Coaching in the Workplace

Over the last 20 years, coaching has been steadily gaining popularity. More and more people see the value of having a coach to help simplify challenging tasks. . We usually associate coaching with sports, but there is a growing trend of bringing coaching into the workplace. But what exactly is coaching, and how can it benefit people in the workplace?

Coaching is a tool that can empower people at all levels of an organization to leverage their unique strengths and achieve their goals. Much like performing in sports, work is a place that requires people to meet timelines, lead others, and produce results. So, if athletes have coaches to do those things, why shouldn't employees?. Like sports, there are coaches for different specialties in business. The specific type of coaching you choose should align with what you — and your team — hope to accomplish. Let's understand the different types of coaches that can be utilized in the workplace. 

Types of Coaches in the Workplace

There are different types of coaches, and understanding what these coaches do and what you’re looking for is key to matching your needs with the coach's expertise to get the desired outcome. We have outlined the different types of coaches you can utilize in the workplace and what they typically specialize in. 

1. Executive coaching

Often for C-suite executives, leadership coaching works with the top-level leaders at a different company. Executive coaches typically focus on how to create team synergy, implement new ideas, and deal with company-wide change. It helps to strengthen the performance of your most important leaders, and also helps senior employees who may be making a key transition into an executive position. 

2. Leadership development coaching

Leadership coaches teach new skills that help individuals become better at working with others. The focus is often on how to work with different types of people and motivate them to reach personal and team goals. Leadership development coaching is hugely beneficial for new managers and existing leaders to help them learn and reinforce best practices. Good leaders go a long way in motivating as well as helping a company retain its employees. 

3. Performance coaching

Most employees experience deadlines or pressure to perform at their job which can cause stress and anxiety. Being able to suppress these emotions and perform tasks require working with a Performance coach. They help people develop skills that are specific to meeting the objectives of their current job. As with athletic coaching, performance coaching focuses on spotting areas for improvement while handling pressure. Performance coaching offers focused practice and feedback much like athletics. 

4. Sales coaching

Pressure on sales teams and professionals is constant. Sales teams are inundated with increasing challenges to drive revenue while at the same time trying to make sense of all of the tools they have at their disposal. Sales coaching should involve training and mentoring - giving guidance,  as well as the ability to work through scenarios, and build confidence. It empowers salespeople to hit their goals through skills coaching and feedback.

5. Business coaching

Business coaching is similar to consulting. It is designed to help business owners and leaders build a strategy for organizational growth. This coaching is focused on rethinking, building, and executing a game plan designed for particular business outcomes rather than individual growth. 

6. Team coaching

A type of group coaching, these coaches teach team members the skills to collaborate. They may also facilitate more intensive sessions for team members to work through challenges. Team coaching might be paired with individual coaching for more outsized results.

Improvement is not just for the workplace. There are other coaches that help your life outside of work. We outlined a couple of popular coaching types for outside the workplace:

Life coaching  

Life coaching is simply about making progress and finding greater fulfillment in life. Because of its broad definition, almost all kinds of coaching fall under this term.

Mental Health Coach

Mental health coaching helps bolster mental fitness by challenging thought patterns. Through this type of coaching, people learn to manage stress and develop strategies to deal with difficult emotions. Although it is distinct from therapy, it can be a wonderful complement to support from a trained mental health professional.

Benefits of Coaching in the Workplace

There are some misconceptions about the benefits of workplace coaching. It is largely due to the personal nature of coaching work, and the ROI is difficult to quantify, but there are two immediate benefits that can be seen:

• Coaching helps us to examine ourselves and our behaviors and actions in a way that we usually cannot on our own.
• Coaching keeps us accountable for our goals and plans. This applies to most types of coaching.

Beyond that, the benefits of different types of coaching vary wildly. Try out our ROI workplace coaching calculator to easily quantify the benefits.

While there are benefits to workplace coaching, it’s important that you pick the type of coach that aligns with your goals. New managers are not going to want to work with a sales coach because they will not be able to help them understand and build leadership skills. 

Coaching matches are an important part of making sure your coaching experience is fruitful. 98% of Valor Performance clients approved of their coach match which led to 97% of them reporting that Valor improved their performance in some way. Valor can help understand your needs and place you with a coach that can actually help you achieve your goals. 

Learn more about Valor Performance coaching or see how Valor coaching works by scheduling a demo today.