Coaching has become one of the most popular trends to hit the training and development world in the last 40 years, primarily due to its measurable increase in productivity and executive effectiveness.
Based on the proper disciplines and applications of those disciplines by seasoned practitioners, coaching has become a tool that generates an impressive return on investments for executives, individuals and organizations alike.
Here, I would like to give my two cents worth about the future of coaching as I understand it and I would like to examine a few major areas which have vital applications in the days to come. There are 3 core components to 21stcentury coaching that I would like to introduce to you here.
1. Career coaching
As more cosmopolitan cities emerge around the world, one thing that has become common nowadays is that these places have become breeding grounds for ambitious, upwardly mobile and lifestyle-integrated individuals. These are individuals who strive to better their positions through a series of planned careers that go beyond a mere job search.
More people begin to question the degree of fulfillment that their jobs give them or rather, fail to give them. And automation, as well as sophistication, demands more of the individual executive than ever before. Hence, career executives have begun to seek positions that would meet several of their keycriteria, such as 1) a meaningful career; 2) job enhancement and skill development prospects; 3) personal satisfaction; and 4) opportunities for personal and career expression.
The way I see it, career counselling and career coaching are going to be a fantastic match and there is a whole slew of opportunities for coaches who are able to help people design and fulfill their career aspirations. I see the powerhouses in these areas emerging from the human resource consultants, if they are able to successfully master the coaching tool set and offer it as a value-added service.
2. Executive coaching
Executives have to make bigger, better and faster decisions with more complexities and fewer boundaries than ever before, while also facing anincreased need for negotiations skills, as networking for joint projects becomes even more vital. Yet, at the same time, the executive must continue to play a major role when it comes to displaying leadership and motivatiing their teams. This, therefore, requires a powerful understanding of how to create personal space and personal growth, while being able to fulfill the aspects necessary to support executives in their day-to-day, as well as their strategic decision-making.
Beyond that, the ‘in’ thing and the trend that is beginning to appear now is how business owners and key executives are starting to create a far more personally powerful lifestyle which often enhances their personal qualities as an individual and as a community member. Many executives have experience which are invaluable in making vital contributions to organizations of a more humanitarian nature, and more often than not, cannot engage or hire an executive powerhouse to take their organization to the next level. So, the executive today looks like somebody who deals with their humanitarian or voluntary contributions on top of networking with their peers, on top of their strategic leadership functions inside their organizations. Therefore, the executive coach plays a vital role in helping the executive manage his personal development line.
3. Human Resources and General Management
Human Resources and General Management deal primarily with people. Coaching is a toolset and discipline for dealing with and bringing out the best in people. Coaching is the result of the fusionof several disciplines and core skills that relate to engaging the client in a productive, meaningful and forwarding way. Literally speaking, it is designed to be a conversation or session that empowers the client. What is left to do and which becomes the role of management is to have the capacity to enable the candidate or client to meet his goals with the right resources such that they are equipped to do the job that they are motivated or inspired to do from their sessions in coaching. It then becomes vital that General Management and Human Resources become familiar with what coaching is and what coaching can do and even better, to become knowledgeable in the processes so as to be able to coach themselves.
These are some of the key directions that the coaches in Executive Coach International have been equipped to handle. They do represent a sense of where this market is going and we have developed systems to train individuals who wish to become the best coaches in the field.