An Introduction to Business Coaching

The ‘Introduction to Business Coaching’ series is now available to download as an e-book, Creative Management for Creative Teams. It’s licensed for free noncommercial distribution so you are welcome to share it with your colleagues and contacts.

One of the questions I get asked most often is “So what exactly does a business coach for the creative industries do?”. My research project has also highlighted the fact that coaching is not really ‘on the radar’ for managers in most creative businesses.

So this is the start of a series introducing business coaching - what it is, who does it and how it works. I’ll be placing particular emphasis on the role that managers can play as coaches for their teams, to manage their performance and help them learn on the job. This is an often overlooked and undervalued role, since many people associate coaching solely with an external consultant (like me).

I also explain why coaching skills are particularly useful for managers in a creative businesses - such as an advertising agency, a design studio, a computer games developer or a TV production company.