Business Coaching – An Introduction

The Business Coaching series is now available to download as a free ebook Creative Management for Creative Teams.

As a business coach, one of the questions I get asked most often is “So what exactly do you do?”. My research project has also highlighted the fact that coaching is not really ‘on the radar’ for managers in many organisations.

So this is the start of a series introducing business coaching – what it is, who does it and how it works.

The articles will cover different types of coaching, essential coaching skills and how coaching differs from (and can complement) training, mentoring and counselling.

I’ll be placing particular emphasis on the role of the manager-coach, using coaching skills to help team members raise their performance and learn on the job. This is an often overlooked role, since many people associate coaching solely with an external business coach (like me). So I’ll look at coaching and leadership – and how coaching complements other leadership styles.

I’ll show how an external business coach can complement a manager’s day-to-day interaction with her team, by offering an outside perspective and specialist skills or knowledge.

I’ll also explain why coaching skills are particularly useful for fostering individual, team and organisational creativity. This is clearly a priority in creative industries companies such as advertising agencies, design studios, computer games developers or broadcasters – but the rise of the creative economy means more and more organisations are finding creativity is critical to their success.

If you’re a manager looking to improve your coaching skills, or if you’re considering working with a business coach, these articles will introduce you to the principles and practice of this very effective and rewarding approach to performance improvement and professional development.

You can read the articles in order here on the blog, or download the whole collection as a free business coaching ebook – which you’re welcome to share with your colleagues and contacts.

Mark McGuinness

Mark is a business coach and trainer for innovative organisations. For more tips and advice about creative business, sign up for free updates from Wishful Thinking. And for bite-sized inspiration, add Mark on Google+.

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