Why 2022 Is The Year You Should Hire A Coach
Coaching has become a key ingredient in professional success.
The industry has grown tremendously, demonstrating the power and importance of having a coach. In fact, the number of coaches available across the world has been growing steadily for the past two decades. While many professional associations have seen declines in their membership in recent years, the global organization of professional coaches, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) is booming. Magdalena Nowicka Mook, CEO of the ICF, says, “Coaching empowers. And we all needed that to just survive, let alone thrive in the last couple of years. ICF experienced remarkable growth in 2021, reaching over 50,000 members in 156 countries. That indicates that coaching is a global phenomenon that’s being embraced by a growing number of people.”
For the longest time, when you heard the word “coach,” you instantly thought of sports. The inception of executive coaching can actually be traced back to the world of sports, specifically tennis and golf coaching in the UK at Inner Game, whose founder (Sir John Whitmore) realized that his principles could be useful for honing business leadership skills. In the early 1980s, Sir John and his partners launched Performance Coaching, and the rest is history. As other pioneers joined the field, coaching for professionals started gaining real traction in 1995, when the ICF was founded.
Coaching is now available for all career-minded professionals—offering the opportunity to achieve success beyond your own expectations. Here are just a few of the ways the landscape is changing:
- More and more companies are investing in coaching for their leaders and high potential employees. That’s because there’s often a direct correlation between individual coaching and organizational financial performance. According to a 2015 survey from the ICF and the Human Capital Institute, “51% of respondents from organizations that invested in coaching reported higher revenue than that of other similar organizations.”
- Coach aggregators like BetterUp and CoachHub have vetted and assembled coaches with a variety of specialties, making it easier and less expensive for companies and team leaders to bring coaching into their organizations.
- Companies have added a new title to their organizations’ talent rosters: Internal Coach. According to Mook, 13% of ICF members are internal coaches.
- In addition to having a coach, it’s easier to adopt the skills of a coach while still keeping your day job. In his bestselling book, The Coaching Habit, author Michael Bungay Stanier (known as MBS) helps readers incorporate coaching skills into their leadership style. His company has turned the lessons in his book into corporate leadership development programs to infuse organizations with a coaching mindset.
- The comfort that we’ve experienced in working with our remote colleagues has translated into comfort in working with a coach, regardless of where they’re located. That makes it easier to partner with the ideal coach for you.
- Coaching is evolving and is available in more ways to support more people. For example, Mobile coach helps Health and Wellness coaches stay in contact with clients through a digital bot. This is a major breakthrough since developing habits often relies on assistance long after a coaching session is over.
So why is 2022 the year you should work with a coach?
You still have to navigate change. Let’s face it. The last couple of years have been like no other. Change has been the mantra, and the ability to embrace it has been a differentiator in success. Coaches are tremendously helpful in keeping you grounded during times of intense instability and change. They keep paralysis at bay so you can move forward. Dave Wondra, a powerful practice expert and executive coach said, “Now more than ever, the only source of stability you can count on is being firmly anchored in yourself, as a system for guiding your choices.”
Written by William Arruda for Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2022/01/11/why-2022-is-the-year-you-should-hire-a-coach/?sh=7f5d53d55b73
