Why Optimism Is the Most Important Skill for Coaches Right Now | with Woody Woodward

Woody Woodward has coached senior executives, built a Master's degree at NYU, co-authored The Digital Coaching Revolution, co-created the NYU Coaching & Technology Summit in 2022 and is now Chief Coaching Officer at BetterUp, leading the world's largest coaching network of 4,000 coaches across 70 countries.

In this conversation, Woody shares what four million coaching sessions and the world's largest coaching dataset actually tell us about what great coaching looks like and introduces us to BetterUp's newly developed GUIDE framework, built from the ground up from client data.

We also talk about why 51% of employees want a blend of human and AI coaching, why those who engage with AI tools are 30% more likely to also engage with their human coach, and why optimism is one of the seven most critical mindsets for an AI-ready coach.

This is a wide-ranging, warm conversation about the future of the profession, the responsibility that comes with coaching someone through hard decisions, and what it means to humanise the experience of work.

What you'll take away:

• BetterUp's GUIDE framework — and why it was built from the client side, not the coach side
• The data on how people blend human and AI coaching
• 7 mindsets every AI-ready coach needs (and why optimism tops the list)
• What enterprise buyers are actually asking for right now
• Where the coaching profession needs to raise its standards
• Why coaches are the best-positioned professionals to help humans adapt to an uncertain world

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

• BetterUp
• Dr. Woody Woodward on LinkedIn

Find out more:

https://vivalacoaching.com/vivapodcast/