Coaching Boosts Company Profits (The Post.ie)
By Bernard Chanliau, Monday 21 September, 2009
Recent Media Coverage in Sunday Business Post Article, September 20, 2009 by Lorna McDowell:
Professional coaching could provide business leaders with valuable insight as they struggle to overcome the challenges posed by the recession, according to coaching expert Lorna McDowell.
McDowell is a director of Coaching Alliance Ireland (CAI) and managing director of coaching consultancy Xenergie.
"Coaching can really help companies to think about the future. I have several leaders of indigenous Irish companies, some of whom are trying to develop global strategies," she said.
"They have found that the only time they can stop the day-to-day fire-fighting and think long-term about where they are going is during the coaching session," said McDowell.
CAI is a representative body that aims to raise awareness of the benefits of coaching in Ireland.
Established in 2005 as the Irish Coaching Development Network, the organisation rebranded as CAI earlier this month in readiness for a series of initiatives designed to raise its profile. "The new name is more clear about what we are about. As a representative body, our aim is to spread greater understanding about how to use coaching effectively in organisational change," said McDowell.
Although not widely used by Irish companies, McDowell said coaching was becoming more commonplace here.
"The most obvious uptake within the Irish market has been within multinationals, particularly those operating in the services sector," she said.
"The Irish mindset has struggled more to take it on board, because indigenous companies here are more internally focused.
"Fundamentally, however, I think that every leader within an organisation should receive coaching to make them more self-aware of their leadership style. One of the greatest benefits that coaching provides is an awareness of the impact you have as a leader and your ability to develop vision and strategy."
CAI is a joint initiative between four professional coaching associations : the International Coach Federation; Association for Coaching; European Mentoring and Coaching Council; and Life and Business Coaching Association of Ireland. The alliance estimates that there are more than 1,000 trained coaches operating in the Irish market.
It works with Skillnets to run Coaching Skillnet, an upskilling and professional development initiative in place since 2007. CAI has also established a Standards Development Group (SDG) to align coaching qualifications with the National Framework of Qualifications.
The SDG's first task has been to introduce a major award at Fetac Level Six, which provides participants with a certificate in basic coaching.
"We are also looking at the Hetac level for deeper learning and the application of coaching in different environments," said McDowell. "We are reviewing some of the courses that already exist at Hetac level, and looking to see what might be missing.
"These qualifications acknowledge the development of professional coaching skillsets, which require formal training and further education."
Although several Irish colleges and universities offer certificate, diploma and masters courses in coaching, McDowell said there was a lack of clarity regarding the training path required by different coaching professionals.
"The job requires a lot of ongoing learning and development. Just having a certificate in coaching is nowhere near enough to be a professional coach. There needs to be a real commitment to ongoing learning," she said.
In addition to professional qualifications, CAI also aims to increase awareness of coaching in the business community.
It has launched a new magazine, Coaching Perspectives, which will be distributed to the association's members and a database of 1,000 of Ireland's top companies.
"The idea behind the publication is to educate people around Ireland, particularly senior managers within organisations, about how coaching can play a part in transitioning mindsets within the context of a national recovery," said McDowell.
"Coaching is very transformational. The coaching relationship is one that makes people think and react in ways they have not done before.
"Particularly in relation to leadership, it helps to highlight the difference between management and leadership, and helps people to become transformational players within their organisations. It helps them to see blind spots and to think more about what they are doing."
McDowell said that coaching could be a useful aid to staff training. "Tipperary Institute ran a programme last year - the Inspire Programme - with participants from a range of backgrounds," she said.
"They found that, if a minimum of two coaching sessions were added to the training process, it could make a profound difference. The retention of learning during training is about 20 per cent so, if someone does a training course, after 24 hours they may remember about one-fifth of what they have been taught.
"If they are coached afterwards and asked to reflect about how they are going to use the training, and go through a series of one-to-one meetings following that training course, the level of retention can be increased to around 80 per cent."
