What Coaching Is and Is Not
Coaching is …
A professional service that helps people achieve extraordinary results in their lives by partnering with them in a coaching relationship.
Coaches hold their clients to be creative, resourceful, and whole in their ability to chart a course for change in their lives.
Clients choose their goals for coaching, with areas of focus for learning and development based on their concerns and cares.
Coaches help deepen that focus by sharing observations, asking powerful questions, and creating awareness for the purpose of a client’s growth.
Clients and coaches design actions and practices (“home” work) that put new possibilities into play between coaching sessions.
Reflections on learning and the coaching process provide clients a way to manage and measure their progress.
Coaches provide a context of accountability, holding space for clients to follow through with their commitments and explore openings in their lives.
Coaching is useful when a client…
is seeking new direction or is at a crossroads
has a goal, challenge, or opportunity that is urgent, compelling, and/or exciting
has a gap in knowledge, skills, confidence, or resources
wants to accelerate results
wants to relate more effectively with others
wants to examine work/life integration
wants to examine and leverage core strengths
Adapted from the International Coach Federation’s Coaching Core Competencies and “Frequently Asked Questions about Coaching.”
What coaching is not …
Consulting services are used to bring the consultant’s experience and expertise to a particular personal or organizational problem. They typically act to advise the client, offering specific recommendations for action based on their judgment of the client’s current situation.
Mentoring may be confused with coaching because it involves a one-on-one relationship that is designed to support the mentee. A good mentor is a coach. However, mentors may also provide guidance based on their own experience and skill, offering the mentee a role model for the development of skills and knowledge they may emulate. A coach does not provide such role modeling (unless they are a mentor coach to a client that is becoming a coach).
Training is intended to cause learning, based on objectives as established by the instructor. Training typically has an established learning path, often set forth in a curriculum that may be measured against external assessment standards. While coaching typically results in learning, coaching does not involve a set course of study. Any objectives for learning are set by the coaching client and the path of learning is the result of a collaborative relationship between coach and client.
Therapeutic counseling shares some elements of coaching, including the revelation of client self-awareness and behaviors that lead to better living. However, a coach does not diagnose a client’s problem or hold responsibility for designing treatments that are intended to return the client to health and wellness. Nor does coaching dwell in a deep exploration of past issues or feelings. Instead, coaching is a partnership that goes where the client leads, with the coach helping support the process. The client is ultimately responsible for developing possibilities for the life they already lead, with intentions for a future that only they may choose.