Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and business potential.
The coaching relationship is a strong, resilient, dependable and safe vehicle in which change can take place for the person being coached. Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.
A coach is not a problem solver, teacher, advisor, instructor or expert. A coach is a listener, sounding board and awareness-raiser. Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach's job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has.
All areas of coaching are most often characterized by one-to-one interactions that often are provided through face-to-face or telephone conversations. These interactions share three essential core competencies: connection, clarification and commitment.
The core competencies are intertwined with one another in a continuous cycle of exploration and discovery of the espoused theory (what they say) and the theory in use (what they are observed doing) of the person being coached. The lack of integrity or coherence between these two theories is fertile ground for coaching interactions. In this way, the core competencies become the primary tool to surface and explore the discrepancy between the espoused theory and the theory in use. In addition, the competencies enhance the emotional intelligence of the person being coached, promoting personal, interpersonal and organizational effectiveness.
Each coaching session typically is result or goal-directed with emphasis on the person being coached taking action and sustaining changes over time. This action often is to improve performance in a specific area of interest to the person being coached and his or her employer, family and friends.