There are many definitions to coaching. Here are two examples:
- “Unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” ~ Whitmore (2003)
- “….helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses or organizations. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life”. ~ The International Coaching Federation’s (ICF, 2002)
The nature of coaching is developmental. That said, coaching is not teaching, not advising, not mentoring. By no mistake - teaching, advising and mentoring are all very important learning and development methods for different needs and purpose.
The role of the coach, is to help the coachee develop, so that coachee can eventually stretch beyond the current comfort zone, be able to pick up more tools and competencies for them to move towards their goals - whether for personal or professional life.
In the process, information is used primarily to help the coachee understands herself better, less so to for the coach’s clarity. Even when we have your psychometric readings, our purpose is to use that to facilitate coachee’s exploration.
Some coaches compare themselves to Sherpas at the Himalayas – our role is to enable, guide, lead the terrain, so that the coachee arrives at the peak he/she identifies to climb towards.
For coaching to be effective, you need to be targeted, and very importantly to trust
- the process
- the coach's stewardship, and
- the resourcefulness in you and dare to put it to work
Would these be something you can work on?
If your answer is a “YES!”, you have a very good chance of getting beyond your money's worth in coaching. 😊