Over the years, I have had many discussions with managers and other emerging leaders who expressed that they could not access career coaching services within their organizations. The reason being that they were not currently executives. This is unfortunate for the strong talent pools of an organization because it hinders their development. In reality, workplace coaching shouldn’t be limited to just executives.
Limiting corporate coaching to executives simply does not align with the favoured approaches of many successful organizations. Many companies take a top-down or bottom-up approach to things like goal setting. These are great strategies. However, when these same organizations limit corporate coaching to executives, they are making a huge mistake and hindering the development of a huge source of talent.
The Argument for Broadening Corporate Coaching
Organizations are increasingly investing in learning and development training. In fact, nearly half of companies increased their learning and development budget for 2022. This makes perfect sense. Continuing to develop talent has many benefits for an organization.
The most obvious benefit is that it can empower employees to do better at their current jobs. Corporate coaching can help companies reach goals quicker and enhance their operating metrics. It has also been found that companies that invest in the professional development of employees have lower turnover rates and more dedicated workers.
However, perhaps the biggest long-term benefit for organizations that invest in employees learning and development is building a talent pool to tap into for future managers and executives. Career coaching would be a powerful tool in helping facilitate the growth of internal candidates for promotions. This will provide a huge return on investment for the organization.
Some organizations may fear that providing corporate coaching to too many employees would lead to them growing skills and leaving the organization. While this certainly may happen, employees will also leave when they do not feel valued or invested in. Allowing more managers and emerging leaders access to career coaching can help prepare them to transition into leadership roles in the company in the future. In a time when companies are struggling to attract external talent, this is particularly valuable.
How Career Coaches Help Employees
Career coaching is a multi-faceted method of professional development that is highly customized to meet an individual’s needs. However, there are a variety of things that career coaches commonly may focus on, including the following:
- Building confidence
- Improving communication
- Identifying strengths
- Targeting areas of improvement
- Recentering around their current role
- Defining and articulating career goals
- Setting professional goals and charting a path for achieving them
- Reflecting upon the role of work in personal fulfillment
- Gaining new skills
- Exploring new areas of interest
All of these things can be very powerful tools to help middle managers and senior-level leaders in organizations. Career coaching is great because it takes a thoughtful, individualized approach to a person’s work life.
Career coaching can help employees with many areas — including ones often overlooked, such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, and leadership. It is an important thing for companies to invest in. While many organizations have taken steps to provide their executives with career coaching, some withhold this valuable service from other emerging leaders.
Making career coaching available for a broader number of employees can help them strengthen their development, become more invested in the organization, and prepare them for future leadership. Opening up this resource is well worth the investment.