Coaching – It’s just psychobabble! Doesn’t help? Or a business case after all?

Coaching or team development? Yes or no?

Are you considering whether coaching could be a suitable tool for you personally, your team or your company? But do you have doubts about this “psychological stuff”? Or are the “practical constraints” simply too dominant?

We believe that coaching has value, benefits and a business case. We work methodically and on a scientific basis. And we rise to the challenge of proving our effectiveness, the benefits and the business case!

First of all, a few thoughts on the benefits of our services.

Business cases & benefits

Business case individual coaching

Have you experienced this personally or with your managers?

• Are you angry, frustrated or powerless? Do emotions keep getting the better of you, not only taking the fun and joy out of life, but also hindering your professional development?
• Are you unsure whether your personal situation or your professional role and career development are right for you? Perhaps you have even better opportunities in terms of content and economics?
• Do you have a new personal situation or professional role and want to “master” it well, develop yourself and prepare for the next step in your career?
• As a new manager, do you have the feeling that you are not 100% in control of the team and your tasks?

What would be the value for you of getting sound support in these questions? In questions that are almost always central to our lives and our satisfaction? And – remember: we only have one life. Does an investment in this life not have a business case?

Business case for leadership development

“Leadership development, especially coaching, is for softies who can’t do it themselves!”

Sometimes we hear this in conversations with managers or HR managers. We also often hear it in the form of an unconscious belief. Coaching is for the sick, it’s like therapy.

We beg to differ. Isn’t it the top athletes who have the top coaches? So why shouldn’t your top managers also have top coaches?

Four reasons why coaching is necessary for managers and why there is a real business case behind it:

• Depth: Your top managers gain independent and deep insights and experience into what drives people and themselves. This broadens their view of the big picture and brings stability and energy to the company.
• Efficiency: good coaching makes efficient use of the limited time available to top managers. It helps them to move quickly to the meta-level with a concept and plan and to focus on the essential things for the company and themselves
• Sustainability: The strengths of top executives are anchored much more systematically and sustainably on a personal, emotional level through coaching. This increases the flexibility, resilience and resilience of your top manager
• Effectiveness: Coaching takes 1 to 2 hours at intervals of 1 to 4 weeks. This very short time commitment and the comparatively very low costs are often accompanied by a disproportionately high level of effectiveness in the company – a lot of energy, stability, fun and success are created.

Conclusion: Give your top managers top trainers, top coaches with depth in their craft and, if possible, many years of leadership experience!

Business case team development

Or have you already experienced the following situations in teams?

• The quality and performance of your team drops, especially in situations with high performance pressure. The team is simply not performing. The environment complains.
• The group dynamic within the team and between the teams is negative, employees work against each other, not with each other, internal conflicts are toxic
• New colleagues leave the team and perhaps the company again quickly, you don’t manage to leverage growth potential
• Your team sabotages the company’s new strategy, may think and work formalistically, administratively, slowly
• Your new team is not coming together or an existing team has burned out
• Do you want to give your team opportunities to develop at all levels? To learn?

All of these observations have direct, measurable effects – including economic ones – on the success of the team, of you as a manager and of your company. And these observations can be addressed.

What is coaching and organizational development not?

“The transformation manufactory will turn you into a great leader and millionaire in 6 months, with a perfect work-life balance and a happy family – or a happy love life! That’s what coaching is all about. Isn’t it?”

A dear team colleague recently pointed me to a rather outdated but still valid article: https://www.coaching-magazin.de/kontrovers/machbarkeitswahn-und-menschenbilder-im-coaching. It discusses the coach’s promises and the coachee’s wishes in a constructive and controversial way.

In fact, there are so many great promises in the marketing of esteemed fellow coaches … so much bullshit bingo. Often from coaches who have little leadership responsibility of their own, but who supposedly represent ingenious concepts in leadership coaching. Promises are just good for the coach’s wallet.

Do we bring miraculous stability? Or miraculous change? We don’t work miracles, we don’t bake a new person out of you. And we don’t try to make you or your HR team feel good either. We are not a wellness coaching boutique.

Instead, we work with you or your team to identify patterns and uncover their causes. We understand and practice alternative behaviors with you. We show how inner personal dynamics and group dynamics contribute. We help you to stabilize and achieve sustainable change.

A reference and your coach selection

“I’ll call you as a coach – if you do something, it’s not a bull****”

This was a brief summary of a call I received last year “out of the blue” this week from an ex-colleague. Praise.

People feel stuck in their personal or professional roles and are looking for an independent sparring partner to help them navigate their feelings and thoughts. However, these people are often at a loss. How do they find a good, effective companion? A good coach?

The spectrum of offers ranges from dowsing rod coaching to NLP and systemic coaching. Yesterday I saw “mountain bike coaching”. How about that?

Here are a few recommendations for choosing a coach:

• Choose a sound method: our team’s work is based on systemic approaches and transactional analysis
• Avoid esoteric or manipulative approaches. Effective coaching is work, not a miracle – Choose coaches from an established organization, e.g. ICF(https://coachingfederation.org/)
• Check the experience of the coaches. With us, for example, all coaches have at least 20 years of real management experience – before they became coaches
• Arrange a preliminary meeting with your potential coach, get to know him or her and check the personal fit and trust.

Next steps

Let’s talk if you recognize yourself here – on an individual or team level. We have lean, focused offers that enable you individually, your managers or your team to help themselves.

How about an initial meeting? We discuss a framework for a potential coaching partnership. This is how we proceed:

• 1️⃣ Initial situation: We talk openly about your situation and challenges
• 2️⃣ Goals: Together we discuss your goals and define the results you want to achieve
• 3️⃣ Procedure: We outline together how coaching can help you achieve your goals. We analyze together and with an open mind whether coaching will help you
• 4️⃣ Organizational matters: We discuss practical issues such as frequency, duration and timing of the coaching sessions and other matters.

Try it out! Let’s think together about whether accompanying you on your journey could be useful!