Prepare for the Future of Coaching
The business landscape is rapidly changing. As coaches, we must evolve too. Are you prepared?
Like other industries, coaching will soon be inundated with technology solutions that will disrupt the way coaching is currently delivered and measured. While the industry won’t change overnight, coaches may slowly find they are competing with other providers who use technology.
How will you differentiate your coaching from a competitor who can enable mass adoption of coaching at all managerial levels across an enterprise—and at very low-price points?
This, and other technology trends, will dramatically change the landscape of coaching. The great advantage that most of us have as coaches is that we are naturally adept at change and can quickly evolve. But, in order to do that, we have to be able to spot the trends to see where our businesses might be impacted. I will share a few such trends.
Mobile is the Medium
Trend: People are spending more time on their mobile devices for just about everything (an average of five or more hours per day). It’s highly probable that you’re reading this post on your phone right now.
Impact: Everything must be mobile first. Not just our websites, but our thinking, too—the way that we connect with our clients, nurture our relationships and support the coaching process.
Considerations for the Coach: If all your content isn’t online yet and isn’t optimized for mobile, it’s time to develop a strategy for moving everything online. Online programs also allow you to create more transparency and accountability versus paper formats.
Uber: It’s Not Just for Taxis Anymore
Trend: We live in the Uber world. Except the Uber model isn’t just affecting taxis anymore. Imagine your future coaching clients pulling up an app where they search for the nearest coach and can visually see where the coach is located, like an Uber driver’s “arriving now” at your location. Then, the potential client gets a “fare” estimate as they review different coach profiles online. Can you see where this is going?
Impact: One word—commoditization. I know it’s easy to resist this as a future reality because we all like to think that the personalization of a coaching conversation is irreplaceable. But, coaches who are getting on the Uber bandwagon offer personalized coaching conversations plus all the advantages of an app (I call it the coach + app model).
Considerations for the Coach: Find a coaching platform that’s easy to use and will help you respond to the technological demands that your clients will have in the future. What will be your technological response? How will you employ technologies to make the coaching process more efficient? How can you measure behavioral change through technology to differentiate?
The Cloud is Cool
Trend: Millennial clients don’t use pens. Seriously. Why does this matter? Because there’s an expectation with the growth of the cloud that everything can be done online. Check the weather, collaborate on a Google Doc, purchase an airline ticket, take notes on your iPad, send out a meeting invite, etc. Why would a client need a pen?
Impact: Clients will expect less paper and more efficient ways of managing their coaching experience and connecting with their coaches. Multiple logins and touchpoints from your website, emails and e-learning platform can feel disorganized for the client and has the added challenge of maintaining multiple passwords.
Considerations for the Coach: Find a singular platform as a base to communicate, deliver resources and interact with your clients. Make it so incredibly easy for them to access all their communications from anywhere and focus on what’s most important—coaching with you!
Microlearning is Huge
Trend: You’ll hear a lot about microlearning in the world of training and development—small bites of content and video to support the development process. This trend is connected to the mobile-first trend because most of the time participants are able to digest these small chunks of information on their mobile devices between meetings, at lunch or while walking down the hallway.
Impact: In the short term, coaches with microlearning and bite-sized content will be able to set themselves apart and add more value for their clients. In the long term, it will be a requirement that all coaches provide additional online support and resources.
Considerations for the Coach: Repurpose your existing content (coaches usually have a ton of content) and get it online. Break it down into small, modular chunks to create organized resources, tools and mini-courses.
What’s next?
There are other technological trends around gamification, augmented reality, single-click payments, robotics and more that will likely impact our work as coaches. What are you noticing and how will you prepare for the future?
© Sal Silvester, Coachmetrix
Sal Silvester
Sal Silvester is an executive coach and author, who draws on his years of experience as a veteran Army officer, Accenture executive and founder of 5.12 Solutions and Coachmetrix. As a top leadership thinker and blogger, Sal has authored two best-selling books: Ignite! The 4 Essential Rules of for Emerging Leaders and Unite! The 4 Mindset shifts for Senior Leaders. He has a forthcoming collaboration with Marshall Goldsmith entitled Stakeholder Centered Coaching.
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Thanks for the vision. Any suggested Coach tech platforms to take a look at?
Great foresight. Some of these I’m also planning to implement. How and where do you suggest we start? Thanks for the share!
Just loved your article, Sal! Straight, insightful and useful. I am already aligned with some of this trends and I have to say that my executive clients appreciate the efficiency of the processes, namely electronic invites and iPad notes that are much more safe than paper when we talk about confidentiality.