Gina Lodge, CEO, AoEC
Really coaching changes everything. It’s one of the few things that can change your behaviour and it empowers people: it helps to improve your performance. The added benefits that people don’t look for are that it improves your relationships with your family, your home life and your friends. They’re added benefits but in a work scenario it really makes a huge difference. It can actually empower you to feel that you are part of the company, you’re making a contribution and you’re valued. I think it’s truly transformational – the best thing in the world that anyone can do.
I think something else that we hear a lot about is engagement – particularly in the future generation. A lot of people say that we’re losing people – we’re recruiting new graduates and after a few months they’re disengaged already, so there’s a huge engagement problem and how to manage the next generation of leaders coming through. Traditionally, coaching has always been offered to the top team – the executive team – and has percolated through companies, but I think what’s really important now is that young people entering companies get the coaching they need for them to manage that engagement and to feel part of the fabric of the company that they’re joining.
