What coaching is

“We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.”

Galileo Galilei

Simply, coaching is a process of uncovering new meaning and deeper awareness, and then growing and making better choices with that new information.

• Coaching helps people look at life from new perspectives. It’s about coming with questions, not with answers. Said differently, coaching isn’t about having your questions answered, it’s about having your answers questioned.
• Coaching is about accountability and action. The objective of coaching is to grow and change, but also to appreciate the journey. Coaching isn’t thinking the grass is always greener on the other side, it’s realizing that the grass is greener where we water it.
• Coaching is about transformative growth at the peak of performance. Just like in athletics, coaching is at its highest potential not when taking people from bad to good, or even good to great. Breakthrough coaching is taking people from great to exceptional.
• Coaching is about power questions that focus on the person, not the problem.
• The real value of coaching is tied to the value of the objective.

When people think about coaching, the image they conjure up is two people sitting across from each other where the dialogue focuses on what one of them can do differently. It’s far more than that.

• It’s more than a set of skills.
• It’s more than a conversation.
• It’s more than a periodic or sometime activity.
• It’s a chosen way to be! It’s deliberate.
• It’s a deep-rooted, systemic leadership philosophy.

In “also ran” businesses, coaching is a corporate training program. In best-in-class organizations, it’s embedded into the organization’s psyche. Nor should coaching be thought of as a series of stand-alone, independent discussions. Although the immediate focus may well be on individual and/or team performance, its real value lies in leaders working in concert to collectively “coach the organization.” That does not mean that every conversation should be a coaching conversation. To coach is to recognize and respond to “the coaching moment’’

What coaching isn’t

• Coaching is not therapy
• Coaching is not mentorship
• Coaching is not consulting
• Coaching is not managing

Purposeful Coaching helps you to accelerate:

· Emotional Intelligence Better perceive, manage, and handle emotions. Increased Emotional Intelligence is proven to positively affect your decision-making, memory and learning, relationships, health,  creativity, strengthening analytical skills.

· Intellectual Power Improve your ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills to solve problems, resulting in strengthened memory, focus, time management, and cultural awareness.

· Social Connections Build meaningful relationships through a heightened sense of connection and improved communication skills. Overcoming personal barriers (for example, overcoming the fear of public speaking).

· Spiritual Power Ground yourself in well-defined purpose, meaningful decisions, unwavering faith, and the practice of mindfulness.

· Physical Wellness Gain powerful motivation to improve your diet and nutrition, commit to physical exercise, and get better sleep and rest. Manage stress better through healthy routines.

· Financial Wellness Redefine your relationship with money to more effectively budget, set financial goals, and balance spending and saving.

Some examples of situations where coaching is a suitable development tool include:

• Supporting an individual’s potential and providing career support
• Developing a more strategic perspective after a promotion to a more senior role
• Handling conflict situations so that they are resolved effectively
• Dealing with the impact of change on an individual’s role
• Helping competent technical experts develop better interpersonal skills

It’s also important to remember that sometimes individuals may not respond well to coaching. This may be because their developmental needs are best dealt with by another type of intervention.