Coaching: What Exactly is it Anyway?
According to the dictionary, “a coach is a large enclosed, four-wheeled carriage used especially on state occasions”. Mmmm. Doesn’t seem to apply to the context of helping people. Here is another one from the same dictionary…“to give instruction or advice to in the capacity of a coach”. This seems a bit closer to the mark.
However, for purposes of this article I would like to offer another definition of coaching. Coaching is “a structured, process-driven relationship between a trained professional coach and an individual or team with the intent to develop competencies and remove obstacles in order to achieve valuable and sustainable changes in their professional and personal lives”.
There are numerous types of coaching. Below are three of the more popular ones at the moment.
Life Skills Coaching
Life Skills Coaching is an individual collaborative relationship between a coach and a coachee that brings about a transformation in the experience related to the coachee’s life. Some examples are fitness coaching, career coaching, partnership coaching, wellness coaching. Examples of benefits derived from Life Coaching are:
- Clarifying what you want from life – purpose, vision, values
- Setting more effective goals
- Someone to challenge assumptions
- Having a sounding board for ideas, plans, activities
Business Coaching
Business Coaching ranges from individual executives to business owners and managers. It focuses on helping to develop, promote, and expand the business as well as to facilitate the growth of staff and the executive. It can be accomplished through individual as well as team coaching. Examples of areas in which business coaches work and provide benefit are:
- Time management
- Interpersonal skills
- Work/life balance
- Business planning and strategy
- Increasing productivity
Executive Coaching
Executive Coaching is, again, a collaborative individual relationship between an executive and the coach. The intention is to bring about behavioural change that impacts the quality of the executives work and personal life. There are various styles of executive coaching depending on the situation and required outcome. Basically, however, executive coaching falls within the following areas:
- Coaching for skills enhancement
- Coaching for performance
- Coaching for future responsibility
As you can imagine there are no firm, solid boundaries between the three types of coaching. There is significant overlap from one to the other. Suffice to say that coaching is there to help you reach your potential and perform your best based upon your goals. The common thread among them all is that the coaches are outcome based. They believe in actions and results…or they should believe in them if they are to be effective coaches.
Now that you know what coaching is you should understand what it is not. It is not counseling. It is not psychotherapy. It is not training. Essentially coaching is a dialogue between the coach and coachee, in an open and non judgmental environment, in order to help individuals access their inner capabilities.
Some of the things you can expect from a good coach are:
- An objective, non-judgmental sounding board
- An exploration of values, purpose, and intent
- Honest and direct feedback
- Help in getting a balance
- Help in focusing on the important issues
- An exploration of self limiting beliefs
- Assistance in gaining greater self awareness
Bottom line is that a coach is someone that you can talk to. And haven’t we all at some time wanted, or needed, someone to talk to.