the growing popularity of self-coaching tools. I suspect that AI-based apps will become more and more advanced “thinking partners” that can tailor-make prompts, monitor moods and thought loops, and incorporate neuroscience to nudge “day-to-day self-inquiry”. Human coaches will endure and move toward more of a supervision role for these self-coaching experiences, to help ensure clients are aware of and staying on track with their deeper goals.

as a Business coach teacher of university, my students come into coaching training with a wide range of qualifications and experience and more business coaches and tools mix coaching with advising, consulting or mentoring. Many Business coaches already bring expertise from second careers. Maybe the Business coach future is a “coachsultant” – someone who mentors, trains, and inspires.

coaching practices are evolving at different speeds across regions. In the north America and Europe, the field is more mature, especially within large corporations and multinationals. In the Middle East, coaching is still developing, with a growing interest in accredited training programs. Government organizations, in particular, are investing in upskilling their executives and HR professionals to become manager-coaches and internal coaches, often through large-scale programs.

there was a possibility of having “Annual Mental Health Checkup”. Post world wars our societies have been working relentlessly toward growth, building, creating, achieving, succeeding and all. Then COVID happens, a sudden big break to everything that we were up against at a very high speed. The repercussions of which are far beyond what is visible yet. I feel coaching is going to be at frontline along with other mental health professions in taking the world toward healthy and sustainable growth.

The impact of coaching in organizations is greater than what coaches do and what employees receive. It is systematically creating shared ownership and resilience for its people to thrive and sustain productivity in a constantly disruptive world. Coaching is shifting from a skill and behaviour to a habit of thinking.