Business & Performance Coaching
What is coaching and how do you know if you need a coach?
Leaders and managers in today’s business world are constantly challenged to find more effective ways of delivering success within a complex and ever-changing environment.
Coaching helps individuals to understand themselves better, to explore new ways of doing things and to apply what they learn in a way that is meaningful to them and produces results for the business.
Coaching is not just a current fad but should be seen as laying the foundation for tomorrow’s business success. Working with a coach can help individuals to deliver significant positive outcomes and benefits to the organisation and themselves by focussing on their own specific needs.
So in an ideal world - everyone should have a coach! In reality however, many people elect to work with a coach when they have a particular challenge to overcome. Today’s business world throws up challenges every day and puts ever more pressure on people to perform. Coaching focuses on the individual at a very personal level, helping them to work through their own specific issues and find ways of facing their challenges with increased confidence.
The Focus of Coaching
The focus of coaching will vary depending on the business context and the needs of each individual client. Some managers, particularly those new to the role, may need practical ‘skills based’ support which will help them to develop new tools and techniques to deal with day to day management issues and perform their role effectively.
For others the focus is on enhancing performance. This may apply to more experienced managers facing some sort of transition involving leadership, organisational or personal issues, or perhaps recognising the need to change their approach in order to be more effective.
At the more senior business level, the demands of the role may require individuals to develop their leadership style, work on their strategy or embrace new ways of working in order to achieve superior business performance.
Coaching Scenarios
Anne was a home-grown manager who felt that she would never be given the chance to get to the top of her business. Her goal was to get a seat on the board. Our coach helped her to gain greater self awareness and understand what would help or hinder her in her objective. Using this knowledge, she devised a strategy which included building a network of stakeholders that would be instrumental in helping her to achieve her goal. 3 years later she has been promoted 3 times and is currently operating at director level. The coveted seat on the board is now just one step away.
Fred was young manager who had been promoted because he was very good at the technical side of his job but was finding it difficult to manage his team. Our coach worked with him to develop his management skills, helping him to find more effective ways of operating that suited his own particular style. We also helped him to recognise that being a manager involves spending time developing the people in the team so that they can deliver the technical aspects of the business – rather than continuing to do it all himself.
Fred’s team is now performing well and he is feeling much less pressurised.
Judy is an MD running a thriving marketing business. She was offered coaching as part of a government funded initiative to provide director development to SMEs in the region. Initially she used the coach to help her to develop her strategy for growth and fill gaps in her leadership skills. At the end of the programme she decided to carry on funding coaching for herself as she found enormous benefit in being able to talk to someone in confidence about her issues and concerns for her staff and the business as a whole.
Jack felt he could do more in his role as a supervisor but was not getting the opportunity to develop as his manager made it quite clear that he thought him incompetent. The coach helped Jack to understand why he was allowing his boss to intimidate him. He then worked at becoming more assertive and asking for the development that he felt he needed to improve his performance. Jack’s boss began to see him in a new light and he was offered the chance of working on an exciting new project which is allowing him to use his newly developed skills. His confidence is growing daily and the improvement in his performance is marked.
Jane Cox BA, Director of Akenham and an Ashridge Accredited Organisational Coach.
