Professional coaching is picking up in popularity and demand as more and more people find it useful to have a guide to help them navigate the complexity and demands of working life. The coaching process helps people to gain objectivity and clarity around issues they may be struggling with, improvements they are working on in their professional life, skills they want to develop in order to be more effective and attitudes they are developing to help them grow professionally. There are various forms of coaching and PsyPotential provides two of the most important in the workplace. These are Executive Coaching and Performance or Behavioural Coaching.

This type of coaching provides one to one support to top-level and potential leaders in a business environment on the principle that positive changes can be leveraged to filter down and enhance the entire organisation. This is especially important when operational Managers grow into high profile leadership positions and wish to enhance and develop their abilities both professionally and personally. Executive Coaching helps individuals work with their organisation to develop themselves to lead teams towards the future operational growth and success of the business.

Executive coaching can also focus on leadership operational competencies that are determined at a Board/Strategic level that retain and develop the company’s best people as well as formulating and implementing effective business strategies that enable the business entity to grow and thrive.

This type of coaching focuses on specific areas of behaviours related to the human factors of the coachees work. It enables the coachee to identify specific skills they need to work on and develop them within the safety of the coaching relationship. The following are some typical areas that are often addressed during the coaching sessions.

• Skills in leading, motivating and empowering people
• Understanding oneself, assessing personal strengths and areas for development
• Understanding the difference between management and leadership
• Dealing with conflict and challenging situations
• Communicating positively
• Building healthy working relationships
• Maintaining work/life balance
• Mastering negative emotions and emotional reactions
• Learning assertiveness techniques
• Problem solving and decision making
• Addressing social and emotional problems of staff
• Managing time and prioritising
• Delegating effectively
• Planning and implementing skills
• Strategic thinking and planning

Mentoring is generally more concerned with overall development and direction rather than a specific skill. While utilising a very similar skill set to coaching the focus tends to be more holistic. It offers a great opportunity for people to be understood and challenged within a relationship of openness and trust. PsyPotential offers coaching and mentoring services delivered by fully qualified and experienced professionals.