Professional Coaching: Individual Perspective
From the point of view of individuals, a majority of them (66%) have not experienced being coached in the past. Those who have experienced coaching however gained support in terms of Work-‐Life Balance (61.5%) and Management Development (38.5%). Most of them received coaching in the niches of Career (76.9%), and Life (46.2%). Most of the issues coachees faced were around career (i.e. finding a path and gaining competitive edge) and balancing work and life. Most of them gained one-‐on-‐one coaching (61.5%) while others also experienced group coaching (38.5%). Face-‐to-‐face coaching (76.9%) was the primary mode of communication but others have also experienced coaching over the phone (15.4%) and chat/instant messaging (7.7%). The experience of over the phone coaching may be because face-‐to-‐face interactions may be more costly, individuals in the event that they personally invest in the service, may prefer a cheaper but an equally effective alternative.
Most of the sessions were held once a week (46.2%) or once a month (38.5%) running for a majority of one hour (53.8%) and within a 1-‐3 month timeframe (53.8%). Coaches were mostly external freelance coaches (38.5%) or their organization’s HR professional (23.1%). Individuals also paid from below Php1,000 (53.8%) to Php9,000 and above (15.4%).
The average satisfaction with the coaching services was 4.0. In this case, no individual felt strongly dissatisfied with the service and 30.8% felt strongly satisfied leading all of the respondents to recommend Professional Coaching to others and be coached again in the future. Respondents would tend to recommend Professional Coaching because
it gives a new perspective on how you will manage a certain task or project; a structured way on how to get things done using currently available resources.
Coaching also
helps broaden your perspective and professional coaches are better than friends because they provide an unbiased view of your problem and how to handle / solve / overcome it.
Those individuals who have not heard of professional coaching when asked if they would like to explore it, majority of them responded yes (86.8%). Career Management (76.7%), Work-‐Life Balance (65.1%) and Management Development (58.1%) were the major areas they would need coaching on. In terms of specific niches, most would need support around Career (74.4%), Small Business / Entrepreneurial (53.5%) and Life (44.2%).
Individuals prefer to be coached face-‐to-‐face (76.7%) and through a coaching company (34.9%) or a freelance coach (37.2%). This could be because the individual is pursuing a more personal reason for getting coaching and may need a more objective view than getting a coach from within the organization who will in most cases be biased towards the organization’s interests. A majority of individuals (51.2%) were also willing to personally invest for a coach or not rely on company support. In terms of the range of cost they were willing to pay, it ranges from below Php1,000 to Php6,999.99 per session. Majority would be willing to pay below Php1,000 (50%) while a considerable number are also open to paying Php1,000-‐2,999.99 (45.5%). It is encouraging to note that individuals are taking ownership of their development and not relying on what the company will provide them. Which is also surprising in a very collectivist culture such as the Philippines. One would think that Filipinos would get the level of support from their own social circles such as friends and families. However, as one respondent mentioned
Prefered Mode of Interaction Preferred Source of Professional Coach Amount Willing to Pay Per Sessionin certain situations, professional coaches are better than friends because they provide an unbiased view of your problem and how to handle / solve / overcome it.
Summary
Coaching in the Philippines still has a long way to go. But the results of the study show that both organizations and individuals are open to the concept and could see the application in their own situations whether they have heard of the profession or not. For coaches, this study provides promise that their profession has a lot of potential for growth with limited barriers to make that happen. For organizations on the other hand, especially those who are still exploring the use of professional coaches can be assured that there is an effective alternative solution to management development, career management and work-‐life balance issues fit for individual intervention in the form of professional coaching. Individual professionals on the other hand are given another option to get support for their issues and concerns that may or may not be provided by their organizations. All in all, the future looks bright for coaching in the Philippines for coaches, organizations and individuals! As Coutu and Kauffman (2009) mentioned, coaching is here and growing because it works!
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