There has been a lot of controversy and ambiguity around coaching and coaching for some time. You can often meet with extreme opinions about this method. Enthusiasts are ready to subject every life problem to coaching, and people who have experienced unprofessional coaching or have mistaken this method of development for other forms of education or support, often have a negative opinion about the world of coaches. That is why, when considering the possibility of using a coach's service, it is worth getting acquainted with some basic information about this method of personal development and the methods most often confused with it.
In recent years, the word coaching has been abbreviated by all cases, often wrongly used as a synonym for training, counseling or even "a new method of therapy". It is true that well-conducted coaching can be a response to many challenges in professional and personal life, but it is based on the client's readiness for change. Without this element, the process seems meaningless.
Who is a coach?
A coach is a specialist who is able to document the completion of appropriate courses, training or postgraduate studies in this field. It is also important for him to be able to demonstrate an education that enables him to work with a human being (psychologist, educator, etc.). The coach's awareness and knowledge of deciding whether the difficulty with which the client comes is a material for coaching work is also extremely important, or whether it should be redirected to another specialist, e.g. a therapist or psychotherapist.
Formally, the coach profession is not regulated by law, so it is worth taking care of yourself who you entrust with tasks such as support or personal development, taking care of the quality of the service for which you pay. The basic principle that guides this trend of personal development is the assumption that the client is not broken and does not need to be repaired. It is he who has all the resources and all the wisdom to overcome the difficulties that is the subject of his coaching.
Coach cannot advise or provide ready-made prescriptions.He is to accompany the client in reaching the best solution, but support in discovering and developing the resources that will make it possible. There are many trends or types of coaching due to the areas it deals with. Two main trends in coaching concern the areapersonal and professional life: "business coaching" and "life coaching". An issue that is often discussed in sessions is the "goal" and all that is related to its achievement.
What is life coaching?
The common denominator of clients who use life coaching is the accompanying feeling of pointlessness or even stuck in a dead end, the feeling that they do not know what they want and where they are going. Often, clients come to sessions with a pre-defined goal in mind. In many cases, it begins with verifying whether this initially declared goal is actually a person's need or not, by chance, a response to the expectations of others.
Another difficulty that is often the subject of the session is the so-called straw enthusiasm, i.e. a situation in which the client has his goal, but usually does not reach it and wants to look at, for example, his motivation or resources that will help him reach the finish this time.
It also happens that the client knows what he is striving for, but has no idea how to do it. The main difference between life coaching and professional coaching does not lie in the method, because this one is exactly the same, but in the primary motivation to work in a given area.
What is business coaching?
Usually, the person ordering the coach's service in this arrangement is the boss / supervisor who treats such sessions as an investment in the employee. This is often associated with a planned promotion.
Topics most often taken up in this situation are a new role or even professional identity. Well-conducted coaching is an excellent catalyst accelerating the effective implementation of new tasks by an employee. Business coaching is also an effective tool for developing adaptive skills, managing a company, a specific team, exploring client resources, etc. Knowing and improving one's abilities, changing attitudes, behavior, beliefs - these topics usually appear at professional sessions.
Coaching is an effective and fairly quick tool that helps the client to make changes or achieve a specific goal. However, it should be remembered that it is not the same as therapy, training, counseling or mentoring.
This will be useful to youCoach or trainer, or troublesome nomenclature
The very name of the coach causes many difficulties in the context of distinguishing training from coaching. Translating literally from English, the coach and the trainer are actually the same thing. However, when analyzing the type of support or service that is hidden under each of these concepts, both are fundamentally different from each other.
What is coaching?
Coaching is a process that is usually involvedthe coach and his client, the so-called group coaching. The specialist, with the help of appropriate questions, guides you through the process of reaching the best way to deal with the difficulty that the client wanted to work on. The coach does not advise, teach or provide ready-made solutions. It is a companion that stimulates the development of the coachee. Its assumption is the belief that it is the client who knows the best answers in relation to himself and that it is in him that the resources for the best solution are found. It is the customer who is the main force that provides the information necessary to discover and achieve your goals.
What is training?
A training or a workshop (a shallower form of work) is a method of personal development, usually of a group nature. The main task is to acquire or develop specific skills. During the training, the client learns the techniques of strengthening individual competences, gets instructions on how to use these methods, has the opportunity to try them out on himself and exchange experiences on this topic with other participants of the classes. The trainer usually passes on knowledge to clients, provides answers, and watches over the process of improving selected skills.
It is important that both the coach and the trainer have appropriate education and competences proving preparation for work in the area of support or personal development. Therefore, I encourage you to check who will guide you through the process before deciding to participate in the training or coaching process.
In conclusion, coaching is not a remedy for all problems, although it is very helpful in dealing with many everyday difficulties. His task is to extract from the client those resources that will allow him to take responsibility for his decisions and plans, showing that he is an expert in his life.