Human Resources: Competence in Business Coaching – Part 3

This article forms part 3 of a 5 part series on Bongi’s coaching experience.

Bongi was increasingly confident with her implementation of Business Coaching within her corporation. Her Business Coach, Margi, had been a huge help in working with her to define what she needed to do, how it needed to be done, and whom she needed to work with to achieve this.
Margi started speaking about competencies. Although Bongi used the term regularly, she realised that she wasn’t as clear as to what the term really meant. Margi referred to her the book Competence Refined^[i], written by Dr Elana Siew which delineates 5 areas of competence. These are:

• Behaviour
• Experience
• Ability
• Knowledge
• Skills

Bongi came across the following blog from SA Business Coaches from April 2021 which defined the necessary competencies (B.E.A.K.S.) to becoming a business coach. You can read it here→.

With this as a framework, Bongi, who had been feeling self-assured, suddenly saw that there was so much more for her to learn.
Margi advised her to take it one step at a time, and this is what Bongi did. She believed that if she knew how to behave in helping her colleagues with Business Coaching, that she would be on the right track.

She defined the following 7 behaviours as being necessary to ensure the success of her Business Coaching process:

1. Both parties need to commit to their process
   1. This can be shown both in the behaviour of being on time and being present in the sessions
   2. Bongi needed to ensure that she showed the importance of this and encouraged commitment.
   3. She also needed to sometimes be physically present before a session began so that her commitment could be seen
2. A foundation for the success of Business Coaching is accountability from both parties
   1. In this triangulated agreement Bongi needed to show her interest and emphasise the importance of accountability to the business
3. To ensure the correct behaviours are acted out
   1. Bongi would offer her services to any coachee who wanted assistance with their action plan or implementation
4. There is a need for the coaching sessions to be honest, without anyone fearing that what they say will be held against them by the business at a later stage
   1. It is Bongi, in her position as a Human Resource Co-ordinator, who needed to ensure that the staff fell this way
5. Bongi needed to ensure that both the coach and the coachee were aware of their responsibility to give and receive feedback
   1. This is where much of the growth would occur in the sessions. Once again, she would offer her services if this was difficult or if there were delicate issues to deal with
6. Bongi needed to ensure that the resources that she was responsible for, would be available.
   1. Such as technology
7. As a general act, as the Human Resource Co-ordinator, Bongi would follow up
   1. without breaching confidentiality to ensure that the process was on track

Bongi’s behaviour was a critical part of the coaching interventions. How she acted and responded set the tone for each person’s Business Coaching journey. She had not realised how influential her behaviour could be, and she was grateful to understand that this aspect of competence was vital to the success of the coaching interventions in the corporate environment.

To work with a coach who uses this coaching framework to develop positive and enhancing business coaching behaviour, please visit our Coaching Services page→.

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