Counseling first appeared in the 19th century to help people understand themselves and their behavior and to overcome their childhood traumas, which plague them as adults. At the beginning of the 20th century and specifically in 1937 in America some entrepreneurs began to worry about the job performance of their executives and look for ways to improve their performance and efficiency, because, although they had typical qualifications, such as education or work experience, did not perform to the maximum or at least, what was expected at work level. Consequently, they began to emphasize the social and personal skills of their employees, such as communication, collaboration, teamwork, e.t.c. In the beginning, this was done individually and experimentally, however, it began to be structured until in 1980, labor consulting and in particular Coaching was introduced in an organized and formal way in companies primarily in America.
But what is Coaching? There are several definitions that describe, what Coaching is. For Grant, Coaching is a collaborative and systematic, solution-oriented and result-oriented process in which the coach encourages the improvement of personal skills, performance, autonomous learning and personal development of the coachee. For Ives Yossi, Coaching is a process that aims at the cognitive, emotional and behavioral change of the individual, who has no psychological problems. It is oriented towards the personality of the client and the desires and needs, that he / she expresses. Finally, it aims to develop the self-awareness, mindfulness and responsible attitude of the client, where he / she encourages him / her to take the reins of his / her life. For A. Dunbar it is the vehicle, where the coachee will go from the present to the desired situation for him / her, while for Curly Martin it is the art of change, thus the process, where the coachee is activated and attain the goal, which he desires. Finally, according to the International Coach Federation, Coaching is “partnering with the client in a creative process, which provokes the thought and inspires him / her to maximize his / her personal and professional potential”. Regardless of which definition one prefers, all of the above definitions point to the fact that Coaching is a process, where the coach creates a support and development framework for the coachee to set and achieve the goal, where he / she wishes.
Coaching, although it has many influences from training, mentoring, consulting and counseling, should not be confused with them, because they differ in method, purpose and relationship, formed between the coach and of coachee. In the case of training, the trainer transfers the necessary knowledge to the trainee, so that he / she can respond to a specific task and is therefore in front of him / her. In mentoring, the mentor transfers his / her knowledge and experience to a specific work object, in order to help and guide the novice employee, as a result of which he / she is behind the employee. In consulting, specific actions are suggested, where they need to be performed to achieve a goal and the consultant is in front of the beneficiary, while in counseling the therapist aims to identify and heal past traumas and depending on the topic the counselor is in front of, next to or behind the patient.
On the other hand, in Coaching the coach works in support of the coachee, in order to achieve the goal, which he / she has set focusing on the future. It is a procedure, which is based on communication and mainly on conducting questions to the coachee, which are not done intuitively by the coach, but are done for a specific purpose, such as the development of critical thinking, mobilization, problem solving or confrontation of problematic situations. Consequently, the relationship between the coach and the coachee is equal, as the coach is neither in front nor behind the coachee, but next to him / her.
In the workplace, Coaching is divided into different categories depending on the subject being traded, such as Executive Coaching, Career Coaching, Leadership Coaching, Organizational Coaching and so on. The best known is Executive Coaching , which aims to develop the executives of a company in order to increase their job performance. It deals with issues related to the balance between professional and personal life, time management, work stress, work pressure, maximizing efficiency, developing skills, creating good working relationships, e.t.c. The Executive Coaching is usually done in a company by an internal coach or an external executive coach. However, an employee could apply individually and privately to an Executive Coach, if he or she so wishes, as the company in which he / she works does not provide Executive Coaching. Each option has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, an internal coach may know the culture of the organization, where he/she works, and more easily understand the needs of the company executives, however, due to the fact that he collaborates and interacts daily with the employees, sometimes he/she may not maintain neutrality, as he/she should as a coach. On the other hand, an external coach may maintain a neutral attitude towards the company’s executives, however, it may take more time to understand the corporate culture and the needs of the organization’s employees. Therefore, depending on the corporate culture, the total number of employees and the needs of the organization, the company chooses, whether to work with an internal or an external executive coach.
According to researches conducted in recent years on Executive Coaching in enterprises internationally, the outcomes are positives. Specifically, a survey conducted by PwC in 2012 found that 86% of companies that received Executive Coaching services said they got back at least the value of their investment. Benefits include improved self-confidence (80%), working relationships (73%), communication skills (72%), life-work balance (67%), and work performance (70%). ) and time management (57%).
Research by CIPD UK also highlights the significant correlation between the use of Executive Coaching and the increase in efficiency (92%), performance (99%), and employee mobilization (53%). Finally, a survey conducted by the International Coach Federation in 2000 on 4,000 companies concluded, that the benefits of Executive Coaching include: improved individual performance, increased profits, skills development, optimized working relationships, and the promotion of executives to senior job positions, better customer service, non-loss of worthy executives and the promotion of a positive work environment.
In conclusion, Executive Coaching is a modern, exceptional and valuable methodological tool in the field of Human Resource Management. Its effect can only be described as positive in the development of the executives of a company. For this reason, receiving Executive Coaching services in an enterprise should be considered a substantial and not an unnecessary investment for its employees, as we should not forget that companies are the human resources, that they staff, and without it they do not exist. The more their employees grow, the more they will grow.
This article contains copyright. Reproduction of all or part of this article may be done with the consent of the author or with reference to the website www.marialykousi.gr. The first publication was made at www.psychology.gr on 08/08/2020.