What Is Coaching?
If you wanted to improve your golf or tennis game, you might hire a coach. Your coach would observe and assess your current skills, help you develop a plan to reach your goals, and meet with you regularly to watch you play and give you feedback. If you’re motivated and practice, your game will improve. What if you wanted to be a more effective manager or leader at work? What if you wanted to be better organized in your surroundings or in your thinking? What if…? Working with a business or personal coach might be the right answer for you.
Most people are familiar with athletic coaching, but few are familiar with other types of professional coaching. That may be because it is a fairly new profession. It’s only been formally recognized for about 10 years. So, what is coaching?
The International Coach Federation, a global professional association of personal and business coaches, defines coaching as a professional partnership between a qualified coach and an individual that supports the achievement of extraordinary results, based on goals set by the individual. This definition is succinct, but it doesn’t really tell us much about coaching - at least not in my opinion.
Perhaps the easiest way to define coaching is to explain what it is NOT. Coaching is not therapy, consulting, or mentoring. Let’s say that you wanted to turn your hobby into a profitable business.
A therapist would ask you about your past history with starting a business and examine your fears about potential failure. The therapist might also ask if your parents owned a business and discuss why that may influence your desire and ability to have a successful business.
A consultant would teach you the process of starting a business, including writing a business plan, securing financing, developing a marketing plan, setting up your books, and so on. A consultant may or may not have ever started a new business, but has read many books about the subject, understands the process, and has developed a lot of forms and templates for you to use.
Mentors tell you all about how they turned their hobby into a successful business. A mentor might give you tips or warn you about pitfalls based on his experience. A mentor might share her opinion on the best small business software to buy or where to advertise.
A coach listens carefully to your desire to turn your hobby into a business venture. The coach asks what you’ve done so far to start the business and asks how it’s going. If you don’t have a well-defined plan of action, a coach might help you create one. The coach checks in with you regularly to measure progress and to help you find the resources, solutions and strategies needed to resolve issues as they arise. The coach’s job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that you already have. A coach doesn’t give you the answers; she guides you in discovering your own answers.
At this point, you know a little bit more about professional coaching and can distinguish coaching from therapy, consulting, and mentoring. If you want to know more about coaching and how you can benefit from working with a coach, contact me or refer to the International Coach Federation’s website.