We’ve moved beyond change being a constant in today’s organizations. “Organizational turbulence” has increasingly become part of today’s everyday experience. The negative impact can be significant, e.g., poor performance, difficulty coping with uncertainty, stress, anxiety, longer work weeks, lack of confidence, etc. Many have turned to executive coaching as a way not just to cope, but to excel in times of change. Executive coaching is used by many organizations to help their leaders develop their capacity to handle change and to give them support in reaching their workplace and personal goals.

Research shows that from a workplace perspective, coaching was associated with greater goal attainment, increased leadership self-efficacy, increased resilience and decreased depression. Positive impacts were also found related to improvements in family life.
Some of the specific key benefits of coaching identified in this research included:

– enhanced solution-focused thinking, which is a key skill in times of organizational change and turbulence
– time to reflect, review and evaluate one’s leadership style
– positive impact on change readiness, which is related to job satisfaction, as well as the willingness and ability to positively and proactively engage with the challenges faced during times of organizational change
– being more adept and confident in dealing with change and turbulence and
– reduced depression and enhanced resilience.

Don’t dread organizational change – get ahead of it. Talk to your manager about retaining the services of a coach – or just go ahead and hire a coach yourself. Your ability to effectively handle organizational change will produce many benefits.

Reference:
“The Efficacy of Executive Coaching in Times of Organisational Change” by Anthony M. Grant, Journal of Change Management, 14(2), 2014.

© Dr. Karen Somerville, PhD, MBA, CPA, CGA, CEC – is a scholar-practitioner with more than 25 years of experience in Senior Management. Karen is an expert in Organizational Change, a Certified Executive Coach and the President of Performance Plus Group: www.performanceplusgroup.com .