Business coaching for information professionals

Abstract

Coaching is still a fairly young profession. Definitions of what constitutes business coaching are not universally agreed and there is little validated academic research about the benefits coaching provides. However, there is growing evidence that the use of business coaching is increasing and that coaching is now seen as a highly cost-effective way to enhance professional and personal development.

This article looks at what business coaching is, why its use is increasing and how introducing coaching provides hard and soft benefits both for individuals and for organizations. Like other professionals, those in the information industry need to develop skills in areas such as leadership, communication and customer focus. In addition they have some unique challenges: demand for their services is changing; there are more hurdles for career progression; information professionals need to ‘do more with less’, whilst still adding value to the business. More than ever, library, information and knowledge workers have to fight their corner, find new ways to apply information skills and ‘reinvent’ themselves. Coaching can help them to do this.

The article concludes with some ‘frequently asked questions’ about how coaching works within organizations. It concludes that, in the current economic climate, there appear to be a range of benefits that information professionals seeking to develop and motivate themselves and others would find it hard to ignore.