Business coaching picks up in South Africa: Do you need a professional to get you to the top of your game?

Business coaching is picking up in South Africa – and it's not just for corporates that need to shake up unhappy staff members to get on with one another in a messy merger. People who want to transform their careers are increasingly turning to specialist business coaches to help with plotting entrepreneurial moves and generally tap a rich stream of business acumen hidden within.

Business coaching clients range from over-stretched executives who need an independent sounding board for discussing strategic moves to people who want to reinvent themselves for a changed world. Women are less likely to turn to a coach, as executive human resources specialist Sandra Burmeister explains in this piece.

Sandra demonstrates how a business coach can add value to your organisation and help you gain promotion. A coach can prepare the next generation of leaders to take the helm when you and your current crop of senior managers are ready to step down. Not to be overlooked is that a coach can help you achieve a good work-life balance while still being a high-achiever in the office.

Would you consult an executive coach? Share your views, below this article. – JC

Business coaching picks up South Africa: Do you need a professional to get you to the top of your game?

By Sandra Burmeister

As companies across the globe battle to recruit and retain C-level executives and skilled staff, they are turning to independent coaching companies to fast track developing new leaders.

How competitive and sustainable a business is depends on the quality of leadership at the helm of the enterprise.

The first step is to recruit the right candidates.

However, in a complex, uncertain world, decisions about hiring talent and developing leadership that relies on candidates' past performance are useful up to a point because past experience doesn't necessarily equate to competence, particularly in the context of a changing global landscape. We need smart tools to hire the right people and identify high-potential individuals to promote into leadership positions.

Future-oriented tools are essential to identify leadership attributes

Simulation-based tools – such as assessment centres – are emerging at the forefront of talent management because these identify leadership qualities in people, specifically key competencies related to business goals and pinpointing areas for development.

The coaching profession is currently showing more rapid growth in developing markets than in established ones and there is a growing demand for coaching in South Africa. Professional coaches, working to best-practice standards, bring years of business expertise to the organisation while not being tainted by in-house perceptions and political point-scoring. Such outsourced coaching interventions deliver a high return-on-investment for the individual and for the organisation.

Well-structured companies benefit a lot from coaching

There is no doubt companies that have a structured process in place for determining effectiveness and measuring success benefit enormously from coaching programmes:

• Individual coaching focuses on enhancing the individual's strategic thinking and interpersonal skills, and cultivates the ability to respond to challenges with integrity and accountability.
• Executive coaching circles provide a participative, experiential, exploratory experience. These challenge executives' usual way of operating, helping them to expand their field of vision and extend their leadership abilities. These coaching circles allow organisations to develop individual talent while building a more resilient corporate culture.

Newly-appointed senior executives, such as the CEO, can benefit from an on-boarding programme to help them become integrated and assimilated into the organisation more effectively. The execution of a 'first 100 days in office' plan aims to achieve full productivity and ensure the leader starts to contribute to the organisation in the shortest possible time, resulting in a high retention rate.

UK research indicates 97% of organisations believe executive coaching impacts positively on business performance. Close to two-thirds says individual and team performance is the main business benefit.

A prominent survey shows that, in South Africa, executives gain most benefit from coaching in terms of:

• Improved interpersonal relationships (44%),
• Personal growth (41%),
• Work-life balance (33%), and
• Self-esteem (32%).

The average length of the coaching engagement typically ranged from four to 12 months.

A coaching programme provides objective and independent support in dealing with leadership challenges. It tends to engage and motivate the executive and drives him to succeed within the organisation, overcoming obstacles that have held him back in the past.

Of concern, however, is a recent Stanford University survey that shows a considerable gender imbalance in executive coaching:

• 81% of participants in executive coaching were men, while
• 19% were women.

Creating a robust leadership pipeline depends on the ability to identify people – male or female – with the motivation and potential to become future leaders, accelerate the development of these high-potential candidates and prepare them for major change.

Sandra Burmeister is the CEO at Landelahni Recruitment Group. She is a founding member of Landelahni Business Leaders and has been an Amrop Landelahni partner since 1997. Sandra has 20 years' experience in executive search and her expertise in executive search in recent years has focused on manufacturing, construction, infrastructure and mining, but extends to key appointments in academic, state-owned enterprises and the charity sector.  

This article on business coaching in South Africa is republished here on Biznews.com with the kind permission of HR Pulse – The knowledge hub for HR professionals.