In today’s competitive business environment, there is a constant desire to improve professionally and personally. This has fueled the tremendous surge in the U.S. market for self-improvement, which includes audiobooks, apps and personal coaching. As reported by Harvard Business Review, more than $1 billion was spent on business and personal relationship coaches last year and the number of business coaches worldwide has increased by more than 60% since 2007. However, investing in a coach is a costly endeavor considering that top executive coaches can command fees of more than $100,000 a year.
I am an advocate of coaching. My co-founder and I have had a business coach since the early years of TaskUs. We’ve experienced firsthand the significant impact he has had on our lives and our growing business. As a business leader, it is important to pay this insight forward by providing coaching support to our entire team from the bottom up, as well as the top down.
Procuring and retaining employees today is extremely competitive, and companies need clear strategies for motivating and driving them. We have implemented a coaching program at our company that provides life coaches, or yogis, to our frontline employees to help them not only be more productive at work but also be better people away from the office.
Offering coaching to employees has its challenges, including finding the right coach, incorporating coaching into the company culture and addressing red flag issues. Here are three ways to turn these challenges into benefits:
Find a coach who understands the culture and goals of your organization.
We see coaching as an investment that pays dividends over time, so although it is an expensive endeavor at the start, the return on investment is worth it in the long run. Coaches help employees identify their blind spots, find areas for improvement and maximize strengths, which all have a direct impact on their jobs.
When that coaching comes from within the company, these benefits can increase because the coaches understand the corporate culture, performance goals, structure and vision for the organization. Finding the right coach is as important as hiring the right executive, and should be treated as such.
One common best practice for hiring is to find four candidates all capable of doing the job before making your final choice. When considering a coach, I suggest talking to a handful of candidates as well. Ask questions about their backgrounds, their coaching methodology and how they engage with their clients. From there, while unconventional, ask your top two to four choices if they are willing to do one or two coaching sessions on a trial basis. Be transparent about your process and offer to pay their full rates for their time. A big part of coaching is personality fit, and while a couple of coaching sessions will not provide the value of an ongoing coach, it will allow you to feel confident about the decision you make.
Make coaching an organic and holistic part of your company culture.
Coaching for top executives is a different challenge than creating a coaching program across your company. Securing employee participation in any company program can be tricky because it needs to feel like an organic part of the corporate culture. With coaching, you have to see it to understand it.
To overcome this obstacle, my company began with “happiness coaching,” which was delivered in groups across our operations. This is a non-threatening way to introduce personal development coaching through fun activities that focus on what makes people happy. We also implemented “Wellness Wednesdays,” where coaches held fun activities for teammates to attend. These activities included meditation, art, music, stress eating the right way, personalized bento boxes and even financial classes.
This was a great way for teammates to get to know our yogis (what we call our coaches) outside of coaching. It allowed our teammates to warm up to coaching and spurred requests for more activities. After integrating coaching into our culture gradually, we now offer two to three activities every week led by one of the coaches.
Address red flags in a safe environment.
Coaching can attract employees because it doesn’t have the social stigma in our culture that therapy can have, so it is more approachable in a work environment. This broader appeal means that it can reach more people who might be experiencing significant issues before it becomes a problem in the office.
Staffing issues, such as bullying, attrition, depression and anxiety, can be addressed early and resolved before they negatively impact the team. Remarkably, coaching has been able to prevent several suicides at my company. It has enabled us to work with our employees on their most personal and life-impacting issues.
It is important for employees to know that their coaching sessions are safe places where they can share the ups and downs of their lives. Do this by clearly communicating to teammates that participation is optional, offered for their personal well-being and all coaching is strictly confidential, unless there is a threat to anyone’s safety. As well, we don’t compare teammates’ lives with others because every life is unique. No two people are the same, so all experiences are personalized.
Coaching has been proven to have a lasting positive impact on people over time. I see this as one of the most meaningful benefits that any company can offer. Coaching helps employees improve themselves and, in the process, helps the company grow.
