What Is Coaching?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

What is coaching?

The answer to this question is easy to find on the Internet and in many books. It happens that they will ask about this in a conversation, demanding clarification. This is where the fun begins.

A manager I knew asked me this question. I returned the question to him: "What do you know about coaching?" He replied: “I've heard good reviews, it’s probably a necessary thing… and I want to learn coaching from books”.

Why do you need coaching?

Indeed, coaching is a useful thing. But who and why? As a professional coach, I explain it to my godson as follows:

- We need to get from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Walking week. By bus 7 hours. By high-speed train 3, 5 hours. An hour by plane. Which option would you choose?

- Of course, the plane!

- Yes? Airplanes often cancel flights and this is not the safest form of transport.

- Then the fast train!

- Why the train?

- It's good, there is a lot of space, your ears are not blocked and you can do something else.

- Right. What else?

- There are comfortable chairs, you can walk, play and relax.

- Imagine that a person's life is like a journey from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Pedestrians are those who choose a route, but do not see the resources and other options around. Motorists are purposeful people with a plan. They achieve a lot with their hard work. Train passengers are those who have found for themselves the most optimal and safest of all possible options.

- But what about the passengers of the plane?

- They are few. These are those who use their special abilities: brilliant mind, brilliant talent, power, wealth, connections. They can quickly do things that will take others a lifetime.

- Do they need coaching?

“You see, it's like a train ticket. Everyone's choice of where to move. Someone is good at wandering through the forests, risking being in a swamp. Someone is pleased in the cabin of a foreign car with heated seats - has the right. Some even fly on their own plane.

- I'm confused. Can you explain what coaching is?

- Let's keep it simple. This is a compass with a terrain map for pedestrians, a navigator for a motorist, a reliable autopilot for an airplane.

- And for me?

- And for you, this is a competent tutor, with whom you can do your homework faster and better.

- Hooray! You will be my coach and I will have no more problems with English!

- With English? Well, of course. You will have an even greater desire to learn the language. You will clearly know why you need it. You will memorize the material faster. Better to tune in to study and rest.

- To rest?

- What do you think, my dear ?! Coaching can handle this too. If you want, I will teach you coaching when you grow up. Judging by the questions you ask me, you will make a great coach.

Better to see once

For adults, I recommend seeing once than hearing a hundred times. After the first coaching session, questions disappear by themselves. Competent client support is the best evidence of a coach's work. Achievement of the client's goals is clear evidence of the benefits of a new profession for Russia.

Today, the draft professional standard has been updated, according to which coaching is "the organization of independent activities of adults for the development and mobilization of internal and external resources to achieve goals." The goal of coaching is to improve the quality of decisions in the work and life of the client through a developing dialogue.

It is worth noting that coaching, like an exotic lychee fruit, must be tasted to get used to. It is both tasty and healthy, and its benefits are obvious.