Coaching: Performance and Productivity

This article is informed by an article I wrote in 2011 entitled “Coached or Be Coached.” In revisiting the intent of the article, I find it to be even more relevant to the contemporary coaching environment than when it was written. In the past decade, coaching has grown exponentially

resulting in multiple professional coaching categories. Blackbyrn (2020) indicates that there are “11 Types of Coaching. What Kind of Coach Can You Be?“¹ While coaching can be an attractive occupational choice, it should be recognized that each occupational category of coaching requires specific academic preparation, supervised clinical supervision, and continued professional development to ensure professionalism. An interesting point of occupational contrast, while coaching as a profession identifies using multi-occupational titles, such as life coach, wellness coach, executive coach, and relationship coaching, The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not indicate an occupational category for coaches. Instead, BLS recognizes the occupational category of “Coaches and Scouts” associated with “teaching amateur or professional athletes the skills.”²

The coaching professions are growing exponentially. Venkatesh (2019) estimates that the market size of the coaching industry was $15 billion in 2019, with a total of $7.5 billion worth market value in the United States alone.³ Also, LaRosa (2018) projects that the coaching industry “should see better 5.6% average yearly gains from 2016 to 2022, when the overall market value should increase to $13.2 billion.”⁴ Lastly, Venkatesh (2019) indicates there are currently 5,86,292 coaches worldwide in 2019. About 92% of these are active. Of these, 42% operate in the United States – a total of 2,88,500 coaches.”⁵ While these project market values differ and the data supporting these claims are disparate and inconsistent, they suggest an upward trajectory and expansion for the coaching industry.

Coaching has emerged as an attractive professional discipline. Professionals across industries are employing coaches to improve their performance. As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages global populations, its impact on the United States is dire, as evidenced in the unfathomable numbers of victims, visionless and inert federal leadership resulting in our national economy teetering on the verge of depression. In response, professionals of all types are reevaluating their professional viability. As a result, many professionals are enlisting coaches to assist them in determining how to reimage and reinvent themselves in the context of the current socio-political and socio-economic conditions.

Given this contemporary context, two key indicators of professional success and viability remain consistent; performance and productivity. Increasingly, over the past six months, the criterion for effective performance and measurable productivity in all industries may have shifted even radically changed. While the associated criteria may change, performance and productivity continue as core variables and metrics of success fueling organizational growth and sustainability. These variables are constitutional elements of the amalgam inherent in client relationships, in turn, enabled business engagement. Similarly, the value of coaching and coaches are measured by performance and productivity. Increased client efficacy resulting from informed and intentional coaching is the core measure of the viability of the coaching relationship.

Coaches are change agents. As such, they must acquire the knowledge, competencies, and skills necessary to effectively enable appropriate change for clients and be mindful of the consequences that may result. One approach to framing the client-coach relationship and enabling performance and productivity is establishing a partnership in knowledge. A knowledge platforming the coach and coachee relationship is informed through academic preparation, forged in the crucible of supervised practice, and empowered using technology, enabling coaching success.

The confluence of personal, professional, and marketplace changes have increased the requirements for performance and productivity. As a result, the current global context provides unique opportunities for coaching to emerge as an essential professional development practice. Coaching can assist in eliminating ineffective and valueless personal, professional, and client engagement practices, replacing them with high performance-oriented and value-rich strategies reflecting contemporary requirements. Therefore, coaching may be a critical professional enabler for 21^st-century business professionals worldwide.

Let’s examine the coaching credentials and coaching experience.

Coaching Credentials

Famed basketball coach Phil Jackson shared, “Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.” Philosophically, wisdom is the optimal use of knowledge. Knowledge is often a product of education, therefore an essential component of wisdom. In all industries, content education and continual professional development provides the knowledge translatable into strategies for interpersonal engagement of all types. Possessing the relevant and applicable coaching education and supervised professional practice can be used effectively to “overmatch” or overcome strength.

A partnership in knowledge between coach and coachee values formal training and supervised practice. Coaching has become a recognized professional discipline. Increasingly, institutions of higher education have developed coaching curriculum standards and performance guidelines to ensure educational quality. Over the past decade, several major universities have created coaching certificate programs such as Georgetown University and Columbia University. Moreover, world-class professional coaching programs such as that of the International Coaching Federation is providing professional education and training. Coaching credentials are essential an essential component in developing and advancing a coaching career.

Coaching Experience

We all have experience coaching. From little league to the first job, we’ve offered guidance and encouragement to improve other’s performance and productivity. As physicist Albert Einstein observed, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” A litmus test of a coach’s viability is their successful coaching experience. Coaching experience is acquired in many ways. Enabling high performance in others at varying levels of competency requires seasoned and nuanced coaching skills. Coaching can be considered an art and a science. Coaching is episodic as it occurs in phases. Coachee’s inform coaches in conscience and unconscious ways when and how to assist them in advancing the coaching process, enabling increased performance and productivity.

The quantity and quality of a coach’s experience is a significant factor when being trained to become a coach. Coaching requires professional education steeped in experience and expertise, evidenced through effective coaching results.

Creating the Future Today

Coaches can enable coaches to create their futures today. Through building an enabling coach-coachee relationship, coaches can assist coachees in improving their performance and productivity. Become a coach and transform lives.

References

1. 11 Types Of Coaching. What Kind of Coach Can You Be?” Retrieved from https://sai.coach/blog/types-of-coaching/
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/coaches-and-scouts.htm
3. Umesh Venkatesh (2019) COACHING INDUSTRY – STATISTICS!! Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coaching-industry-statistics-umesh-venkatesh
4. John LaRosa The $10 Billion Self-Improvement Market Adjusts to a New Generation Retrieved from https://blog.marketresearch.com/the-10-billion-self-improvement-market-adjusts-to-new- generation
5. Umesh Venkatesh (2019) COACHING INDUSTRY – STATISTICS!! Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coaching-industry-statistics-umesh-venkatesh