Benefits to the individual and organisation

Coaching provides benefits to both the organisation and the individual, whether you use external coaches for leadership development, internal coaching, or coaching as a management tool.

The benefits to leaders are that a coaching partnership:

• Provides the support, feedback and challenge necessary for progression and growth that may not be available elsewhere within the organisation
• Helps to fulfil potential by encouraging the commitment of time and energy to individual development
• Stimulates and supports behaviour change and self awareness in a way that training programmes can not do, and which are often the most important factor in developing practical leadership skills
• Responds to personal and professional priorities by offering flexibility in timescale and approach
• Increases the effectiveness of other leadership development such as training programmes or MBA’s by helping to integrate the learning into the workplace
• Addresses real issues in real time.

The benefits of using coaching as a management tool are that it:

• Promotes constructive problem solving activity which can lead to improvements in performance,
• Increases motivation and the level of discretionary effort put into work, which leads to increased productivity
• Ensures a high degree of responsiveness and proactivity, vital in a fast changing work environment if opportunities are to be taken advantage of.

The benefits to the organisation of using coaching in any form are that it leads to:

• Higher levels of motivation and commitment to the organisation with a corresponding increase in productivity and improved performance
• Better retention of highly skilled and qualified staff, particularly when used to support the return of high level staff to work after absence, or to those taking up new leadership roles in the organisation. (Research suggests that a large proportion of people recruited to senior management and executive positions leave in the first 100 days.)
• Cost effectiveness as development is focused, personal and practical, and helps to integrate other forms of learning into individual working practices.