Speaker:

Dr Helen Smith

Faculty Head of Coaching and Mentoring for Business and Law

Department of People and Performance

helen.smith@mmu.ac.uk

Bio: Helen is passionate about motivation and engagement since taking a sales team of 23 staff, ranked 49th from 50, to the UK ‘s number one team within twelve months. Having held a variety of Senior Management positions in the healthcare and education sectors for more than twenty years and has worked as an executive coach across a variety of sectors from biotechnology to education. Helen’s doctoral thesis examined the Manager as Coach: An Exploratory Study into the Experience of Managers Dealing with Team Challenge.

A trained facilitator, educator, coach researcher. Joined Manchester Metropolitan University in 2014.

Abstract: Because of an ever-demanding work environment, organisations are focussing on frontline managers to deliver organisational goals and training managers in coaching skills to support this requirement. Teams are recognised as being more dynamic in nature thus intensifying the managerial requirement; a team entity described as fluid.

With the increased reliance of organisations upon teams with internal and external collaboration and alliances teams are increasing in complexity and irrationality with continuous change as the norm, demanding that managers be careful not to disempower staff but apply methods that bind individuals closer together creating communities of practice without impeding individualism. This presentation summarises the findings from interviews with 30 managers who coach exploring how they deal with challenge through this approach. Templates, models and self-assessments resulted as guides from this research which Helen will share for personal application.