Summary: When we think of coaching, we often associate the term with sports. But did you know that coaching is equally important in a workplace too? Just like sportsmen need proper coaching and training to deliver their best, employees too need to be tutored to reach their highest potential. A corporate coach helps employees learn newer skills, there by developing their confidence and overall personality. An effective coaching bridges the gap between educational experience and work experience to get an employee adapted to the company’s expectations. So whether it’s a big organization or small/medium sized company, the right coaching can help build a strong company culture. GlobalLinker member Jeevika Kheer explains the relevance and benefits of coaching at workplace.

International Coach Federation USA, the most recognised coaching body, defines coaching and coaches as under:

“Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performance and enhance the quality of their lives.”

The relevance of coaching and the process it incorporates is increasing because of the following:

1. A fast changing and often disruptive environment which necessitates a shift in the way one sees and engages with a situation.
2. As product and service life cycles shorten and environmental competition increases, there exists an increasing need for an innovative and ‘out of the box’ mindset.
3. With globalisation and enhanced awareness, there exists the need for developing competence for working effectively in multicultural environments. Coaching has demonstrated the ability to produce performance excellence over long term along with an enhanced ability of self-correction in terms of pathway and self-generation in terms of outcome. The coaching process focuses on the following aspects to optimise the coaching return on investment (ROI).
4. Leverage strengths to accelerate change.
5. Address developmental needs to remove obstacles. 
6. Manage stakeholder’s perceptions.
7. Improve overall leadership and/ or team effectiveness.
8. Focus on how to succeed in handling a particular project, then apply that learning to other situations.

The coach is trained to jointly achieve with the client, a sustained shift in his interpretation and occurring of a situation. This leads to demonstrated changes in behaviour, language and practices. They do this through the following process:

• Understand the client’s structure of interpretation/occurring.

• Partner with the client to alter this structure to get desired outcomes.

• Have the client practice a new language (self-correction and self-generation).

• Provide an accountability mirror for long term excellent performance. The coaching process is all about establishing a relationship based on shared commitment, mutual trust and respect, freedom of expression and above all, providing a confidential and safe space for conversation.

The process broadly consists of the following stages:

• Recognise the opening through performance review, need for new skill, expressed disappointment, broken promises, business needs in terms of revenues, costs etc. and resistance to change of habit or social identity.
• Observe and assess by separating the person from the problem and unearthing underlying concerns, needs and aspirations.
• Client ownership through defining outcomes, establishing commitment, confronting obstacles and continuing these steps until completion.
• Coaching conversation employs coaching competences of appreciative enquiry, authentic listening, commitment unearthing and reframing of perspectives as per requirement. The conversations would be in the domains of intervention, clarifying standards, addressing lack of/or discovering purpose.
  
  

Benefits of coaching

A Study has shown that coaching programs delivered an average return on investment of 5.7 times the initial investment in a typical executive coaching assignment.

Benefits were improvements in:

● Productivity (reported by 53% of executives)

● Quality (48%)

● Organizational strength (48%)

● Customer service (39%)

● Reducing customer complaints (34%)

● Retaining executives who received coaching (32%)

● Cost reductions (23%)

● Bottom-line profitability (22%)

Among the benefits to executives who received coaching were improved:

● Working relationships with direct reports (reported by 77% of executives)

● Working relationships with immediate supervisors (71%)

● Teamwork (67%)

● Working relationships with peers (63%) 

● Job satisfaction (61%)

● Conflict reduction (52%)

● Organizational commitment (44%)

● Working relationships with clients (37%)

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, official policy or position of GlobalLinker.