Coaching professional

This occupation is found in private, public and third sector national and multinational organisations and employers. It is found in every sector across the country including, for example; the health sector, finance sector, engineering and manufacturing sectors, business and professional services, education sector, retail sector, leisure sector, technology sector and construction.

There has been a growing demand for the professionalisation of coaching to include one-to-one coaching, team coaching, leadership coaching and for coaching skills to be embedded within culture and governance infrastructures to support future ways of working.

The broad purpose of the occupation is to work with a wide range of individuals and teams across organisations, to empower and engage with them to enhance their professional performance. Coaching is a way of leading in a non-directive manner, helping people to learn through deep listening and reflective, open questions rather than instructing, giving advice or making suggestions.

Coaching is a way of treating people, a way of thinking and a way of being which is seen as vital to supporting individuals and organisations in increasingly volatile and ever-changing environments. The underlying and ever present purpose of coaching is building the self-belief of others, regardless of the context, to be curious and self-aware, better equipping them to collaborate, innovate, deal with the increasing pace of change and get the best from increasingly diverse environments. Effective coaching is future focussed, releases potential, and enables transition, transformation and change for business improvement. Understanding self, commitment to self-development, managing the contract, building the relationship, enabling insight and learning, outcome and action orientation, use of models and techniques and evaluation are key overarching areas which feature within this occupational area (and across all the knowledge, behaviours, skills identified below).

Coaches:

• use enhanced listening and questioning skills to increase individuals' and teams' self-awareness to enable them to evaluate their own and others' strengths and development areas, allowing the individual(s) receiving coaching ("the coachee") to create and deliver bespoke actions leading to positive change.
• Use their emotional and social intelligence in an applied way to support the development of self-awareness, adaptability, resilience, wellbeing, motivation and confidence in the coachee.
• Are non-judgmental (neither denying nor affirming a coachee's perspectives and opinions) and encourage individuals to find their own solutions and appropriate ways forward.
• Work with coachees in one-to-one relationships, in person and via video or audio conferencing, to aid in their self-reflection, and may observe coachees, for example by attending a relevant meeting, to provide non-judgmental feedback.
• Work with groups and teams, to increase collective awareness and increase accountability associated with making positive change.

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with coachees as their primary contact, bringing a fresh, independent perspective to support the individual/team/organisation with the development of its people. In moving organisations towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and embedding sustainability, an employee in  this occupation may need to coach employees at all levels through change that impact on them. 

There will be a wide range of stakeholders including line managers, senior leaders and/or heads of the organisation. The stakeholders they engage with may be at any level, including those senior to the coach.

They will engage with Human Resources teams, Learning and Development teams, and Organisational Development teams, learning providers, professional bodies, psychometric providers, coach training providers, the coach supervisor and peer to peer networks.

They may also interact with occupational health, support organisations, faith-based organisations and/or charities etc. to provide specialised support as needed to suit the circumstances.

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for:

• The coaching relationship with the coachees, the coaching contract, signposting to other services as needed across a caseload of individuals and teams.
• Quality assurance of their own practice (and their team in some instances), including maintaining continuing professional development, participating as a supervisee in coaching supervision, and using and/or establishing peer-to-peer support networks.
• Furthering the coaching culture.
• Working with a centralised learning and development or strategy team focussed on embedding coaching skills in future or current leadership to better enable strategy future strategy, workforce resilience and innovation and succession planning.
• Where appropriate, embedding a coaching programme around a new system, regulatory change and/or change programme.
• Working with leaders to develop its diverse people to remove barriers that hinder success.
• Working with experienced expertise in middle management and connecting it to younger generations, for example through facilitating "reverse mentoring" interventions.

Coaches may work in a variety of locations and environments, both indoors and outdoors, which may require travel and overnight stays or irregular hours. Coaching activity may be face to face or by virtual means.