I've been asked to develop a training outline on 'Coaching'. But before I continue, perhaps a little backgrounder is needed.

I work for a training institute which has as its client a very large and established IT services organization. For this training institute, the IT services organization is currently it 'golden egg', mostly because said IT company is its sole client - now before one egts into saying 'what?!... only one client?!', let me assure you that this client; from the viewpoint of the Pareto principle, is the 20% that matters for 80% of profits... in short, it is enough to give the training institute its profitability.

Unfortunately, if I will now insert Porter's 5 forces model, I could easily say that this client has great negotiating clout, and the training isntitute cannot get a better deal, as I'm sure both of them know that the IT company is the sole golden egg. This naturally affects all of the traning company's employees since we cannot seem to get a good deal in increases - even if the IT company seems to be very profitable. Ah... so much for 'a fair deal' (unless the training institute has certain undeclared profits that its employees are not feeling - which might also explain why the IT company is reluctant to allow increase of fees).

All that is speculation, though, and not really helpful to the backgrounder - so, to continue...

It so happened, my week - through a fluke of training schedules not pushing through, was really filled with free time, thus my boss took the opportunity to tap my development and coaching know-how to develop this training. Why? Because she has had several queries regarding the possibility of conducting trainings on 'Coaching' outside of our main client.

What's the significance here? Well for starters, it looks like this traiing institute is strating to spread its wings. After all, so long as it remains fully dependent on one client, things will not improve for the company and its employees - me included.

But the upside for me here is that in the process of developing this new course, I learn a little more (or should I say a lot more) on coaching - outside of what I normally teach for this IT company. So I admitedly considered myself a good enough coach, in a way... I was a natural - though the book I read now gives me access to tools, a more formal process to follow and a few assessment tests i can take to see where I need to improve on... and this is the reason why i did want to take the assignment.

It was an oportunity for me to learn new things and access new knowledge. It certainly will broaden my skill-base for being a coach. Once I develop the training itself, I can even say that should I eventually leave this company, I would have left a legacy. Though technically, I already have a legacy here by virtus of a 'client service' training that I did almost three years ago. Still, two - maybe even a third training (if the Filipino cross-cultural training pushes through) will be better than just one.

This definitely beats doing repetitious trainings that I can do, even with my eyes closed.