10 Benefits of Coaching in the Workplace (With Definition)

Updated February 3, 2023

Two people engaged in conversation, sitting on a couch.

Coaches often have the knowledge and expertise to help professionals overcome personal obstacles and meet professional goals. You can hire a coach to help you refine your skills and reach your ambitions, and a company that values career growth may work with a coach to help its team members develop professionally. Understanding how coaching can be beneficial in the workplace may help you decide if it's right for your team.

In this article, we explain what coaching in the workplace is and share 10 benefits of coaching to help you understand why it might be a helpful practice to implement at work.

What is coaching?

Coaching is a practice in which a qualified professional helps an employee understand their goals and further their career. They may help these individuals understand their short-term and long-term objectives, implement strategies to reach these objectives, identify and fill skill gaps and grow their network. Professionals can seek coaches out for themselves and foster a one-on-one relationship with them to promote growth. Some organizations implement an internal coaching program in which they bring in third-party career coaches to help employees expand their skills and refine their career paths.

10 benefits of coaching

Here are 10 important benefits coaching can provide you:

1. It helps you learn to stay on task

Procrastination is a common challenge many professionals experience throughout their careers, and working with a coach can help you develop time-management and prioritization skills to help you overcome it. These professionals can help your team prioritize their work and manage their time effectively. By getting your more challenging tasks done right away, you can enjoy a more relaxed schedule for other tasks and institute a healthier work-life balance. A coach can help your team develop the strategies you need to motivate yourselves to meet deadlines and balance your tasks effectively.

2. It encourages you to set clear goals

For many professionals, creating effective goals is a key to finding career success. A coach can help you build SMART goals, or goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. This can help make them more likely to achieve. A coach can help you and your teammates understand exactly what you want out of your career and set actionable steps to reach your objectives.

They can also help you develop techniques to stay focused on immediate goals while moving toward long-term goals. Coaches might focus on individual goals as well as departmental and organizational goals. This might help your team members achieve shared goals, like decreasing the average time it takes to repair tech equipment, while also accomplishing personal goals, like earning a good review from management in your quarterly evaluation.

3. It improves job satisfaction

A career coach can help you identify opportunities for improvement in your personal and professional life, which could lead to greater satisfaction overall. Gaining an outside perspective is a useful way to learn about yourself and your goals. Your coach may be able to ask you insightful questions to help you reflect on new ideas and develop healthier habits that help you meet your goals.

They may also be able to guide you if you're unsure of your next career move. Career coaches typically encourage professionals to explore opportunities and reflect on their interests and skills to find the right profession to pursue. For example, you could hire a private career coach if you're feeling unfulfilled by a career in finance but you're unsure what job you might prefer. By taking career quizzes and discussing your favorite tasks in your current role, you might transfer to an internal opening on the human resources team.

4. It solidifies your values

Learning what you value is crucial to career success and happiness in your work. Once you define these values, you can start to develop a plan to support them. A career coach can help you figure out what you care about and why and then guide you in how to implement those values in your daily work. This might help you act with integrity at work and feel more connected to your everyday tasks.

For example, if you typically enjoy your job but feel uninspired lately, a career coach could help you discover that collaboration is important to you. You might pair up with a teammate on a project you were previously handling alone, which may motivate you.

5. It defines strategies for overcoming personal obstacles

A career coach can help you overcome personal obstacles that may be influencing your life and work. Career coaches often help individuals develop a more positive mindset. Hiring a career coach to work with your team could help you improve company culture, too. As individuals learn to focus on the positive aspects of their lives and build new strengths like stress management and leadership, you might notice a more positive work environment forming.

6. It builds confidence

A career coach typically shares exercises and techniques for building up your self-esteem and self-confidence. Confidence can help employees feel comfortable accepting new responsibilities, influencing their teammates and making informed decisions. Empowering employees may improve their confidence, which can help you develop a more active, engaged team.

7. It develops transferable skills

Getting support from a career coach as you work on particular skills can help you find more success. Career coaches may focus on a particular field, helping you learn new technical skills that are vital for your department. This can improve your performance at work and may qualify you to seek promotions. Other career coaches may help you develop soft skills like communication, conflict resolution and problem-solving, which may make employees better team players.

8. It promotes employee engagement

Hiring a career coach could show employees that the organization values them and invests in their professional development. This might improve employee engagement and help them learn how to be more active participants in the workplace. Supporting employees by offering opportunities for them to build their skills and advance their careers may improve your team's employee retention rate, too.

9. It fosters meaningful connections

Even if a career coach only visits your workplace for a day, it can still be an opportunity for team members to connect with them. They could ask for the coach's contact information to schedule future sessions on their own or follow their blog or social media accounts to find inspiration for career growth. If the coach is a thought leader in their industry, they may have a content-heavy website, insightful videos to share or upcoming lectures that your team can follow, which might deepen your understanding of the field.

10. It develops future leaders

Coaching can help organizations build their junior staff's leadership skills, which may help them prepare for supervisory responsibilities in the future. Executive management jobs typically require individuals who can manage stress well, develop clear visions for themselves and the company and feel comfortable making firm decisions. Career coaching can help employees develop these skills, which can support the organization's succession planning strategy.