Coaching in a business setting is a training technique that involves an experienced individual providing an employee with advice and guidance to help them develop their skills, performance, and career. It is a process of equipping employees with the knowledge, tools, and opportunities they need to be successful. Rather than being a one-size-fits-all approach, coaching involves being heavily involved in the employee's progress and focuses on developing a higher level of performance. Employees are not free to do whatever they want, but are responsible for adhering to mutually agreed upon performance plans. The ultimate goal is always for employees to commit to achieving better organizational and performance objectives.
Organizational coaching aims to promote positive systemic transformation within organizations and is often used to help organizations reach strategic goals, enhance leadership capacity, and create cultural change. Broader organizational needs are at the forefront of the agenda, and advice is used to scale up change across the company. This broader approach differs from executive or leadership coaching, which focuses on the individual's development needs and usually involves individual commitments. Workplace coaching is not therapy or counseling, although it uses some of the same communication processes. Successful coaching adds value to employees, who then add value to their organizations by doing their best. These organizations have identified coaching as a critical leadership and management competence.
We define job coaching as the skills, processes, and knowledge through which people are engaged to achieve maximum impact and to continually renew themselves and their organizations as they experience ongoing changes. Coaching is not mentoring or consulting, although coaches will use their experience, diagnose situations, and give opinions or advice on occasion. Coaching is not about repackaging management skills, although it is based on certain management skills and competencies. According to the Gallup report, organizations that hired their employees through coaching reported a turnover rate of less than 59%. Coaching encourages creativity, innovative performance, and resilience, giving organizations a competitive edge and an effective way to flow and operate in an ever-changing environment.
Successful organizations such as IBM, Hewlett Packard, MCI, and others have implemented ongoing training so that their employees remain competitive. Coaches provide information but they help the people they train to develop their own skills and knowledge. Coaching uses all of their own knowledge and experience to enable the person receiving the training to create and develop their own best practices, connections, and resources.
