Mental Coaching: Mental Coaches Are Most Widely Associated With Professional Sports
These days many vocal business leaders are emphasizing that "the world is flat", that labor moves freely, and the lowest price wins, regardless of whether it's from Atlanta or Argentina. Million dollar purchasing orders are placed online, without so much as speaking to a live person, and when corporate communications have a face at all, it's increasingly that of a model or paid spokesperson.
At at time when posting a job opening online can easily fetch applications from around the world, are people skills even relevant anymore? The answer, as any good manager knows, is a resounding "yes!". In the end, it is still people who are designing the products, the web sites, and the marketing material.
And that one needs a proper environment in which to perform his or her job, not "even if" but "especially if" that person was born and raised somewhere else. Immigrants and guest workers are as much members of the corporate world as anyone else, but their special issues and hardships need close attention to bring out the most in them, and that means mental coaching. Mental coaching is an excellent way of bringing someone from a different culture into the team 100%, and it is one of the most important functions of human resource management nowadays.
Mental coaches might be most associated with professional sports, outdoor sales-people, or CEOs. For example, Dr. John F. Murray developed the "Mental Performance Index" for American football and helped Vincent Spadea overcome a losing streak that was one of the longest in tennis history. However, the truth is that mental coaching is relevant from the highest to the lowest rung of the corporate ladder.
After all, if someone is worth spending tens of thousands of dollars to hire and train, doesn't it make sense allow the Human Resources department the freedom to bring out the most in him or her? If sports teams can hire mental coaches to increase their performance, so can corporate teams. Even if the labor they're coaching is fresh off the Internet.
While the world can well be flat, it is still populated with human beings, and human beings don't perform at their peak potential without training and smart management. Companies are made up of people -- something that is as true during the reign of Bill Gates as it was during that of Rockefeller, despite the Internet.
Despite globalization and intensive use of technology in communications, people skills continue to remain relevant. And when the workplace has people from different cultures, mental coaching brings out the best from them. Immigrants and guest workers from other countries face special issues and hardships and they can become more productive if their employers address these concerns. Originally applied in sports and athletics, the concept of engaging mental coaches has spread to the corporate world as companies strive to maximize the value of their human resources. It is a vital ingredient in human resource management as it enables people to perform at their peak potential.
Published July 20th, 2007
Filed in Business, Career, Management
