The roles that coaching and mentoring play in addressing the leadership challenges of charity CEOs

The CEOs of charities have been facing an extraordinary range of economic, social and political challenges in recent years. Coaching and mentoring offer under-utilised and potentially significant forms of support, but very little is known about the practice or impact of the disciplines for leaders in this position. This qualitative, intrinsic case study explores the roles that coaching and mentoring play in addressing the leadership challenges of charity CEOs in the UK. The research was undertaken with a constructionist ontological and an interpretivist epistemological stance, acknowledging the issues involved in being an insider researcher. Twenty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain perspectives from a variety of stakeholders within the UK charity sector. Fourteen documents relating to charity CEO roles and coaching and mentoring programmes were also examined. Data analysis utilised NVivo software and reflexive thematic analysis. The findings identified that coaching and mentoring can play an important, valuable role in helping charity CEOs address their personal, relational and strategic challenges. These challenges tend to be emotionally intense, owing to the values-based motivation of most charity CEOs and their stakeholders. However, the purpose-driven nature of charities also constrains the use of coaching and mentoring, as many CEOs feel an obligation to channel all available time and money to support their organisation’s beneficiaries, rather than themselves. When coaching and mentoring do occur, they enable a generative dialogue to take place, in a safe reflective space, helping CEOs to express emotion, stretch thinking, stimulate learning and generate change. Similarities and differences were established between four forms of coaching and mentoring: ‘non-directive coaching’, ‘skills coaching’, ‘mentoring’ and a ‘fluid’ combination of all three. The study generates a framework describing the roles that coaching and mentoring play in addressing the leadership challenges of charity CEOs in the UK. Guidance is also proposed to help charity CEOs and their coaches and mentors realise these benefits in practice. The study contributes to the charity leadership and coaching and mentoring literature by exploring the roles the disciplines play in addressing leadership challenges within the specific contextual setting of UK charity CEOs.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Author dc:creator

• Bird, Andy

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gannon, Judie

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/4nzb-xt72

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:ea423e13-4b01-4f8f-8f3f-92237ea0b1fe:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1