At J21 Coaching we keep a close eye on industry trends and hot topics coming up in the world of business coaching.
And with 2013 upon us, here are three trends to watch out for in business coaching, mentoring, career coaching, and relationship coaching across Birmingham and the wider UK this year:
Trend 1 – More regulation of the business coaching industry:
- This is not a new argument but it does appear that the Coaching Industry is moving towards tighter regulation. The embryonic status awarded to this industry can no longer be maintained. Our hope at J21 Coaching is that we see this regulation sooner rather than later. At the very least, there should be a basic qualification which all coaches must have before they can call themselves a “Coach”.
Trend 2 – The ‘coach phenomenon’ gains more structure:
- When coaching was in its infancy it was often seen as a something of a last resort, with comments such as “well we better try coaching him then” being commonplace – recently, it has become a more accepted discipline which ran along-side existing training models. Now that the results of coaching have been evaluated and well documented, it has been used in a more proactive format as opposed to a reactive format. This proactive use of coaching as a highly-effective tool for engaging people and helping them to create their own solutions to problems; one of the key aspects that makes coaching effective is onus on the individual taking responsibility for the solution. Herein lies a problem as these forward-looking companies develop their coaching models they are attempting add structure, consistency and measurement to the process. Many of the successful elements of coaching are subjective and intangible, so it is not a model that lends itself to measurement easily. It is up to the awarded bodies and coaching providers to devise the appropriate measuring tools/strategies, and then roll these out across the industry in a standardised format. We welcome this.
Trend 3 – More access to coaching at all levels:
- We are all going to face new and diverse challenges within our work and home environments during 2013 and beyond. To overcome these problems, we must all adopt a more flexible approach to the management of our lives and face-up to our responsibilities, both as an individual and as a co-worker within a team. We must try and curtail the habit of depending on someone else to do things, and stop looking for someone else to blame when it goes wrong and coaching is an excellent mechanism for doing this. At J21 Coaching, we foresee coaching to continue to be used and spread across all levels of both the management and workforce, so that there will be a continued shift towards coaching as a first course of action – rather than just a specialist option. Business coaches will be brought in regularly not just to coach individuals, but to help develop and foster coaching culture within the organisation. This may involve training key-workers in coaching techniques so that this ethos is permeated throughout the organisation. There are positives within the current economic situation that can used to foster a need for both the management and workforce to work together in a more co-operative manner.
Final thought:
At J21 Coaching, we also see that coaching will continue to develop into niche areas of specialism, so that the model itself can become more results focused. It makes sense, for example, that as companies embrace the need for change, that they turn to Change Management coaches for a focused set of pre-determined outcomes within a dedicated time span.
If you have any queries about our coaching services in the Midlands, please feel free to contact us here.