Dive Brief:

• The Human Capital Research Institute (HRCI) and the International Coaching Federation (ICF), two organizations at the forefront of professional development, rolled out a joint survey that points to the clear connection between coaching and leadership development training. 
• The report called Building a Coaching Culture with Millennial Leaders details how first-time managers can benefit from meeting with a professional coach at critical points in their career. Many emerging leaders are millennials, who tend to respond well to focused coaching sessions. Interestingly, the ICF and HRCI researchers found striking similarities among various generations of leaders: they prefer flexible work arrangements and the opportunity to participate in developmental opportunities.
• The payoff for organizations that invest in coaching are promising, too. Organizations that have strong coaching cultures report 61% of their employees as highly engaged versus only 53% at those with no coaching investment. Additionally, 46% of the organizations that have strong coaching cultures experienced above-average earnings in 2016, as compared to only 39% of those from all other companies. 

Dive Insight:

The insight that this new report shares validates what experts have known all along: strategic career coaching and mentoring works when developing future leaders. When companies invest in the growth of their people leadership skills, employees respond by being more engaged in the organizational goals, leading to higher performance and earnings.

Every employee has the potential to be a leader in some facet, from leading others on projects to being a force of creative change for how the work is done. Companies can recognize and develop for that by introducing coaching into regular meetings with supervisors.

Coaching can not only be used to help people be their best, but also to identify and assist those who are not pulling their weight.