Organizations, business leaders and personnel must learn to work effectively in today’s fast paced, highly volatile, complex and globalized business environment. Rapidly changing collaborative technologies, the shift from routine work to non-routine knowledge economies, the need to consider multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches, along with the need for more nimble and adaptive business structures, have changed how we do business, our working environments and the way we work. In response, organizations worldwide have relied for years on team-based work structures to better solve complex issues and complete projects/tasks and achieve specific outcomes within and across organizations and business units.
This white paper uses a comprehensive and considered literature review to explore the concept of team coaching as it relates to supporting organizational teamwork in today’s complex and volatile business environment. The goals of this paper are to provide organizational leaders and business-coaching practitioners with an evidence-based guide to how and why team (business) coaching is important and to show how this model of practice can be used to support organizational team-oriented problem solving, complex-project/task completion and better achievement of organizational goals and outcomes.
Traditional business practices and problem solving, whether at the individual, work group or team level, is often hampered by personal, disciplinary and/or organizational culture boundaries that inhibit us from looking beyond our confines for new or better solutions. Many of the business issues we face today involve wicked problems that defy traditional solutions and can only be ameliorated or solved by collaborating with people who bring a diverse set of knowledge, skills and perspectives to the issue. Thus, we can no longer always rely on the wisdom of the people within one organization, let alone one discipline, to solve some of our more complex business issues.
Additionally, our traditional views of what teams are, what they need to operate and what supports them are no longer fit for purpose when considered against current business realities. Without knowing what the key drivers or essential and enabling elements for team successes are or how and when to apply them, business leaders will continue to make costly mistakes in terms of time, money, effort and the achievement of organizational goals and outcomes.
Academics and practitioners within fields such as, but not limited to, business, business coaching and organizational development have examined the successes and failures of teams within the business context for many years and have identified (1) team design and structure, (2) team launch and (3) ongoing team coaching as being the key drivers for improved team performance. Providing the foundation for this improved team performance are three essential and three enabling conditions respectively:
Lastly, qualified and competent team coaches have been shown to positively influence the success of team-based personnel systems and processes, and therefore play key roles within each of the business-team design, structure and support elements. Within this business context, the team coach has a dual focus: one that focuses on individual team members and allows them to discover how their personal characteristics, behaviors and perspectives impact the team and business processes; and one that focuses on the larger objectives and successes of the organization. It is this dual focus and discovery process that differentiates business coaching from other types of coaching. Thus, private and public organizations wishing to achieve successful team-based outcomes must consider incorporating qualified and competent team business coaches into all of their team-oriented work structures and processes.
Qualified and competent team coaches positively influence the success of team based personnel systems and processes, and therefore play keys roles in supporting team-based personnel structures.
This paper explores an integrative and systemic approach to business coaching which captures the way it interfaces with organisational, interpersonal and intrapsychic systems.
Business coaching, like much else in South Africa, was isolated from mainstream professional development due to international restrictions during the years of apartheid. Thus, it is only in about the last five years that coaching has sprung to prominence in South Africa.
However, as might be expected, many of the problems and inequalities from the past remain. In 1994, South Africa held its first democratic presidential election. Although Nelson Mandela—after 27 years of imprisonment—became president, the demographic imbalances created by 50 years of dictatorial white supremacy still hang heavily on the country. In this context, coaching in South Africa faces daunting challenges. At the same time, coaches have unique opportunities to significantly engage and intervene in the on-going process of transforming the country from a racial tyranny into a free, open and democratic society.
South Africa is a land of enormous diversity. Of the 11 official languages, the main ones include English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana and Sotho. The variety of languages reflects the country’s wide ethnic and cultural differences. Language can also represent a minefield of cultural and power politics, since it was used in the past to promote minority racial groups and suppress the majority. The white population, who are still the main beneficiaries of coaching, tend to be monolingual, or, at best, bilingual (English and Afrikaans). Africans, on the other hand, commonly speak not only English, but several African languages as well. The choice of language in professional settings is often viewed as a reflection of past power dynamics, and must be negotiated with sensitivity and tact.
In a country in which racial differences were the main driving force of daily life for so many years, it is inevitable that color still plays a major role in public discourse and personal sense of identity. This is a potent issue to which coaches must be highly sensitive, and they must learn to navigate these delicate waters with flexibility and skill.
Coaches in the developed world would probably be startled to discover how often, both in private conversation and in public debate, the issue of color predominates. The main identifiers are obviously “white” and “black.” But in South Africa, there is a third category, defined by a term that western societies would regard as offensive or unacceptable. “Colored” refers to mixed-race individuals, most of whom so define themselves. They are predominantly Afrikaans-speaking. These racialized categories are a source of personal, educational and business friction and misunderstandings. Thus, for coaches, there are minefields to negotiate when dealing with either personal or professional issues.
For me personally, this represents an unusual opportunity to be part of the changing landscape in a fledgling democracy. In other more privileged and wealthier societies, the coach probably does not encounter such raw personal hurts and structural imbalances; here, open and frank discussion is gradually dismantling them. In this sense, it is an exciting time to be a coach in South Africa, working with individuals and leaders at the cutting edge of this crucial transformation.
Multicultural and diversity issues
Difference—of gender, race, culture, language and education—creates huge challenges in any workplace. Emerging from its traumatically divisive past, South Africa is in the early stages of trying to work with these complexities and its own unique burden of history.
As currently practiced, coaching is viewed as a privilege far beyond the hopes of all but an elite few. This presents an ethical dilemma. Previously privileged executives are still the ones who benefit from all that coaching offers. The irony is that many who would also benefit are working in the same organizations, but as “previously disadvantaged” (i.e., black men and women), they may not yet qualify for coaching. Often they are not employed in sufficiently senior executive positions to qualify; with coaching they might be.
In South Africa, most organizations remain subject to male culture and assumptions. Corporate culture continues to be dominated by white male norms, language and behavior. Although women have made serious inroads through the glass ceiling and into the boardroom, most South African organizations still reflect the culture and values of a male point of view. Women face complex and difficult challenges in the workplace.
Ironically, one place where women are beginning to feel equality is in South Africa’s parliament, which is predominantly black and 50% female. However, women still face disempowering behavior and stereotypes from both female and male colleagues at work, regardless of their occupational field.
Research and development
Important academic research is underway in South Africa. A growing number of masters and doctoral students have recently completed, or are in the process of completing, current market research projects, and their papers are circulating worldwide.
Some of the difficulties in the marketplace stem from the lack of enough qualified, certified coaches to service the needs of small, medium and large organizations. Purchasers of coaching services demand measurable results, value for money, recognized accreditation, sustainable ethics, standards, and continuing professional development.
One development is the creation of the Coaches and Mentors Association (COMENSA), whose mission is to create an umbrella association in South Africa to provide for the regulation of local coaching, to develop the credibility and awareness of coaching as a profession, and to promote the effective empowerment of individual and organizational clients. One of the roles of COMENSA has been to build relationships and alliances between purchasers and providers of coaching services. This has encouraged collaboration across many different functional areas, such as the training and development of professional coaches.
A second area of development is inside organizations. Companies such as Standard Bank, Old Mutual, Woolworths, Netcare and Pick ‘n Pay are in the process of creating their own standards and competencies to regulate the hiring of external coaches, ensuring their alignment with the specific ethics, standards and competencies of those organizations. These corporate bodies are also beginning to investigate the possibility of developing their own internal coaches.
A final development is the collaboration among business coaches themselves, who are forming alliances to offer coaching services to corporate executives and their teams.
Coach training and certification
Two key issues in South Africa today are the dearth of black coaches, plus a lingering perception that coaching is “exclusive” (i.e., not dissimilar to South Africa’s recent history under apartheid). On the other hand, there is a new range of quality coach training programs, both commercial and academic, which are often influenced or supported by international coach training programs. However, because the young, aspiring black managers are busy gaining their years of experience in the business world, many are not yet ready to step into the position of executive or business coach. They want to build their competence, expertise and credibility before tackling the task of coaching other aspirant leaders.
Another issue which has surfaced—and one of the underlying reasons for setting up an organization for coaches and mentors—is that any new profession attracts mavericks as well as pioneers. With the development of coaching as an identifiable, legitimate profession in South Africa, and with international support and pressure, some of the problems of unregulated and untrained coaches will begin to recede.
Challenges coaches face today
In South Africa four types of coaching have emerged: executive coaching, providing one-on-one services to leaders or senior management within organizations, entrepreneurial coaching, one-on-one coaching for entrepreneurs building their own businesses, management coaching as the primary way for managers to develop people and achieve results, and life coaching to support individuals wishing to make significant changes in their careers or personal lives.
The key challenge remains overcoming the legacy of apartheid. With such a diverse work force—in terms of language, race, culture and history—we still do not have enough black coaches working at senior management levels. Due to the country’s destructive history, this is only the second generation of skilled and “in demand” black business leaders. First generation business leaders were often forged in the anti-apartheid struggle.
Looking to the future
Business coaching in South Africa has a positive and powerful future. That bright future is attributable to the explosion of coaching inside organizations, the development of coach training programs, the inclusive, democratic process of COMENSA’s creation of ethical codes and standards of competence, the development of a supervisory framework, the collaboration of executive coaches, and the benefits of international partnership.
The coaching profession is still in its formative stages in South Africa, in the process of becoming a profession in its own right. Over the next few years, we will see increased regulation of coaches, with a demand for qualifications, specific standards and ethics, and recognized certification. There is an exponential explosion of coach training within the country, both academic and commercial/corporate.
Coaching is the trend of the moment. If it continues to develop at its current rate, conforming to internationally accepted standards, coaching will make a significant difference in helping to develop individuals, executives, their teams and their organizations. It will usher South Africa into the future with the very best of inclusive and transformational business practices.
This article first appeared in Business Coaching Worldwide (Summer Issue 2006, Volume 2, Issue 2).
Sunny Stout Rostron, MA, is an executive coach and the author of six books, including Accelerating Performance, Powerful Techniques to Develop People (2002). She is one of the founding members of the Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA).
As business, and business coaching, becomes more global, the impact of most business coaching approaches can be enhanced by giving more attention to the influence of culture.
In Coaching Across Cultures: New Tools for Leveraging National, Corporate and Professional Differences (Rosinski, 2003), I define coaching as “the art of unleashing people’s potential to reach meaningful, important objectives.” A cultural perspective in coaching can bring to the surface powerful issues and assumptions related to culture and mobilize them to unleash client potential and facilitate sustainable and positive change. The key approach is to value and explore differences rather than seeking to impose norms, values and beliefs. The coaching impact goes further than enhancing the company bottom-line. As coaches we have an opportunity to help foster the conditions of a better world.
I do not suggest that coaching from this perspective is superior or even the first perspective that one should take. However, I believe that it is a crucial perspective that has been given insufficient attention during the relatively short existence of the profession of coaching.
Groups of all kinds have cultures. Groups originate from various categories, including geography, religion, profession, organization, social life, gender, and sexual orientation. A group’s culture is the set of unique characteristics that distinguishes its members from another group. However, culture is not static — it evolves. Our individual identities are a synthesis of the cultures of the multiple groups to which we belong. On the surface level, culture concerns the language we use, our greetings, and our dress. Beneath the surface it can determine our thinking patterns and how we go about solving problems. It influences how our businesses are structured.
As coaches and executives we can use culture to unleash potential in many ways. We ignore the influence of culture at our peril because it influences thoughts, behaviors and emotions. It is pervasive, vastly underestimated, and can be a powerful force for positive change. We seek to unleash client potential by creating new ways of operating through drawing on many different approaches. We consider context, preferences, possibilities and consequences and come up with ways that work best for the client, within ethical boundaries.
A Practical Approach to Leveraging Cultural Differences
With a lever, you obtain a stronger force than the one you are exerting. Leveraging cultural differences means achieving more output with a given input. The input is human potential — individual or collective, in its rich cultural diversity. Through considering and leveraging alternative cultural orientations we can enlarge our views, our options and achieve synergy.
Although there is no set recipe to follow, I set out in Coaching Across Cultures a useful framework of The Global Coaching Process. Through this approach, coaches and clients can connect their personal voyages with those of their families, friends, work colleagues, organizations, communities and society in general. Different levels and layers of culture will interact and the ground will be uneven and shifting. In coaching conversations we aim to facilitate clarity by inviting an exploration of cultural influences. Clients can then leverage culture to unleash their potential and successfully pursue their goals. In this process we assist clients in finding new ways of operating that are meaningful and sustainable in their contexts.
The Cultural Orientations Framework (COF)
I have drawn together cross-cultural research on orientations across a range of human activities into the Cultural Orientations Framework (COF). One orientation is not right and others wrong. I invite clients to adopt an and approach, rather than an either/or.
The COF looks at seven categories. Here I give a brief example in each:
1. Our sense of power and responsibility;
There are three ways we can relate to the world in general, and more specifically to our businesses and our own careers. (1) We can seek to control. (2) We can be humble where we accept natural limitations. (3) We can also strive for harmony and balance with nature.
We encourage our clients to work with each of these. They can take responsibility for their lives, follow their dreams, and strive for excellence and advancement — a stance of control which can provide motivation and lead to positive self-fulfilling prophecies. At the same time, they can accept natural limitations of both themselves and their situations. Knowing one’s limits is not always obvious, but humbly accepting them is paradoxically within one’s control. Harmony is learning when to act and when to accept with humility what has occurred.
2. The way we manage time;
There are different cultural orientations to managing time. For example, many executives see time as a scarce resource. An alternative orientation is to view time as plentiful. For the client who sees time as scarce and gets caught in a daily flurry of activities without meaningful actions, we might discuss strategies for opening up opportunities for reflective thought — while at the same time making strategic use of their capacity for high-speed action. By viewing time in a plentiful fashion, the client may paradoxically appreciate the scarcity of time.
3. How we define our identity and purpose;
In defining identity and purpose, it is common for executives to refer to how much they do and achieve — a doing orientation. Another orientation is to stress living itself and the development of talents and relationships — a being orientation. For example, with clients whose preferences are for doing a lot at the expense of productive and meaningful relationships in the workplace, we may encourage them to try new strategies for building trusting, sustainable relationships. Not only can they then do more, but they may also receive the benefits of a richer personal and professional life.
4. The organizational arrangements we favor;
One way people differ on organizational arrangements is in the degree to which they are collaborative or competitive. In competitive cultures, the workplace is often the stage for a contest between individuals or work areas. The aim is to win. In collaborative cultures, the emphasis is more on working together. The European Union is an example of leveraging competition and collaboration. Countries strive to be the best. Governments regularly compare their performances with their neighbors’ to motivate performance – but there is also collaboration. Best practices are exchanged in all areas; science, engineering medicine, and so on.
5. Our notions of territory and boundaries;
In protective cultures, people are keen to protect their physical and mental territory. They like to keep their physical and psychological distance. In sharing cultures, people seek closeness and intimacy and in the workplace they freely discuss personal subjects as well as business matters. Clients who favor a protective approach can be encouraged towards a sharing orientation through greater self-disclosure. This can promote greater protection through establishing network relationships built on trust. The stronger network also builds productivity benefits.
6. The way we communicate;
There are many variations across cultures in how people communicate. For example, US business practice is typified by a direct communication style where the priority is to get one’s point across. In many Asian cultures, an indirect style is favored, where the priority is to maintain a cordial relationship. To leverage the two orientations, I suggest being clear and firm with the content while being careful and sensitive with the form. Some coaches hold bluntness as a virtue and will challenge clients directly as a sign of courage and honesty. This approach may well backfire across cultures. By holding to the substance but being sensitive on the process, coaches can leverage difference for the benefit of the client.
7. Our modes of thinking.
Much recent research has proven that there is a large variation between cultures on modes of thinking. For example, some cultures tend to favor analytical thinking. Analysis breaks a whole into parts and problems are solved through decomposition. In other cultures, systemic thinking is more common. Systemic or “holistic” thinking brings the parts together into a cohesive whole. Emphasis is on connections between the parts and on the entire system.
In the Global Coaching Process, I leverage the two forms for goal setting. Analytically, objectives are broken down into categories of self, family and friend, organization, community and the world. Systemically, interconnections between the categories indicate possible synergies, and the global perspective prevents losing sight of what is truly important.
Conclusion
Coaching from a cultural perspective helps unleash client potential by broadening perspectives and focusing on possibilities. A consideration of culture is a way of injecting additional passion, meaning, and variety into the coaching process by a holistic consideration of clients’ lives. My experience is that coaching from this perspective will help facilitate financial success in business for clients. In addition, when individuals accept the challenge of incorporating the cultural perspective, they take on a shared responsibility for better relationships, teams, organizations, communities, and global societies. The approach of genuinely respecting, valuing, and leveraging of difference is highly infectious. As carriers, our impact as coaches can reach well beyond the lives of our clients to truly make a better world.
This article first appeared in Business Coaching Worldwide (Summer Issue 2005, Volume 1, Issue 2).
Philippe Rosinski, Ir, MS, MCC is principal of Rosinski & Company, a global consulting firm that helps leaders, teams, and organizations unleash their human potential to achieve high performance. Philippe has written Coaching Across Cultures (Nicholas Brealey Publishing/Intercultural Press, 2003; http://www.coachingacrosscultures.com). Philippe may be reached by email at office@philrosinski.com.
Geoffrey Abbott is an executive coach and consultant, and a researcher with the Faculty of Economics and Commerce at the Australian National University. Geoff is currently based in El Salvador, where he is coaching international executives and researching the effectiveness of executive coaching with expatriate managers.
How do we Executive Coaches and Organizational Consultants help our clients create the cultural conditions for sustainable high performance? We need to look no further than the powerful process of coaching. We already know that coaching assists individuals to grow and develop. Imagine what would happen if the entire organization were able to tap the power, ideas, and wisdom of its own members…through people learning how to deliver and respond to feedback in powerful and healthy ways.
What is the vision of a “coaching culture”?
A coaching culture is present when…all members of the culture fearlessly engage in candid, respectful coaching conversations, unrestricted by reporting relationships, about how they can improve their working relationships and individual and collective work performance. All have learned to value and effectively use feedback as a powerful learning tool to produce personal and professional development, high-trust working relationships, continually-improving job performance, and ever-increasing customer satisfaction.
How do we know we have one? It looks like this…
The 7 Characteristics of a Coaching Culture
The Emerging Results
Organizations have seen the powerful impact on the effectiveness of Executives who retain external Executive or utilize internal Business Coaches. They are also beginning to connect-the-dots and extrapolate the incredible power of an organization whose capacity for growth and change is enhanced through the systematic practice of coaching.
Crane Consulting is actively engaged with several leading organizations that are focused on creating their own coaching culture. We see this work as the nexus of BOTH continuing external coaching with Executives AND showing their organizations how to coach one another. Rather than reduce or eliminate the role of Executive Coaches, this transformational organizational work actually provides Executive Coaches more to work with their executive clients on…how THEY become coaches for the teams they have the privilege of leading!
This article first appeared in Business Coaching Worldwide (Premier Issue 2005, Volume 1, Issue 1).
Thomas Crane, M.B.A., is an experienced OD consultant, coach, author, and speaker who specializes in working with leaders and their teams to build “feedback-rich coaching cultures” that create and sustain true “high-performance.” His book, The Heart of Coaching, is published by FTA Press, San Diego, CA. His next book, “Creating Coaching Cultures — The Next Wave” will be available in the fall of 2005. Read more about Tom’s work at www.craneconsulting.com.
We offer four WABC Accredited levels for maximum impact. WABC Accredited signifies that your offering is among the world’s most elite and rigorous business coaching training programs. For those seeking training that readies them for real-world business challenges, no other program distinction compares.
WABC knows that business coaching training must meet the rapidly changing demands facing businesses and organizations of all kinds around the world. To meet this need, WABC offers program accreditation at four levels.
The four WABC Accredited levels cover the full breadth and depth of development and professional offering in business coaching—practitioner, advanced, master and elite.
To earn any of the four levels, programs must be delivered at a professional level of engagement and must meet our professional standards and rigorous assessment process.
WABC Accredited is only available to training programs that offer business coaching as the main focus of their curriculum. This means over 75% of the learning hours within the program must be focused on the practice, theory and/or research of business coaching.
We accept applications from trainers who offer either:
Even if your program is brand new, or requires significant changes to meet WABC’s standards, you may still be eligible to register in our WABC program accreditation process.
Every applicant program must:
Level 1 programs develop practitioner business coaches. Such programs focus on the practical elements of business coaching for participants with limited previous experience in formal focused coaching skills training, or with some experience that they wish to consolidate fully with best practice.
Level 2 programs develop advanced business coaches. Such programs focus on consolidating technical skills and also encouraging the development of a sound theoretical underpinning to enable their participants to provide a full professional scope of practice and to work to more diverse agendas.
Level 3 programs develop master business coaches who may also choose to specialize. Such programs fully explore, and provide critical engagement with, current approaches, methodologies and theories underpinning the work of business coaches to enable their participants to work to an open agenda that may have a more indirect impact on business outcomes.
Level 4 programs develop elite business coaches who represent the highest level of professional practice. Such programs provide an in-depth process that facilitates an intensive examination based on advanced robust methodologies to enable their participants to demonstrate their senior expertise in operating at this level.
Prepare business coaches, leaders or other professionals to solve practical, real-world business challenges and drive new opportunities with the WABC Accredited® global mark, a program accreditation distinction that ensures you’re offering the most comprehensive and robust business coaching training available in the world.
The global business landscape is evolving at an accelerating pace. The demand for confident, competent leadership and ethical, sustainable business models has never been more pressing and necessary for success.
As a discipline that challenges leaders, teams and individuals to think more critically about clarifying and activating their strategy, business coaching is essential to sustaining organizational achievement.
As a powerful intervention, business coaching is a discipline harnessed by tens of thousands of organizations and businesses worldwide, including many Fortune 500 leaders.
It’s no wonder that such a wide array of business coach training programs are available worldwide, whether through internal corporate solutions, or through open programs offered by universities and training institutions. With such strong market growth, there’s a clear demand and abundance of choice.
Yet the global community of business coaching stakeholders—coaches themselves, their trainers, those thinking about becoming a business coach or the organizations interested in applying their skills—must discern the quality of the training they seek and they put into practice every day.
As an unregulated industry, the challenge is a lack of clarity and consistency on what defines excellence in business coaching. WABC has met this challenge through rigorous self-regulatory initiatives focused on raising the quality, credibility and profile of business coaching worldwide.
As the leader since 1997, WABC leads the business coaching industry in identifying the qualities, actions and skills of the effective business coach.
Our insights have allowed us to deeply understand the link between the quality of an individual business coach’s training and the quality of business coaching services they can deliver.
The WABC Accredited global mark was developed in direct response to this crucial need for clarity, reliable standards and quality service delivery within the industry.
As a program accreditation distinction, WABC Accredited:
WABC Accredited programs equip individuals with the evidence-based competencies that leaders, organizations, individuals and teams need to realize their potential, backed by the latest theoretical and practical knowledge designed to deliver results.
For training programs dedicated to offering the best training and education in business coaching, the route to achieve the WABC Accredited mark is through our WABC program accreditation process.
Our process optimizes your program for success by ensuring your training is grounded in the business coaching best practices shaping the industry today.
Whether you represent an open enrollment program offered by a training provider, university or educational institution, or you represent an internal business coaching training program offered by a corporation, business or other type of organization, the depth and breadth of our program accreditation process ensures your program is built on research-informed best practice.
You’ll learn much more about our program accreditation process when you explore all our WABC Accredited levels.
WABC’s rigorous program accreditation process engages successful providers in a continuous lifecycle—from initial accreditation to annual monitoring to re-accreditation every five years to ensure they deliver the highest, most relevant training to business coaches today and tomorrow.
The WABC Accredited mark means:
WABC Accredited is a testament to the excellence of your program and sets you apart from other training providers. Participants know that WABC prepares them for the practical challenges of business coaching in organizational and business-specific settings.
Because it is based on best practice for both business coaching and program accreditation processes, WABC Accredited broadcasts your program meets the highest global standards and is specifically tailored to business coaching, not coaching in general.
Whether your training is available to the open market or to employees within your organization, effective business coaching training can transform how people perform their role, no matter their career stage or level of seniority.
With four levels of accreditation to suit your needs, you’ll be able to build a relevant program that brings out the best in your participants.
WABC Accredited applications are evaluated by fully qualified, independent assessors. They assess the competencies your program addresses and the quality systems it adheres to, ensuring your training meets WABC’s robust criteria.
Our transparent program accreditation process also offers providers access to fully qualified, independent advisers who provide personalized advisory support and feedback designed to make you think more critically, creatively and strategically about your program offer.
Earning WABC Accredited for your program means your graduates are eligible to receive their own individual WABC credential, a distinction available to graduates of WABC Accredited programs.
WABC credentials signal that your graduates are equipped with the evidence-based knowledge and skills to solve real-world organizational challenges and deliver excellence in business coaching.
Carrying the WABC Accredited distinction means you get to build your program’s brand with the support of a global organization committed to excellence.
You will gain the right to leverage the WABC Accredited brand in your marketing, program and training materials.
You will also have access to exclusive opportunities with WABC to build your thought leadership profile, promote your services and access a global community of business coaches and clients.
The WABC program accreditation process includes demonstrating the success of your program’s standards, approaches and learning models.
By sharing this information with WABC, you build the global body of knowledge about business coaching as an evolving, innovative practice.
Your program accreditation shapes business coaching practice, development and self-regulation around the world, to create even greater efficacy and impacts.
The program accreditation process leading to the WABC Accredited mark enables you to learn an enormous amount about effective business coaching, as your curriculum is measured against WABC’s expansive, detailed knowledge base.
Fine-tune your program for success with helpful, personalized feedback during the accreditation process, so you can offer best-in-class training built on research informed standards and best practice in business coaching and training alike.
Earning WABC Accredited for your program also means your program participants and graduates can also enjoy being part of WABC’s membership community, where they can expand their thinking with access to cutting edge knowledge and build their professional network with like-minded colleagues across the globe.
Prepare business coaches, leaders or other professionals to solve practical, real world business challenges and drive new opportunities with the WABC Accredited® global mark, a program accreditation distinction that ensures you’re offering the most comprehensive and robust business coaching training available in the world.
Whether you are a business coach trainer, a coaching organization, or an institution solidifying your existing offering, building a new program or looking to offer your participants a premium business coaching training experience, WABC Accredited distinguishes you apart from the competition.
Having your program WABC Accredited® means that your graduates are eligible to receive their own individual credential from WABC. This is an exceptional professional development opportunity that will help raise your value as a trainer.
Gain credibility that demonstrates your training is rooted in research-informed best practice. Align your program with a globally recognized distinction, and equip yourself with the confidence of knowledge and expertise from an established association, backed by research.
Align with the global standard for standards, skills and competencies that ensures continued business coaching success. Build your reputation with a specialized program accreditation, designed for business coaches, leaders, managers, directors and teams practicing in business and organizational applications.
Signify that your program is rooted in evidence-informed best practice and robust research, and incorporate thinking from adjacent disciplines, such as neuroscience and psychology, to complement your programs.
Offering a WABC Accredited internal training program builds an engine of business coaches, leaders and other employees that are dedicated to the continued success of your people, your strategies and your performance as an organization.
By supporting your leaders, managers, directors and teams with the knowledge and skills to better identify opportunities, unblock challenges, and work together towards shared objectives and priorities, there’s no limit to how far your organization can go.
Having your program WABC Accredited means that your leaders and employees are able to access high-quality training from you and receive their own individual credential from WABC. Taken together, this is an exceptional professional development opportunity that will help raise your value as an employer.
Clarify your leadership purpose and vision, and engage employees more effectively in achieving your priorities. Establish strategic destinations that strengthen your organization’s alignment and integrate diverse stakeholder and market requirements. Build trust and loyalty with teams and clients more quickly by improving your relationship building and persuasive skills.
Guide your team with clarity and communicate strategic intent to create clearer project asks. Build more trusted relationships with colleagues and reports alike, built on sound advice and authentic leadership. Develop strategic roadmaps and benchmarks that address challenges realistically, to ensure your team can reach them.
Foster a positive work environment that outlines clear expectations and drives more focused mindsets. Build a culture of support, respect and collaboration that is aligned with your core values, expertise and business objectives. Unify teams with diverse perspectives and attract and retain top performers. Operate with integrity and discretion to drive trust across your organization.
Fully engage team members to drive top performance and innovation. Improve each individual’s level of confidence, emotional intelligence and communication skills to motivate collaboration and accountability. Equip your teams with the empathy skills needed to build relationships with diverse stakeholders across the organization.
Build customer experiences that are distinct and increase loyalty and reputation in the market. Enhance your service by building a culture focused on active listening, effective communication and customer satisfaction.
PeopleDynamics Learning Group specializes in developing leaders and those who support leaders in an organizational context. With over two decades of experience in training and developing coaches, WABC was the obvious accreditation partner for our Business Coaching Advantage Program™.
We committed to creating a program with quality and depth, but compact enough that busy leaders can gain proficiency and their Registered Corporate Coach™ (RCC™) credential in a four- to six-month period. Working with WABC’s high standards helped us become clearer about the program’s intentions, and be very concrete about the mindset and skill-set shifts participants can make by completing our program.
In 2013, we were proud to be the first Canadian company to gain the WABC Accredited (Level 1 – RCC)® credential for our program. Our program achieved another significant milestone through achieving re-accreditation with WABC. We are grateful for the support that we received from WABC throughout both the accreditation and re-accreditation processes.
As a pioneer in business coaching in Asia since 2002, Progress-U has developed professional coaches since 2005. Having two programs accredited by WABC allows us to give new, aspiring coaches to understand what it means to be a business coach through the WABC Accredited (Level 1 – RCC)® program or to go for a more extensive route by directly enrolling in the WABC Accredited (Level 2 – CBC)® program.
Going through the rigorous WABC accreditation processes for our two programs has helped us create one of the most comprehensive and demanding professional business coach training curriculums in Asia today.
We chose to work with WABC because of its focus on business coaching and its more rigorous and sound approach to accreditation compared with other major coach certification bodies. The continuous support of the adviser assigned to us was very helpful in giving us a deeper understanding of WABC’s requirements for each level.
The highest quality of WABC Accredited® programs meant that in 2011, Progress-U launched the Asia Innovative Coaching Institute (AICI) to focus its professional business coach development activities and ensure continued training excellence in various locations, including Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai and Singapore.
Our affiliation with WABC began in 2009 when building a coaching culture at a Fortune 100 company. We partnered with WABC due to the strict adherence to standards for evidence-based competencies, strong academic affiliation, and willingness of leadership to engage with clients. While we chose WABC because of its focus on business coaching, what we also discovered in the program accreditation process was WABC’s passion for coaching and commitment to coaching excellence.
When it was time for our own organization, the Global Institute of Organizational Coaching, to create its own line-up of business coaching programs, we just knew they needed to be accredited by WABC.
As with all programs that WABC accredits, evidence-based competencies are the foundation to program design. Philosophically, the Global IOC believes that we must bridge scholarship to practice and back to scholarship in developing coaches who move beyond models and processes to become thinking partners for clients. WABC guides that bridging through its accreditation process and academic affiliations. With its pulse on global connections and needs, WABC also creates opportunities for development that integrates cultures and communities at an international level.
If your desire is to build a first-class coach training program, WABC is the organization for you.
We needed to shift our company’s culture towards a more collaborative, coaching environment. The primary driver for this shift is a vastly changing workforce. Within five years, our workforce will require a new level of leader engagement and to find even greater efficiencies. These realities made the case to build effective, relational leaders using business coaching.
We wanted to create an in-house business coaching program that would align our leader development with our values, business needs and priorities. By leveraging the deep coaching expertise already on our team, we asked Trish Candler, a WABC credentialed coach, to lead and develop our new program. Her first-hand knowledge of our business priorities informed her recommendation that our program become accredited by WABC, the leading global authority on business coaching.
Through the WABC program accreditation process, what we discovered was a new approach for envisioning business coaching in the company. The WABC Program Accreditation Team provided ongoing encouragement and supportive guidance. Their passion for ensuring we understood all aspects of the accreditation requirements and process and their responsiveness to our questions and feedback inspired diligence and perspective in our content development. WABC’s global evidence-based standards, rooted in the real-world needs of organizations just like ours, provided a broad and deep competencies framework and quality assurance that seamlessly aligned with our needs and priorities.
Achieving the WABC Accredited® mark for our program has brought more value than we could have imagined, and we are already reaping the benefits of our program. We’re experiencing a more focused, disciplined and consistent business coaching approach. Our leaders now enjoy increased opportunities within our company to learn business coaching and gain their Registered Corporate Coach credentials, demonstrating greater capacity to meet client needs and expanding their roles with cross-functional coaching opportunities, minimizing organizational silos. Additionally, our leaders are expanding their thinking with enhanced curiosity, leading to greater innovation, accountability and impact.
Our company is proud to have learned so much from the depth of knowledge and commitment exuded by WABC. With our accreditation, we will continue to support our leaders’ development goals with a flexible yet solid framework that drives our workforce today and into the future.
Weplusnetwork Ltd is an Italian association of executive consultants and coaches, experts in developing leaders, managers and other talented professionals within organizations. We have solid experience in designing and delivering business coach training programs, and many of our faculty trainers hold WABC credentials and memberships.
With companies’ growing interest in reinforcing coaching competencies for managers, HR professionals and entrepreneurs, we designed a short but intensive program for senior professionals and managers interested in gaining a better understanding of how business coaching can improve effectiveness within their organizations.
We have operated as a Business Coaching Training School since 2013, and received the WABC Accredited (Level 1 – RCC)® credential in 2015. WABC recognition has been a distinctive mark for our training offers, and our alumni have enjoyed being part of an international cohort that acknowledges WABC evidence-based competencies and professional standards for business coaching.
Many HR professionals and managers of large, multinational or Italian companies have chosen our school because we could offer a credentialing path with special attention to organizational and business needs for people development paths.
In 2020 we successfully achieved the “re-accreditation” of our Business Coaching Lab program. We also plan to additionally pursue the WABC Accredited (Level 2 – CBC)® distinction in 2021. This choice is not rooted only in market issues, but also in the “professional growth” that WABC can offer to WABC Accredited® programs. The WABC re-accreditation process allowed us to systematize and enrich training content offered to delegates, and to confer with senior WABC Accredited® advisers during the process. WABC proves very helpful to keep our programs up to date, distinctive and reinforced with global best practices.
We can attest to the value WABC provides for both training participants and training providers.
WABC’s clear focus on business coaching is the reason why we decided to choose them as our accreditor for our Shift Corporate Coach Program. Our clients are business leaders, corporate coaches and HR professionals who appreciate the merit and significant credibility that the WABC Accredited® mark brings to our program. Our clients value the extremely high standards WABC sets to ensure that our program is top notch. WABC’s founder, Wendy Johnson, and the WABC Program Accreditation Team have continually supported us as we grow. Their guidance and support have been invaluable and exceeded all expectations.
WABC builds excellence at every level of business coaching. From creating robust evidence-informed standards to ensuring that program providers offer exceptional business coaching training, we continually find new ways to support business coaching achievement. Take the next step to build a better training program.
Are you a champion of business coaching within your organization and want to introduce WABC to your employer to see what’s possible?
Whether your organization has a business coaching program or is interested in building one, WABC accredits in-house programs to ensure that your employees are trained to coach using the latest research-informed best practice and global standards.
With WABC, program providers can expect a program accreditation process unlike any other in the coaching industry.
In fact, the path to earn the WABC Accredited mark is an important professional and business developmental opportunity in its own right. By design, you will move through our process of progressive stages and steps that enable you to showcase your program offering for evaluation.
Many training providers and organizations want to enhance their credibility and build WABC Accredited programs that drive tangible business results, but aren’t sure where to start.
WABC helps providers develop WABC Accredited training programs, and offers a range of consulting and business services to identify opportunities and improve coaching within organizations.
Organizations and businesses of all kinds have new challenges to face in our quickly changing global environments. Success today requires advancing on many fronts simultaneously, including facing new industry entrants and disruptors, adapting to customer demands, competing to attract and retain top talent, and establishing clarity of vision through tumultuous times. Leading organizations know business coaching is essential to support the alignment between organizational goals and the leaders, teams and individuals responsible for driving their success.
Organizations have new challenges to face in our quickly changing global environments. Success today requires advancing on many fronts simultaneously, including facing new industry entrants and disruptors, adapting to customer demands, competing to attract and retain top talent, and establishing clarity of vision through tumultuous times.
As these challenges grow increasingly intertwined, traditional siloed thinking lacks the relevance to operate effectively in this new context. It takes enduring commitment to continuously focus on the right business initiatives at the right time, find the precise balance of objectives, resources and timing, and build transparency and accountability at all levels of an organization to realize sustained success.
This shift requires new knowledge and skills. Developing a learning mindset, building resilience and adopting adaptability are key to driving growth, innovation and peak performance from leaders, teams and individuals alike. Achieving organizational goals requires alignment and accountability at every level of an organization.
As organizations rise to meet these demands and realize their strategic intents, business coaching can support the alignment between organizational goals and the leaders, teams and individuals responsible for driving their success.
Business coaching impacts individuals, teams and the organizations they work within. A business coach will leverage their expertise to build on the current state of both the organization and the individuals within it, to enhance performance and leadership potential. It is a role that is, by nature, supportive, disruptive and progressive.
Business coaching is distinct in that it addresses the needs of both the individual and the organization they work within. This distinction makes business coaching a unique discipline within the world of coaching more broadly. Business coaches can go by many names—including executive coach, organizational coach, leadership coach, or corporate coach—yet each one focuses on the shared business goals and objectives of both the client and the organization. This dual focus separates business coaching as a distinct practice from all other kinds of coaching.
Business coaches support organizational goals and objectives, at an individual or team level, by identifying opportunities and supporting clients in their actions to achieve results. The business coach’s role can take on many forms—it can be supportive, disruptive and progressive to encourage insights, development, change and growth.
Business coaching is industry agnostic, meaning the competencies of an effective business coach can be applied to any sectors or industries. Some business coaches may choose to specialize and offer their services in a particular industry. This is especially true with WABC business coaches, as they are required to have business and organizational experience before earning their WABC credentials.
Business coaches are strategic partners who build your business and operational success. Among the broad array of service offerings, business coaches may help:
Business coaching engagements can be initiated for many reasons—ultimately, the goal is to remove roadblocks or challenges or to stimulate new insights or pathways so a business, company or organization can achieve its full potential and sustain or grow its market position.
Business coaching helps leaders, individuals and teams respond more effectively to change and accept greater accountability. It is often used to help high-performers reach even greater success as they engage with new opportunities for growth, at both a professional and organizational level.
An internal manager is taking over a new team and wants to understand how to integrate into an existing dynamic and build trust.
A business coach can help facilitate a smooth transition and provide the leader with clarity on how to build a vision and engage their team effectively.
An organization is going through a business transformation related to their goals, processes or technologies.
A business coach can help manage change effectively by implementing strategies to support the transition and adoption of the new priorities.
A president or CEO is ready to step down and is looking to build a succession plan to ready the organization for a significant leadership change.
A business coach can help the leader transition their expertise and knowledge effectively, and build clarity of vision while navigating a complex leadership handover.
If a team isn’t working well together, performance challenges and missed targets are common symptoms of underlying tension and lack of trust.
Business coaches can work with both individuals and teams to improve their dynamic, build trust with one another and find new ways to collaborate to increase productivity.
Supporting mental health is instrumental in retaining top performers and building an optimal, innovative work environment.
A business coach can improve employees’ understanding of how they contribute to an organization’s priorities, how to maintain an appropriate work/life balance, and how to be more authentic and open within the workplace.
The Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (WABC) leads the business coaching industry in identifying the qualities, actions and skills you need to drive leading business outcomes and harness emerging opportunities.
As the industry leader since 1997, WABC has elevated business coaching practices worldwide and helped countless coaches, clients and companies successfully navigate complexity and achieve tangible business results.
Our global community spans more than 125 countries, and includes business coaches who work with entrepreneurs, managers, CEOs, presidents and professionals from all industries, all sectors, and all organizational sizes.
Enhance your customer service experience and build trust and loyalty with clients. Business coaching can help improve relationships and align individuals’ actions more closely with performance goals.
Drive performance with your team by strengthening internal engagement to drive greater innovation and more insightful decision-making. Improve the confidence, emotional intelligence and communication skills to motivate team members towards better performance.
Improve your organization’s ability to more effectively deliver on your mission to the communities you serve. Boost creativity, innovation and accountability for your programs, and more clearly articulate the need in ways that resonate with the public.
Increase the efficacy of your program delivery by thinking more strategically and spotting opportunities that drive greater results. Build support more effectively, both within your organization and with external partners and stakeholders.
Gather the right information from clients by asking more insightful questions and tailoring your approach more effectively. Guide your clients towards clarity by offering clear, strategic intent.
Build trusted partnerships founded on advice, authenticity and a sense of being in your client’s corner. Enhance your strategic deliverables with solutions that address clients’ challenges realistically and effectively.
Strengthen the ability to identify client needs and get to the root cause of operational challenges more effectively. Gain a wider strategic view on how technology infrastructure supports business and operational strategy.
Build organizational roadmaps that take into account the diverse requirements across departments. Equip teams with the relationship-building skills and empathy needed to drive stakeholder satisfaction.
Increase employee focus by fostering a positive working environment through setting clear expectations of organizational priorities and safety. Align business objectives and team priorities more closely by equipping leaders with the skills to manage their teams more effectively.
Improve your customer service experience with increased loyalty and customer satisfaction. Build a supportive and respectful culture that takes into account the importance of a team member’s overall wellbeing, including their mental health.
Business coaching offers many ways to achieve your business objectives and build a business coaching culture within your organization. Take the next step towards achieving sustainable performance improvement with WABC.
Search the WABC Business Coach Locator to find your qualified coaching partner in accelerating your professional or organizational achievement.
Are you a champion of business coaching within your organization and want to introduce WABC to your employer to see what’s possible?
Whether your organization has a business coaching program or is interested in building one, WABC accredits in-house programs to ensure that your employees are trained to coach using the latest research-informed best practice and global standards.
Many organizations see the value in using business coaching to unlock the potential within their organization, but don’t know where to start.
WABC offers a range of consulting and business services to identify opportunities and improve business coaching within organizations.
