Anyone who has been in the workforce over the last ten years is likely to have heard the word ‘coaching’ being used to describe the skills managers use to support staff.
The term itself often ends up with a negative connotation for employees, as more often than not, the manager does not even understand the difference between coaching and managing and does not have any formal coach training. They continue to manage and direct employees instead of supporting them to problem solve for themselves.
This leads to employees being disillusioned with the concept of coaching as managers continue to do the thinking for them and control all aspects of their work whilst claiming they are ‘coaching’ them.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as a form of personal growth where the client and coach create an alliance that promotes the client’s personal growth and competence. It’s an admiral goal, but how often does the perception of coaching match this description?
Maureen Pound, director of coach training organization, Performance Toolkit believes that the coaching industry suffers from a lack of accreditation and industry norms.
“The coaching profession is still unregulated and allows for a lot of people to call themselves coaches in organizations, when they’re not actually implementing any of the coaching principals or have any accreditations.”
It’s like a person reading some information about managing finances without having qualifications and practical experience and then calling themselves a financial planner. They can do a bit of damage and give financial planners a bad name.”
“As the coaching industry is still unregulated I have found that the term coaching can have a negative stigma attached to it. Many people have been coached in the workplace by people who do not have not any coaching qualifications or experience.”
