Coaching is part of the game

You've heard of the ‘Summer of Love' but right now it's the ‘Summer of Sport' as the UK is gripped in a sporting frenzy kicked off by Euro 2004 and finishing with the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

Whether you're a sports fan or nay, it's a valuable metaphor for business or, for that matter, performance excellence in any field.

The peak performers in sport excel in three areas: their physical state, their technical skills and their psychological preparedness. Rarely do they achieve excellence on their own. Commonly they benefit from the services of a coach – an individual who helps the athlete identify performance goals, develop a plan to achieve them and support them in the journey.

The last 10 years has marked a growth in the coaching business and, whereas at first the reaction was somewhat skeptical nowadays the market is warming. But before the temperature rises in your business, take the time to consider the value of coaching. The evidence from outside the business world is well documented but how might business benefit?

First, in a world of mass-marketed, plain vanilla solutions, the coach is the most personalised service available. As such, coaching is an effective way to invest in key talent - the leaders of today and tomorrow - nurturing and developing their capabilities. It can also help with the retention of your, arguably, most valuable assets.

What we know about excellent leaders is that they spend as much, if not more time attending to their personal effectiveness as they do their technical skills. So, a further reason for hiring a coach is to help these individuals develop more acute self-awareness and refined, more effective interpersonal skills as vital resources for achieving their personal and business goals.

Finally, where an organisation is implementing a business-critical project, with complex process, system or people issues, coaching can keep progress on track, enhancing the likelihood of success.

So, where do you start, if you want your people to benefit from coaching? There are 5 points to consider which will help you avoid some common pitfalls

1. Be clear about what you want the coaching to achieve. In other words, know your outcome. That way you can also…
2. …measure the impact of the coaching and gauge the return on investment
3. Take care to establish the track record of the coach and take up references with existing or past clients
4. Invest time in meeting the coach (or a selection of coaches) and assess the chemistry between the coach and those wanting to be coached
5. Agree a contract clearly articulating inputs to the coaching process, duration of the relationship, frequency and method of contact – face-to-face/telephone – cost and outcomes.

Bringing a coach on board is an investment which can take time to mature. Take a look at any sport for the evidence. People are complex. They often have vested interests in keeping doing what they've always done - perhaps because it works up to a point, or maybe because they're afraid of the unknown. Once having made the commitment to refine their game, concentrating on one aspect can often cause a dip in performance in another. A good coach understands this and helps his client through uncertainty towards mastery.

Your business may aspire to gold medals or may be looking for promotion to the second division. Choose the right coach and both individuals and businesses can benefit from sustained advances in performance.

In the next issue we'll explore the skills required of a good coach and profile three coaches who each bring a very different perspective to their work.

 

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