Coaching is not new, modern or unknown; it’s simply a helping activity, used as one of many complementary practices for organisational development.

When asked, “how do you develop your team?” the stock response of “I send them on training courses” is typical within cultures where people have for years been trained rather than developed.

And it’s been articulated in a human resource language continuum which during the 1980s spoke of welfare, in the 1990s talked about personnel and training, and by the end of the decade, referred to human resource management and learning.

This same continuum now refers to people and distinguishes between human resource management (HRM) setting the context for people to work within – for example, through policies – and human resource development (HRD) relating to people, skills and empowerment.

And this is where coaching really comes into its own.

Coaching satisfies a shift away from more traditional, taught, approaches and towards workplace development, and reflects the influence of Lombardo & Eichinger’s 70/20/10 learning proposal – an opportunity to offer creative development options when working within the context of reduced budgets and increased demand:

• 70% from real life and on-the-job experiences and problem solving
• 20% from feedback and from observing and working with role models
• 10% from formal training.

How many organisations wouldn’t prefer more coaching opportunities, more development achieved in real-life working situations, better feedback and role-modelling, and fewer abstractions away from the workplace?