WHAT IS COACHING?
DEFINITION
International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as a thought- provoking and creative partnership with clients that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.
Coaching is a relationship where a coach and a client are viewed as equals who work together to achieve the goals of the client (also called the 'coachee'). The process of coaching zooms in on the coachee's areas of weaknesses that affect their well- being and thus results in their eventual speedy and effective learning.
The role of the coach is to align the beliefs and values of his client so as to open the way for new consciousness and practices that would benefit the client. In order to perform their role, a coach has to be equipped with various interpersonal skills, such as powerful questioning, deep listening, somatic intervention, NLP, psycho-cybernetics, gestalt, ontology, cognitive psychology, emotional intelligence, spiritual approach and other relevant skills.
WHEN WOULD A LEADER NEED A COACH?
Many leaders unconsciously sabotage their own success. Despite their experience, skills and good intention something deep hold them back. Unfortunately, the higher leader's position, the less likely he will receive feedbacks. They become more isolated and lonely at the top.
Coaching helps leaders to have a safe space for facing the truths about himself. Coaching invites leaders to delve deeper and find more about limiting patterns. Finding what is in misalignment within his mind, body and expressions.
Through coaching sessions leaders learn how to transition awareness to embodiment of new practices. The coach will help navigate how leaders build new muscle of being that will be manifested in his presence and conversations.
PICKING YOUR COACH
A good coach is someone whose authenticity and presence can create a climate of trust and intimacy with their client. Trust is a key factor for a successful working relationship between a coach and his client.
A good coach is also able to demonstrate that he or she is holding a high degree of ethical standard. Confidentiality is at the center of each coaching engagement.
It is important for a coach to give his client's interests his full presence and attention.
When a client speaks of things that are important to him and demonstrates growth in his mindset and sense of self, a good coach should be able to recognise these and facilitate further improvements in their client's developing headspace. A coach should have the ability to ask questions that reveal vital information needed to benefit his working relationship with the client. He should be able to communicate effectively during his coaching sessions and use clear, articulate and direct language when observing and giving feedback that would positively impact his clients.
A coach should be equipped with the ability to integrate and accurately capture the system dynamics that would help his client to expand his perspective. A coach should keep abreast with his client’s plan, learning style and pace and reinforce his own commitment towards his goals.
“The essence of coaching is growing the whole person to grow the whole leader. This means facilitating leaders to connect to their core values and core talents to their organization, to their customer, and to their lives"
--- Kevin Cashman
HOW A COACH WORKS
There is no straight rule or formula on how a coach works. However there is a conventional wisdom on how a good coach should organise their work with the client.
An engagement for Executive Coaching, usually offers a minimum of 6 sessions of coaching, for up to 12 sessions. The number of session depends on the client's needs.
The first meeting would focus on coaching agreement, goal setting, trust building and discussions of agendas that the client deems pertinent to his learning outcome.
As the client starts to recognise and work on his limiting patterns, the coach will introduce practices that would enable the client to have a heightened state of awareness and more effective responses.
Each session could open the door to new possibilities and new courses of actions. The end- point of these sessions is to have the client shift and adopt new practices that strengthen their leadership effectiveness.
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