Coaching: passing fad or lasting trend?
Updated: Jul 31
Coaching: a trend?
In recent years, coaching has become firmly established in the Swiss workplace.
Team coaching, professional coaching, executive coaching, life coaching: a wide range of approaches with promising names, alongside a growing number of consultant-coaches entering the market, all offering to support individuals and organisations on the path to success.
So, is this new wave of coaching simply a passing fad, or does it provide genuine added value? Let us take a closer look.
First of all, where does coaching come from? How do we define it?
The practice of coaching originates from the world of sport, where it has long been recognised that a champion needs a coach to train, develop their strengths, work on their weaknesses, and receive both physical and mental support. Tim Gallwey, a tennis coach, proposed a formula that captures the essence of coaching, regardless of the field:
P = P - I, that is:
Performance (or success) = Potential – Interference.
Applied to business coaching:
Performance = achieving our objective
Potential = our skills, our strengths, our talents, our interpersonal qualities, and so on.
Interference = our blocks, obstacles, limiting beliefs, fears, and anything that prevents us from succeeding.
This simple formula shows that the coach's role is primarily to help clients become aware of both their strengths (potential) and their obstacles (interference). The next step is to build on these strengths and reduce the impact of these obstacles.
The coach's stance
How can we distinguish a coach from other professionals whose role is to help individuals or groups achieve their objectives? A coach often has to explain what they are not in order to clarify what they are. Here is a brief overview of what a coach is not.
A therapist
A therapist looks to the past to understand the origins of difficulties or blocks, whereas a coach helps identify obstacles and then focuses on the future, with the aim of overcoming them. The underlying causes are therefore not the primary focus of the coaching process.
A consultant
A consultant provides advice and expertise in a specific area of knowledge (for example, a Supply Chain Management consultant must have solid experience and expertise in logistics), whereas a coach provides expertise in the thinking process. The coach does not need to be an expert in the client's professional field. Their role is to help the client broaden their perspective, become aware of their resources and limitations, and develop an action plan for success. They support the client in changing behaviours, perspectives, beliefs, and ways of approaching situations.
A trainer
A trainer transfers specific knowledge and skills, whereas a coach seeks to support behavioural change by helping clients become aware of their own resources. A coach may nevertheless introduce theoretical concepts, such as communication or behavioural models, to help clients better understand themselves and their situations. The difference therefore lies above all in the coach's stance. Since the boundaries between these roles are not always clear-cut, a coach with experience in one of these fields may occasionally adopt another role and, for example, provide advice as a business consultant.
Why such enthusiasm?
Now that we have explored what coaching is, how can we explain its growing popularity in today's business world?
One explanation lies in the increasingly strong search for meaning at work: generational differences in attitudes towards work, a transition between management models (with the sometimes turbulent shift towards more participative and collaborative approaches), and the automation of tasks that is calling certain roles into question. In short, today's environment encourages individuals to question the meaning they attach to their work.
In this context, coaching is particularly well positioned to help individuals reconnect with meaning and purpose in what they do.
It is therefore important to understand that a coaching process is never trivial. It involves self-reflection and a potential desire for change on the client's part, which may also represent a risk for organisations if employees choose to pursue new paths.
Coaching also meets an individual need for support. It can benefit people at all levels of an organisation by providing personalised support and creating space to step back, reflect on one's practices, and challenge one's assumptions.
Individual coaching and team coaching
There are two main types of coaching: individual coaching and team coaching:
Individual coaching supports coachees when they take on a new position or role, face managerial challenges, or seek to improve areas such as time management, stress management, and so on. At the beginning of the process, the coach and coachee define the objectives together, ensuring that both know the desired outcome and direction.
Team coaching focuses on improving team performance, particularly the way team members collaborate and communicate. The themes addressed often include team culture, values, communication, behavioural agreements, group dynamics, and dysfunctions within the team. In practical terms, two or three sessions may focus on the behavioural changes required to achieve stronger collective performance.
A systemic perspective is adopted, viewing the team as a system whose collective potential is greater than the sum of its individual members. Theoretical models from group psychology are combined with practical exercises that enable participants to understand their role within the team and recognise the team's potential. At the end of the team coaching process, each participant leaves with one or two individual objectives, while the group defines one or two collective objectives. Group dynamics can evolve significantly within only a few sessions.
Which coach should you choose?
If you decide to work with a coach, how do you choose among the many practitioners available? The quality of coaching depends largely on the coach's personality, experience, and approach. Here are a few recommendations:
Take the time to establish initial contact with the coach. Ask questions and pay attention to your impressions and intuition: the relationship must feel right in both directions. A coach who is a perfect fit for one person may not necessarily be the right match for another.
Make sure the coach clearly defines objectives with you or your colleague at the beginning of the process. Without objectives, it becomes difficult to know where the coaching is leading and impossible to measure its effectiveness. Be cautious of coaches who begin without establishing clear objectives.
Be prepared to do your own work between sessions and to challenge yourself. Successful coaching requires the client's willingness to question their behaviours, practices, and beliefs. The coach cannot do this work on your behalf. A coach who simply validates everything you do may boost your confidence temporarily, but will not necessarily help you progress.
Be cautious of self-proclaimed coaches. Since the profession is not regulated in many countries, anyone can call themselves a coach. Certain certifications can nevertheless validate training and professional skills.
Do not confuse a coach with an "influencer" or "motivational speaker" who positions themselves as an advisor and offers ready-made solutions or theories supposedly designed to help people achieve success and unlock their potential.
Finally, be aware of coaches who develop a sense of omnipotence: believing they are indispensable to their client's success by fundamentally transforming them. This approach is both unrealistic and irresponsible, as it can negatively affect the coachee if objectives are not achieved. Coaching can help modify certain behaviours and beliefs, but it cannot completely transform an individual, who is shaped by their history, experiences, values, and personal journey. The risk with an overly transformative approach is that it focuses only on the visible symptoms, while the underlying issues may simply reappear later in another form.
