Life and Personality Development can be the most complex coaching theme because each person is unique. Life is an evolving project. We must make it happen. Coaching assists people in making choices that make them happy. There are no right or wrong answers, though. There are only choices but the coach does not make choices for the client. He/she facilitates the process. Each person is unique, and requires coaching intervention that responds to such uniqueness. The coach assists clients in reflecting on their personal values, health, life styles, etc. He/she may use tools like Emotional Intelligence (EQ) to help the client develops self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management, etc. The coach may also facilitate the insights into personal branding and image building.
Youth Development: Coaching the youth does not mean taking over and running their lives. It is about creating the opportunity for them to engage with themselves and their peers. They are helped to make sense of all the pressures of life. The coach is there to challenge and interest them in their development journey.
The youth are the leaders of the future. They deserve to be treated like we would treat any candidate of a succession planning in any organization, institution, and company. Their leadership programmes could take a specialist dimension, for example entrepreneurship development. The majority of the youth respond positively to the coaching programmes dedicated to the entrepreneurship development. Today entrepreneurship opportunities for the youth are mostly in the technology sector. The fourth industrial revolution is the cause of this. Entrepreneurship is the most direct option to employment for the youth. It is important for the youth to make a shift and consider it not as a means of survival but an opportunity to innovate solutions that mitigate the challenges in the society. The coaches must challenge the youth to explore many options about their future. We do not expect them to jump certain stages of their development and become adults too soon. They must enjoy their life journey. However the business case for early youth leadership and entrepreneurship development is very strong. We are laying foundation for their future responsibilities as entrepreneurs and leaders in the society.
Entrepreneurship coaching is a kind of a business coaching but it focuses on the unique businessperson called an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur identifies challenges, sources solutions, products, services and create value.
Whereas the coach does not have to have practiced entrepreneurship, he/she must understand the context in which an entrepreneurship coaching takes place. The clear objective is to produce or facilitate the development of an entrepreneur and enterprise through coaching. That is what Entrepreneurship Development Coaching is all about. The proof of a successful entrepreneurship development coaching is a functioning enterprise and a highly capable entrepreneur. The approach and tools that the coach uses are informed by the stage at which the entrepreneur and the enterprise are in their life cycles.
Coaching a start-up is not the same as coaching a seasoned entrepreneur who is looking at growing the market share, renewal and diversification of the product or service offerings. The coaching methods may be the same, but the approach must respond to the circumstances facing the client (coachee). The entrepreneur is challenged to master the logical steps in exploring and resolving the problems.
Celebrity Status Management: Someone is referred to as a celebrity because he/she is being celebrated by the society. There is something unique or particular that distinguishes this person from the society. People do not necessarily know why they are celebrities. They have not interrogated their distinguishing factor and whether they would like to be associated with it or not. So, being referred to as a celebrity is subjective. It depends on the standard the society applies. It is important to know that you can choose to be a normal person irrespective of how the society sees you. You choose to remain who you are. It is a choice you must make. Being a celebrity has its own pressures and risks. You give away your privacy; have personal safety and security risks to cope with; loses touch with reality; removing oneself from ordinary people; temptation to looking down at people; being aloof; misplaced self-worth; attracting wrong friends (and attention); developing fake identity, etc.
Diversity Management & Inclusion: We are different by birth and acquired characteristics. However, that does not justify rejecting each other on the basis of our differences. Human beings are able to unite around their differences. In fact we are attracted to each other because of our differences. This is what makes us pleasant species. We are adaptable to differences. The Diversity Management & Inclusion Coaching helps the clients in learning to value each other and their differences. The understanding and accommodating of each other’s differences is not the end of it. We must learn to appreciate our diversity. This is crucial, especially at the workplaces where we are given the opportunity to gain value from our differences. It is only when there is harmony at the workplace that we reach our highest potential, become productive, and increase our levels of performance. Diversity Management & Inclusion is not a nice to have intervention. It must be part of the company’s change management, transformation, and strategy. For the first time in human history we have all the generations at the workplace at the same time.
Management and Leadership: The management and leadership layers in an organization are the traditional recipients of coaching intervention. But it has never been more necessary like it is today to coach them in coping with the complexity they face. Whereas traditionally coaching was offered for their professional development, today they are offered coaching to support the business growth. Their styles have direct impact on the talent they manage and lead. Hence the saying that talent does not leave the company, it leaves the managers (and of course the leaders). The manner in which people are managed and led in organizations determines the success or failure of such organizations. The management and leadership is coached to successfully give the organization its future strategic direction, cope with the business complexity, lead, and guide the implementation of the corporate strategy. They are also responsible to equip the organization in the implementation of its business strategy. They are assisted, through coaching, in carrying out the mandate of the shareholders. This is done in partnership with all the internal and external stakeholders.
Change Management and Transformation is one of the most common themes in the coaching space. The only thing constant in our lives and in business is change. Change Management is the strategic intervention that ensures that the process of transformation delivers the desired outcomes. The society and organizations are assisted by coaching to maintain the highest level of readiness in embracing and driving change management. By so doing, they enable a shift from the Current State of Being (CSoB) to the Future State of Being (FSoB). People and organizations that reject change run a risk of becoming irrelevant in the future.
Executive Business Coaching: This is the fastest growing branch of professional coaching. Whereas we apply the same models, processes, tools, and frameworks, the main focus is on making business executives succeed in the delivery of their strategic, functional, and operational plans. It is often aimed at the Chief Executive Officers, Managing Directors, Executive Committees, and other executive functionaries to whom the executive responsibilities have been delegated. The executives are fully dedicated to the running of the business and deliver on their shareholders promises. Executive Business Coaching is a serious intervention. The executives are coached to master the markets and grow their market share. They are expected to counter competition, grow their companies’ brands, deliver return on investment, reinvest resources responsibly and grow the share price of the enterprise.
Sport Personality Development: There are many arguments for a dedicated coaching programme for sport personalities (amateur and professionals). The moment a young athlete is identified to have an outstanding talent and potential to make it to the professional level or chooses to make a career in sport, he/she will need a coaching programme. Such a programme is more than the technical sport coaching. Here we are talking about life and career management coaching. One of the challenges athletes face is achieving a balance between sport, education, normal and sport life (and later celebrity sport personality life). The demands of development phase are put on such athletes by development academies and trainers. This is often the beginning of hectic and high pressure life. However, this need not be a punishment in life. The development of emotional capacity to deal with this is an absolute necessity early in their lives.The athletes always have a desire to live normal lives but this does not always become a reality. They are exposed to demands of high expectations from the society, pushed by circumstances to display behaviours of a professional athlete too early in their lives. From the beginning, at junior clubs, they experience pressures from fans, parents, friends, club supporters, and club sponsors. Sport clubs expose them to extensive travel to participate in sport tournaments in the country, continent, and the world. Sport agents may pick the athletes very young, tracks their performance, sign them, and expose them to bigger sporting markets. This is how performance expectations are raised high. The interests of the athlete take secondary position. Athletes are separated from their parents and family members too soon. If they are not exposed to life coaching, the chances are that the impact will be negative. At club levels the athletes are exposed to league and cup games pressures, which have their own kind of demands. The athletes’ education programme, if not well integrated into their sport programme, tends to suffer.
In today’s world education and sport are seen as one. The athlete must do well in both. The United States is known for recruiting athletes and giving them sport scholarships to study at their best universities and play in the college sport leagues. This is actually the dream of most talented athletes. Such universities and colleges have many years experience in balancing sport and education. Once the athletes reach the professional level they become big personal brands. Personal brand management becomes the necessary theme of their life coaching programme. These personal brands may either add to the growth of their club brands or be in conflict with their club brands. They become celebrity sport personalities with own dedicated sponsors. The complexity grows. At this stage we are also concerned with their post stardom life. So, sport personality coaching is not a luxury, but a necessity.
Community Development: Most community workers started their careers as volunteers in community projects and programmes. Volunteerism requires specific qualities in people, because it has its own challenges. Those who choose to become community workers and volunteers should seek professional coaching interventions as well. This will assist them in coping with the demands of community work and volunteerism. Community work is about developing others by offering oneself. By doing community work and volunteerism, one benefits from such roles. Volunteerism, especially in the community, is a form of social responsibility at the individual level. It is seen as service beyond self. It puts commercial interests at the sideline. The closest to commercial interest are the social entrepreneurship initiatives. They are often aimed at the empowerment of vulnerable individuals and communities. There are academic programmes offered by institutions of learning wherein knowledge on social entrepreneurship is offered. Such programmes integrate coaching into their portfolio of modules. Anyone intending to make a career in community work and volunteerism, or just to lay the career foundation, they will do well to find a community development coach. Communities are unique and different. They are dynamic, have challenging issues, and demand one to have passion for who they are.
Relationship Management (Private and Professional): It is actually difficult to regulate any relationship (private or professional). However, two or more people can work out the best approach, and manage their relationship accordingly. Relationship Management Coaching facilitates such process of coming up with working relationship between individuals and groups (private or professional). There is no such a thing as a perfect relationship. People gravitate towards each other and this result in some form of relationship. In professional relationships like in business the common objectives and interests are the bases of such relationship. However, the differences and preferences between people continue to exist and must be managed in the interest of such relationship. The coach’s aim is to facilitate the client’s understanding of the value of their differences in their relationship, and build the capacity to deal with any challenges in their relationship. The individuals retain their unique identities and uniqueness. They however accept others for who they are. Over time they will develop common interests and preferences. This becomes the reason for a strong bond between individuals and groups. There will always be conflicts. We must allow conflict resolution and coaching interventions to take place.
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