Industry leaders canvass individual approach to effective coaching
By Felicia Nwosu
Some notable professionals who led discussion at the just concluded 5th edition of African Coaching Week 2023, organized by the Life Coaches Association of Nigeria, (LCAN) in Lagos, have called for the adoption of an individual perspective approach to coaching among the practitioners.
Speaking with MARKETING EDGE, the experts said this will enable them to take a strategic action plan that will speak directly to individual’s unique challenges embedded with African narrative.
Framing their suggestions based on the theme: Coaching: The Key to Unlocking Africa’s True Potential”, the proficient speakers said for African Coaches to enhance their coaching ability, they need to know their clients as multi-faceted individuals and so each should be treated through individual perspective approach to tailor a distinctive approach that meets such experience.
A legal expert, Ayuli Jemide, the founder and principal partner of Detail Commercial Solicitors noted that every case has its own perspective and getting every perspective is also plausible but it must be handled differently to arrive at the right and accurate result.
He urged professional coaches to recognise and understand each country’s milieu and respect individual perspectives. He explained that moral tools and parameters must always be adjusted for African people, adding that each individual is unique, peculiar with his challenges and cannot be swapped with that of another individual.
“We are basically suggesting that coaches should find keys to increase the potential of Africa. I want to ask you, what are the coaching standards and parameters for African people, what tools, how many diagnostic and assessment tools have you seen for Africans, given our technical areas? How much research has been commissioned on Africans when they mention the African need?
“The importance of these questions are underscored by the fact that by 2050,more than every four people will be African. This question is even more important, considering the fact that Africa has the youngest population, 40% of Africans are below the age of 15. My simple message to you today is, we can unlock Africa’s potential if coaches champion the talks to carry out research and building tools for Africans. Your tools are parameters. Frame every individual case from it,” he said.
The legal luminary challenged the practitioners to trace to their African roots to enable them reconnect with their originality, values and authenticity.
“What we need to do is to go back to our very beginnings. We had our traditions, we had our systems, we had our culture, and a lot of that has been eroded since the colonialists came.
“So we really just need to go back there. Once we can go back there, then we can tell stories that are authentic. But in telling our stories, we still need technology which is foreign. We will leverage on the technology that was imported from wherever, but we will keep the authenticity of the story,” he said.
On his part, Lanre Olusola, popularly known as The Catalyst, Africa’s Premiere Life, Mind and Behavioural Change Expert, harped on the need to reposition African coaching with African narrative to redefine the profession and set the continent on the global map.
“We need to identify African problems and solve them the African way. We have traditional issues and cultural issues that are unique to Africa, there is no Western coaching methodology that can come and solve our problems. Yes, coaching is a universal tool and intervention, but we have to look at our own problems and adapt to coaching by incorporating our own unique solutions to it. We need innovation and creativity to be able to turn our natural resources into value. The real solution for the future of Africa is coaching. The real solution to tapping into the potential of Africa is coaching,” he said.
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