Analogies between sport and business are common when talking about coaching.
But people in business often forget that sportspeople spend a lot of time practising, whereas in business we tend to focus on doing the performance bit.
We rarely give much thought to addressing potential issues that could hamper our performance at work, such as a lack of confidence or trust within ourselves. That’s where coaching comes in.
In business we usually talk about performance and coaching when things aren’t going well. Either that or coaching is reserved for senior staff in big organisations and is typically an external activity.
Here at Mogers Drewett we believe that’s outdated thinking.
I recently joined the firm as head of people and performance, having previously worked in big international law firms and provided external coaching. Mine is a brand-new internal role which has been created to develop the diverse range of talent across our firm.
Coaching for all
When it comes to performance coaching, we don’t just focus on our fee-earning staff and senior team. My coaching expertise is available to people whatever their role in the business and to our commercial clients through our HR advisory team.
At a time when many businesses are struggling with labour shortages, developing your in-house talent offers a potential solution to the current recruitment crisis. Because my role includes developing our junior members of staff, all of our colleagues can be free to focus on what they do best – delivering great outcomes for our clients.
But what exactly is coaching and how does it differ from traditional HR? I think the role of HR in a nutshell is to help people get stuff done while coaching helps them get the best out of themselves.
Widen your recruitment pool
Coaching is about helping people to reduce the blockers to delivering on their potential by giving a non-judgemental external perspective on the issues that confront them. It puts the individual at the heart of their own development, identifying what that means to them and working on that, within the performance environment they find themselves in.
If your staff feel confident in their knowledge, skills and abilities, in an organisation where they feel they belong and that supports their growth and development, they are going to be more likely to deliver their best, again and again, for your clients. This democratisation of coaching can help you widen your recruitment pool to include potential in-house talent that might otherwise be overlooked.
To finish with some sporting metaphors, it can help you level the playing field when it comes to the current recruitment battle and ensure you have a winning team.
Ben Morris is head of people and performance at South West legal and financial planning firm Mogers Drewett. A fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, Ben also has qualifications in cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness. Outside of work, Ben competes in the sport of kettlebell and won a bronze medal for England in pentathlon at the 2022 International Kettlebell Marathon Federation (IKMF) World Championships in Belgium.
