Coaching for Career Development and Leadership Development: An Intelligent Career Approach

Abstract

Change, ambiguity and shifting relationships are recurrent themes in contemporary career development. In turn, personal success in the unfolding knowledge economy calls for self-awareness, adaptability and the ability to work with others. A challenge in career coaching is to help people better develop these kinds of skills, and in turn to help people to contribute better to the contemporary knowledge-driven organisation (Drucker, 1999). A similar coaching challenge applies when working with current or aspirant leaders, namely those charged with helping or seeking to help the knowledge-driven organisation succeed. These leaders need to be successful in their own careers, and to simultaneously encourage and support other people's contributions to the organisation. In the knowledge economy, a different, more relational, style of leadership is required (Shamir, 1999).