Applying leadership coaching as an approach to support servant leader development in Cambodia

While leadership coaching has been applied in leader development, few studies have applied leadership coaching to servant leader development, and, to the best of our knowledge, none in Cambodia. This study explored how leadership coaching and Knowles’ (2015) principles of andragogy can support servant leader development in a blended Cambodian course. Participatory Action Research was used to guide the design and evaluation of the course. The course included leadership coaching based on the GROW Model and servant leadership training informed by Knowles’ andragogy principles. Data was collected through focus groups with 9 of 12 participants who were managers, teachers, or engineers in Cambodian non-government organisations, and it was found that the course design benefitted from Knowles’ andragogy principles and that leadership coaching was perceived as valuable by the participants. The study also identified areas for improvement, such as the need for additional language support for Khmer learners and a more integrated approach to coaching and training. These findings add support to initiatives for cross-cultural servant leader development and suggest that servant leadership development programs in Cambodia can benefit from incorporating leadership coaching but must consider cultural context and language proficiency.