The Top 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Coaching

The world of coaching is undergoing a seismic shift, with emerging trends set to redefine its boundaries and possibilities. From digital transformation and the integration of artificial intelligence to the growing emphasis on mental health and the global rise of coaching cultures within organizations, these developments are reshaping the landscape of personal and professional growth. As we navigate through these changes, understanding the forces that drive the future of coaching becomes paramount. I had the pleasure of interviewing Anne Leets.

Anne Leets has first‐hand knowledge of what it takes to be effective in a global organization, achieve sales, profit and distribution targets, develop global brand strategy, build teams, lead change and accomplish large scale, corporate initiatives. Throughout her career, she has consistently led national teams to record results despite significant economic challenges, reorganizations, downsizing and corporate takeovers. As an executive leader in Sales, Marketing, Operations, Product Development and Training, she gained operational knowledge and business acumen serving at Fortune 500 companies with iconic brands. She has achieved success in Chief Executive Officer and Company President roles. Her coaching effectiveness is enhanced by her hands-on experience in highly competitive and fast-paced corporate and entrepreneurial environments. She joined The Leets Consortium as a coach and speaker in 2014 and now serves as CEO. TLC is Woman-Owned Small Business and a Certified B Corporation.

A rewarding career at Fortune 500 companies with iconic brands gave me the opportunity to build my experience as a senior leader in sales, marketing, operations, and as a company President and CEO.

When I joined my husband, Peter, at TLC in 2014, I was delighted to find I could share my knowledge, insights and business acumen through coaching, facilitation, and speaking engagements. At the same time, it was challenging to transition from a steady corporate paycheck to the uncertainty of being an independent consultant.

It’s very exciting and rewarding to connect with leaders, or those aspiring to be, and help them discover and embrace opportunities to enhance their capabilities, thrive in their careers, and become effective leaders. This “consultant” role is my signature on a legacy I’ve built supporting the success of others.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

AUTHENTICITY. Leaders who can find ways to be honest and true to their values in a wide variety of situations can gain the trust and the support of team members, colleagues, and other leaders.

WORK ETHIC. There is no substitute for commitment, perseverance, and high-quality hard work. It’s also essential to recognize when your best is enough and when perfectionism becomes your enemy.

GENEROSITY. Share your knowledge, skills, experience and expertise generously as you will only be as good as the people around you. Recognize that when you support the success of others, success will be yours.

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

Maya Angelou gifted us with this quote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Kindness is a gift we give to each other and it impacts how others feel. We have a significant shortage of it in the world today.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

My book! It’s exhilarating to collaborate with 25 extraordinary women who selected me to partner with them on their coaching journeys. These women, along with my amazing daughter, Christina, inspired me to share their stories, profound wisdom, and valuable experiences with my “leadership lessons”. We all share a passion for supporting and advancing the success of the next generation of women in leadership. Watch for my book, “WOMEN WHO LEAD: Insights & Inspiration for Women by Women”!

Without saying any names could you share a particularly memorable success story from your coaching career?

Leaders who choose coaching inspire me every day with their remarkable motivation to be the best they can be and create team cultures that engage, motivate, and retain the talent needed for organizations to grow and thrive. Every one of them embraces opportunities to elevate their leadership and organizational effectiveness. Their success and appreciation for their coaching experience motivates me to do what I do!

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview about coaching. How has your approach to coaching evolved over the years, and what personal learnings have you applied to your own development?

Research tells us people with Emotional Intelligence (EQ) are 95% more successful. EQ is quite a “game-changer” in today’s workplace and our approach has shifted to Emotional Intelligence as the next generation of “soft skills”. As a lifelong learner, I have built my knowledge and expertise in this area so I can develop strong relationships, communicate effectively, leverage empathy in crucial conversations, lead change with resilience…and guide others to do the same, leveraging the power of their own EQ.

How do you incorporate feedback into your coaching practice to continuously improve?

Over 20 years, The Leets Consortium has developed high-impact best practices, combined with new, innovative techniques, and our clients report a 95% success rate…an industry leading performance!

We regularly harness the power of the “Interview Style” 360 assessment, giving leaders a unique professional development opportunity to see themselves “through the eyes” of the people around them. Compared to “survey style” 360 assessments, this methodology provides highly robust, compelling and behavior-specific feedback about the impact a leader is having on others. This is powerful and helps establish a solid foundation for their leadership development plan.

Can you discuss an innovation in coaching that you believe is currently underappreciated but has the potential to significantly impact the field?

Today’s leaders must achieve challenging revenue and profit targets while navigating an ever-changing, highly competitive and increasingly complex business landscape. Leaders are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities and must stay ahead of the curve, adapting their approaches to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.

Coaching for “Purpose-Driven Leadership” is receiving more emphasis and will continue to gain importance across organizations as our multigenerational workforce grows. The opportunity to align organizational goals with a broader sense of purpose and the “greater good” will continue to gain momentum. When values, ethics, and social responsibility are front and center, internal and external team members are more engaged and inspired, appreciating the significance of a clear and meaningful mission beyond financial success.

In what ways can coaching address the evolving mental health needs of diverse populations in a digitally connected world?

Organizations, teams, and individuals have been pushed to the limit by change, the residual impact of the global health crisis, economic challenges, and both domestic and international violence. Stress and anxiety are experienced with greater frequency than ever before and are compounded by change occurring at breathtaking speed!

Leaders are recognizing the need to support team members as these unusual and challenging times continue, with a focus on “RESILIENCE” …today’s critical leadership competency. Now, more than ever, we must find ways to be effective leaders and produce results while leading change and responding to the impact these very real issues have on our teams.

These leaders have a significant and direct impact on the well-being of team members by creating a culture that has a positive impact across the organization with focus on a “positive attitude” and “building confidence” to help everyone be more resilient and manage stress.

Coaching can help leaders by building awareness and skills in several important areas:

• Why does resilience matter?
• How resiliency and positivity can ‘re-energize’ and impact team engagement, performance, motivation and retention.
• Today’s business landscape changes constantly…how can we embrace and lead change?
• Well-being matters: revisiting approaches to managing your own personal well-being (put your mask on first).
• How to help your team cultivate resilience and manage stress, anxiety, burnout, and fatigue.
• How to be a more resilient leader and maintain a positive attitude and strong sense of opportunity when times are challenging.
• How to bring our teams together with stronger alignment, cohesiveness, trust and collaboration … creating a team culture that invites participation and best work.
• Coaching team members to be resilient helps develop strong, high-performing teams that don’t just survive, but thrive, during organizational change and the fatigue associated with high-pressure work requirements.

How do you foresee artificial intelligence and machine learning transforming the coaching industry in the next decade?

As our world becomes more digital, leaders will need to elevate their skills in technology and data so they can make informed decisions. This will be underscored in 2024 with the advancement of:

• Digital transformation as advanced technologies are embraced
• Reliance on data to drive decisions across organizations
• Pace of emerging technologies to understand and harness
• Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and automation

What role do you believe ethical considerations and privacy concerns will play in the future of coaching, especially with the increased use of digital platforms?

It remains to be seen if “digital platforms” will be substituted for high-impact, “human-to-human”, traditional coaching. While there is a distinct benefit in “scaling” leadership development, there are questions around achieving behavior change, sustained engagement and accountability to achieve objectives in a leadership development plan, effectiveness of the experience, return on investment and, of course, ethical and privacy concerns.

Could you list and briefly explain “Top 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Coaching” based on your experiences and insights?

1. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: THE LEADERSHIP SUPERPOWER

A new kind of leader is needed today: one that can acquire new skills and elevate skills that are needed at much higher levels.

Leaders will be required to leverage their “Emotional Intelligence Superpower” and find the sweet spot between showing people they care, providing psychological safety, and managing for accountability. Successful organizations have leaders who make people feel safe speaking up while empowering them to meet or exceed expectations.

Research shows emotionally intelligent leaders enhance the “employee experience” and “team culture”. They help attract, engage, develop, motivate, and retain the talent needed to encourage innovation, lead change, accelerate performance and achieve business objectives!

In coaching, when leaders gain awareness of their opportunities to leverage their emotional intelligence, we see significant improvement in the way they communicate, collaborate, encourage innovation, resolve conflict, engage and retain talent, ensure accountability and drive performance.

2. LEADING CHANGE WITH ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP SKILLS

The pace of change will continue as businesses aggressively strive to be relevant, competitive, and profitable. Leaders must effectively lead their teams in unpredictable, volatile, dynamic, and uncertain environments while keeping their focus on top priorities and achieving results.

They can accelerate their “adaptive” leadership skills through coaching and cultivating an approach that emphasizes the capability to lead their teams to success through dynamic and complex challenges with these important skills:

• Embracing change as an exciting opportunity for growth & innovation
• Ability to be flexible and agile in problem solving & decision making
• Encourage continuous learning to stay ahead during rapid change

3. TEAM EFFECTIVENESS AND PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is recognized as critical to a leader’s effectiveness, and the EQ of teams may be even more important!

Today, most of an organization’s work is done in teams, often with cross-functional team members.

How teams communicate, collaborate, and interact is critical for success!

When teams leverage their emotional intelligence, they gain alignment, encourage collaboration, effectively problem solve, innovate, and maximize their effectiveness to drive performance and achieve results.

The “Winning Teams” program by The Leets Consortium is innovative and impactful. With a powerful combination of a Team 360, Team Emotional Intelligence Assessment, Team Development Plan (created by the team), and group coaching sessions to achieve the objectives set by the team, we thoughtfully guide teams to greater effectiveness, satisfaction and performance.

One C-Suite leader reported: “TLC’s team effectiveness approach was powerful and different from anything my team has done. They are still talking about it!”

4. BEYOND DEI: INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP

Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are woven into the fabric of good leadership and incorporate coaching and education about bias and more inclusive practices.

Recognizing and mitigating bias will be seen as an essential skill for leaders to make sound decisions, create culture, and develop high-performing teams.

Leveraging emotional intelligence for Inclusive Leadership is becoming a best practice. DEI knowledge and skills will no longer be seen as optional or “nice to have;” instead, they’ll become integral components of leadership and organizational effectiveness.

TLC provides thoughtful guidance to diverse groups of women and people of color as they develop their leadership capabilities and prepare for expanded roles and responsibilities. We meet them “where they are” and help them advance their skills and navigate their unique challenges. As a result, we celebrate their success as they reach their potential and advance their careers.

5. STRONGER LEADERSHIP SKILLS TO LEAD REMOTE & HYBRID TEAMS

In 2024, remote leadership skills will become even more integral as organizations continue to embrace flexible work arrangements and hybrid models. Leaders are challenged to create a culture and sense of community despite seeing employees less often, or not at all.

To navigate virtual environments effectively and foster team cohesion across many geographic locations, there must be a heightened focus on these skills:

• Effective and consistent communication (seeing faces matters!)
• Ongoing professional training and development so advanced technologies and collaboration platforms are understood and utilized to strengthen team bonds (online games, virtual escape rooms, or collaborative workshops)
• Building relationships with informal virtual gatherings where team members can discuss non-work-related topics, recreating the casual interactions of an office setting
• Incorporating innovative, virtual team-building strategies and fostering collaboration through team challenges or projects that require members to work together toward a common goal
• Actively supporting employee well-being & a healthy work-life balance

In this dynamic landscape, successful remote leaders of 2024 must be adept at steering projects, achieving goals, and becoming champions of a supportive and digitally connected work culture.

How do you envision the integration of coaching within organizational cultures changing the landscape of leadership and employee development?

Research tells us a leader is the most important factor contributing to a team’s engagement, retention, motivation, performance, and effectiveness…estimated to be as high as 60–70%! Leaders have a significant impact on the success of an organization.

The Corporate Leadership Council found that executives rank coaching ahead of any other leadership development tool. McKinsey studies conclude that coaching, combined with performance feedback, is among the most meaningful drivers of development. Looking at return on investment, a Harvard Business Review survey of Fortune 1000 companies indicated the return on coaching was 5 to 7 times the initial investment.

Most coaching is offered to senior-level employees in an organization and TLC clients see a 95% success rate in engagement outcomes — an industry-leading performance! Talent development is moving quickly and programs like TLC’s Leader’s Leverage prepares the next generation of leaders to deliver outstanding results. The future is now!

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the coaching industry today, and how might we overcome it?

The coaching industry has exploded! People everywhere can easily enter this unregulated, popular field and present themselves as “coaches”: life, spiritual, financial, retirement, networking, relationship and more.

It is increasingly challenging to navigate this large group of “coaches” to find the very narrow segment of qualified “corporate coaches” with the experience, credentials, and expertise to support business leaders. Even then, the results can be mixed. In a War for Talent survey, respondents shared that only 35% of the coaching they received was good-to-excellent.

The Leets Consortium stands out from competitors as a global leader in talent development and leadership coaching. Since 2003, we have supported our clients worldwide, with a diverse and talented group of consultants who deliver consistent, high-quality coaching experiences. TLC clients appreciate competitive pricing, customized solutions and personalized client services.

What is one long-term goal you have for your coaching practice, and how are you working towards it?

We have a talented team with lots of potential and we are focused on coaching them to advance their professional development. Our goal is to empower them in their areas of responsibility, so that as the CEO, I can expand my “future focus” (and finish my book!) as they take ownership of our clients and lead our day-to-day business operations. The future looks bright!

How can our readers continue to follow your work?

I’d like to invite readers to stay up to date on the latest coaching trends, leadership insights and educational seminars by following the TLC LinkedIn page at linkedin.com/company/the-leets-consortium or visiting our website at leetsconsortium.com. Readers can follow me personally on my LinkedIn page at linkedin.com/in/anne-leets-tlc.

Thank you for offering such valuable insights into the future of coaching. We look forward to seeing your work continue to reach new heights, and we wish you continued success.