Coaching: A Secret Sauce for a Future-Ready Workforce

We are in an age where the forces of disruptions are overwhelming, and are changing the shape of future work. To compete and succeed in today’s changing corporate landscape where the workforce has become borderless; the organizations need to develop strategies that make their workforce future ready and skilled to face newer challenges. There is a rising need for organizations to focus on continuous skill development. And these skills not only refer to the technological aspects but also the development of soft skills. These soft skills are now known as power skills or human skills.

One of the best ways, or it’s safe to say the only way to achieve this is to embed a self sustainable coaching culture within an organization. This will empower employees to take learning into their own hands and be accountable for their own performance and career development. Hence, we can conclude that amongst various other factors, coaching acts as a Secret Sauce that independently enables an organization to set up a successful distributed workforce that is future ready.

Role of coaching in supporting individuals during disruption and crisis:

Coaching practices steer workers through new barriers and threats as we explore these uncharted waters by:

• Providing continuous input and communication.
• Fostering a sense of organizational commitment, confidence, and psychological safety among employees.
• Creating and updating options for workers who need to talk about uncertain job prospects and the economy’s future.
• Providing means to evaluate where and how to upskill and re-skill to be future-ready
• Giving employees a reality check to avoid burnout.
• Developing high levels of engagement and productivity.

What coaching culture can achieve for the future workforce?

Coaching creates a well-built sense of personal discovery and ownership which allows individuals and teams to feel empowered, resourceful, and competent in taking relevant decisions. A coaching culture improves employee engagement at all levels, empowers people to succeed at their jobs, stresses the value of personal and professional growth, rewards innovation, and helps people take pride in their responsibilities. Studies by the International Coach Federation (ICF) report that 61% of employees working for organizations with strong coaching cultures are highly engaged compared to 53% of employees coming from a non coaching background.

Moreover individuals, who work in a coaching culture, are often more creative in their approach, they have the courage to fail and understand that that failure is a necessary part of the path to success. Even better, their bosses let them struggle and then mentor them to success. Coaching culture strives on an open mindset hence creating opportunities for employees to grow and succeed. Employees here become more confident and have greater self esteems. This all together takes an organization towards a future that is more stable and productive.

Coaching Culture- A way forward!

There is no soon getting back to the workplaces like before. Organizations and individuals have no choice but to discover new ways of working. In the current situation of pandemic leaders have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape, improve, and optimize their organization’s cultures to achieve the greatest impact. And it’s the culture that keeps the employees motivated, engaged and productive when “no-one’s is seeing”. The pandemic has created a drastic shift which in turn has generated a massive broth of change. Organizations that empower their staff to dive into these changes will stand out as champions. And creating and scaling an effective coaching culture is the way to achieve a future ready workforce.

So it’s time for organizations to add this secret sauce of coaching  and spice up the journey towards success.

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