09: Coaching in Higher Education

In this episode, Dr Natalie Lancer, Dr. Yi-Ling Lai, Dr. Tom Kolditz and Dr. Qing Wang discuss coaching in higher education, emphasising the importance of well-being and performance for university students and academics. They share research and case studies on the use of professional coaching for developing students into leaders, group workshops to foster academics’ well-being and peer coaching to cultivate students’ ability to learn how to learn. We explore:

• What are the benefits of using local, highly experienced professional coaches with industry expertise to coach students?
• How effective are universities at creating leaders for the future?
• Why is it important to develop students as leaders?
• How is coaching being used to develop students into leaders in their specific areas of interest?
• What approaches are universities using to overcoming the challenges of students’ resistance towards leadership?
• Which four areas in university students’ personal and professional skill development can be targeted through coaching approaches?
• How can we foster intrinsic motivation in university students?
• What psychological measures are universities using to enhance students’ self-awareness?
• How can academics manage their well-being during the long peer review process?
• What research methods can be used to monitor academic well-being?
• How can students and academics constructively use critical feedback?

The panel share how they are helping to realise the potential of students and academics through eliciting and cultivating confident leadership of self and others through workshops and coaching programmes. Our guests today are:

Dr Yi-Ling Lai is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in HRM and Organisational Behaviour at University of Southampton. Prior to working at Southampton Business School, Yi-Ling has had several years’ academic experience at Birkbeck, University of London and the University of Portsmouth. Yi-Ling’s research mainly concentrates on social and contextual factors in the coaching process including power relationships, political hierarchies and ethical dilemmas. Yi-Ling currently supervises several PhD students on topics including narrative coaching and identity transformation.

Dr Qing Wang is an Educational Psychologist, Chartered Psychologist and accredited Coaching Psychologist. She is an Associate Professor in Educational and Coaching Psychology at the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University (ECNU). She established the Educational Coaching Research Group (ECRG) focusing on coaching psychology research and practice in the field of education. She explores, designs, delivers and evaluates coaching models and approaches with teachers and students in secondary schools, medical and vocational schools, universities and in parents’ education.

Dr Thomas Kolditz is a retired Brigadier General and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He led the leadership department at West Point for 12 years.  Dr Kolditz was the founding Director of the Ann and John Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University and a Professor in the Practice of Leadership and Management and Director of the Leadership Development Program at the Yale School of Management. His book, Leadership Reckoning, defines a global movement of excellence for leadership development in higher education.

Your host, Dr Natalie Lancer, is a Chartered Coaching Psychologist, and British Psychological Society (BPS) Registered Supervisor. She is the Chair of the BPS’s Division of Coaching Psychology and an accredited member of the Association for Coaching. She is the host of this podcast series and invites you to email any comments to [e-mail]