Finding novel and effective ways of harnessing this resource, at the same time as ensuring the learning is transferable back to the participants’ workplace, is an ongoing challenge. Co-constructed coaching (Kempster and Iszatt-White, 2013) offers an academically robust and practically engaging leadership learning intervention that meets this post-experience need. What’s it all about? Co-constructed coaching brings together the four elements of experience, theory, reflection, and discussion to create an effective learning process. The process, which can be run in an online, face-to-face or hybrid format, rests on the following stages: Experience. The process starts with some kind of activity designed to surface recollections of past experiences relevant to the theme of the module. In using coconstructed coaching in an Executive MBA leadership module, we asked participants to develop a timeline of their leadership journey to date, including role models (positive and negative) and memorable experiences or periods. This work can be undertaken prior to attending the face-to-face or synchronous elements of the intervention. Theory. Either face-to-face or via online resources, the tutor provides theoretical inputs that can be utilised as sensemaking frameworks by participants. This could be a single theoretical model – for example, Authentic Leadership or Resonant Leadership – or a series of mini inputs from which participants can select whichever feels most appropriate. This phase also requires some input on basic coaching skills, such as questioning, listening, summarising, and sense-making. Discussion. In co-coaching pairs, participants take turns to share one or more of their experiences with a partner, who then ‘coaches’ them in deconstructing the experiences using a theoretical framework as a sense-making device. The aim here is not to ‘resolve’ any issues or failings, but to ‘surface the implicit knowing lying within action and articulate it in such a way that [her/his] actions can be more knowledgeable’ (Cunliffe, 2008) in the future. Reflection. Subsequent to this discussion, participants take time to make notes on how their understanding of the experience has changed and how the insights gained can be applied to future challenges/situations. This stage can also be developed into a reflective assignment if this is appropriate to the format of the module/programme. Enhancing engagement In bringing together these four elements, co-constructed coaching is an amalgamation of co-constructed autoethnography (Kempster and Stewart, 2010) – a process in which research participants bring their experience and academics bring their theoretical expertise to the process of knowledge development – and executive coaching, which aims to improve manager performance through reflexive dialogue (Cunliffe, 2001) around a specific agenda. The advantages of this as a learning intervention include the high degree of engagement it evokes for both coach and coachee; the direct transferability of the learning and insights produced back into the workplace; and the rebalancing of tutor/student power relations towards an equilibrium which better reflects the needs and intentions of management education. Variations can include a) creating a leadership experience through an in-class activity as the basis for subsequent coaching; b) repeated iterations of the cocoaching conversations, drawing on different theories and/or different experiences extracted from the timeline, and; c) co-coaching trios, where the third person provides feedback on the coaching skills utilised by direct participants. Whilst the educator offering this intervention will, of course, need to be able to present relevant theory in a clear and accessible way, they will also need facilitation and coaching skills to support students through the process – and a willingness to take the role of ‘guide on the side’ rather than ‘sage on the stage’! Conclusions and recommendations We have found that co-constructed coaching has considerable potential to contribute to effective leadership/management development when working with experienced participants, through a focus on situated leadership and management practice (Reynolds, 1999). Participants have developed deeply reflexive insights into their past experiences and used these to create action plans and strategies for future practice. Codifying this learning through a reflective written assignment has also been shown to help embed the learning and support transference into workplace practice. We would recommend coconstructed coaching as an intervention for any students with sufficient personal experience to support the process of bringing theory and practice together through peer coaching. 11 Scholarship Matters As modern management educators, we are increasingly required to be a ‘guide on the side’ of self-directed learning, rather than the more traditional ‘sage on the stage’, imparting expertise to a willing audience. This is particularly the case when working with postexperience management education participants, where there is always a huge amount of knowledge and experience in the room – and not all of it resides with the academic leader!
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