Coaching T
o be the best, you need coaching. Can you imagine where Roger Fed- erer or Tiger Woods would be today without coaching? Their sporting
careers certainly would not have had the same stellar trajectory. To be the best in any field, or simply to improve, coaching is key. Business coaching offers a type of personal human re- source development. It provides positive sup- port, feedback and advice to an individual or group to improve effectiveness in the business setting. Coaching involves partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative
what they were trained to do and what their jobs now require them to do in order to meet in- creasing demands for competitive results. There is currently unrest on the part of many employ- ees and leaders as they wrestle with fears around job insecurity and increased workplace pres- sures to perform at higher levels than ever be- fore. Coaching can help in this regard, and it can help companies to develop inclusive, collabora- tive work environments in order to achieve strategic business goals and maintain high lev- els of customer satisfaction.
Professional coaching focuses on an indi-
Going the Extra Mile
with Business Coaching By: Chris Brown
process that inspires them to maximize their per- sonal and professional potential The athletics analogy, however, does not cover the entire nature of business coaching. Athletics coaches are often seen as experts who direct the behaviour of individuals or teams based on their greater experience and knowl- edge. Professional business coaches possess these qualities, but it is the experience and knowledge of the individual or team that deter- mines the direction. Additionally, professional coaching, unlike athletic development, does not focus on behaviours that are being executed poorly or incorrectly. Instead, the focus is on iden- tifying opportunity for development based on in- dividual strengths and capabilities.
In recent years, there has been huge growth in the coaching industry. The business world has changed greatly, and coaching is a useful tool to deal with many of those changes. For example, coaching is an excellent tool for today's chal- lenging job market, where there is more job transition, more self-employment and more small businesses. Coaching can also help man- agers deal with the widening disparity between
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vidual's life as it relates to goal setting, outcome creation and personal change management. There are almost as many different ways of de- livering business coaching as there are business coaches. Some offer personal support and feed- back, others combine a coaching approach with practical and structured business planning and bring a disciplined accountability to the rela- tionship. Particularly in the small business mar- ket, business coaching is as much about driving profit as it is about developing the person. Coaching typically begins with a personal interview to assess the individual's current op- portunities and challenges, define the scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action, and establish specific desired outcomes. Subse- quent coaching sessions may be conducted in person or over the phone. Between scheduled coaching sessions, the individual may be asked to complete specific actions that support the achievement of one's personally prioritized goals. The coach may provide additional re- sources in the form of relevant articles, check- lists, assessments, or models, to support the individual's thinking and actions. The duration
of the coaching relationship varies depending on the individual's personal needs and preferences. The success of the coaching process can be
measured in two distinct ways. First, there are the external indicators of performance: meas- ures that can be seen and measured in the indi- vidual's or team's environment. Second, there are internal indicators of success: measures that are inherent within the individual or team mem- bers being coached and can be measured by the individual or team being coached with the sup- port of the coach. Ideally, both external and in- ternal metrics are incorporated.
There are many reasons that an individual or team might choose to work with a coach: a challenge or goal is at stake, there is a gap in knowledge or confidence, there is a desire to ac- celerate results, there is a lack of clarity, the
New European Economy
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