2012
It seems like yesterday that we opened our doors but in fact The Preston Associates is now celebrating its 10th year at the forefront of Executive Coaching.I and the team would like to thank you for your support over the past 10 years and share with you our top 5 observations on how the Executive Coaching industry has changed and developed over this period.
1. Executive Coaching is almost exclusively now used to develop high performing talent –
“remedial” use is now virtually extinct.
2. Perhaps the most surprising trend is the growth that Executive Coaching has seen during
such difficult economic times. In one sense this could be counter-intuitive yet in another it is
totally logical; fewer people means greater performance expectation for those who remain,
survival requires better innovation and new strategies, difficult times require better leaders
and better ways of working – all Executive Coaching sweet spots. We believe that this trend
will continue into the future.
3. The industry has bifurcated in the past 10 years. There are the Executive Coaching firms
that measurably improve the professional performance of an individual, team or business
and there are many more who shy away from being measured or accepting that it is normal
that there should be a clear return on investment to both those being coached and the
organisation paying for the coaching. Executive Coaching firms that accept the
responsibility that they are employed to enhance performance and who want to be
measured for it are clearly separated from the vast majority who do not. And yes, we at TPA
encourage our clients to measure our effectiveness. Looking forward, the industry will have
to make this it’s raison d’etre.
4. As we know from all that has transpired within the banking industry – the culture, the
way we behave and think together at work and our values really do matter. Aligning these
to the key business drivers, encouraging “good” behaviours or attitudes and reprimanding
“bad” behaviours or attitudes is now the core job of many leaders. Executive Coaching is
enabling leaders to implement this and to better engage their people so that they give the
business additional discretionary effort. We think more leaders will be asking for help in this
respect in the future.
5. More than ever, knowledge is a commodity. Authentic emotional quotient and leadership
skills are now the value add skills yet these have to be developed person by person, team by
team and we see more willingness than ever to invest in the creation of these skills in
tomorrow’s leaders. So, we expect Executive Coaching to remain bespoke, highly tailored
and thus always good value – but never cheap.
And lastly a little known fact:
If you Google “Executive Coaching” today it tells you that there are about 28 million results.
10 years ago Google informed us that there were 1.8 million results from the same search.
We wonder how many results there will be 10 years from now? We will let you know when
we get there.
Thank you again for all your support. We look forward to partnering with you for the next
10 years.
Best regards,
Tom Preston,
Founder & Executive Coach