Abstract
he public sector in South Africa is experiencing a shortage of skills in its leadership. Leadership is highly politicised, which creates instability in the public sector departments. This has resulted in challenges with service delivery. The government of South Africa has recommended leadership coaching and mentoring programmes to address the skills gap to improve performance. The public sector is struggling to deal with issues of maladministration, corruption and greed among its leadership and this poses a challenge in the provision of services. Hence the leadership coaching intervention for senior leaders in the public sector was introduced.
The focus of the study was to explore the influence of a senior leadership coaching intervention on the personal and professional conduct of senior leaders in the public sector. The research methodology was qualitative phenomenological and ten purposively selected senior leaders in the public sector participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
The study findings show that coaching was beneficiary for senior leaders in various ways which included improving interpersonal skills, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, self-confidence and helping them to communicate effectively. Coaching as a developmental approach for leaders seems to be working and it should be replicated so that it benefits the entire public sector.
To ensure the effectiveness of leadership programmes in the public sector, it is recommended that leadership coaching should be rolled out throughout the entire public service. This will not only have a positive impact on the departments but will also prepare the work environment for changes brought about by the intervention. Senior leaders should have the option to choose their preferred coaches instead of being assigned to them. Coaching interventions should address, besides self-awareness and interpersonal skills, but include good governance, ethics and moral conduct to help senior leaders become more effective.
Keywords: Leadership, leadership coaching, senior managers, personal and professional conduct, public service.