“If I were CEO, I would make coaching mandatory.”

A friend said that to me recently. She believes this because, with her extensive work experience, she sees that almost everyone nowadays tries to perform under high pressure in organizations that continuously change or demand the utmost from people.

The more I think about it, the more sense it makes to me.

In many organizations, people have been living around with the same frustrations, tensions or patterns for far too long. Not because they do not want to change, but because there is simply little room to really think about what is happening. While there is often a lot of profit there. For the employee himself, but also for the organization.

Good coaching regularly prevents people from seeking help only when they are already stuck or dropping out. Problems become visible and open to discussion sooner. This often causes absenteeism, hassle in teams and unnecessary delays.

It also helps with development and advancement. Many people unknowingly stay too long in a place that actually gives them no energy, or where only a small part of their talent is used. Not out of unwillingness, but because fixed patterns, expectations and daily pressure ensure that they hardly take any distance to really look at what is going on.

And perhaps even more importantly: people bring more of themselves to their work. Not only the safe or adapted part that they think they have to comply with, but also their ideas, creativity, sense of direction and personality. You immediately feel this in cooperation, ownership and involvement.

I also think that organizations underestimate how attractive this is for good staff. In a labor market where everyone attracts the same people, it makes a lot of difference when development, reflection and support are a visible part of the culture. Then you often don’t have to recruit as hard, because people want to stay and tell others about it.

We ask an incredible amount of people these days. High pressure, complex collaboration, constant change, full agendas and at the same time remaining visible, flexible and professional.

Yet many organizations still consider it normal for knowledge workers to have to bear all of this largely alone.

That remains somehow strange.

Top athletes receive physical and mental guidance to perform sustainably. Why should we offer people in organizations less support, while the pressure there is often structurally high?

It is time to not see coaching as an emergency measure, but as the basis for healthy top performance.