How can coaching help you retain and progress your talent?
With businesses facing more financial pressure than ever before, coaching for employees might seem like an unaffordable luxury. Can investing in group or individual coaching help you retain employees that are an unknown flight risk? Accelerate high potential talent? Upskill future leaders or foster greater inclusivity and sense of belonging? If your business is keen to retain and progress your talent, in this post our Senior Coach Katie Seaman explores why coaching can be an effective use of resources.
What is coaching?
Coaching is a rather nebulous term with a plethora of definitions. However, for our purposes we can think of it as a development process where an experienced individual supports another individual to achieve defined personal or professional goals, through a process of reflection, enquiry and the exploration of supportive knowledge, skills and attitudes. As opposed to counselling or therapy which can be focussed on exploring our past experiences to explain our present experience, coaching is predominantly forward focussed, exploring our present experience to determine what needs to change to achieve our desired future.
As a coach, I think of my role as a holder of space. I provide a rare and precious opportunity for my coachees to pause and reflect on where they are and what they need with someone who offers them a compassionate and non-judgemental ear. I am a great believer that everyone has the inner wisdom they need to find the answers they’re looking for. We might just need some support in taking the time to listen to and trust that inner wisdom. Ultimately, my goal is to make myself redundant as a coach. When my coachees feel confident and equipped to support themselves through the ups and downs of their current chapter of life, I’ve done my job.
What’s the difference between group coaching and individual coaching?
The clue is partly in the name - group coaching involves sessions with a number of participants - usually between 3 and about 12. Individual coaching is private 1-2-1 sessions between the coach and a coachee. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Group coaching can be cost effective - supporting a number of individuals in one go. Group sessions can be a powerful way to connect and collaborate, foster understanding and mutual respect, build networks, exchange ideas, find new perspectives and learn from each other’s experiences. The disadvantages are that they are usually on a pre-prescribed theme or topic, participants have less opportunity and time to speak and contribute than 1-2-1 and there are the complexities of group dynamics. For those participants who are more shy or introverted, fully engaging, sharing and participating may be challenging. Other participants may dominate proceedings.
While 1-2-1 coaching does not have the advantages that group coaching does, it can offer the following which group coaching cannot:
A private, safe and confidential space to be vulnerable and tackle the sensitive and challenging issues which often gets to the root cause of a coachee’s barriers to change and progression
Completely bespoke to the individual’s unique needs, challenges and goals
Can often be more effective at creative positive change and momentum in a shorter amount of time than through group coaching.
Coaching investment or rehiring costs?
I remember the first time it happened. It was with my first corporate 1-2-1 coachee. I had invited her to bring to our first session three goals she would like to achieve from our time together. She listed one suggested by her line manager (increasing her self-confidence in her role). Her second was to explore how better she could organise her work so she felt more in control and on top of things. She hesitated and looked sheepish before broaching the third. “I’m not sure if this is allowed… but I’m really not sure about my future here. If it’s OK, can we talk about what my other options might be?”
I take the approach that I am in service to my coachee, not the client. The coaching journey is not about my goals, desired outcomes or their employers, it is about theirs. Nothing is off the table, but I always encourage my coachees to hold their goals lightly in mind.On that basis, we embarked on our coaching journey together, and our conversations ended up focussing very much on her self-esteem, self-compassion, beliefs and attitudes. By the end of our coaching journey she was looking forward to a long and successful career utilising her many skills and talents with her current employer. I have lost count of the number of times this has happened.
Given that the cost of recruiting and onboarding a replacement female manager is estimated to be at least £25K*, the cost of a course of individual coaching that might result in an employee deciding to stay and continue their career with their current employer could be as little as 10% of the cost of hiring their replacement.
How can coaching help employees to stay and develop their career with you?
If I were to pick my top five ways that coaching can help your employees to stay and develop their career with you it would be the following:
Building self-confidence and self-esteem: One of the biggest reasons that employees privately doubt their future with their employer is because they doubt their ability to successfully fulfill their role or to secure recognition and progression. They start to think maybe they’re not cut out for this role or this company. Perhaps they should look for something else. When employees can overcome the Imposter Syndrome, self-doubt and limiting beliefs that are holding them back, they can suddenly see more potential and possibilities for themselves exactly where they are. The future looks brighter and more exciting without anything material changing around the
Finding meaning and purpose: Contributing to the world in a meaningful way and feeling valuable and significant are basic human needs. If we feel that our role is pointless or that our efforts are not benefiting anyone or anything we care about, we feel unmotivated and depressed. In order to feel fulfilled, we also need our unique skills and talents to be utilised. Often coachees question their future with an employer because they’re not clear on what their unique skills and talents are, what impact they have on others and how they can utilise them in their role or in a potential future role within the company. This is where coaching can help. When they are clear on their unique skills and talents, they are then more able to see where and how those talents can be utilised and appreciated with their current employer.
Feeling aligned with personal values and priorities: If we are living a life that is not aligned with our deepest values and priorities, we feel at best like something is “off” and at worst are miserable, dissatisfied and often unwell. This could be related to our personal lives, such as loved ones and caring responsibilities. It could be around morals, ethics and behaviours. It could relate to politics or ideologies. Coaching can help employees find clarity around their personal values and priorities, see to what degree their current employer and role supports or deviates from those values and priorities, what needs to change in order to achieve alignment and options to make that happen. More often than not, coachees are able to achieve this with their current employer. If they come to the realisation that their personal values and priorities do not align with their employer’s it might be time to move on. This is for the benefit of all as organisations need employees whose values and ethics match their own.
Cultivating resilience: If there’s one thing guaranteed in life (besides death and taxes as they say) it’s uncertainty. Time and time again, coachees request support in dealing with change and with things outside of their control. This is crucial because literally the only things within our control are our own attention, attitude and behaviour. Everything else is out of our control. Learning to skilfully support yourself through life’s inevitable ups and downs - whether they be career related or personal - is a fundamental skill in order to thrive. It is also the gift that keeps on giving as learning to understand what supports resilience in ourselves means we are better equipped to support others in their resilience. This can have a hugely beneficial impact on teams and the culture within your organisation.
Creating a coaching culture: Once individuals have received coaching themselves, they have a much greater appreciation for and understanding of the impact of coaching and what it takes to be a good coach. They are then much more inclined to model those behaviours and attitudes with their colleagues and loved ones which has a positive impact that goes way beyond one individual. Successfully coaching others - whether formally or informally - is deeply rewarding, again adding further fulfillment to employee’s roles within the organisation and encouraging them to stay and continue making a difference.
In summary then, while at first glance investing in coaching for employees might seem like an extravagance, when you consider the costs of having to re-recruit should a wobbly employee leave, or the uptick in performance and effectiveness that can result from even a short course of 1-2-1 coaching, the cost-benefit can be substantial. Let us also not forget that every individual employee has an impact on the culture and performance of the company as a whole, so investing in coaching - whether it be group or individual - is also an investment in your whole organisation.
If you would like more information about individual or group coaching for your business, please get in touch for a chat.
*Source: Introduction xvii, Don’t Fix Women, Joy Burnford, Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2022