CoachHub: Helping Your Employees Measurably Advance In Their Careers

Digitalization has taken the world by storm. With the ongoing crisis, the world has been forced to digitalize itself to adapt to the new normal. The virtual bandwidth of the world has also increased, several education institutes, coaching centers, education providers have shifted towards the virtual world. In the coming years, it is expected that the adoption of digital transformation will further rise. Currently, coaching is the second-fastest-growing industry, after the IT industry. The coaching industry may be a new player as compared to the IT industry. In order to understand the complete prospect of the kind of growth coaching industry has witnessed, Gartner—leading research and analyst, published in its recent report, Hype cycle 2020, stated, the business impact of the democratization of coaching and mentoring as being “transformational for the development and engagement of the workforce.”

With the same motive of transforming, developing, and engaging the workforce, CoachHub strives forward as an executive coach for every employee irrespective of location or time zone. CoachHub was established in 2018, but the journey of the company began way back when Yannis Niebelschuetz was working for LinkedIn in Dublin. There, he received personal coaching from his coach who had to travel a long distance, which causes several problems. Another issue was getting a meeting room for coaching. While, his brother, Matti who was working at McKinsey underwent similar experiences. As an ideal entrepreneur, problems motivate the innovator, such as Yannis Niebelschuetz and his brother Matti to find a solution. The co-founding duo believes that they are entrepreneurs at heart. This belief has helped them to establish several startups and hence motivated them to co-found CoachHub, the new-age digital coaching platform.

Revolutionary Learning Solutions

Presently, numerous coaching and training organizations are targeting different sectors. However, with time, the coaching industry has revolutionized with the introduction of advanced technology. Today, people are looking for more digital and personalized learning solutions. CoachHub as a new-age company understands the changing demands and requirements of the learners. As a digital coaching provider, it offers holistic people development to forward-thinking companies on a global level. This pushes the client companies to transform themselves in an age of digitalization and rapid change. The unique and futuristic approach of CoachHub makes it the fastest-growing digital coaching provider in Europe.

With new players emerging, the coaching industry is becoming a competitive landscape. Hence, it demands uniqueness in its approach—especially from the leading players of the market. As a leader in the industry, CoachHub takes pride in itself on being the pioneer in the science behind coaching. One of the differentiating factors that make CoachHub stand out is its AI matching algorithm and the ability to have as many chemistry calls with different coaches. The involvement of AI ensures far greater success in the matching process and the coachee’s journey. The company follows one of the most rigorous screening processes that include specific criteria to be fulfilled. There are hundreds of coaches applying to be part of CoachHub but the company is selective about application acceptance, to ensure that the customers only get the best.

Uniquely Wholesome Education Provider

CoachHub as a coaching company is uniquely wholesome as it is passionate about understanding and learning the science behind coaching. Moreover, the company also focuses more on its science-based approach. This approach allows them to promote their coaching lab, which consists of its in-house search and development team including world-leading behavioral scientists and psychologists that contributes to the growing field of digital coaching and behavior change at scale. Collaborating with its science board, CoachHub has developed a holistic business coaching approach focusing on the key facts of successful leadership in the digital age—grow as a person and inspire as a leader. Yannis states, “The great thing about coaching and our offering is that it can be applied to any business or HR challenge, whether it be performance management, business & digital transformation, talent development, creating diverse and inclusive workforces, employee experience or employee wellbeing.”

CoachHub is constantly working on a simple mission to democratize the coaching landscape worldwide and helping organizations unleash the full potential of their team member. Being primarily focused on its sole mission has helped the team to be a great success in Europe. CoachHub has partnered with numerous companies in supporting their team including big names such as BNP Paribas, Virgin Money, Viacom, De Beers, and Fujitsu. Furthermore, the company aims to be the leading digital coaching platform worldwide. It has grown its global coaching pool to more than 2500 high vetted, certified coaches, across 60 different countries speaking 50 different languages. This has made them the most international and diverse coaching platform on the market. Yannis adds, “And those numbers are increasing by the day, we are very proud of both the quality and internationality of our coaching pool.”

Accustomed to Challenges

CoachHub’s surging growth and diversity has become an ideal example for other learning providers who aim to venture into the market. Presently, it has a strong team of more than 250 people, with offices in the US, Europe, Singapore, and Australia. However, like any other successful company, CoachHub also faced several challenges in the initial stages. Addressing these challenges, Yannis asserts, “The challenges at the start was the education piece – convincing people that coaching was something not just for C-level executives. There are still certain industries and markets who are little, shall we say, old-school in their approach to business, but the amount has decreased significantly.”

However, most of the markets and industries are now witnessing the impact of coaching. The company has put immense hard work on the education part in its sales and marketing efforts, and finally, it has paid off. The team of CoachHub is extremely passionate about coaching, which keeps them united in difficult times as well. Moreover, the team takes pride in its products as it positively impacts and contributes to the world and also keeps them going. “When it comes to managing the team obviously there have been big changes, but because we are a forward-thinking, digitally-minded company, the change was definitely manageable, even comfortable,” says Yannis.

Practices of a Good Leader

Yannis and his brother Matti have their roles and responsibilities divided. Matti looks after delivery and Yannis oversees the Marketing & sales department. In tiring times like the pandemic, it becomes important to keep the motivation up. Yannis ensures that there is psychological safety amongst the employees. CoachHub’s employees had the access to personal coach through the platform and are constantly receiving feedback from them. He also advised the leaders to have an empathetic and calm approach towards the employee. Moreover, be very clear about the vision and communicate regularly with the employees.

This approach has helped CoachHub to strive in these trying times. Remote working has not made much of a difference as Yannis and his team already adapted to the digital operations. Now CoachHub is working on intuitive strategies to help expand into the markets. Most recently, the company expanded its services in the US market and was an instant hit. Now the focus is on developing a team there as well as in the APAC region. Concerning the future of the coaching industry, he believes that AI will disrupt the industry and make it more heavily regulated. “There are too many coaching companies who are not certified or validated by science. We are looking forward to more regulations,” he concludes.

How can emerging entrepreneurs avoid failure?

I have never been someone who takes failure lightly. However, I have come to learn that you have to accept that failure is necessary. I now firmly stand by the old saying ‘If you want to increase your success rate, you have to double your failure rate’. We have made many mistakes in the past years, but having to overcome them has taught us a lot and if it weren’t for those difficult moments we wouldn’t have been able to make CoachHub what it is today. What we believe to be vital for a successful team is to be very honest with yourself and your team, confront the not-so-glamorous facts as a group, and transparently share mistakes with them. This is the only way to come to a solution together as an organization and prevent repeating the same mistakes.