Coaching as a Means of Truly Effective Education - By: Alan Gillies

Coaching as a method of education is rapidly acquiring acceptance and credibility throughout personal and professional institutions. It appears that there's quite a bit to gain from working with a business coach, executive coach, career coach or life coach, as we strive to understand all the elements of our day-to-day existence. As our daily life becomes more complicated, distractions fragment our time, therefore people are looking to coaching to help them get ahead of the game.

When it comes to classroom training in particular, people just do not seem to have the time. Whilst it may be more productive in the long run to spread fairly intensive seminars and classes over a period of time to avoid burnout, companies these days are becoming increasingly more restrictive and often require that the key person spends less time away from the business environment. What might have been permissible once is no longer accepted, as four or five day seminars are crunched into two to three day intensive sessions. Business coach research has shown that this approach is far less conducive to productivity, and the goal is often missed, both in terms of time spent and targets achieved.

Let's face it, each individual has different wants and needs. While there might be twenty individuals in a classroom, you can be absolutely sure that there are twenty very different sets of goals and personal expectations. The tutor or seminar host simply does not have the time, nor often the training, to be able to drill down with each individual, answering specific questions and in many cases taking that person by the hand as the program continues. Unfortunately, it's usually the case that once the attendees go back to their regular environment they quickly return to their old habits, thereby losing any benefits the recent training may have provided.

Given these failings, it is no wonder that many end up turning to a business coach or executive coach. Renowned author Joseph O'Connor tells us that coaching is "a partnership in which the coach helps the coachee to achieve a personal best and produce the results they want in their personal and professional lives". In short, the business coach goes above and beyond what might be experienced in a typical classroom or seminar environment.

There are a number of different coaching situations.

A career coach will help you start your career and also help you to get your career back on track and these skills are especially important in this economic environment.

A business coach will deal with the manager or the whole team and his or her skills are most effective when combined with dedicated training. In this way, the business coach can help the business owner, manager and employees integrate what is learned and actually put the good information to use over the long-term.

Moving up a step within the organization, the executive coach deals with those who hold power over an organization's structure and direction. Many executives feel that they have nobody to turn to and this is where an executive coach is worth his or her weight in gold. The return on investment by employing an executive coach can be particularly significant, as the executive often has the most effect on a company's bottom line.

In concert with business coaching or executive coaching, life coaching can help to integrate personal and professional elements. Just as an example, diet and exercise is so important in the everyday world, and this spills over into the work environment. A content individual at home and in a relationship is usually a content and very productive employee.

Whether a career coach, a business coach, an executive coach or a life coach, the focus must be on understanding the present and preparing for the future.

Copyright (c) 2009 Alan Gillies

About the Author

Alan Gillies is the Managing Director of the L2L Group. He specialises in delivering Executive Coaching, Training and Consultancy Services to International Businesses across the World. Want to discover more about these insightful business building success strategies? Get Alan's essential FREE Business Pack today!

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