The thought that an able manager could benefit from coaching no longer causes surprises.

The strength and value of coaching lies in the fact that it is personal, focusing on the challenges and demands that our jobs create for each of us. Few other forms of development can provide that degree of focus.

Mature people do not easily change style, habits, or beliefs that have grown over time and may well have helped them to where they are today.

Coaching takes place over an extended period. It provides a framework for analysis of style and behaviour, for planning of actions directed at change, for the review of results and for further actions in the light of these results.

Successful change is often based upon increased awareness of self. of what the key drivers of behaviour are and how personal change can be effected. There is often a need to identify situations which an individual has found difficult to handle.

Common concerns in coaching tend include:

• Handling critical relationships
• Changing management style
• Balancing priorities
• Coaching people and teams
• Addressing concerns about the individual's direction and future

Coaching is valuable at all levels when a manager needs a confidential sounding board to deal with particular issues. For example:

• Entering a new leadership role
• Handling change
• Gaining balance

An effective coach needs an understanding both of business and of human behaviour and its development. Working closely with the individual , solutions are often common sense and may require only minor adjustments often finding the right lever for the individual.