COACHING - Fashionable or Necessary Intervention?

I am an executive coach with interest in the development of coaching profession and the growth of the sector. I believe that the world needs coaching today than ever before. Whereas I do not claim to be qualified to be critical of our sector, I am convinced that it is the duty of every coach to protect the integrity of the profession and support any initiative that is aimed at growing the profession. My desire is to contribute to the development of the coaching industry across the globe. There are practices from both the demand and supply side of the coaching sector that require all of us as coaches to respond. We take note that it has become fashionable by the employing organisations to announce the engagement of coaches in supporting the development of their staff or the introduction of the company-wide executive, management and leadership development coaching programme. There are many reasons for this, among others, the perception that such organisations are viewed as being progressive, transformational, and committed to change management. This leads to contestation inside the organisation. We also notice that in organisations that are not truly transformed, coaching is misplaced. It is used exclusively for certain categories of their staff, mostly the executives and senior management.