What Coaching Is

admin — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:25:52 +0000

28 Jan 2007 NST Published Article by Jennifer Low Yuen Fah

“IT doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.” With these words, the ancient native American elder epitomised the heart piercing inquiry of a life coach.

Coaching helps one learn how to craft more effortless lives. It also happens in the domains of sports and trade skills apprenticeship. It is increasingly applied in corporate and financial investment circles. Coaches are hired either by organisations or privately by individuals.

Before you decide on your coach hire, you need to know whether the professional is effective.

“Will you gain the coaching benefits that are worth your time and financial investment?” Ask the coach for a complimentary one-on-one coaching session, or to describe to you client case referrals:

“Tell me about your coaching success and lessons.” The book, Coach Passport: A World of Possibilities (2007), gives you a good list of coaching services that could serve your specific purposes:

Attraction coaching
Business acumen coaching
Board effectiveness coaching
Career coaching
Coaching on crisis and bereavement
Coaching for educational excellence
Coaching entrepreneurs
Coaching expatriates
Coaching for financial planning
Coaching for middle-managers
Coaching on parenting skills
Coaching teenagers
Coaching on work/life balance and time management
Culture change coaching
High potential professional coaching
Innovation coaching
Investment coaching
Leadership coaching
Performance coaching
Personal evolution coaching
Relationship (and matchmaking business) coaching
Third age coaching for retirees
Wellness/fitness coaching

As a new profession (about 10 years formally), coaching is still a largely self-regulated industry. As a result, there are many individuals who call themselves coaches who have not been formally trained in uniquely coachspecific skills.

These individuals have not “unlearned” old skill sets and are instead transferring skill sets from other professions into their coaching. Often this results in an inadequate or ineffective coaching experience for clients.

Be diligent in checking on your coach experience, credentials and code of ethics as well as their level of exposure to your world. The International Coach Federation (www.coachfederation.org) provides useful guidelines on professional coach experience, credentials and code of ethics.

It is important to separate genuine coach competence and professionalism from mere marketing gimmicks and rhetoric. There will be less masterful coaches who will inflict their coaching models on you as soon as they hear enough to form their own assumptions.

They drive your ‘solutions’. Sometimes a coach’s hard-hitting style can grate on you. Consider the case of a coach who told an ambitious woman entrepreneur,

“You’ll never be your role model, Donald Trump, so get real and get on with building your own business plans.”

She went away simmering with anger and resentment for days. Then she worked on her action plan — which did bring her business results. Different coaches will have different approaches.

At its best, your coaching experience will be holistic. The coach focuses entirely on you and your coaching agenda. Masterful coaching from the heart works to connect you to your deepest life desires.

Coaching benefits often continue to develop long after your coaching relationship is over. Research findings have shown the impact of coaching. So now that you know what’s in it for you, can you afford not to have a coach? In considering your response, allow this Ojibway (native American Indian) saying to serve as a wake-up call:

Ten years ago…
I turned my face for a moment
And it became my life,
Sometimes I go about pitying myself,
And all along
My soul is being blown by great winds across the sky.

Vtalent

What Coaching Is