Cosching. It's not just for sports, these days.

Coaching in the past was predominately associated with sports, like football and rugby. However, for the past 10 years coaching has become an increasingly popular method of supporting and developing employees in the workplace.

Within the training industry, learning and development specialists have long since realised that coaching is a very effective means of supporting and facilitating learning in business. Whether an organisation is in the public or private sector, coaching will have a positive impact on both the individual and the business.

The popularity of coaching is due to the flexible and straightforward nature coaching initiatives offer. The duration, medium and the content of coaching is designed around the needs of the organisation.

On average, the duration of each session varies between one to two hours and these sessions can be held in the traditional medium of face-to-face contact or use technological advancements, such as video conferencing or webinars.

Righttrack Consultancy, who have over 20 years’ experience in the learning and development sector, have seen a steady increase in the number of clients requesting coaching as either part of a learning and development initiative or as a stand alone development tool.

Righttrack feel the reason behind the growth is that clients are realising the benefits coaching brings to their staff and organisation. The European Coaching Institute (ECI) believes that there are many benefits that coaching generates and Righttrack agree with their findings. Righttrack believe the most important benefits that the ECI stated for the individual and organisation are:

Benefits of coaching to the individual:
It improves managerial and interpersonal skills
Develop better relationships with colleagues
Learn how to identify and act on development needs themselves
Have greater confidence
A direct and positive impact on performance Benefits of coaching for the organisation:

Improved productivity, quality and customer service.

Increased employee commitment and satisfaction, which leads to improved retention. Demonstrates commitment to developing staff.
Helps staff to cope with new responsibilities.

Support other training and development initiatives and implementation of new skills Although coaching is a relatively new learning and development tool, it is here to stay.

Coaching brings many business benefits to organisations as long as it is used as a long-term, integral part of a company’s people development strategy rather than used as an ad-hoc fix.