ATD Blog
Thu Jun 04 2020
A part of the developing professional capability domain of the Association for Talent Development’s Talent Development Capability Model, coaching is described as having “the power to catalyze breakthroughs to enhance individual, team, and organizational performance. Coaching is an interactive process that helps individuals develop more rapidly toward a preferred future state, produce results, set goals, take action, make better decisions, and capitalize on their natural strengths.”
Sophie Oberstein’s 10 Steps to Success Coaching, 2nd edition walks readers through preparing for a coaching role, facilitating discovery, partnering to enhance growth between sessions, and preparing the organization for coaching (in addition to six other steps along the way).
Oberstein explains that she hopes the book will help individuals be happier in their role—whether that is as a “manager, employee, friend, partner, or parent" by using coaching practices in one’s everyday interactions.
Coaching is critical today given the challenges we face with digital and global change, along with the recent changes in our working locations and situations. Indeed, in their Harvard Business Review article “Coaching Your Team Through Uncertain Teams,” Francesca Gino and Dan Cable write that employees currently “find themselves alone with their computers, sporadically touching base remotely with those the used to see regularly. Many feel lost. Leaders of organizations can help their people get through these trying times by coaching them as they reevaluate their lives and rethink what they add to the world.”
Oberstein believes that remote coaching can be as effective as face-to-face coaching, a belief that research supports. She writes about specific benefits to online coaching.
“Synchronous technological tools allow coach and coachee to connect from wherever they are in the world. Asynchronous opportunities allow coachees to access coaching on their own schedule, in doses that are large or small, depending on what the coachee needs in the moment, and, most importantly, give the coachee an opportunity to think through what they want to say before they submit any response. I’ve found that this has given my coachees a chance to reflect more deeply and then to more clearly articulate what is happening for them.”
In her book, Oberstein outlines the benefits of coaching not only for those being coached but to the organization and the coach. In a world where relationships are more important than ever, using and practicing coaching skills improve all of a person’s working relationships.
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