|  Chris
Longley reports on an article that appeared in Le
Nouvel Observateur, a popular, weekly news and
current affairs magazine in France.
The tone of this eulogistic article is captured in
the double meaning of the headline: Coaching, a Winning
Formula / that Makes Money...
Called L’accompagnement individuel, the technique
is being used by more and more organisations in France,
despite its cost, for the simple reason that it works.
Companies like Renault, IBM and France Telecom all offer
coaching to their managers and executives as well as
traditionally more conservative public organisations
like RATP (Paris Transport) and SNCF (French Rail).
One survey suggests that 89 per cent of human resources
directors have used the technique or recommended it
to their staff. That it took so long to establish in
France is attributed to the country’s firm adherence
to its tradition Cartesienne – of reason and demonstrable
proofs.
The favourable personal testimony of coachees will
be familiar to British adherents,
I learned to think through a problem and analyse
it.
I had the tendency to react to things on a day-to-day
basis, but now I have taken myself in hand and organise
myself.
I feel better in my job.
It opens the mind.
And the satisfaction of top management is also clear,
You cannot imagine the results obtained after
a few sessions with a good coach.
However quite how it works appears a mystery,
It’s a game of mirrors, the coach is there to
show you your own image in a constructive light.
The lack of any concrete evidence demonstrating positive
results dismays the reporter who is nonetheless impressed
by the enthusiasm of executives like Micheline Jacottin,
RATP, Coaching enables people to make an immediate change.
I am really impressd by the results.
Le human factor
La Société Francaise de Coaching has
a register of 1,200 licensed practitioners, 54 per cent
of whom come from a commercial or engineering background,
the rest from the human sciences. Increasingly organisations
are employing their own in-house coaches because the
costs outside are so high, from 3,000 to 12,000 euros
(£1,800–£7,200 ) for an individual coachee.
Le Nouvel Observateur invited Maurice Thevenet
from CNAM (Arts and Business School) to offer an academic
opinion. He attributes the interest and enthusiasm for
coaching to a reaction against the dramatic restructuring
of companies over the past few years which erased the
human factor and left executives and managers working
in isolation. Coaching provides the essential opportunity
for people within organisations to question and share
ideas.
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