When an individual is asked what benefits they gained from professional coaching, you may expect to hear some of the more obvious answers: “I was able to handle the next encounter with that difficult co-worker better,” “I led the next meeting with much greater confidence,” or “I effectively made my case to my manager for that promotion – and got it!”
When you ask the same question of an organization who provides professional coaching to their team members, you may expect similar answers: “We saw greater productivity, more confidence, and more ability to retain some of our best employees.”
In both cases, people assume they are being asked about how they or their organizations benefited. But have you ever thought about who else may benefit? Have you ever considered that the biggest benefit may be to your customers or clientele?
Recently, we asked some of our clients what, if any, long-term benefits they gained from professional coaching. Some of those responses echoed the obvious answers mentioned earlier:
“Every time I came out of a coaching session, I had concrete tools and actions I was able to use. I joke about the fact that now when I walk into a team meeting and start talking, my team will say, ‘Oh, you’ve had another coaching session…’ ”
But this person also mentioned something that was a bit surprising – even to us. Keep in mind that the organization receiving coaching is a non-profit who provides services to underprivileged communities.
“My coach has had a positive impact on my thought processes and ability to work through issues. As a result, twice as many people have been able to receive our organization’s services. That’s not speculative or conceptual; that’s real-life impact on real live people.”
Let’s repeat that last phrase again – real life impact on real live people!
The organization went on to say:
“…what you dd or her, other coaches have done for other leaders. As a result, there are many people in this country and around the world whose lives have been directly, tangibly and positively impacted.”
Professional coaching is not just about making people feel better about themselves or helping them advance in their careers. Nor is it just about providing an advantage to the organization by improving productivity and reducing recruiting costs. Those may be some of the benefits, but coaching provides so much more.
If a non-profit can say that professional coaching had tangible impact on the people who receive their services, how much impact do you think it would have on YOUR customers?
Professional coaching is about improving the quality of your entire organization, and when you do that, you improve customer satisfaction, increase repeat business, and create a more happy and healthy work environment for everyone. And THAT is truly the best benefit of all!