Nowadays, companies invest a lot of time and money in developing leadership skills by offering expensive leadership development programs to their (top) talents and leaders. However, the exact results of these programs often remain unclear. McKinsey has executed two large-scale studies[1], which included the surveying of more than 500 CEOs. The results have shown that only 7% of CEOs believe their organization is effectively investing in proper leadership development. Only 10% of CEOs state that their leadership development programs have a significant impact.
Every individual, every leader and every business is unique. Led by this idea, multinational Euroports, one of the largest port-infrastructure companies in Europe, was in search of a suitable leadership program. In partnership with eCoachPro a tailor-made leadership program for Euroports was developed. The uniqueness of this program lies in several offsite training sessions cmbined with e-coaching in between. Through this combination, the content of the training sessions is brought into practice immediately and consequently in the daily work environment. The specific learning needs of the participants and the objectives of the company were also taken into account. Formulas like the 70:20:10 model and a blended learning and development model was used to maximize the participants’ effectiveness of their learning and development skills.
Writing is indispensable in an online or blended (combination of off- and online) coaching process. Of course, it is necessary to be able to express yourself via mail, chat or text message, and this way of coaching also yields so much more than regular face-to-face coaching. A lot of research shows that writing about experiences and thoughts has a liberating effect and that writing increases your coachee's self-awareness. For you as their coach, this approach requires additional skills.
Not every great coach is a great online coach. Using emails and chat apps, but also specific online coaching tools like Pluform, requires certain skills. Being able to read analytically and write strategically are great skills to have when you are coaching people online, where the communicative power of the written word plays an important role.
On the 12th of April eCoachPro was present at the 24th edition of the EMCC (European Mentoring & Coaching council) conference in Amsterdam. During this conference Anne Ribbers and Marco Tieleman were invited to speak about a VUCA programme which is designed by eCoachPro and Groupmapping for the leadership of a big governmental organization in the Netherlands.
Organizations and businesses invest large amounts of money in the professional development of their employees. According to research by Technavio, the soft-skill training market will grow by 10% per year until 2020 (with a turnover of 15 billion dollars in 2015). The coaching market also continues to grow, according to the International Coach Federation (ICF). Between 2011 and 2015, the market grew by 6%. According to the 2016 ICF Global Coaching Study, the total revenue from coaching-related services is $ 2.4 billion worldwide.
“An increasing amount of organizations are embracing the coach method of eCoachPro, partly due to the successful results. In our previous blog a clientshared his personal experience. This time we give the word to one of our Associate eCoaches.
Esmeralda Korteweg received a straight A (measured by an instrument of the NOBCO - the Coaching Monitor) for her e-coaching. We couldn’t be more proud!
The international eCoach Register is expanding! Over 1000 coaches, HR-experts, psychologists and educational professionals got trained in the eCP-methodology and the ABC-model for online coaching (e-coaching). The growing number of professionals that is registered as a ‘Certified eCoach’ or ‘Certified eCounselor’ shows that these professionals take their development very seriously. The 400th certification is a fact! In this blog we would like to give the word to Jacqueline Doomen, the 400th certified eCoach.
‘Last year, during my annual appraisal with a board member, I was told that I had a couple of attention points, I needed to work on. It was suggested I would do so with a professional coach. Not long after this, HR asked me if I would be willing to pilot a new coaching partner with an innovative approach. Did I have a choice? :) My initial reaction was that I would be a good soldier and do whatever I was told, as long as the negative perception during the appraisal would be tackled.
In this interview with Fortune, Google CEO Eric Schmidt had this to say about coaching and everybody's need for a coach:
"Every famous athlete, every famous performer has somebody who's a coach. Somebody who can watch what they're doing and say, "Is that what you really meant? Did you really do that?" They can give them perspective. The one thing people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them. A coach really, really helps."
See also the video with Frank Demonie - Chief Technology Officer (CTO) KBC - about his experiences with coaching and in particular e-coaching: https://youtu.be/TJNpQkCfR0M
This blog provides great insight in what can go wrong and what should be done right in the design and execution of leadership programs. It is also striking to read again how much money is spent on leadership development without understanding the true benefits and results. In this summary we would like to discuss the key challenges identified by Mckinsey and how eCoachPro’s blended continuous coaching approach addresses these key challenges.
Recently Mercer has conducted a research on the future of HR and how to bridge the gap between employers and employees. It is a great report with key guidance for HR professionals. Mercer sees a lot of value for HR in strengthening their strategies for people development. Key priorities in this area are:
Actual learning takes place at the relevant context during everyday tasks. Embedded coaching integrates this natural way of learning by coaching in the everyday reality and relevant context of the client. The coaching is tailored to the client, takes place at the working place, in the daily routine, with personal support. A possible method is to combine face-to-face coaching (f2f-coaching) with e-coaching (remote coaching using information- and communication technology).