Goal Orientation in Coaching Differs According to Region, Experience, and Education

David, Clutterbuck, Megginson, 2014

Short summary: The importance of setting goals in coaching seems ‘obvious’. In organizations too, there is often a focus on clear results / goals.  But does setting goals only have benefits? Or can it also have disadvantages? Does the context play a role?

In this article, the authors initially provide a very practical overview of the pros and cons. A handy overview for anyone who wants to know a little more about the effects of goal setting in order to be able to anticipate desired optimization or negative side effects. Next, the authors describe a study they conducted among 194 coaches (45 European, 149 American) to gain more insight into goalsetting.

The results can be summarized as follows:

• Coaches in the US are more goal-oriented than their European counterparts.
• Those who have taken longer coaching training are more focused on goals than those who have learned from experience only.
• Goal orientation decreases for more experienced European coaches, but not for American coaches.

Finally, the authors provide a number of possible explanations for the observed differences and effects.

Link: http://bit.ly/3beMxR5

Pubished in: International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring Vol. 12 No. 2 2014

Research type: Qualitative and quantitative

Number of participants: 194

Control group: No

Keywords: Goal setting/attainment, Goal orientation, GROW model

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