In recent years, coaching has taken on a life of its own with influences like Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps from the sporting arena engaging their own personal coaches to stay ahead of their game.
In the corporate world, people have also embraced coaching to improve and get ahead of the competition. A survey conducted by HBR of 140 leading coaches revealed that the top three reasons why coaches are engaged are to develop high potentials or facilitate transition, act as a sounding board, and to address derailing behaviour.
With growing demand for coaching, these are the common fields of coaching that are being sought after in organisations.
Career Coaching
The premise of career coaching is to enhance career fulfilment and role fit. Career coaches typically deploy career profiling tools and tap into their own work experiences to work with clients to elicit clarity and enable action, helping the client to be on track towards achieving more success and fulfilment at work.
Skills Coaching
Skills coaching tend to be highly focused and use precise methods to increase the capabilities of staff so they are better able to perform the task at hand. Whether its myriad soft skills coaching like communications or anger management to essential technical skills, skills coaching are usually tailored and part of the larger Learning & Development (L&D) blueprint of more established corporate companies.
Personal or Life Coaching
With change being the only constant, corporate leaders are gradually paying more than lip service when they say their best “assets” are their people. Personal or life coaching is often offered as avenues of support in times of personal crises like the loss of loved ones, depression and other debilitating conditions that affect the emotional and mental health of their staff. In good times, clients also turn to life coaches for clarity on how to regain “lost energies” and get ahead in their personal lives, thereby allowing them to perform better at their corporate workstations.
Executive Coaching
At the other end of the spectrum, executive coaching focuses on the leadership and personal development of both top corporate leaders and high potentials. This coaching methodology provides mid to long term ongoing support so that clients have constant access to a sounding board and have avenues to reflect, resolve and achieve more self-awareness.
At the heart of coaching is a meaningful partnership meant to tap into the latent potential of people so that they can be more than who they currently are. While it is vested with good intention, it is also paramount that corporate organisations do their due diligence and explore a good coach-client fit before hastily investing jumping onto the bandwagon of career coaching.
