaching survey
- Post -coaching survey
- Evaluation of the overall experience of the participants
The questionnaires used in this survey was sourced from –
- Rotterdam Emotional Intelligence Scale (REIS)
- Organizational Commitment Scale (OCS)
Limitations of this survey
Before moving forward, it is important to share the limitations encountered during the undertaking of this project.
- The data cultivated as part of this project focused on highlighting the qualitative aspects of coaching rather than its quantitative nature. This is merely due to the short number of participants who responded to both the pre & post surveys – 15 students.
- Due to the pandemic, the coaching sessions were 100% online.
Evaluating the responses and data collected
As part of this coaching project, survey participants answered different questions. We have categorized their responses for convenience. Below tables are the summary of the responses gathered.
I. Participants’ impact on self-discovery & perceptions
One of the key principles of the coaching project was to know the impact or change that the participants noticed in themselves and around them.
- 9 out of the 15 participants responded to have found the overall coaching project better in one way or the other. They felt that they have learned and discovered more sides to their own personalities as well as the way they previously perceived the environment around them. Overall, their perception of self-awareness enhanced by taking part in the coaching project.
- 4 out of the 15 participants who responded have found the coaching project to highlight areas where and by which they could enhance their effectiveness and efficiency. They noticed becoming more managed and in better control of their emotions and planning.
- Lastly, only 2 out of the 15 participants responded to have found no significant change from taking part in the coaching project.
II. Participants’ learnings and insights for future application
The second important aspect of observation was to identify the key elements that the participants vowed to make better or adopt to become a better version of themselves,
The responses gathered against this question placed into 4 groups:
- 4 out of the 15 individuals emphasized becoming better with managing their time and utilizing it in places where it meant most important and more rewarding.
- 5 out of the 15 respondents answered in becoming more confident about certain aspects of their personality.
- 4 out of the 15 participants responded with now having the knowledge to understand the importance of being grateful in life, see the positive sides, and have an optimist approach with regards to their future.
- Only 2 out of the 15 participants were of the opinion to have found nothing to make better in themselves or the way they perceived their surroundings and future goals and objectives.
III. What aspects of the experience did the participants find most beneficial?
- The responses received against this question showed that while few participants did find the coaching project to have no significant impact on them or their surroundings, they somehow benefited from it in one way or the other.
- While some participants liked it on an overall basis and complemented every aspect of it, others were of the opinion to have discovered things that they had never previously thought of before or have totally ignored as something unimportant.
- On a wider level, participants liked the openness and flexibility in navigating through each aspect of the coaching project and shared thoughtful insights from the experience.
IV. Participants’ expectation vs. actual experience
This is probably the most important thing that wraps everything from the beginning until the end of this project.
- 7 out of the 15 participants had a feeling that they accomplished more than what they had originally expected from the coaching project.
- The next 7 out of the 15 participants were happy to have gotten exactly what they had enrolled for in the coaching project.
- Only 1 participant remained unclear about what he expected at the beginning and did he achieve the desired results from participating in the coaching project or not.
V. Participants’ opinion on the cost value of the experience
Aside from the above questions, participants give an opinion on the monetary value of the coaching project.
The answers to this question are of a varying degree as a few participants did reveal how much they intend to pay for enrolling in similar sessions of coaching whereas the other participants clearly had no idea about it.
Conclusion
While the short number of participants was unable to reflect the quantitative side of the project, the project itself was still able to derive aspects on the importance of coaching. Hence, the key features of this coaching project is highlighted as follows-
- The majority of the participants found the coaching project to have some sort of influence on themselves, their thinking, self-awareness, self-control, and perceptions.
- A good number of participants learned about the importance of better managing their time, showing gratitude towards what they have (gratefulness), and responding to external situations and affairs with more confidence.
- The overall experience for all of the participants led to the opening of new and wider avenues of thinking and understanding things around them in a different way.
- The planning and execution of the coaching project was in many ways able to accomplish the expectations of the participants.
- Participants were much convinced of the importance of enrolling in such coaching projects and showed interest in retaking it.
- Participants shares their thoughts on the monetary value of the experience and that they would be willing to invest in such activity.
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Description
This case study draws insights on the perceived value of “Coaching for student success” and assess the impact on the different aspects of emotional intelligence. The participants were undergraduate students of an international business school in South Korea, coached by certified professionals. Each student went through one-one online coaching sessions over a period of 9 weeks. Pre-coaching and post-coaching survey data sets were analyzed to gather insights. The findings have revealed positive differences in self-discovery, personal development, self-confidence, time management and perception about Coaching as a tool.