Coaching: What it is?
Twenty years ago, no one had heard of life, business, or corporate coaching. Today it is featured in The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, Oprah and CNN. But still, most of the world has not heard of it. Demand for coaching is expected to grow and may accelerate. What will happen when the first major movie featuring a life coach hits the street? Corporations are jumping on the bandwagon with Fortune 100 companies creating both external and internal coaching positions.
Coaching involves dialogue between a coach and a client with the aim of helping the client obtain a fulfilling life. This is achieved by helping the client establish what is important to them and by clarifying their values. With the client’s input the coach co-creates value based goals and a plan to achieve them.
Through collaboration, the coach supports the client to achieve these goals. A coach offers many things to the client during the coaching process such as:
1. Support to discover the answers within him or her self
2. Clarification of values
3. Co-creation of a plan for how to achieve what the client really wants
4. A sounding board for new ideas
5. Support in making life changing decisions
6. Challenge to expand their views beyond their perceived limitations.
7. Direction
8. Acknowledgement
9. Encouragement
10. Resource of information
What Coaching is Not.
As a relatively new profession, coaching is a methodology that draws on a range of other more traditional professions including psychology, business consulting, mentoring management theory and adult learning. However, coaching is a unique field and there are significant differences between coaching and these fields.
Coaching and Therapy
Coaching is not therapy, counseling or psychology. Although intervention often follows some psychological models such as behavioral theory, the actual process of coaching should not be mistaken for a therapeutic intervention. One of the most obvious differences between the two approaches is that therapy tends to focus on feelings and experiences related to past events, whereas coaching is oriented towards goal setting and encourages the client to move forward. A therapist typically works with a dysfunctional person to get them to become functional. A coach works with a functional person to get them to become exceptional. Therapists typically work with people who need help to become emotionally healthy. A coach works with people who are already emotionally healthy to move them to magnificent levels. Coaching does not rely on past issues for achieving growth, but rather focuses on goals towards the future. Coaching is action oriented. The focus is on where the client is right now, where they want to be next, and how to get them there.
If you are working in the past, then you are involved in therapy. If, the client is stuck and can't seem to move forward or if there is a drug or alcohol problem, then you are more likely doing something other than coaching. Often starting a coaching process will help a client realize a need for therapy.
Coaching and consulting
Coaching is often likened to consulting. However, there are distinct differences between these disciplines. A consultant is usually a specialist in a given area. They are hired to give recommendations and provide solutions. A consultant works with a client to solve a particular problem or to address a specific issue. Once the problem is solved or the issue addressed, the consultant leaves. Generally, a consultant doesn’t get involved with areas outside of their specialty. Coaching uses a more holistic approach. With the client, the coach examines the situation, creates a plan of action, and works side by side to resolve the issue. The coach does not have to be an expert in the client’s business. The client is the expert. The coach collaborates with the client to create a solution using the client's knowledge and answers.
While people, and companies, will often choose a coach who has previous experience or expertise in the field that they work in, the coaching methodology does not require this. Consultants however, build their businesses around the knowledge they have gathered over time in the specific field in which they then offer consulting expertise. They are expected to provide advice, information and anecdotes about the field. The coach, on the other hand, does not have the answers and does not claim to have them. They have the questions that allow the client to find their own answers and clarify their own values.