The Coaching Wave

By Debbie Chand

The coaching industry is experiencing remarkable growth, both in its impact and demand. Whether driven by the pressures leaders are facing to equip themselves for a changing world or an increasing recognition of the benefits of personal development, what was once considered a luxury for executives has now become a necessity for both emerging and experienced leaders.

In addition to the benefits leaders receive from coaching, for many it has become a career in itself. And the demand for coaching has only increased. As of 2022, the coaching industry’s market size reached an estimated $20 billion, securing its position as the second-fastest growing global sector, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Coaching revenue increased 62% from 2019, totaling $4.6 billion in 2023. The number of certified coach practitioners worldwide surged from 71,000 in 2019 to 109,200 in 2022, indicating a robust 54% growth. 

AVAIL recently sat down with Debbie Chand, CEO of Dream Releaser Coaching, to explore the unique benefits of coach training and certification—whether pursued as a career or incorporated into a leader’s role in developing others.

AVAIL: Some leaders may feel that since coaching is already a big part of their roles, they don’t need formal training or accreditation. What are some of the benefits of pursuing those additional steps?

Debbie Chand: We definitely value life experience in the coaching field. Many leaders have natural abilities to motivate, inspire and bring out the best in those they lead. In fact, all of our trainers are professionals who have also become certified and now train for us, as well as in their own church and corporate arenas. The benefits are endless. It not only helps you grow personally as you go through the process, but as an accredited coach it opens enormous doors of opportunity. Having worked with hundreds of pastors, we have discovered that most pastors don’t coach. As leaders they have a vision, plan the vision, delegate and instruct those who will actually engage with it, and if there’s a problem, they diagnose and prescribe. But that is not coaching. Coaching is taking a person from where they are to where they and you envision them going.

AVAIL: Have you seen people who don’t make a full career change into coaching but want to have the skills and accreditation to do so in the context of their existing careers?

DC: Absolutely, this happens so often. The great thing about coaching is it can be a full-time career, it can be an enhancement to your current career or it can be an additional educational tool you add to your leadership. The options are endless, there is no boxing in on the possibilities. Coaching is another valuable and essential tool in a leader’s tool chest. As leaders progress in their journey of leading others, coaching can develop into a part-time to full-time opportunity.

AVAIL: What is the typical timeline or workload commitment for someone who wants to pursue training and accreditation?

DC: The program is organized for the busy leader/learner. With that in mind our program is 10 weeks for each track, with four required tracks and options for three bonus tracks. The total time each week would be two to three hours, which includes a 50-minute Zoom with a cohort group and trainer and one to two hours of studying. A successful participant will receive a certification after each track totaling four certifications at increasing levels of recognition. Certified coaches can continue to pursue ongoing growth through DRC resources, including CEUs [continuing education units].

AVAIL: What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen people make in pursuing coaching as a career?

DC: The biggest thing we have seen people do is try to be like other coaches. This sounds very elementary, but if you create your own niche and become the best and most passionate in that area, you are living your coaching life with purpose and direction. Other mistakes would be not understanding the business and administrative components and not understanding their own personal strengths and leveraging them to move forward. Motivations, in anything we do, create joy or angst. A Dream Releaser Coach takes on a very rigorous internal and introspective journey in the first two tracks of our program. This is where we engage the heart and not just their heads and hands. This is where they reflect on their life journey and see God’s footsteps and patterns in their lives. Mistakes are made; people are human. But a reflective coach will correct and keep helping people.

AVAIL: For leaders who are not coaching but have teams, have you seen a growth in organizations and businesses investing in coaching for their staff? Is there a place for on-staff coaches, or does that bring up ethical and HR challenges?

DC: This is a tricky question. If the organization fully embraces coaching and understands the process of coaching, it’s nothing but a win/win. We have several alumni and trainers who do this for major branded corporations and have signed multiyear contracts based upon coaching and the value they gained. Once the leaders within the organization can see their teams are flourishing and healthier even after just one or two meetings, they see the benefits.

There are two questions all leaders have to ask: What if I invest all this time, effort and expense into coaching my team and they leave and go somewhere else? and, What if I don’t invest in coaching and developing my team and they stay? I’m sure you’d agree that the second question is very consequential. Every organization benefits from coaching.

AVAIL: A lot of coaching is virtual now—through Zoom. Has this led to the growth of coaching, and have you had any feedback on whether people miss out on in-person coaching, or do the benefits outweigh those losses?

DC: Our program has always been virtual with in-person meet-ups at the end of each track. The glorious thing about coaching is it can literally be done anywhere in the world; it’s actually a strength. The training and networking we have in person is so powerful and impacting, but also the flexibility of the online world is no less impactful and convenient.

Let’s start answering this backward. Over 90% of coaching is delivered via digital formats, including phone, Zoom, and so on. Since our coaches will be coaching using those resources, it is a very positive training ground for them right from the beginning. They have participated in their training via remote mechanisms and thus can deliver coaching with great confidence because of their own positive experiences. In fact, we have discovered that when cohort groups have their weekly call with their coach-trainer, they can have much more personal time and interaction with each other than had they been to a classroom lecture format.

AVAIL: What are some future innovations or developments you’re seeing in the coaching world?

DC: The coaching world is steadily growing. What we are seeing right now is the coaching world increasing rigors of credentialing. This is why DRC prides itself on our commitment to maintain the highest standards by being accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), which is the only globally recognized coaching accrediting agency. More developments are more corporate and team coaching. The innovation of coaching is constantly changing, but as it grows, we try to stay on the wave of growth and maintain our personal organizational standards.

We can have all the trained coaches ready, but if they don’t have a receptive area that engages them, it is futile. That’s where the good news comes in. More and more organizations—ministry and marketplace—are open to coaching and inviting professional certified coaches to come alongside them and help vision fulfillment at a higher level than if they did not have coaches. Almost all corporate leaders and athletes have coaches. Others are finding that to be true as well.