Participating in a webinar the other day, for a moment I was stumped by a question, “Does everyone need coaching?” I guess, more than being stumped, I was stunned with the question. But on reflection, it’s an important question, or at least one that many are confused about.
To answer this, we have to look at the fundamental purpose of coaching.
Related Article: Coaching for Better Performance
There’s a lot we can write about this, but briefly, the purpose of coaching is to help people continually learn, improve, and grow. We want them to perform at the highest levels in their current roles and to help prepare them to move into larger roles where they can contribute even more.
Nothing in our contemporary business worlds stand still. Just to maintain, we have to continue to learn and grow. To get ahead, to outperform competition, to outperform our peers, we need to do even more. What is top performance today, is mediocre tomorrow.
Consequently, I believe everyone, from the lowest performers to top performers need coaching. Coaching isn’t limited to individual contributors. Everyone, all the way to the top of the food chain needs or gets value from coaching.
Everyone needs to constantly learn, improve, and grow. But we don’t need to learn the same things. We don’t all learn in the same ways. So we don’t need the same coaching or the same amount of time spent in coaching.
Coaching is intensely personal. It’s focused on the individual, where they are at now, what they need to grow, what they need to perform at the highest levels possible.
Everyone needs coaching, but everyone’s coaching needs are different.
Great leaders recognize this.
