His Excellency Dr. Raed Mohammed Bin Shams, Director General of the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) emphasized the importance of BIPA’s consolidated coaching strategy to creating a government work environment that is attractive and conducive to growth and development. “Coaching is considered one of the modern administrative tools adopted by BIPA in order to boost the capabilities of the national cadres and improve productivity in line with the government vision for government work in the Kingdom of Bahrain”, Dr. Bin Shams said. He also shed light on BIPA’s various initiatives which aim to achieve stability and provide enablers of success for all the government sector employees.
Dr. Bin Shams explained that investment in the human resources is essential for development of the government performance with a view to achieving sustainability of the services that meet the aspirations of the Kingdom and its citizens. He added, “Coaching is part of BIPA’s plans to keep pace with the accelerated transformation in the nature of government work. It takes into consideration the importance of improving the competencies of the government human resources that constitute the most important pillar for proceeding with the sustainable development plans and achieving the Economic Vision 2030.”
Ghada Shana’a, the Acting Executive Director, BIPA’s Assessment and Coaching Directorate, also stated that the Institute drew a well-designed coaching strategy in order to spread the coaching, mentoring and advisory culture, qualify certified coaches and advisors in the public sector, and train the public sector managers and division heads on the coaching skills through approved training programs. The strategy also aims to provide integrated solutions to the development of government employees through the principles of mentoring and coaching. It contributes to the coaching and mentoring-related research and studies conducted at the local, regional and international levels.
In addition, Shana’a stated that BIPA launched four key initiatives to achieve the coaching strategy. Through its field visits, awareness lectures and public events on coaching, as well as working on related research and studies and participating in international events and conferences, BIPA will be able to achieve the expected outcomes of its first initiative, which aim to create and instill the coaching culture in the government work.
The second initiative covers implementation of certified training programs in coaching. These programs are divided into two types: first, BIPA will train the managers and section heads on coaching, and then it will qualify certified coaches in the public sector through a training program which is approved by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). As regards the third initiative, BIPA will design and introduce a mentoring program to qualify retired employees who have the experience and competencies in the Kingdom of Bahrain in order to utilize their expertise in the coaching and development of a second line of young leaders in the government institutions. The fourth initiative of the consolidated coaching strategy covers BIPA’s organization for the coaching profession in the government work in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This will be achieved through the development of policies and procedures for coaching in the public, the code of professional conduce, a coaching model for the Bahraini government work, and the standards for coaches to work at the government institutions.