What is coaching?
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “ partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
The aim of change coaching is to enable the client to reach a positive change by measurable, encouraging and realistic means. Coaching can be applied in areas the client sees most beneficial, such as personal and/or family life, profession, spirituality etc.
The coaching relationship aims to produce insights, greater personal awareness and self-esteem, improved behaviors and actions, as well as other results that satisfy the client. The client’s role is an active one, requiring evaluation, reasoning, imagination, accountability and perseverance.
Coaching is about you.
Your goals, your learning and your growth. Together with your coach, you will explore your present and future dreams, turning them into attainable goals.
Coaching is about learning.
You are the expert on your life. Your coach uses techniques, such as active listening, open questions, encouragement to help you find new insight into your current situation. This enables you to find creative solutions to challenges that might have held you back before.
Coaching is about action, your action.
Each coaching session aims to leave you with several action points to act upon before your next session. This helps you progress towards your goals faster, with accountability and persistence.
Coaching is about you as a whole.
Not only your career or other specific part of your life. Changing old habits and thought patterns is always a challenge, and your coach will recognize them, helping you change and grow as a whole.
What coaching isn’t:
It is not therapy.
Therapy focuses on the past to bring psychological and emotional healing in the present. Many communication techniques are similar in both, but coaching focuses on the future and action, aiming to help the client move in the right direction from the present.
It is not training.
Training has a set agenda, and the aim is to teach the client skills and knowledge within that agenda. In coaching, you as the client set the agenda. The coach uses different techniques to enable change from within you to happen, within the agenda you have specified.
It is not mentoring.
Mentors are experts of a certain field, aiming to share that knowledge with someone junior to them. This can happen in the form of advice, guidance encouragement etc. to people who are junior to them. Mentors can use coaching techniques, but usually maintain an advisory role.
It is not authoritarian.
Your coach will not force you to do anything. You are responsible for setting goals, executing on planned actions and sticking to schedules. The coach is there to provide you with a clear process, encourage you to do your best and help reflect on the outcomes.
Why use a coach?
Every individual has their own reasons to give coaching a try, but often the common factor is the desire to improve or change a certain aspect of life. Some reasons could be to:
Make significant changes in life
Learn to better deal with uncertainty
Make better decisions
Set more attainable goals
Reach set goals faster
Grow spiritually
Become financially stable
Find a partner in business or life
Enable career growth
Improve relationships at home and elsewhere
Be a better leader
Make a bigger impact on the world
Reduce stress
Better cope with large outside changes in employment, location or otherwise
Why does coaching work?
Listening
This is your time: Your story and life gets the undivided attention it deserves.
Questions
Through questions, the coach helps you find creative and new perspectives to overcome challenges in the way of a bright future.
Uplifting
We all need encouragement to lift our spirits. Your coach will help you stay focused on your vision, acknowledging the progress along the way.
Process
You lead with the agenda: Set the goals you want to achieve and go for it. The coach facilitates your growth by giving you a process to follow.