Coaching is the lever that drives ‘step-change’ performance improvement.
There isn’t a single top-level sports person or team that doesn’t have a coach, so why isn’t this the case for business professionals? All industries can benefit from coaching in order to improve performance.
Where experience and direction play a greater role, generally this is referred to as mentoring and some professions have been promoting this practice for many years, such as medicine and law. Coaching and mentoring both guide improvement, but they are different in their method and the results that they produce.
How does coaching improve performance?
Back in the 1970s, a Harvard tennis coach realised the benefits of ‘self-directed learning’ and devised questions to facilitate this learning, this is essentially the basis of coaching. Coaching fosters an attitude change towards individual self-improvement, and results in long term learning. Therefore, coaching is also beneficial for business, as it promotes a culture of continual development.
Why do SME’s need coaching?
Coaching is regularly used in large organisations as part of management and leadership development, driving business performance improvement right up to the C-Suite level. However, SMEs are getting left behind. In times of economic pressure, organisations need to use every lever possible to deliver more, and contrary to belief, coaching does not have to be expensive.
Coaching produces value for money results. Improvement is experienced immediately and then grows over a 4-6 month time period. During the coaching, individuals work directly on the challenges and opportunities they are facing at the time. This means there is no need to ‘apply the learning later’. Instead, you design solutions to your current issues and are prepared with next steps, and you see the results straight away.
Many leaders cite the importance of this opportunity to use an external coach as a ‘confidential sounding board’; benefitting from the robust challenge to their perspective and decision-making.
With our team of professional and experienced business coaches, at Fitzgerald HR we can provide you with a range of options to suit your situation.
Contact us today and ask us for a client recommendation.
