1. 1. Supports stress reduction. Many tools and techniques of professional coaching are scientifically proven to reduce stress. When we are stressed, it is much more difficult to have empathy, think creatively, control impulses, and make effective plans. Stress reduction through coaching gives people more access to creativity, compassion, and resilience, all of which are critical right now.
   2. Helps with processing experience. Coaching helps people process what is going on. This crisis is unprecedented. This novelty makes the time exceptionally difficult to process and find the meaning in it. Without processing during the experience, we run a high probability of crashing when the crisis is over. We may also sublimate our worry, fear, and stress so that they become health issues, low energy, and other negative impacts. When we notice and process our true feelings and concerns, we channel that energy through, stay steadier, and we are more able to cope both during and after the crisis. Many people need the support of coaching to do this effectively.
   3. Supports growing resilience and capacity in crisis. Coaching helps people find their more profound resilience and capacity, even when we cannot change the external landscape. Any coach worth their salt knows to focus on the client, not the issue. When people are what we might call, “returned to themselves” through coaching, they see more possibility and find more internal resilience. This discovery restores some sense of control in what feels like an uncontrollable world.
   4. A small investment in coaching yields long-term gains. The small amount invested in coaching during a crisis will pay off in terms of more considerable benefits. The companies and individuals that will get through this time are those that maintain a calm center, limit the toxic impact of stress, are flexible and agile, and “think outside the box.” Given the power of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, it is highly unlikely that people will find their way to thrive without the support coaching provides.
   5. Creates a noticeable positive ripple effect in organizations and families. Providing coaching for managers and leaders provides a noticeable positive ripple effect. Research shows that leaders have a substantial impact on the “weather” of their organization. When they are calm, emotionally regulated, thoughtful, and patient, those around them feel more able to respond more thoughtfully as well. (The same is true in families with parents and the ripple to their children.)
   6. Supports in the discovery of new ways of doing business. This crisis will most likely lead to permanent changes for individuals and organizations. We know coaching is one of the most effective ways to help people navigate change. We’re not going back to “business as usual” after this. As things change, coaching helps us know and express our own needs, desires, and boundaries so we can be active “co-creators” in what is to come.
   7. Coaching offered to employees helps retain and develop talent. It is more critical than ever to retain and develop top talent. We’ll need extraordinary thinking and performance for any enterprise—whether it is a business, a school, or even a family— to get through this. Since the outcomes of the crisis will require different structures for how we do business, all enterprises will need to rely more on multiple layers of leadership. Coaching helps develop people’s leadership strengths, confidence, and is a proven retention strategy.
   8. Support increasing flexibility and learning. Coaches help people get unstuck and move out of fixed patterns or mindsets. Surviving and thriving at this time requires an adaptable brain that can respond with flexibility and creativity in problem-solving. Coaching helps people identify limiting beliefs and move into more open and responsive mindsets.
   9. Supports the discovery of purpose and meaning from the crisis. People are thinking about purpose and meaning as a result of this crisis. Without support for surfacing and focusing on questions of meaning, life purpose, and essential values, we often “lose” the things we learn in crisis. Coaching gives support for powerfully reflecting on what we are learning about thinking, being, and doing.
   10. Supports significant life and work changes that will be required. People will be using this opportunity to make major life and work changes and will need a coach to help navigate this change. Our old patterns and habits are well-wired into our brains. Making real change is disruptive to that system. The support of coaching can help with making such major changes. Coaching is all about the reflection-action-reflection cycle of learning. A coach supports us in identifying what we want, trying new things, reflecting on what we learned, and continuing this positive cycle as we move into new ways of being and new results in our lives.

Adapted from Ann Betz and William Arruda