In today’s economic climate everyone is looking to minimise operational expenditure and during lean times many organisations have cut their training or marketing or entertainment budget, looking for ways to streamline costs. It is against this backdrop that coaching has emerged as the number two growth industry behind IT.
A global leadership survey for 2008-2009 indicated that only 41% of leaders were satisfied with the development opportunities provided by their organisations. This reflects a 12% drop on the previous year. (DDI 2008). One of the most significant causes sited was the lack of directly relevant, on the job, learning opportunities
One trend that we are observing is that the organisations we partner with are very clear about the importance of developing a strong leadership culture accompanied by a realisation that a traditional leadership development workshop may not deliver the results required.

Coaching is being seen, more than ever, as a way of engaging with individuals and teams to address immediate issues and to tap into the wealth of creativity that opens up if the right environment is created. Coaching acts as a support to workshops that focus primarily on generic skills development. In a recent discussion with a senior HR manager he stated ‘we need something different that really addresses issues on a day to day basis’. We are operating in a completely new era and the old ways of doing things just don’t get the results’. One of the reasons may well be the emergence of greater numbers of generation Y in to the workplace. Another may be the sheer volume of work people are expected to address.

Rapid Change

Businesses today are faced with having to deal with an enormous amount of complexity. The rise of uncertainty in careers, markets, and business has led to rapid change which in turn has affected people and productivity.

In today’s world, employees know they cannot rely on the same job, employer, or even profession lasting a whole working lifetime. Individuals need constantly to reinvent ourselves; to be alert; to assess and reassess the impact on their own lives of changes in society, work and business. A complex world, but one of infinite opportunity in which every person's situation is unique. It's almost as if there are no rules.

Equally, the impact of rapidly changing markets has meant that businesses today need to constantly innovate and reflect, to develop new processes, products, services and value propositions. At the same time, new businesses emerge, with radical, successful business models that could never have been thought of two decades ago.

In the past 12 months we have seen many seemingly infallible businesses fail. They fail to change. They fail to adapt. Or they just get it wrong.

What emerges is that every situation, every individual, every decision is novel and complex. There is no set formula.

Talent

In place of reliability we rely on talent. Talent has taken the place of competence. In this age talent is what counts. The trouble with talent is that you can't regulate it: you can't write it down; you can't deliver a course in it.

Talent optimisation strategies are on the increase and the global war for talent continues with no sign of ending. This is exactly what coaching supports: individual experiences, learning, developing knowledge, identifying wisdom, harnessing energy, achieving results and maintaining balance. This is why coaching is significant for modern business, and why it has grown so rapidly over the last 20 years.