DIGITAL SELF COACHING
First we come to the essentials:
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What is online coaching?
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The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as a "partnership and stimulating process that creatively supports people and organizations to enhance their personal and professional potential." Coaches work with the basic assumption that coaching clients are experts in their own lives and have sufficient resources to achieve their goals on their own. Thus, coaching deals with reflection and clarification of developmental concerns.
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This can be any conceivable type of concern, which explains the different types of coaching. For instance, a distinction is made between personal coaching, health coaching, business coaching and psychotherapy.
If we now look at online coaching, the basics remain the same. The manner of coaching is changing in the course of digitalisation and leads to an addition of digital media to the established methods.
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What types of online coaching do exist?
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In the field of online coaching, a distinction can be made between different types of interaction. One is the interaction between coachee and coach, coachee and content, coachee and chatbot, coachee with chatbot and coaching method.
The interaction between coachee and coach can take place via a video call, for example, over which the session takes place and the coach uses his usual methods. Various tools can be used to overcome the distance and also video platforms such as Zoom, Teams or Skype, but also coaching matching platforms such as Coachhub, evelopme, Coachnow, Sharpist or Betterup.
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In coach-content interaction, the coach offers a variety of content, e.g. in the form of quests, tasks or learnings, which the coachee can filter and process independently depending on their needs. The human coach is replaced or supplemented by content. Thus, the coachee coaches himself through the application and can do this via apps such as EverSkill, Bunch, Leadx or the next we.
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If the coaching process is led by a chatbot, the coachee communicates exclusively with it and acts in the form of self-coaching. The chatbot phrases appropriate questions and approaches based on the coachee's messages, as can be seen in RockyAI, AICoaching, PocketConfidant.
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In a coaching session involving a chatbot and coaching method, the coachee communicates with an automated chatbot, which is also a form of self-coaching. In addition, the coachee can use suitable coaching methods, such as constellations, tetralemma or non-violent communication, depending on the concerns. Systemic coaching questions and appropriate coaching methods are combined in thematic coaching modules in a standardised coaching process. This type of coaching is used in evoach, Skills and be.
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What types of coaching does evoach offer?
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At evoach we offer coaching in form of digital self-coaching for individual employees or teams. Here, companies and clients can choose which type of coaching best complements their own company structure and goal management.
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Our form of individual coaching addresses a person as an individual. This also applies to employees of a company who coach themselves in order to be able to support the team even more actively. The goal is to define a suitable solution and thus successfully resolve the initial situation. The concrete solution steps are worked out during the business coaching with the help of self-reflection and our chatbot Mo. Through this "step-by-step" guide to the solution, problems can be tackled and followed up more easily.
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The following modules are currently available for individual coaching and will gradually be further extended:
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Employee Modules
What happened, what triggers this for you, what do you wish differently in the future? Use nonviolent communication to take your point of view in critical conversations in a way that the other person understands and can accept your feedback.
Gain awareness of your conflict through reflection, conflict constellation and change of perspective. Together with the chatbot you will work on a plan to solve your conflict. Furthermore, you will learn more about conflict triggers, roles and desires to sustainably solve existing and avoid future conflicts.
Learn how to stop thinking endlessly about the problem and focus on possible solutions. Important for this strategy is to know your resources and use them for your solution. In addition you will define concrete steps for your path.
Learn about patterns that trigger your behaviour. Growth begins with awareness. Not only of yourself and your habits, but also of your surrounding and surrounders.
Discover your options by using tetralemma to consider the requirements and weigh them up against each other. Making decisions made more easy.
Learn more about yourself and your needs in your daily life. Discover new ways to organize your day to avoid stress.
If one chooses team coaching instead of individual coaching, this mainly is used to enable better preparation of retrospectives by carrying out data collection and reflection independent of time and place prior to the retrospective. In this session there are two roles: The Scrum Master and the team members.
The Scrum Master is responsible for sending out coaching invitations before the retrospective and receives the team members' content if they wish to share it. At the same time, each member experiences the coaching session in a protected space and actively chooses which content to share with the other team members or the scrum master.
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Team members can work on concerns about team development and teamwork, which is especially useful because they participate as a group. Action points for the next retrospective can also be developed and defined.
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The modules for team coaching are currently as follows:
Agile Coaching Modules
Use this Basic module for structured data collection to have more reflected and meaningful retrospectives.
Choose avatars for your team members and prepare your individual team con-stellation. Why? Gain more clarity about people, cooperation and relationships in your team. You can either openly show and discuss your constellation in the retrospective or provide action items to improve structures and processes.
What happened, how does it make you feel, what do you wish for? Use non-violent communication to make your point and deliver critical feedback to your team, in a way they can accept more easily - either within the retro-spective or in 1:1 conversations before.
How are you doing as a team? Use the five dysfunctions of a team to collect ideas and define action items to discuss in the next retrospective on how to improve trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and result orientation in your team.
How is the need for coaching changing in companies?
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There is a clear increase in the coaching demand in companies. This is partially due to the corona pandemic and the associated increase in mental health problems and external crises in companies.
Consequences of the pandemic, the associated change in society and the existing restrictions are, among other things, that new methods and ways of working in companies are being considered. In many cases, coaching functions as a transformation facilitator for changes, in the direction of new work and agility for companies.
In addition, due to these flatter hierarchies and more self-organisation in the "New Work" culture, the demand for team coaching is increasing. This involves coaching that also focuses on the specific needs of the individual team members, but at the same time deals with them with a focus on team development.
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Thus, not only the volume of demand for coaching is changing, but also the target groups themselves. Executive coaching remains an important component, but coaching of new executives and coaching at employee level are becoming increasingly important.
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Coaching professionals from science and praxis see the following trends for the next few years:
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Coaching will increasingly take place independent of location in virtual spaces.
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Coaches will use artificial intelligence as assistants.
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The market is separating into digital and highly individual "high-class" coaching.
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Standardisable coaching topics are dealt with purely digitally.
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This will reach a broader target group.
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Many companies will be less hierarchical. Coaches accompany the transformation to more self-organisation and agility.
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The development of a coaching culture will become a basic competence in companies.
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Hybrid solutions consisting of face-to-face coaching sessions supplemented by online sessions with digital tools will play a major role in the future. One such example is evoach's solution that allows coaches to supplement their coaching sessions with chatbot coaching and thus offer coaching to their coachee at any time of the day without them being present as a coach in person. On the other hand, there will be both platform coaching and personal coaching independently of platforms in the future.
In any case, it is clear that coaching technologies are a trending topic and will develop significantly over the next few years. With an annual growth rate of 15% since 2010, the coaching market, which is currently estimated at several hundreds of millions of dollars, will grow tremendously. Gartner HCM Hype Cycle predicts a market growth of 2,000% for digital coaching applications until 2030.
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What are the advantages of online coaching?
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The advantages of coaching can be seen from a variety of perspectives, the first being the positive influence of the application. The possibility of having the coaching entirely online creates independence. Coaching can therefore take place at any time, through simultaneous and delayed communication, and at any location. This independence of location results in easier organisation of appointments, which is particularly useful for groups and higher numbers of participants.
Based on the automatically saved results, the re-entry in the follow-up appointment is quick and seamless. One of the most attractive advantages is also the flexibility of this type of coaching. The characteristics of the online actions allow for short-term actions and thus free time can be used effectively when needed.
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Another point of view benefits the coachees and deals with the simplified approach to coaching. Some team members and employees have possibly not come into contact with the topic and thus have the opportunity to gradually approach it. The anonymity is perceived as a great advantage and promotes honest communication. Especially with sensitive topics, this factor and confidentiality are very important. It is therefore a good thing that the inhibition to talk about and address things online is much lower than in a face-to-face conversation.
The coaching process can be more successful online than in traditional coaching. Because it has been proven that people learn more successfully when they interact with images and deal with issues. Online transfer coaching supports the implementation. Due to the flexibility of the application, it can be used more regularly, thus reinforcing the intensity and leading to promising success.
The online coaching can be carried out independently and can therefore be of assistance in urgent decisions. With regular intervalls and also an application between the intervalls, coaching can be applied topically and appropriately. A 24/7 coaching hotline, so to say.
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For teams, this type of coaching is ideal, especially in today's world with its restrictions. Group meetings and team coaching sessions can take place more easily because there is no need to travel to a venue. Team coordination is facilitated, especially for distributed teams in different time zones.
To follow on from the last point, let's mention the low costs. The lack of travel time, traffic jams and travel costs makes coaching cheaper. Preparation time can be used more efficiently and the results can be directly transferred to the respective project management tools for follow-up.
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Digital visualisation is another positive factor. Many people find it easier to put themselves in a situation if it can be observed. The coach can use this fact to his advantage and offer various visualisation tools online. Here, special attention is paid to data security, which is nevertheless guaranteed and comes first.
Through the 24/7 coaching function, the coach can be relieved and make additions to the session. For example, our tools and modules are available and can be used around the clock.
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HR developers can increase job satisfaction and employee engagement through online coaching.
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Conclusion
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Especially in challenging times, such as the Corona pandemic, it is evident that coaching in general is becoming more and more important. The well-being of employees has now been brought more in focus and will not disappear from it. Companies are therefore well advised to build a coaching culture that supports employees and creates added value, especially in difficult phases. Employees often perceive the access to coaching as appreciation and gladly accept the offer.
Online coaching is the new, more effective way of coaching and will gain enormous market volume due to its many advantages and unlimited possibilities.
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Companies can now actively shape this development and use it to their advantage. In this way, companies, coaches and employees can benefit on all levels at the same time. We support you in this process.
