Business Coaching

Coaching is a one-to-one development activity designed to maximise individual performance. Coaching is supporting an individual to achieve their goals, by unlocking their own resources and potential. Coaching is based on the belief that each person has all the resources they need to solve any problem they may encounter and to improve any situation they want to change. It helps people to clarify what they want to achieve and define ways in which they can reach their goals. It supports behavioural change because the coach encourages the individual to try out new things and learn from the results, whether they be positive or negative. It provides ongoing learning. The coach provides an objective sounding board that so often is missing in the corporate environment, especially for managers and executives.

The coach’s role is to provide structure, challenge, support and follow up. By taking time out of a busy schedule for coaching, the coachee has the chance to

Our Approach

Coaching in a business context is focused on business issues, objectives, tasks, performance and development. All coaching sessions will end with agreed action points for the individual to take forward. At the beginning of the next coaching session these will be followed up, which provides motivation to implement the actions but also the chance to debrief in case things didn’t go so well.

In order to ensure that change is achieved we normally recommend a series of six coaching sessions. The first session is used to establish the desired outcomes for the coaching programme and possibly involves the line manager. We will review progress against these outcomes throughout the coaching programme and especially at the final session. As most of our coaches are also trainers, we can combine skills training with a coaching approach wherever necessary. Coaching can be combined with a 360 degree feedback report wherever that is felt beneficial.

Benefits of Coaching

Coaching is totally tailored to the individual’s needs and situation. Short sessions allow the individual to focus on a few specific areas at a time and ongoing sessions encourage implementation and practice of learned skills, tools and agreed actions. Short sessions create minimal disruption of the normal work routine and can be arranged to fit in with the coachee’s diary to allow for maximum flexibility. The coach provides an external sounding board with no vested interest or involvement in internal politics. Coaching provides rapid and relevant results.

Coaching can be used in the following situations

Our Experience

All of our coaches are qualified and have worked in business for many years as managers, trainers, facilitators or HR specialists, as well as coaches, so they understand the business context in which the coachee is operating. Our coaches are also able to provide models and tools if there is a gap in knowledge or skills. Some of our coaches have been working with individuals for over 15 years, long before “coaching” became a discipline in itself.

Our coaches aim to challenge clients while supporting them to make new connections, widen their horizon and raise their aspirations.

Examples of Coaching Programmes

One of our coaching clients has been managing a large group of staff and wanted to improve her ability to give feedback. The programme used a combination of individual training and coaching to develop the skills needed and define a specific approach to performance management. Within the coaching sessions the manager prepared for tough discussions with individual members of staff and this more focussed approach resulted in very clear communication of expectations and ultimately improved performance of staff.

Another of our coaching clients had recently joined a senior management team from outside the company. His style clashed with the culture of the organisation and he wanted to improve his profile and standing with his peers and superiors while achieving outstanding results and a promotion to the next grade. The coaching programme identified major stakeholders and a specific approach to improve relationships with them. Behavioural changes to fit better into the culture while maintaining his high achievement focus were defined and practised. The senior manager achieved the promotion within the time frame set and is now highly regarded by peers and superiors and asked to lead on cross-divisional projects.

If you would like to talk to anyone about how Business Coaching or any of our other services can help your business and HR objectives, please contact us.