Business Coaching has undergone a significant change in the last 5 years. In order to understand what this change is and how it occurred, it’s important to delve a little further into history.
Coaching transitioned into a commercial avatar way back in the 1970’s. Since that time, it has evolved and changed drastically. At that point of time coaching as a concept was related only to sports but over time it infiltrated other spaces too.
Right through that decade, companies started looking at the working of their organisations and there were a lot of discussions around corporate culture, employee mindset and change. Towards the end of the 1980’s and the start of the 1990’s, coaching had emerged as an important component of the functioning of companies in Australia as well as across the globe.
GROWth in Coaching Concepts
It was at this point of time that Sir John Whitmore’s GROW coaching model was introduced and gained popularity. Typically, this model was used for goal-setting as well as problem solving and is used to this day as a basic tool in a number of coaching practices. As the importance of coaching grew, it started adopting a number of approaches such as psychological, management & learning & development theories among others.
Apart from the growth of corporate and executive coaching in the 1990’s, life coaching was another trend that was gaining in popularity. Individuals were turning to different personal experts to get help with making crucial life decisions, while they were making career changes or even when they needed to boost their confidence.
Mainstream Mode
But by this time, corporate coaching had moved into mainstream mode. Unfortunately a number of people were moving into this field with minimal qualifications and training. This impacted the quality as well as the outcome of the coaching. However things had begun moving in the right direction and many companies were starting to look at coaching in a different light. This was also because there were credible organisations that had started conducting coaching accreditation programs. The aim was to develop an industry-specific code of ethics and quality standards.
Today, there are a number of well-established coaching organisations in the country that impart training, some which also provide industry-specific training programs. Some coaching companies and organisations constantly look for different methods to support coaches. There are co-coaching forums, coaching supervision, networking events, publications and books that go a long way in helping professional development & practice of coaches.
The Required Discipline
By 2012, the coaching field became more active and the profession is now accepted as a required discipline that is available to senior management in a number of organisations. Today, around 85% of companies offer coaching to their senior management and 52% offer coaching to the other employees. The truth is that there is still a lot of scope in the market to expand the reach of coaching into all the levels in an organisation.
Market watchers and industry experts predict that the business coaching market will continue growing over the next ten years. A number of organisations either have or are developing in-house coaching programs but there is always a demand for external business coaches to come and deliver training to the different employees within their organisations.
Focal Points
Today, there is also much more awareness about the link between organisational & behavioural psychology and coaches will have to up their knowledge levels in areas such as organisational understanding and individual psychology, if they want to maintain high standards & professionalism.
Business coaching is also focusing on the psychological aspects such as emotional intelligence, positive psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness & cognitive behavioural coaching. All these things indicate exactly how far coaching has progressed over the last 5 years, with reference to impact on human behaviour & psychology and professionalism.
Changing Times
The business landscape is currently in a recessionary phase. At such times, business coaches focus on delivering programs that spotlight effective and aggressive marketing & sales. The objective is to help businesses boost revenue in an environment that is stubbornly-frustrating even to the most concerted growth efforts. Dedicated and driven business coaches also learn to evolve with the changing landscape and that is the beauty of this industry.
About the Author
Ben Fewtrell is a sought-after Business Coach, Keynote Speaker and trainer who has featured in Virgin’s Inflight Magazine and Entertainment Portal, SKY Business and “Secrets of Top Business Builders Exposed”. He is also the host of the popular Business Brain Food Podcast where he interviews leading experts on anything and everything business.