How Coaching is helping to solve world problems

Climate Change

Climate coaches are helping organizations to have deeper conversations that go beyond just scratching the surface and deal with potential & perceived ‘barriers’ that stand in the way of the necessary change. They help teams identify their capabilities and resources to enact change both locally and globally, including engaging key stakeholders – helping people make sense of the impacts of climate change on their families & communities. The results are leading teams to ideate and action their own innovative solutions.

Mental Health
Unlike therapists, coaches don’t specialize in treating complex clinical problems. However, they do help people manage emotions, challenge negative thinking patterns, improve relationship skills, and reduce stress and anxiety – all of which bolster mental health. Coaches are helping to combat mental health crises including workplace burnout, work life balance and boundary setting.

A research article published in 2020, conducted an interventional study to look at the effect of life coaching on psychological distress among dental students. The findings indicated that life coaching had the effect of reducing psychological distress, which encouraged the implementation of coaching practice in the daily life of dental students.

Scientific Breakthroughs
With techniques rooted in neuroscience and behavioral psychology, coaches help scientists and researchers to rediscover their purpose, refine their own methodologies, and realize the broader meaning to their work. They also help them transition from academic spheres to labs and to leadership roles. These coaching practices help identify, elevate, and in some cases, create highly innovative achievements for the world.

Crisis Management

Conflict resolution specialists and negotiators – both at the local and international level – are almost always coached one-on-one. The goal of these sessions is to help them to manage high pressure situations, to embrace discomfort, proactively communicate, consciously practice, and even improve their emotional intelligence – all of which are crucial to successful conflict resolution results for the common good.

In 2008, The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, outlined the use of executive coaching to meet the needs of law enforcement leadership by establishing a framework, methodology and systematic technology to support leaders during professional challenges. 

Thought Leadership
Thought leaders are changing the world in meaningful ways and engaging others to join their efforts.
Great leaders listen and lead by example – and in doing so, gain trust on a massive scale. Leadership Coaching models are designed to provide clarity on shared values, help leverage resources, and develop concrete plans to drive cultures toward meaningful change.

Dorie Clark, voted as one of the top communication coaches in the world, and one of the top 50 Business Thinkers, used the coaching focus on future outcomes to lean into producing material like "The Long Game"- a bestselling novel based on strategic long term thinking. Clark currently shares her thought leadership with scholars in her capacity as an executive education professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. She also shares her ideas about long-term thinking in articles for the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Time Magazine and more.

As organizations and industries realize the power of coaching, it is being leveraged to improve performance and solve problems on a larger scale. Climate change, mental health, scientific breakthroughs, crisis resolution and thought-leadership are just a few of the many ways in which coaching is contributing to improving the world that we live in. 

To understand more about the unique support that coaching continues to provide on a personal, professional and global scale, explore the Erickson resource center. If you are in an industry that you believe could benefit from coaching, get in touch with us for a conversation.