coaching n : the job of a professional coach [syn: coaching job]

English

Verb

coaching

1. present participle of coach

This article refers to the act of coaching people. For sports coaching, see coach (sport). For other uses of the word, see coach (disambiguation)

Coaching is a method of directing, instructing and training a person or group of people, with the aim to achieve some goal or develop specific skills. There are many ways to coach, types of coaching and methods to coaching. Direction may include motivational speaking. Training may include seminars, workshops, and supervised practice.

Origins

The name allegedly recalls the multitasking skills associated with controlling the team of a horse-drawn stagecoach.

By the 1880s American college sports teams had -- in addition to managers -- coaches. Some time in the 20th century, non-sporting coaches emerged: non-experts in the specific technical skills of their clients, but who nevertheless ventured to offer generalised motivational or inspirational advice.

Recent practices in performance coaching in non-sporting environments focus on non-directive questioning, provocation and helping clients to analyze and solve their own challenges, rather than offering advice or direction (see Tim Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis or Myles Downey's Effective Coaching).

Coaching Types

Life coaching

Life coaching is a practice with the aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals. Life coaches use multiple methods that will help clients with the process of setting and reaching goals. Coaching is not targeted at psychological illness, and coaches are not therapists nor consultants.

Life coaching has roots in executive coaching, which itself drew on techniques developed in management consulting and leadership training. Life coaching also draws inspiration from disciplines including sociology, psychology, positive adult development, career counseling, mentoring, and other types of counseling. The coach may apply mentoring, values assessment, behavior modification, behavior modeling, goal-setting, and other techniques in helping their clients.

Government bodies have not found it necessary to provide a regulatory standard for life coaching nor does any state body govern the education or training standard for the life coaching industry, the title of "coach" can be used by any service provider. Multiple coaching schools and training programs are available, allowing for many options (and sometimes causing confusion) when an individual decides to gain "certification" or a "credential" as they apply to the coaching industry. Multiple certificates and credential designations are available within the industry.

Four standards and self-appointed accreditation bodies are internationally recognized: the International Coaching Council (ICC) , the International Coach Federation (ICF), the International Association of Coaching (IAC) and the European Coaching Institute (ECI). No independent supervisory board evaluates these programs, and they are all privately owned.

Some assert that life coaching is akin to psychotherapy without restrictions, oversight, or regulation. The State legislatures of Colorado after holding a hearing on such concerns, disagreed , asserting that coaching is unlike therapy because it does not focus on examining nor diagnosing the past. Instead coaching focuses on effecting change in a client's current and future behavior. Additionally, life coaching does not delve into diagnosing mental dysfunctions nor analyzing the past.

According to a survey of coaching clients, "sounding board" and "motivator" were the top roles selected for a coach. Clients are looking for a coach "to really listen to them and give honest feedback." The top three issues clients seek help on are time management, career, and business.

Integral coaching

Integral coaching draws on many sources: philosophy (especially 20th-century philosophy), biology, hermeneutics, spirituality, adult development theory, neuroscience, cognitive science and many more.

Fundamental to this method is attending to the entire person (body, mind, spirit, relationships, intentions, well-being, sense of belonging and meaning, viability, and so on) and to have as the mutually shared focus the deepening development of the client. This goes far beyond accomplishing goals and has far-reaching and long-lasting positive effects in the client’s life. These results include a greater sense of personal efficacy, a deeper experience of meaning and belonging, and a greater capacity to contribute.

Personal coaching

Personal Coaching is a relationship which is designed and defined in a relationship agreement between a client and a coach. It is based on the client's expressed interests, goals, and objectives.

Personal Coaching is a learning process. A Personal Coach may use inquiry, reflection, requests and discussion to help clients identify personal and/or business and/or relationship goals, develop strategies, relationships and action plans intended to achieve those goals. A coach provides a place for clients to be held accountable to themselves by monitoring the clients' progress towards implementation of their action plans. Together they evolve and modify the plan to best suit the client's needs and environmental relationships. A Personal Coach acts as a human mirror for clients by sharing an outside and unbiased perspective on what they are observing about their clients. A Personal Coach may teach specific insights and skills to empower the client toward their goals. Finally, a Personal Coach encourages the client to celebrate the achievement of milestones and goals.

Clients are responsible for their own achievements and success. The client takes action; and the coach may assist, but never leads or does more than the client. Therefore, a coach cannot and does not promise that a client will take any specific action or attain specific goals.

Personal Coaching is not counseling, therapy or consulting. These different skill sets and approaches to change may be adjunct skills and professions. The Personal Coach recognizes his/her limitations, and refers the client for other services as ethically required.

Business coaching

Business coaching is the practice of providing support and occasional advice to an individual or group in order to help them recognize ways in which they can improve the effectiveness of their business. It can be provided in a number of ways, including one-on-one tuition, group coaching sessions and large scale seminars. Business coaches are often called in when a business is perceived to be performing badly, however many businesses recognize the benefits of business coaching even when the organization is successful. Business coaches often specialize in different practice areas such as Executive Coaching, Corporate Coaching, and Leadership Coaching.

Business coaching is not the same as mentoring. Mentoring involves a developmental relationship between a more experienced "mentor" and a less experienced partner, and typically involves sharing of advice. A business coach can act as a mentor given that he or she has adequate expertise and experience however, mentoring is not a form of business coaching. A good business coach need not have specific business expertise and experience in the same field as the person receiving the coaching, in order to provide quality business coaching services.

Sports

see also sports trainer In sports, a coach or manager is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.

Dating coaching

Dating coaches are coaches whose job is to direct and train people to improve their success in dating and relationships.

Dating is not simple. A dating coach directs and trains his/her clients on various aspects of meeting and attracting long-term partners and meeting more compatible prospects. The focus of most programs is on confident and congruent communication.

Dating coaches may focus on topics important to the art of dating: interpersonal skills, flirting, psychology, sociology, compatibility, fashion, and recreational activities

Neil Strauss in The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists also focuses on neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), theories of persuasion, history, and evolutionary biology, body language, humor and street smarts.

Dating coaches typically charge rates similar to that of other professional counselors (e.g. $75-125/hour). Seminars involving multiple audience members typically charge less than one-on-one meetings, however.

There has been a stigma attached to those who seek help from dating coaches. Some counterarguments to this stigma are that most people have dating coaches in the form of older siblings, charismatic friends, or honest lovers; and that it is socially acceptable to seek coaches in other, potentially less important aspects of life such as guitar playing. A response to this is that dating is easier than activities like guitar playing, and coaches should be unnecessary. A counterargument to that response is that there are many people who have been out of the dating world for so long that the techniques that used to work for them (such as going out to bars) no longer work; and some people have barriers that they need to deal with before they can be successful.

Conflict coaching

Conflict coaching is a specialized niche in both the fields of coaching and conflict management. Conflict coaching may be used in an organizational context, for matrimonial and other relationship matters and is one of many conflict management tools for helping people improve their conflict management skills and abilities. Like many other techniques of this nature, it is premised on the view that conflict provides an opportunity to improve relationships, to create mutually satisfactory solutions and attain other positive outcomes when differences arise between and among people.

See also

• Leadership
• Procrastination
• Self-help

References