When Change Partners was established 20 years ago, business coaching was a very new concept. As the company celebrates two decades in business, the Change Partners Coaches have developed this list of ways in which coaching is even more relevant in 2018 than it was in 1998.

1. Leading Diversity – The South African workplace becomes continuously more diverse. This presents new challenges for business leaders as they aim to inspire team members who are different from themselves in many ways.

2. Sustainable Personal Growth – Coaches act as guides for action and learning for their clients to achieve their goals. Just as importantly, they hold their clients accountable to those goals and agreed actions, which encourages focus and achievement.

3. Managing Transition – At each career transition, a leader must be prepared to adopt new and different behaviours to succeed. Coaches enable clients to successfully navigate these changes more quickly.

4. Dealing with Complexity – Coaches provide different insights and interpretations to broaden their clients’ awareness about what it takes to thrive in the VUCA world.

5. Leveraging Innovation – Leaders need to embrace and leverage new concepts – for example the digital space – and encourage their teams to be innovative while focusing on efficiency and effectiveness.

6. Managing Millenials –Leaders need to strike the right balance between authenticity, acceptance, involvement and influence to build relationships with the ‘followers’ of today and tomorrow.

7. Effective Communication – The ability to communicate remains an essential element of leadership if there is to be a shared vision and sense of purpose. Communication styles need to continuously evolve to remain in step with the changing needs of the workforce.

8. Embracing Change – In today’s fast-paced world, we are bombarded with changes. Change for most people is uncomfortable, so leaders need to step up and show confidence and assuredness to move their followers forward.

9. Reviewing the Organisational Culture – The culture, or “How we do things around here” is largely created by the leadership.  However, “doing what you did only gets you where you were” – it is important to look for new ways to demonstrate the values which will remain important going forward.

10. Demonstrating Humanity – Humanity is our greatest attribute in the workplace. This sets us apart from machines and becomes even more important as the world of work becomes more technical. Today’s organisations look for a collaborative style of leadership, rather than the authoritarian style of old.

11. Continuous Reflection to build self-awareness – the ever-increasing pace of life and work discourage spending time on introspection, or seeking feedback from others. Coaching actively encourages both of these activities.

12. A Sounding Board – Coaching is an essential part of the leader’s learning process. It  provides a safe environment to share ideas and opinions which help to expand decision options and to test plans for critical situations.

13. Talent Retention – Organisations, both public and private, face a continual search for the best talent and are concerned about turnover among key employees. One of the ways that organisations signal their commitment to developing their high-potential talent is to provide coaching for these key employees.

14. Deepening People Skills – Business leaders need to build and lead excellent teams. Coaching helps to develop these people-oriented skills.

15. Eliminating Traditional Barriers – The unseen  barriers that keep minorities and women from rising to the upper levels of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements can be challenged and eliminated through coaching conversations.

16. Exploring New Ways to Lead in a changing society – the developing economy of South Africa is showing an increasing appetite for coaching as the traditional face of leadership changes to embrace the future. It is now considered to be a recognition of potential to be offered a coach.

17. Achieving Career Goals – No longer is there a job for life. Every individual is responsible for determining their own career path, but many of us abdicate this responsibility to our current employer. Executive coaching encourages leaders to design and enable their ideal career.

18. Dealing with Loneliness at the Top – Despite the advances in social media and the internet, for many leaders, loneliness is still an issue the value of a trust-based relationship where personal aspirations and fears can be safely shared cannot be over-estimated.

19. Retaining Ethical Standards – The ever-increasing pressure to deliver big profits and good returns for shareholders may drive leaders to push the ethical boundaries – corruption has almost become endemic in some circles. Coaches can work with leaders to resist this temptation by recognising when they are close to the edge.

People are always referred to as the greatest asset in any organisation. It remains essential that we continue to make the best of these assets by finding better ways to use them to their full potential.  Coaching remains a key driver in this quest.