leadership
Many organizations have traditionally considered
coaching a high cost investment dedicated almost
exclusively to developing high potential executive talent.
This view has taken a 360-degree shift and now
leading organizations are offering coaching programs across their
talent pools, with a focus on coaching young emerging leaders to
attract and retain top talent.
According to Bloomberg, Shopify has increased nine-fold since
its initial public offering in 2015 and is one of Canada’s top technology
firms in terms of market value. Shopify has twelve full-time
coaches who engage with their employees in areas such as leadership
development, career planning and setting strategies to reach
their personal and professional goals.
Millennials and Generation Z greatly value development
opportunities such as coaching and are looking to senior business
leaders to equip them to be successful in the workplace. Based on
the Deloitte Millennial Survey 2018, “Companies and senior management
teams that are most aligned with millennials in terms of
purpose, culture and professional development are likely to attract
and retain the best millennial talent and, in turn, potentially
achieve better financial performance. Loyalty must be earned, and
the vast majority of millennials are prepared to move, and move
quickly, for a better workplace experience.”
The fourth industrial revolution is upon us with artificial intelligence
and massive automation, and organizations are recognizing
the critical importance of developing leadership capabilities, soft
skills and building the confidence of their young emerging leaders.
Millennials and Generation Z feel that businesses are insufficiently
developing these soft skills. Deloitte’s Millennial Survey also
indicates that over one-third of respondents (35 per cent) say it is
critical to an organization’s long-term success that its employees
and leaders cultivate strong interpersonal skills.
To develop leadership capability, organizations are increasing
their bench strength of both internal and external coaches, as well
as offering training workshops for managers to hone their coaching
skills. An effective coach requires excellent self-awareness, listening
and emotional intelligence. These competencies take a skilled
coach asking insightful questions to cultivate leadership capability
with their coachees. The trend to engage coaches across job levels
is part of this evolution to create a coaching culture.
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Coach Emerging Leaders
ACCELERATE THEIR DEVELOPMENT
By Susan Power, MBA, CHRL
HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ APRIL 2019 ❚ 33
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