What is coaching?
Coaching
The word coaching can mean different things to different people, however, broadly speaking this process allows individuals or groups to understand themselves, gain awareness of who they are and what is important to them. To seek out their potential strengths and weaknesses, to facilitate the options so they can make the changes needed to progress in life.
Coaches provide space for exploration so that challenging questions can be asked in order to facilitate the optimum outcome. This relationship is normally collaborative, pushing the client to reflect and seek their own solutions.
Different coaching styles
Democratic coaching
Democratic coaching gives the team/individual freedom and accountability, with the coach facilitating decision making and goal setting. This style is very much client centered, and the client shape their own objectives under a framework outlined by the coach.
Authoritarian coaching
Authoritarian coaching is basically “my way or the highway”. The coach decides what to do and when and how to do it, the team just need to listen and understand. This coaching style is normally used with inexperienced teams/workforces.
Holistic coaching
I prefer to work in a holistic style as it encourages the concept that everything is connected, that individuals are a sum of all their parts. It can build a strong connection within teams as it employs methods that encourages responsibility for each team member. Various techniques such as mindfulness and stress management are commonly used to help the team/individual manage conflict.
Why you may need a coach
Firstly, coaching is not counselling, it is not a crisis intervention. If you feel that your life is in a good place but at the same time you sense that you could be more and that you are ready for further development, then it is time you contacted a coach to get you there.
A fine example of this was a client of mine, Justin Burton, who was providing piano and violin lessons from his home, the business was doing great until the Covid19 epidemic hampered all of his efforts. We discussed the options and I put it to him to try online tutoring, he was reluctant but he took on the challenge. Within two weeks all of his students were having lessons on line. Due to the ease of online tutoring not only have his numbers increased, he can now advertise globally for new students.
Sometimes life can provide you with difficult challenges that require an objective view from outside. Maybe a divorce, or thinking about a career change, starting a new business. These transitions can be a good time to bring in a coach who can provide a different perspective that challenge the status quo and at the same time provide some much needed support.
As an entrepreneur you can sometimes get caught up in the day-to-day running of your business. You almost become a slave to the business, it starts to run you. To develop your business and be creative it may require a new perspective, someone to come in and point out things that you may have overlooked. In this case a coach is like a business consultant with extra added knowledge and experience.
Everyone is unique and requires an exclusive approach to their circumstances. Some clients may need that extra assistance in identifying their model of thinking or self-defeating behaviour. This requires qualifications in the cognitive approach to coaching. Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC) is a very powerful coaching model that utilizes evidence based psychological models.
You may already be aware that the basic premise of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is to understand the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours. In essence, thoughts create feelings causing behaviour to happen. It could be said: “change your thoughts, change your life.”
If a client presents that they would like to improve their relationship with their partner, we don’t need to explore their past relationships with their parents or previous partners. This is not counselling! We discuss what outcomes they want, then help them to facilitate the steps needed to achieve these outcomes by using CBC techniques.
Regardless of where you are in your life or where you want to arrive, coaching can be a very powerful tool to help you achieve your goals.
If you want to know more about how coaching can help you, feel free to reach out.
