I am often asked, “What’s coaching?”. A straightforward enough question. It isn’t straightforward to answer, though – there are lots of different definitions and people in the know all have their favourite guru and that guru’s favourite definition.
As a coach, I am always asking my clients a similar question,”What do you understand coaching to be?”. This is asked right at the start of our coaching relationship, to check that they understand what they are about to embark on, and also to check that they are not expecting me to be a counsellor or therapist. I am really not either! I receive many and varied answers to the question, but they generally centre around a few key themes. I thought I would start this new blog with a summary of those themes…
So, in no particular order, my clients have described coaching as the following:
- Coaching is about the future and not the past
- Coaching is about the coach listening to the client speaking – it is all about the client
- Coaching is about empathy, not sympathy
- Coaching is about an open, honest and non-judgemental way to work towards a target or desired outcome
- Coaching is confidential unless the client chooses to share their progress and success
- Coaching sees the client setting goals, which the client then achieves by using their own ideas and determination
- Coaching can help people work out what is stopping them achieving their goals, but it won’t solve all their problems
- Coaching will move people forward, but not with all their “baggage”
So coaching can help people with their personal development, their confidence, their self-esteem, their career and even achieving their dreams. It does this through a professional and trusting relationship between client and their coach of choice, where the coach, through gentle challenge and feedback enables the client to see their own path to future success. There is lots more to it than that, of course, but I shan’t give away the trade secrets on my very first blog!
You may have found that one or two things here looked familiar, or rang a bell with you. While reading this, you may even have felt that this is something you would like to find out more about. Well, that’s easy … simply get in touch and let’s chat about how coaching could help you.