There are several obvious reasons why an organization may be keen to include coaching in a suite of human resource development interventions. It usually takes place in the actual work setting and so, not only does this avoid the expense in terms of time and money of the traditional classroom event, it means that coaching is rooted in a genuine 'live' situation. As I’ve described elsewhere, coaching is a learnt skill and so regular coaching sessions will also be developmental for the coach as well as the coachee.

Before we get into the detail of these and other reasons for coaching, let's consider some more authoritative views

Many advance this argument by suggesting that coaching produces results which are not only desirable, but an absolute necessity in today's environment:

It is worth noting that Pay goes on to point out that off the job training should not be abandoned but supported by good coaching so that development needs, large and small can be facilitated and met.

A further point is added to the benefits described above by Bernard Redshaw who claims that when good coaching is widespread, the whole organization can learn new things more quickly, and can therefore adapt to change more effectively. Furthermore coaching tends to be self-perpetuating in that people who are well coached readily become good coaches themselves. So the more coaches an organization has, the more it keeps on producing them.

Every piece of literature I have ever consulted in researching my books and programmes provided a number of benefits (mainly variations of those described above) with no suggestion anywhere that coaching was not a worthwhile activity.

I intend to follow this piece with further articles concerned with putting forward a detailed and hopefully compelling argument for coaching in organizations. I hope these points will help you convince both the skeptical coachee and the circumspect senior team - who will need to be convinced that coaching creates value if they are to release the resources needed.