Leading in the 21st Century means that skills need to be constantly honed and adapted to stay aligned with an ever-changing environment driven by globalization, increased competition and new technology. New styles of Leadership are required—no longer are command and control sufficient.
Leading in the 21st Century means that skills need to be constantly honed and adapted to stay aligned with an ever-changing environment driven by globalization, increased competition and new technology. New styles of Leadership are required—no longer are command and control sufficient.
Leaders are not only expected to set a vision and deliver results but are also expected to increasingly achieve their objectives through "people skills” which are, influence and persuasion.
"Leaders at every level of the organization are recognizing that they can leverage their personal success in accomplishment by coaching others to be successful at accomplishment,” says Robert Hargrove, of Masterful Coaching.
Coaching is an intervention that awakens the innate potential within individuals. It stretches their capabilities and gets them to perform beyond the ordinary. Coaching is about helping normal people to achieve supernormal results through a process of enhancing self-awareness.
Coaching is different from the conventional training approach. It is now scientifically established that the Return on Coaching Investment is higher than the Return 0n Training Investment by 30 percent in the first year alone.
Confirmed benefits of Coaching
Enhanced Customer Care:
Generally coaching supports self awareness and the way coachees perceive other people. The outcome is an improvement in attitudes and behaviours which in turn leads to better customer care.
Organizational Development:
The creativity unleashed during coaching and the enforcement of agreed actions leads to overall organization development especially where the Coachee is at top management level.
Retention of High-performers:
When staff are going through coaching and mentoring, there is a structured outlet for much of their concerns and challenges. They also tend to focus on a brighter future as they map out their career development. This planning process facilitates better retention of high performers in the organization.
Improvement in profitability:
Coaching ultimately improves staff productivity and hence profitability at the organization level.
It is easier to determine the Return on Investment in coaching:
Coaching is target oriented, the process is designed to spell out tangible and often quantifiable outcomes. It is therefore easier to determine the value created for each dollar spent. As has been proven in numerous studies, the role of coaching is higher than related interventions.
The author is a Business Manager at Coach Africa Rwanda