What is Coaching?

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

According to the ICF, coaching is “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential”.

There is a common misconception that coaching is akin to sports coaching in which someone who knows more than you, helps and guides you into doing that thing better and to the best of your ability. According to iPEC, the coach training school I attended, “A professional coach, on the other hand, helps their clients find clarity from within, overcome challenges with their own solutions, and ultimately accomplish their goals on their own terms.”

One of the common themes in these two definitions is the idea of the person being coached being the one that comes up with the solutions and the coach is simply guiding them and inspiring them to find the answers and the strength within themselves. Very empowering, indeed!

What coaching is NOT - Coaching often gets confused with other modalities as follows:

• Mentoring – Mentoring involves someone who has followed a particular path or reached a particular goal before and they are now taking someone under their wing so to speak to help them achieve the same or similar goals and accomplishments. (Coaching is not about following someone, it is about asking them where they want to go next.)

• Consulting – consulting is more about being an expert on a particular subject and being hired to tell others what they should do to achieve their goals

• Therapy – therapy is more focused on healing the past that might be affecting behavior and events in the present (Coaching builds on the present to create the future.)

• Training – training is teaching or otherwise helping someone to learn how to do something themselves; the trainer has the knowledge and imparts that knowledge to someone else.

Topics for coaching can include any goals that you’d like to achieve and the stumbling blocks that are keeping you from achieving them. If you’d like to experience a coaching session, you can purchase one here.

Next: What happens in a coaching session?