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When is Business or Executive Coaching NOT appropriate?

Written by: Juliette Robertson

Article Overview: You are passionate to develop your staff and want to Coach them to success. However there are three key situations where Coaching may not be the most appropriate tool to use. Keep these three scenarios top of mind before jumping into a Coaching session with your staff.

When is Business or Executive Coaching NOT appropriate?

Before I tell you the answer to when Coaching your employees is NOT appropriate, I must first qualify a universally agreed philosophy about Life, Business and Executive Coaching. If you are new to professional Coaching, you may not agree with this philosophy but it is the cornerstone of the Coaching Profession.

Life, Business and Executive Coaching are all based on the philosophy that your staff already know the answers to the majority of their challenges but lack confidence or insight to back their own judgment and take action. The coach’s job is to unlock their inner wisdom so that they can act more confidently.

So if coaching is based on the belief that intrinsically, your staff have the ability to solve the majority of their own problems because they have either experienced it before or know someone who has…then when is coaching NOT appropriate?

There are three circumstances that come to mind.

1) Do not coach your staff if the situation is totally new and the person is truly out of their depth. If they have NEVER experienced something like this before nor do they know anyone else who has, you will be in for a long and drawn out conversation if you take the coaching approach to asking questions like “So what needs to occur next Susan?” For example, would you coach a new staff member on the payroll procedures in the office if they have never been trained in payroll? No you’d probably give them the proper training and guidance or orientation first. Once they are trained, then they can be effectively coached to recall, consider, remember, and work out answers to problems based on what they now know.

2) The second situation where coaching is not appropriate is when you are faced with deadlines or emergencies – when you have to act fast. In situations like this you cannot afford to waste time asking “So what do you think might be the best solution here David?” Sometimes a manager just needs to act quickly, make decisions and tell people what to do.

3) And thirdly, it is not effective to coach staff when YOU are overly emotional, angry or stressed. If you are not capable of leaving your troubles at the door before you begin a coaching session, its best to postpone the session to another time. Coaching is about the coachee – not about YOU so don’t engage if you can’t give your coachee your 100% attention.

At any time, you have a variety of people management tools to draw on and Coaching is one of the most personally rewarding and powerful tools you have if used correctly. Learn the skills and leave a positive legacy with those you lead! It's an amazing journey. Enjoy!

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Article Tags: business coaching, coaching inappropriate, coaching scenarios, executive coaching, Life coaching



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