César Fernández
Coaching is growing in Spain as businesses ‘reinvent’ the rules to meet the difficult economic climate
International Coach Federation (ICF) Europe figures for March 2011 put Spain fourth in Europe in terms of membership numbers, after the UK, Switzerland and France. The Spanish chapter also achieved 58 per cent membership growth in one year (March 2010 to March 2011), placing it second overall in the European scores and first in terms of an increase in accredited members, with a 73.5 per cent rise (210 members).
This growth is partly because coaching is a young profession that has been around only for a few years. It is also because both domestic and multinational Spanish companies are requesting coaching to help managers and employees tackle the challenges they face.
The global economic crisis – and the crisis that has swept across Spain in particular – is forcing businesses to ‘reinvent’ the rules. They are reassessing how their management teams operate, as well as enhancing the skills needed to manage the uncertainty and emotional aspects of change and transformation.
Reaping the rewards
ICF Spain has a policy of achieving quality and high standards in coaching. We are now seeing the rewards. We’re finding that coaching buyers are asking for certified coaches while the coaches themselves are keen on belonging to a group that prioritises meticulous professional practice and training.
It is true that a lot remains to be done, but this only encourages us to continue seeking out excellence as the best way to strengthen ICF Spain and to offer more services to our members. We now have members all over the country, and in the past few months we have decided to open offices in those regions in order to bring value to coaches and to further their CPD. We’ve done this through events including talks and discussions like the ones already run in Catalonia and the central area of the country.
Last month (16-18 June) saw Spain host the ICF’s European Coaching Conference in Madrid. It was the first time Spain had hosted an event of this kind, and around 450 professionals from across the globe were expected to attend. By the middle of May, almost 350 people had registered for the conference, representing 25 nationalities from continents including the UAE, USA, Canada, France, Latvia, Australia, Norway, Poland, Turkey and Colombia.
The conference expressed the ICF’s commitment to the new solutions that Europe needs as it tackles increasingly complex global challenges. This reinvention will result in personal and business growth and progress – but only if it can get talent to flow efficiently in organisations. This, in essence, is the work of a coach.
The conference featured some of the world’s outstanding coaching leaders, including Julio Olalla, Sir John Whitmore, Richard Barrett (creator of Cultural Transformation Tools), Charles Eisenstein (a professor at Penn State and at Goddard College, who specialises in holistic health and the transformation of human consciousness), and Bernard Lietaer, author of The Future of Money and one of the creators of the single European currency.
At the end of the conference, these leaders gathered to discuss with delegates new ideas for helping talent flow (see conference report, news, pages 8 and 9)
César Fernández is vice president of International Coach Federation Spain cesarfernandez@icf-es.com
Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 4