What Are The Benefits Of Coaching For Peak Performance?

Whether coaching an individual or an intact team, apart from the human value that comes from coaching (sometimes as precious as “I’m sleeping through the night again!”), the business value-for-money from coaching is almost always measured in the higher business performance it enables. Coaching is about unleashing potential, empowering people to deliver peak performance.

So, concretely, what do benefits from coaching look like? Key take-aways emailed back by coaching clients following recent individual coaching engagements suggest patterns - new ways of thinking or new actions to unlock their own and their staff’s performance.

The end-goal of coaching is to unlock performance.

The Three benefits that emerged from coaching sessions

Greater focus:

Confucius said “He who chases two rabbits catches neither.” In our multitasking work context, where being busy becomes a proxy for “importance”, coaching enables clients to find courage to name and focus in on the ‘one thing’ that, done well, unlocks optimal performance.  

Some examples, quoting clients:

• 1.“Am multitasking less, focusing more on one-thing-at-a-time, managing the distraction that comes from having too much to do.”
• 2.“Setting aside ‘own time’ at the start of each week to prioritise my priorities, to map out own and direct reports’ time, to delegate more effectively.”
• 3.“Really underlined WHY the team norms we have just agreed are so important, and that I need to reinforce these with the team tomorrow.”

Greater self-awareness and awareness of others:

Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living”. Coaching unlocks self-understanding, helps answer questions such as “What lifts me when things are trending down?”, opens-up better understanding of others, empowers management and leadership.

Some examples, quoting clients:

• 1.“Need to be visible in the market to win new work so being sociable is spot-on. Building relationships to win new business is the reason for work-time socialising.”
• 2.“Understanding my personal preferences gives me insight into how to get the most out of myself and, by extension, others – without giving me or others licence to behave badly.”
• 3.“Need to organise myself to keep the balance between my professional, private and personal life. I’m more aware that my family and friends are my anchors and keep my energy level up.”

Greater alignment and goal clarity:

Amos asked “How can two walk together unless they are agreed?” Coaching brings clarity around the end-goal, unleashes commitment to purposeful and accountable collaboration.

Some examples, quoting clients:

• 1.“List clients and projects, re-validate ‘key accounts’ then involve two direct reports on two key projects, across all aspects, to delegate more completely. Win-win all round.”
• 2.“Have documented development path for staff, especially those under-performing – identifying gaps, what ‘good’ looks like and core goals to enable each to bridge to optimal performance.”
• 3.“Trying to understand how all the teams feed into the business’ ‘big goal’. Starts with a meeting of peers. Will send a meeting invitation – first since I joined the business 22 years ago.”

To be continued …

In the meantime, feedback welcome!