Coaching is impacting more people

Coaching practice was less understood 10 years ago in Asia. Only multinational corporations engaged coaching services for their executives and these coaches are foreigners as well. Asia shows a tremendous appreciation for professional coaches in the past decade. As a matter of fact, Asia coaches took 4.4% share of the global 2019 annual revenue from coaching, whereas 13,300 coaches' share in Latin America was 6.7%. (ICF Global Survey 2020)

Recent data shows that local corporate clients form 60% of Erickson certified coaches' client base. This indicates that coaching has reached a steadfast level of recognition by the local enterprises and there is potential for further growth in this region.

21st century is a VUCA world which led to many changes to how business and work are carried out. Enterprises understood the need to revamp systematically in order to survive and thrive; some had shifted the organization structure paradigm and adopted agile systems to meet the volatile economic landscape. As a result, the hierarchical structure and leadership model of the past do not quite match the current work model and the new workforce.

In this context, companies are increasingly emphasizing innovation culture and self-driven employees. But the ability to #innovate is not something that can be trained with just one or two courses. Firstly, employees need to have a very good understanding of their current work content, transform it into daily behavior work and in practice, constantly think about their own work: how to further optimize the work process and achieve efficiency or output improvement. These cannot be achieved by simply replicating past successes but require employees' self-motivation and the support of one's own resources. This is the juncture where a coach steps in to help employees re-examine their past experiences. Help them be introspective through questioning and listening, stimulate personal innovation and inner drive, so as to realize their potential.

Gradually, companies recognised the importance of leaning on their mid-level managers to #communicate organizational business directions, cultivate and develop the internal talents in order to effectively implement those strategies. As a result, many companies are introducing coaching skills in their leadership development programs for all levels rather than restricting such development to the executives. Below table shows the coaching continuum (2019 estimates by world region).

The aftermath of the pandemic is a major shift in workforce's attitude to work conditions and life goals, uncertainty of work prospects and mental strain from the furor changes by the companies to keep afloat in the difficult economic landscape- all these have encouraged business leaders to leverage on internal coaching program to support #talentretention and transformation within the organizations.

A Coach is a valuable key in an organization, unlocks and power up talents.

In the next article, we will share our insights on leadership coaching and their contribution to company transformations.