STANDARD DEFINITION
Business coaching is the process of engaging in regular, structured conversation with a "client": an individual or team who is within a business, profit or nonprofit organization, institution or government and who is the recipient of business coaching. The goal is to enhance the client’s awareness and behavior so as to achieve business objectives for both the client and their organization.
Business coaching enables the client to understand their role in achieving business success, and to enhance that role in ways that are measurable and sustainable. The coaching process may take different forms (e.g., individual or team coaching) and involve different goals (e.g., problem solving, career and succession planning, leadership/executive development, creation of high-performing teams), but throughout there is a clear focus on the business objectives of both the client and the organization.
This dual focus is what distinguishes business coaching from other types of coaching. The business coach helps the client discover how changing or accommodating personal characteristics and perspectives can affect both personal and business processes. Successful coaching helps the client achieve agreed-upon business outcomes as an individual or team within the context of an organization.
Business coaching establishes an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect, safety, challenge and accountability to motivate both the client and the coach. To that end, the business coach must conduct an ethical and competent practice, based on appropriate professional experience, business knowledge and an understanding of individual and organizational change.
Note: "Business coaching" is an inclusive term that refers to all types of business and organizational coaching. It is practiced by internal and external coaches who may identify as corporate coaches, executive coaches, leadership coaches, organizational development coaches or other types of business coaches. Regardless of the practitioner’s title, business coaching is defined by its dual focus on the client and the client’s organization.
WHY USE A BUSINESS COACH ?
Enhanced business results.
I think businesses need three essential services to thrive: strategic, legal and financial. Business coaching is the strategic prong.
HOW DID BUSINESS COACHING GET STARTED ?
I believe there are three broad categories of coaching in the marketplace today: sports, personal and business. Business coaching is used as an umbrella term to include all types of business and organizationally related coaching. Thus, business coaching includes both internal and external coaches who work as business coaches, corporate coaches, executive coaches, leadership coaches, organizational development coaches and many other types of coaches.
WHO USES BUSINESS COACHES ?
Business leaders, owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, directors, managers and emerging leaders. Anyone who has a business-related personal/professional objective and is ready to take action.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BUSINESS COACH AND A LIFE SKILLS COACH, A MENTOR, A CONSULTANT OR A THERAPIST?
A business coach engages in meaningful communication with individuals in businesses, organizations, institutions or governments, with the goal of promoting success at all levels of the organization by affecting the actions of those individuals.
WHAT KIND OF BENEFITS COULD I EXPECT FROM WORKING WITH A BUSINESS COACH ?
Your business coach acts as a confidential strategic business partner who assists you to leverage your personal and operational success. Among the broad array of service offerings, your coach may assist you to:
-Rejuvenate business growth
-Build interpersonal competencies
-Enhance organizational capabilities
-Develop skills and knowledge base
-Prioritize goals and develop strategies to achieve objectives within set timeframes
-Deal with conflict
-Streamline business processes and systems
-Improve morale
-Direct and support organizational change
-Collaborate to create and execute personal/business development plans
-Deliver feedback
-Conduct needs analyses
-Develop and interpret performance assessments
HOW DOES BUSINESS COACHING WORK?
Business coaching relationships are custom designed to match individual goals and objectives. A typical set of stages could look like this for an external business coaching program***:
Step 1: Contracting or Intake Stage.
Meetings typically occur between the client*, coachee** and the coach to discuss business coaching services and to define the strategic business context. These one or two contracting open dialogues set the stage for a solid business coaching process. Successful business coaching relationships require trust, safety, honesty, support, challenge and high-quality feedback.
Once all key parties (client, coachee, coach) are ready to move forward, these contracting objectives including clearly defined processes, roles, responsibilities and expectations are typically formalized into several documents including a Business Coaching Agreement and Confidentiality Agreement.
Step 2: Information Gathering and Debriefing Stage.
Appropriate business and organizational information is first gathered and reviewed by the coach. Typical information includes personnel file, organizational values and principles, mission and vision, ethical statements, organizational charts (formal and informal), annual reports, policies and procedures, internal correspondence, operating plans, product literature, analyst's reports, and public files.
Your business and/or organization is a complex system. Thus, business coaches can use a variety of information gathering tools and assessments to assist them:
In-Depth Structured Interviews
* These are custom designed interviews with key stakeholders to specifically target the coachee's business issues.
Direct Observation (Shadow & Observational Coaching)
*This is one of our most powerful information gathering tools. Business coaches are trained competent observers. The business coach may recommend observing the coachee in certain business contexts in order to assess how he or she interacts with others and manages his or her working environment. Remember, business coaching is about facilitating behavioral shifts that result in enhanced performance. Seeing the coachee in action allows the business coach to better understand the coachee and how he or she impacts others.
Other Standardized and Non-Standardized Assessment Tools
*The business coach and coachee will discuss what type of additional assessments are appropriate given your particular goals and objectives. This phase can take anywhere from one to several days or even weeks depending upon the types of assessments used.
In general terms, expect that information gathering tools and assessments will almost certainly include the coachee's interpersonal, communication and leadership styles; emotional and attitude management; and physical comportment.
Step 3: Feedback Stage.
Following each key information gathering stage or assessment, the coachee will receive verbal, written and/or audio feedback. A discussion will establish the purpose of each information gathering stage and/or assessment, and when and how feedback is to be delivered.
Step 4: Planning and Active Coaching Stage.
Equipped with powerful baseline data from these information gathering stages and assessments, the business coach and coachee can now diagnose intelligently what needs to be done next—at least in broadest terms—to work towards the establishment of significant goals and an action-results development plan.
Step 5: Reassessment Coaching Stage.
A reassessment phase every agreed upon number of months consists of an abridged version of the initial assessment and allows the business coach to evaluate, refine and enhance the coaching program. The results of this reassessment are shared with identified organizational change partners to help fortify the coachee's change initiatives and ensure business or organizational alignment.
Step 6: Final Evaluation Coaching Stage.
Towards the end of the business coaching program, the business coach and the coachee identify suitable evaluation processes (such as: shadow coaching, interviews with key stakeholders) to provide a final measure of the extent to which the goals have been met and what impact the accomplishment of these goals has had on the coachee and the business or organization. An evaluation of the business coach and the program is also conducted.
Formalized feedback is provided to the executive leadership only if this is applicable and was agreed upon during the contracting phase of the business coaching program.
Step 7: Follow-on Coaching Stage.
In the final session, the business coach and coachee discuss next steps. Follow-on business coaching is often suitable to further support and reinforce the learning and new behaviors that have been established.
Alternatively, the business coach may work with the coachee to create a game plan that the coachee implements on his or her own with the assistance of other business or organizational partners to help ensure permanent positive behavioral change and sustained success.
WHAT ARE TYPICAL SESSION LENGTHS ?
The appropriate session length is determined by the nature of the coachee's goals and objectives, time pressures on the part of the coachee, and budget considerations. Typically, sessions are 30 - 90 minutes in length. Shadow or observational coaching may last for several hours depending upon the nature of the behaviors and activities being observed.
How are sessions conducted?
Sessions may be conducted in person, virtually (by phone, email, etc.) or a combination of several methods. If conducted in person, approaches include:
-Business coach observes coachee (Shadow or Observational Coaching)
-Business coach works only with coachee (One-on-One)
-Business coach works with coachee and his or her team (Team Coaching)
-Business coach works only with coachee as he or she interacts with his or her team (Leader/Manager Coaching)
-Business coach works only with coachee as he or she interacts with another individual (Leader/Manager in a One-on-One)
HOW DO I SELECT A BUSINESS COACH?
WABC recommends that you carefully interview several business coaches to find the right match for you. Finding the right business coach is as critical as selecting the right attorney and financial advisor.
Some Suggested Interview Questions:
1. What is your background in business?
2. What is your background in coaching?
3. Why did you decide to become a business coach?
4. What credentials do you have in coaching or other related fields?
5. What is your general philosophy of and approach to business coaching?
6. What is your personal coaching style
7. How do you continue to develop yourself as a coach?
8. Do you have now, or have you worked with, your own business or other type of coach?
9. What kind(s) of clients you do work best with?
10. What kind(s) of business issues do you work best with?
11. How are you different from or similar to other coaches?
12. My personal/business issue or challenge involves __; how have you assisted others with this kind of issue or challenge? (TIP: Listen to ensure that your prospective Business Coach isn't simply prescribing remedies. See Quick Reviews & Additional Tips below.)
14. How will I know if I'm ready for business coaching?
15. How do you give feedback? Could you provide me with some feedback about what you've heard and observed about me so far?
16. How do you conduct your coaching sessions? In-person, telephone, email, combination, etc.
17. How do we determine the appropriate frequency and duration of sessions; length of coaching program?
18. What are your rates?
19. What are the terms of your contract for coaching services?
20. Do you belong to any professional coaching associations?
21. Do these associations have a code of ethics?
22. What else do I need to know to make an informed decision?
23. Could you work with me? How did you determine this?
PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
A. The Business Coach-Client Interaction
1. Professionalism and Ethics
I will apply high standards of honesty and integrity to my service provision and behavior. This means that I will:
* Honor all agreements made in the context of business coaching relationships, and all other legal and ethical obligations to the client and others involved in the coaching engagement (e.g., sponsor, organization, colleagues).
* Consider whether any potential engagement might create an actual or perceived conflict of interest and, if a conflict is identified, declare it and take all reasonable steps to protect the interests of the client and others involved in the coaching engagement.
2. Client Focus
I will put the client first while at the same time respecting the objectives of the client's organization. This means that I will:
* Serve the client to the highest possible standards, in a way that is appropriate to the client's and organization's objectives and in keeping with the highest standards of integrity.
* Keep the client's development and performance central to my work.
* Work to establish mutual trust and honest communication with the client.
3. Business and Organizational Context
I will operate in the interests of the client's business and organizational contexts. This means that I will:
* Understand the importance of context in my work, and display a strong grounding in fundamental business knowledge and processes.
* Ensure that I have the appropriate level of corporate knowledge to understand the developmental, political, commercial and environmental needs of the client and their organization.
* Ensure that the coaching engagement is appropriately aligned with the context of the client's organization.
4. Business Coaching Process and Contracting
I will put into place an appropriate coaching services agreement (oral or written) to work with clients towards agreed-upon objectives. This means that I will:
* Establish up front a clear and effective agreement for the coach-client relationship, strive to ensure that the client understands the terms, and refine the agreement when appropriate.
* Create a coherent process for my work in agreement with the client and others involved in the coaching engagement.
* Communicate with the client about what to expect from business coaching services, focusing on results and agreeing how outcomes of success will be measured, evaluated and realized.
B. Factors Affecting the Coaching Interaction
5. Boundaries
I operate in areas where clear boundaries need to be recognized and drawn. This means that I will:
* Be aware of the relevant values, ethical practices, confidentiality agreements, business practices and human resource policies within the client's organization, and withdraw if these impede my ability to serve the client.
* Be aware of relevant legislation (e.g., privacy), regulations and standards in the contexts in which I practice, and never intentionally contravene them.
* Recognize, and act only within, the limits of my own competence, and refer to other professionals when appropriate.
* Act only within the scope of my own conscience and values.
6. Confidentiality
I will practice coaching in a way that promotes confidentiality and respects the client's privacy. This means that I will:
* Ensure, before the coaching engagement begins, that a confidentiality agreement is in place to specify which information will and will not be shared, in which circumstances, with whom and how.
* Abide by the agreed-upon terms of confidentiality, except when they are superseded by matters of health, safety, ethics or legality.
* Protect the client's assessment, performance and other personal data to the extent agreed upon in the confidentiality agreement.
7. Diversity
I will respect cross-cultural diversity and personal uniqueness at all times. This means that I will:
* Understand how cultural dynamics and personal differences influence business relationships and outcomes.
* Work with the client to leverage diversity in ways that promote successful business and organizational outcomes.
* Understand the potential preferences and biases associated with my own cultural and personal identity, and ensure that my communication and approach are appropriate to the client's circumstances.
8. Responsibility and Respect
I have a professional responsibility to act as an effective role model. This means that I will:
* Behave and manage my practice in a way that models exemplary professionalism and reflects well on the field of business coaching.
* Assume personal responsibility and accountability for my professional decisions and actions
* Treat all people fairly and with respect and dignity.
C. Developing the Profession
9. Professional Development
I am committed to professional development and to continuously enhancing my competence. This means that I will:
* Seek appropriate external feedback, on a regular basis, to maintain and improve my coaching effectiveness.
* Keep my learning and practice up to date through appropriate professional development, such as conference and workshop attendance, work-based learning, reading, research, training and supervision activities, presentations and involvement with WABC or other relevant professional associations.
* Set high standards for myself, and pursue challenging goals and performance excellence.
10. Promotion of the Emerging Profession
I am committed to the advancement of the association and the emerging profession of business coaching. This means that I will:
* Commit to the advancement of both my own knowledge base and that of the field of business coaching.
* Observe and promote these professional standards as set out and as they may be revised from time to time.
