Adding Value For Business Success

Organizations are discovering that the traditional 'command and control' style of management is no longer effective in today's environment. Today's businesses require rapid response, leveraged creativity, resilience and individual effort in order to remain competitive. Retaining key valued staff requires much more than just satisfactory remuneration and is critical to company success.

Think for a moment about the most exceptional manager or leader who has influenced your life or career. If you were to name four key qualities about that person that made them exceptional, what would they be? Chances are that leader had the characteristics of a good coach ie: supportive, a good listener, patient, empathetic, articulate, creative and challenged you to stretch yourself.

Coaching promotes creativity, breakthrough performance and resilience, giving organizations an effective way to handle continuous change.

Successful organizations such as Hewlett Packard and IBM have recognized coaching as an essential management competency and have included coaching in their leadership development to enhance employee performance and development.

So how do you develop a coaching culture within your organization?

Geoff Morgan and Andrew Banks of Morgan & Banks recruitment agency fame suggest that 'the final part of the human capital equation relates to your organizational culture and how you actually train, support and supervise people on a daily basis.'

Managers and leaders can develop their competency in coaching by increasing their awareness of relevant concepts and tools, practicing coaching in the workplace and hiring their own coach to build on their own strengths and continuously improve themselves.

Employees who are coached for performance rather than managed to perform are more committed to the outcomes of their work and achievement of organizational goals. Imagine what a difference you could make in your business if you used a coach approach.

In today's marketplace, adding value is key to business success. Successful coaching adds value to employees, who then add value to their company by giving their very best.