Five to seven years ago coaching in Poland was associated mostly with the workplace, as a tool for developing skills by correcting behaviour. Lately, as in many other countries, it has started to be seen as a method for personal and professional development. According to Lukasz Marciniak, a coach who researches European corporate coaching, Poles see coaching in three ways: as a means to develop and support the employee; as a management tool useful in developing employee skill and competence; and as a specific management style based on consistent employee training and stimulation of their development.
This brings us to certain tendencies, and at the same time challenges, that Marciniak observes in Poland’s coaching market:
Anyone can coach
Many companies send their managers and trainers on coaching courses so they can coach staff in addition to their regular duties.
Trouble? Call a coach
Coaching is seen as a last resort (often too late), as a substitute for training, or even as therapeutic support to make the employee “feel better”.
Keeping an eye on them
Management tends to control the outcome of the coaching process – a real challenge for untrained or less experienced coaches.
Overdoing it
Simultaneously implementing different methods of employee development (training, coaching, mentoring, and so on; Marciniak 2007).
In addition, Pawel Sopkowski of the International Coach Federation (ICF)-accredited Coaching Academy sees a tendency for coaches to group into small networks, where a couple of professionals from different backgrounds might come together. This stimulates professional development and raises standards.
Coaching is becoming more popular and more accessible to a wider group of clients – I would guess that the market is growing at a rate of 50 per cent per year. Still, for many the role of coach is a part-time job. Clients may be looking for development in leadership, career or life balance, but coaches are often surprised that coaching requires so much commitment and accountability on their part.
Anna Ratajczyk and Piotr Pilipczuk, coaches and trainers for the International Coaching Community (ICC), see a move away from ad hoc sessions towards coaching as a process. Companies are now hiring coaches not only on a “deal with the problem” basis but also as a part of a talent development strategy. High-potential employees are offered coaching as a bonus – in other words, organisations “invest in the best”. But there is a need for more professionally trained coaches and, with continuing professional development becoming standard among many coaches in Poland, most companies now associate coaching with the standards of the ICC or the ICF. Efforts continue to set the ground rules for coaching in Poland and to create professional standards among the different schools and methods. This is a chance to bring order and quality to a profession that currently has many definitions and methods of practice. ?
Lukasz Dobromirski is an International Coaching Community-certified coach and a psychotherapist working in Warsaw, Poland www.dobromirski.com dobromirski@dobromirski.com
Volume 2, Issue 5