Coaching Trends: 2022 Predictions

So there’s a return to the recognition of the need for human touch and humanity in order to be effective.

But here we also juggle the contradiction of remote work, and advances in technology allowing people to work with less and less interpersonal interaction with this recognisable growth in the need for personal touch and person-to-person interaction.

In fact, the hybrid workplace brings with it the problems of ineffectual interpersonal communication, highlights personality conflicts, brings trust in relationships into the spotlight.

We also see dysfunctional personalities leaking out more easily and a whole new set of dynamics that leaders, managers, employees and coaches have to deal with.

Misunderstanding and trust issues increases exponentially.

I remember a leader of an organisation telling me that the biggest lesson that she had to learn as a leader was that email had no “tone”.

In other words, unless specifically explicit, what we read or hear needs to be treated as toneless. We need to have an awareness of both content and context.

What gives it tone is context and the underlying relationships.

“The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw

On that note, how many of us have attended online funerals, sitting alone in our homes or offices and denied the companionship of grief that occasions like funerals normally allow.

How do we ensure that we and our clients deal healthily with this?

I think that you are ALL seeing greater and greater trends of higher levels of stress, anxiety, overwhelm, burnout, fatigue, lack of resilience, etc.

In fact, I don’t know about you, but I hear the terms burnout and resilience EVERYWHERE.

In my 2021 trends prediction, I spoke about the importance of high levels of psychological literacy – in fact, this (in my opinion) is one of the hallmarks of a great coach.

Our clients are stressed about their jobs, keeping their jobs, managing changes in their jobs and lifestyles.

Some clients experienced dramatic cuts in income.

Clients are deep in grief over many losses – family members, friends, freedom, familiarity.

There is a noticeable increase in underlying conditions like depression and PTSD. I have heard from SO many medical professionals that they are treating more and more people for these conditions.

Are these clients coachable?

Will coaching be effective?

What is our ethical responsibility?

Most professional body’s codes of ethics call for coaches to cross-refer.

How are you going to deal with this possibility in a shrinking coaching client base, with greater pressure on your fees and a rapidly growing competitive environment?

We’re dealing with fear, uncertainty, grief, PTSD, depression and all of these other conditions with our clients.

BUT we’re ALSO dealing with them in our own lives.

Coach Supervision becomes more important for US in our self-care than ever before.

I think that there is an awakening consciousness in the world and that coaches and their clients will be having more and more conversations about ethics, meaning, purpose, mortality and general “what if’s”.

As coaches, we have a HUGE new responsibility and need to develop a completely new set of skills and abilities.

It goes without saying that the rise of machines, AI, robotics, etc will exclude a whole level of people on the margins of society.