Leadership coaching is a powerful tool for organizations to maximize the performance of their most important talent. It can help to onboard and retain employees, improve performance, develop skills, and transfer knowledge. In addition, it can help to reinforce and transfer learning, and develop people-oriented skills. Coaching has become increasingly popular in the last five years, and is now often considered a badge of honor.
A recent study by BetterUp research indicated that the first important area of development for most participants is introspection. This is not a description of what most coaches do today, as demonstrated by the survey results. Companies often hire entrepreneurs with experience in consulting, psychology or human resources to provide middle management with coaching services. To understand what coaches do to deserve their money, Harvard Business Review conducted a survey of 140 outstanding coaches and invited five experts to comment on the findings.
Nearly half of the coaches surveyed reported that they are hired primarily to work with executives from a positive point of view of coaching, develop high-potential talent and facilitate the transition to or from the top. The best coaches have a model (or a few) that they rely on to keep their sessions structured and effective. To become an excellent conversation coach, it is important to constantly improve essential training skills and receive timely feedback from clients. Coaching groups are evolving in this direction, but most are still boutique firms specializing in managing and interpreting 360-degree evaluations. The idea that coaching candidates are often mentally sound goes against academic research.
However, coaching is still a popular and powerful solution for ensuring the maximum performance of an organization's most important talent.
