Benefits of being a coach

There are obvious benefits for an individual receiving coaching. Research undertaken by the International Coaching Federation found that 80% of people who received coaching reported increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefited from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. In addition, 86% of companies reported that they more than recouped their investment on coaching.  We wanted to explore the benefits of coaching for the coach.

Health and wellbeing – the saying “it is better to give than to receive” dates back to the Bible.  However, studies have found that the act of helping others is linked to increased feelings of wellbeing.  Such acts boost serotonin and dopamine, which are neurotransmitters in the brain, providing feelings of satisfaction and wellbeing. Endorphins, our body’s natural painkiller, may also be released.

This can manifest itself by increasing your self-esteem, empathy and compassion, and improving your mood.  It can decrease your blood pressure and cortisol, a hormone directly correlated with stress levels. People who give of themselves in a balanced way also tend to be healthier and live longer.  You can feel an increased sense of connectivity with others and a decreased sense of loneliness, it can combat low mood and improve your relationships generally.

If such positive impacts on your health and well-being aren’t enough in terms of the benefits of being a coach, there are also significant other benefits:

Developing your leadership style – developing your coaching skills and techniques will naturally result in developing your leadership style on a day-to-day basis with your team.  A leader with a  coaching style, delivers broader impact as they learn how to accelerate the development of their team members. This is particularly relevant where your organisation is moving away from fixed hierarchical structures to more flexible structures based around project teams and peer collaborations. A coaching leadership style also enables you to engage, relate, collaborate and influence your team members, peers and your senior colleagues.

Encouraging self-reflection – a coach’s role is to ask thought provoking questions of the coachee giving them time and space to consider and articulate their response along with how they reached that response.  The coach is not there to give advice to the coachee.  This requires the coach to listen to the coachee and to encourage the coachee to be the best version of themselves.  This process also encourages the coach to self-reflect, asking the same questions of themselves and considering how they can be the best version of themselves.

Becoming more adaptable – as the world and the workplace continually changes, it is essential that we are able to adapt to those changes, ensuring that we do not get left behind and encouraging us to embrace change and innovate.  Coaching encourages you to be not only curious about others, but also about yourself.  Being able to observe others and a situation before making decisions about what and how to change is key to being effective at adapting.

Developing your resilience – at the heart of coaching is the development of self-awareness, recognising our strengths and areas for development.  This enables the coachee to handle change more effectively – building their resilience.  However, this process not only affects the coachee, it also encourages the coach to develop their resilience, helping them to identify the different ways they can respond to change and enabling them to analyse and assess the best response for them and those around them.

Ultimately coaching is about continuing to grow and learn, developing a growth mindset.  This does not just affect the coachee, but also the coach, enabling both to continually reflect, adapt and refine their knowledge, skills and their ability to grow as professionals and as individuals.  As the philosopher Confucius said: “he who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own.”