6.5: 12 Essential Elements In Coaching

Coaching: helping another person to improve awareness, to set and achieve goals in order to improve a particular behavioural performance.

Coaching can take many forms, life coaching, business coaching, performance coaching etc. As with mentoring and counselling it is about helping the individual to gain self awareness, but it is goal focused and action is required so that the individual can move forward. The goal setting process has two components: skill development and psychological development. The outcome sought is that the "coachee" will achieve the goals set, and

I think it is safe to say that the coach has several roles to perform; with the main objective being to develop the person being coached. This can be achieved by increasing self-confidence, identifying relevant and suitable topics for coaching as well as agreeing the setting of suitable planned tasks to support the learning process.

A coach or mentor can help to give guidance and support as challenges are faced, assisting staff in negotiating challenging situations with increased confidence.

One definition of coaching is “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance.” (Coaching for performance, Sir John Whitmore 1992). Or to expand on this; Simply defined, coaching is one person guiding another through a process, leading to performance enhancement. The applications can vary, support to achieve a specific project, helping an individual to do better what they already do well, or developing a skill they don't yet possess.

What is your coaching philosophy? (The beliefs and principles that will serve as your guide to action)

The use of coaching by individuals and organizations has increased rapidly in last decade. As role of coaching is growing over the time, so has the need to find ways of assuring quality of the coaching services being provided. Coaching supervision is an essential part for continuous professional development of coaches. It’s the essential link between theory and coaching practice, the main source of assuring quality, to mitigate the risks may inherent in coaching. It can also help to increase the return on an investment in coaching and to provide evidence of that return.

The coach will need to understand learning theories and styles and other issues which affect learners such as their age, health or gender. For example, if the coach has a group of pragmatists then they will need to offer more opportunities for practice and use demonstrations to teach new techniques. A group of reflectors will need to be given more opportunities to discuss what they are learning and time to think before they take part in practical activities. If the coach is working with participants with health issues then they need to understand the additional risks to those they are coaching and, for example, may need to build up activities more slowly.

Coaching allows an individual to ‘unlock’ their potential through use of questioning techniques to find their own solutions and develop

Executive Coaching is an exciting field of opportunity; an opportunity for the executive to grow out of their old self and into something (situation) or someone new. The growth may be tremendous or it can be more subtle getting the executive or manager to reach a place of improved performance and through the process they come from the strain of stress to the gain of satisfaction of a job well done. Coaching shifts the executives into a new process of being, in the executive’s personal life and professional life.

What is coaching – “The coach works with the clients to achieve a speedy, increased and sustainable effectiveness in their lives and careers through focused learning. The coach’s sole aim is to work with the client to achieve all of the client’s potential-as defined by the client” The Coaching Manual Starr, J 2008.

The coach tirelessly pursues personal education, formally and informally, both in the performance related sciences and in liberal arts. He sees the journey to coaching excellence as a never ending story; seen not only in terms of a chosen sport and coaching theory and practice, but in understanding how to successfully live a balanced and full life, while facing tougher and tougher challenges in the chosen field of endeavour.

Coaching, however challenging, is a great way to influence the lives of others while also building their character. For as long as there have been sports, there have been people teaching the sport to the players and making them better at it. Coaches must have certain qualities in order to obtain success. One must also look at a coach’s motivation for his job, his passion for what he does, his methods for coaching, and how he became a coach in order to fully understand him. There are many questions someone may want to ask a coach about his profession if they are interested in coaching. Some questions would include: Why did he choose this as a profession? How did he get into coaching? What does one have to do to get a job as a coach? How

… an ongoing partnership that helps clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance and enhance their quality of life ……

It should also be seen as means through which goals are set clear and action delegated within an organization. Direction need to be provided to the employees during the coaching process.