Renewed Demand
for Coaching in
Organizations
Increasingly, organizations view
coaching as a way to retain talented
employees and enhance leadership
development and soft skills.
TAL E N T R E T E N T I O N
While the recovery from the 2008
recession has been slow, it has
been steady. Since 2009, nine
million new jobs have been created.
Many talented managers now see
opportunities for advancement with
or outside of their organization. In
a dramatic shift from earlier in the
century, one of the main challenges
now facing most executive teams is
attracting and retaining talent. The
cost of turnover is high, particularly
when high-potential employees
leave. This is an area where an
organization’s approach to
training and development can
make a difference.
Wage increases and financial
incentives alone are unlikely to keep
talent in organizations. Research
suggests that the most common
reasons for an employee to leave a
company have nothing to do with
compensation: Lack of opportunities,
boredom, lack of challenge or
poor work/life balance are cited as
reasons for 70 percent of departures.
Dissatisfaction with compensation
accounts for less turnover.
LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
Leadership, performance and
change management are key areas
of coaching for organizations,
with research conducted
independently by HCI and jointly
by ICF and HCI citing leadership
development, change management
and onboarding as some of the
most frequently cited reasons for
organizations to utilize coaching.
Executives and the c-suite remain
the main targets for coaching in
companies, and the potential in
these areas is huge. According to
the Stanford survey, approximately
33 percent of CEOs of large
organizations receive coaching and
100 percent of CEOs are open to
change based on external feedback.
Furthermore, boards of directors are
recommending coaching for directors
and CEOs with increasing frequency.
IMPROVING SOFT SKILLS
Opportunities for All
Savvy business-generating coaches
learn to align and promote their
services with the emerging needs
and trends in organizations.
Veteran practitioners who already
have the experience of delivering
Executive Coaching to CEOs or
c-suite leaders can leverage the
new niche of entry-level and midlevel managers as a way to broaden
and diversify their portfolios. This
same target presents the greatest
opportunity area for aspiring
coaches seeking to build their
experience in the corporate setting.
What product can you create as a
coach to demonstrate your value
and generate new business in the
organizational setting? Creating and
delivering a unique presentation
or workshop can demonstrate to
organizational decision-makers, such
as human resources directors, how
you can support their strategic goals
and contribute to a high return on
investment for coaching.
Get your foot in the door. Start
small. Be concrete. Focus on a
target area of growth and create a
program that is bound to make a
noticeable change. There is a world
of improvement needed in most
organizations. Pick your challenge,
and go for it!
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Aside from the traditional areas of
talent retention and leadership skills,
soft skills, such as communication,
teamwork and decision–making,have recently been recognized as
profitable areas for improvement
within companies. In that area, the
role of coaches is to help employees
be more self-aware. For example, as
a coach you may support a client in
cultivating the ability to offer effective
feedback or participate productively
in a team. Organizations have begun
to understand the value of building a
culture of coaching at all levels, and
the potential in that area is huge:
According to ICF and HCI’s 2015
study, Building a Coaching Culture
for Increased Employee Engagement,
only 13 percent of participating
organizations were classified as
having a strong coaching culture.
This untapped niche opens a full
range of new opportunities.
Coaching World
And here is where coaching comes
into play: Not only do corporate
coaches develop high-potential
employees by preparing managers
for promotion and addressing
derailing behaviors, but they also
reinforce a manager’s commitment
to the company. Managers and
employees need to feel that they
belong to the organization, and
that they grow at a personal level.
In focusing on personal and soft
skills, coaching keeps employees
engaged, with 2015 data from ICF
and HCI revealing that 60 percent
of employees in organizations
with strong coaching cultures rate
themselves as highly engaged.