Business coaching is a discipline that focuses on guiding and encouraging company employees to optimize their performance as a workforce. This is accomplished by identifying the obstacles they face personally and as a team in order to overcome them and set a new limit to performance.
In essence, business coaching is a process of accompaniment aimed at the creativity and effectiveness of employees, with the intention of aligning their personal goals with those of the company in which they work, but without losing sight of the fact that they are individuals. own interests and attachments.
Any coaching process, whether business or not, must meet the following characteristics:
- It is completely personalized.
- It is based on empathy and mutual trust.
- It focuses on self-discovery.
- It is focused on improving a person’s life.
Features of Business Coaching.
The essence of any coaching process is results. Now the person being coached cannot be sacrificed for results.
What do we mean by that? It’s simple: the coachee must always be attentive to the emotions, thoughts and health of the mentee in order to avoid negative consequences when trying to achieve the goals that were set at the beginning of the process.
1. Focus on the process
The focus of each coaching process will be different depending on the type of company and the goals it has. These business goals must be connected in some way to the goals of the team, otherwise coaching is not possible. This is the first aspect that the coach must analyze in order to focus his strategy.
From this point, the coach will need to apply various methods to identify behaviors, habits, reactions, and other aspects of behavior that the coached employee can improve to achieve said goals shared with the company.
2. Interaction between the trainer and the team
It can be said that at the heart of any coaching process is the type of interaction between the coachee and the mentee. The exchange of information, doubts, expectations, questions, progress, failures, and other aspects of the relationship are fundamental when it comes to interaction. They help both parties (coach and mentee) to engage deeply in the process. It’s worth thinking about the relationship that high-performing athletes have with their coaches. It is at this point that experts define the beginning of coaching.
Interaction varies depending on each coach’s personal style; some will be more aggressive in achieving goals, requiring staff and employees to give more than 100% of their effort; others prefer communication as the basis of interaction. Much of this depends on the goals set at the beginning of the process and the consensus that the coach manages to establish.
3. Reciprocal and shared responsibility
Just as interaction is continuous and personalized throughout the process, responsibility for it is mutual and shared. In this regard, it is worth emphasizing that the business context can be very competitive and demanding when we talk about improving performance. For this reason, any coaching process requires the coachee to take responsibility as something shared. The failure of the student is the coach’s fault.
This does not mean, however, that failure is entirely negative. There is always a lesson in failure, and it is the coach’s responsibility to be able to learn that lesson. Hence, there is a mutual responsibility.
In addition, sharing responsibility means that the workload is also shared. A good coach knows this and is prepared in advance to demand as much or more than the team. This is the difference between an effective coach and an imperfect one.
4. Respect as the foundation of the process
When we talk about respect, we don’t just mean the deference that should be shown in the coach’s relationship with the team. We are also talking about respect for the goals set from the beginning and how they will try to optimize the behavior and customs of the employee in their workplace.
This aspect is based on ethics, which the coach must treat with absolute respect in his actions. The values of the company must be respected in the same way. In other words, it is inappropriate and unethical to force the employee beyond human capabilities in this quest for performance. The coaching process is not designed to train automatons, but to help employees be more effective at their jobs without losing those characteristics that distinguish them from their peers.
These characteristics are vital if the coaching process is to have optimal results in the company.
The importance of business coaching.
The importance of business coaching has two aspects. On the one hand, the productivity of workers, employees, and entrepreneurs has value; on the other hand, it creates value for companies. Let’s look at the importance for each of these groups.
The importance for workers is that this methodology is learning-oriented. This consists of staying receptive and willing to continually learn as professionals in order to keep up with what companies require of workers. Training and re-training are important in a business context in which new technologies and tools emerge every year that make the workplace, on the one hand, more efficient, but also more competitive.
What is it for?
Business coaching implies a new and improved way of learning and knowledge management, it helps professionals:
- Optimize the execution of their functions.
- Improve the achievement of objectives within the industry.
- Enhance their skills,
- Improve job performance.
- Improve internal communication.
Although business coaching immediately addresses everything related to the area of human resources, there are also business consultants for specific areas that train employees through the transfer of knowledge so that they can apply it effectively in their work areas.
Instruments of business coaching
- Coaching has two specific objectives: business and personal, because in order for an employee to be much more effective in the workplace, he or she must first boost his or her personal motivations.
- Business coaches or trainers fulfill functions that are related to the type of advice they give and although they exist for different areas, they follow a type of pattern.
- Selection of people: Coaching is particularly focused on top management and executives, who are selected not so much for what they know but for what they are.
- Personality criteria: Coaching takes into account personality criteria by placing prospective participants in a situation to observe aspects such as communication skills, aptitude under pressure or risk, leadership and teamwork.
- Individual and professional objectives: The coach establishes the objectives to be achieved and how they will benefit the work of the collaborators. He/she does not say what to do, but offers clues on the right path in each case.
- Provides a clear focus: The coach explores what the expectations of each of the employees are and takes them as a reference to create the path that will help the participants to discover what is the individual or professional approach they should take.
- Motivation: One of the essential aspects that a business coach provides is motivation, because above all, he/she seeks that the collaborators become stronger as individuals and from there, direct their goals to their professional field.
- Continuous learning: The coach tries to sow in the collaborators the desire of continuous learning and leave aside the conformist aspect with which many times the collaborators have to deal, that is to say, encourages the improvement through knowledge.
- Identifies new skills: A good coach is not only capable of guiding a worker to improve their productivity and objectives, but also discovers new skills, talents and abilities in them.