America has become a “Coaching Culture.”
A few years ago, no one heard of the expression “coach” other than in relationship to sports. But today, coaching is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. The coaching industry has grown by an average of 20% per year in the past five years. It started with individuals, but now companies, churches and schools use professional coaches to help strengthen their people and organizations.
Why? What is it about “coaching” that is driving this phenomenon? How is “coaching” connecting with our national mood or need?
First, coaching starts with you. Working to help you bring out the best in yourself…to achieve your objectives.
Coaching is generally positive. It doesn’t imply that you have an issue. It starts with your goals – rather than your problems.
A Coach is someone on your side. Friendly, non-judgmental and empathetic.
Coaching is practical. It helps you develop real life solutions to real life situations.
In an era when employee retention is difficult, coaching helps either support or encourage better, more loyal workers.
Coaching is non-secular. It’s not rigid or doctrinaire. Instead, it is flexible and customizable.
Coaching acknowledges that anxiety and conflict are real. Coaches help you manage your stress, build resilience and develop a positive mental outlook. They help you strengthen your empathy, emotional intelligence and mental health.
Coaching helps us adapt and cope with life’s changes – especially the monumental changes that arose from COVID which still affect us, our jobs and our home lives.
Coaching is natural and doesn’t require medicine.
There is a thin, often invisible line between the term “Coach” and its siblings: Mentor, Trainer, Teacher, Counsellor, Therapist, or Guru. There is an important and subtle, nuanced difference. And America has glommed on to “coaching.”
Is it any wonder that the popular VP nominee Tim Walz is called “coach”? He has a long list of other impressive experiences: primarily as a teacher, politician, and military man. But he is most often referred to as, “coach,” a relatively minor job on his resume.
Yes, more and more of us seem to want a “coach”?
