To us at People
Resolutions, it’s no surprise to discover that the use of business coaching is
widespread in UK companies, with almost
nine in ten respondents to a survey by the University of Bristol reporting that
they now use coaching in their organisation.
We've directly
observed a marked shift in HR over the last decade, from spending much of their
time firefighting conflict, towards resolving it at an earlier stage and taking measures
to preventing it occuring in the first place. One-to-one coaching for select
individuals can play a huge part in both the prevention and resolution of
workplace conflict, as well as helping staff adapt to the changing business
climate. According to Lisa Berkovitz, “people are being forced to navigate the
work world according to a new set of rules that no one has explained to them.
The essential inner and outer skills needed today, aren’t being taught
elsewhere.”
In a short series of
two-hour sessions, coaching can explore attitudes, behaviours, communication
styles, conflict resolution techniques and other gaps the individual may need
to address – a personalised approach that no generic training course could ever
match. Lisa Berkowitz provides an
interesting analogy: “There’s a reason why elite athletes and top performers in
any field have coaches. A great coach can help reveal your blind spots so you
can keep getting past your upper limit.”
Many of our customers
are keenly aware that by not exploring coaching – for example as a way to
resolve an issue or prevent it from escalating, or to help someone find their feet
in a new role, the organisation leaves itself exposed to risk and costly
outcomes, such as high turnover, grievances raised etc.
