What is coaching: history, facts, step-by-step algorithm of work

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AUTHOR:

Dmitry Stadnik
Let's immediately decide what the answer to the question should be...

• Infobusiness
• Consulting

What is coaching in simple words - 5 important facts

Let's immediately decide what the answer to the question of what coaching is in simple words should be. The correct answer is not just a consultation. When I chose coaching for myself, I thought so too, and thought that I knew what it was really like.

But in practice everything turned out a little more complicated than I expected. Or rather, it’s not even more difficult, but completely different. Now I know exactly what coaching is, how it differs from consultation, mentoring, consulting and training.

Therefore, here we will understand all the modern tools that serve the same purpose, but we will provide more facts specifically for coaching. So you will have no more questions on this topic. And I will try to do everything in as human a language as possible. Because…

Perhaps you have already chosen a coaching school yourself and are deciding for yourself to be or not to be? Then this article will help you decide whether this activity is for you or not. Well, at the end of the article, as usual, secret secrets.

• What is coaching and what does the word coach mean?
• Coaching is not what it seems
• Fact #1: Coaching is not about teaching other people.
• Fact #2: The position of a coach is not the position of a mentor.
• Fact #3: Coaching is not consulting.
• Fact #4: Coaching Really Works
• Fact #5: The main problem of all coaches
• What to do if you decide to become a coach?

As a preamble, we will give some standard definitions and terms so that you can get more benefit from your reading.

Skills needed to be a good coach

The most important attribute of a real trainer is the ability to support and guide the learning process of his client. A good coach does not consider himself an expert who can solve all problems and get answers to all questions. Instead, he has a strong desire to help the person find the answers themselves.

There are a number of key skills that you will need in coaching. To become a real master, you must:

1. Have high emotional intelligence: understand people well, treat them with respect and show interest. You must truly want to see other people develop and grow.
2. Show empathy and be able to build relationships.
3. Have developed communication skills.
4. Accumulate information and convey it to the person you are teaching. As a rule, the coach has well-developed active listening skills.
5. Be able to focus on deeply understanding a problem by organizing and evaluating input data.
6. Ask questions correctly. It is believed that a coach should never give an opinion, but only ask questions to guide the person being coached in an advisory role.
7. Be tolerant, give the person time to try their hand. The coach should not get annoyed if the client makes mistakes, but rather focus on finding ways to correct the situation. Tact, diplomacy and balance are skills that must be in the arsenal of a good coach.
8. Proficient in various tools for interacting with people (psychoanalysis, neurolinguistic programming, Gestalt therapy, etc.).

A true coach is truly happy when the person he is coaching achieves success.

Coaching creates an invaluable space for personal development. Moreover, this is a promising industry that is just beginning to develop in Russia, and it is likely that in the near future another official profession will appear on the labor market - coaching. It is worth noting that already a certified trainer receives from 2 to 50 thousand rubles for one hour of work.

Therefore, the answer to the question “Does it make sense to study coaching?” sounds like this: yes. Of course, being a coach is not an easy job. You need to be responsible for another person, to be his guide in achieving goals and making dreams come true.

Friends, if you are the type of person who enjoys being responsible, gets satisfaction from serving others, and is happy when you see the expression of gratitude on the face of someone you have helped, then you might make an excellent coach. Go ahead, don’t be afraid to learn new things and good luck!

We also recommend reading:

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• Business motivation model
• Business strategy development
• Development of a marketing strategy
• Six Emotional Leadership Styles
• Customer Journey Map: what is the value of a customer journey map and how to create it
• Game "Balloon" for team building
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Keywords:1LLL, 1Communication

What is coaching and what does the word coach mean?

In general, coaching is a process in which people or a group of people are helped to act more effectively to achieve their goals. At the same time, people should use exactly those skills and abilities that they do best and most productively.

In practice, coaching is a certain period of time during which all these skills and abilities are revealed in a person. As a rule, professional coaches are those people who conduct coaching and call such periods of time coaching sessions.

The main thing that I already know at this stage of my training at a coaching school is that coaching is not the process of achieving the results needed for a person or a team. This is precisely the identification of a person’s inner potential.

Yourselfbranding

By the way, while I was writing these lines, I remembered that tomorrow I have another training module. You will read below about exactly how the learning process works in a good version.

One more important detail. The coaching methodology is aimed at achieving results, not solving problems. Often people come to coaching sessions with their own problems, and not with a clearly formulated goal. And the task of a good coach is to identify the goal and the results that the other person strives for. By the way, those people who come with a specific request are called coaches (emphasis on the last syllable).

But in the Russian-speaking space, it is not customary to call “coached” people that way, because it is more like the plural of coach). Therefore, let's agree that I will call such people clients.

So, the most important thing that a coach needs to achieve during a session is to keep responsibility on the client.

But what does the word coach itself mean? It comes from the English word couch and means nothing more than a cart, van or carriage in which a person moves from point A to point B. And if you think about it, in reality a coach is a kind of platform that moves a person in time and space, but This platform is operated by the person himself.

Coaching is not what it seems

When I myself tried to find the difference between coaching and other types of services in business consulting in the simplest words, I was faced with the idea that the coaches themselves do not know the difference between coaching and training. After reading articles by such “specialists,” I chose coaching for my first certification.

But it turned out to be completely different from what I expected. At first I thought about backing out, and only the habit of bringing everything to the end, even if not the best result was visible on the horizon, saved me from such a decision.

And all because many “gurus” think that coaching is when a coach works with a client one on one, and training is when there are many clients, and the coach works with a group of people at once. This is an extremely incorrect interpretation and confusion of concepts. In a good way, it would be worth writing a separate material in order to understand what training is. But today we’re only talking about coaching.

So, friends. Coaching can be either individual or group. And if you have chosen a coach to solve your problems, then just ask him what is the difference between training and group coaching. If you receive a clear answer, which I will describe below, then congratulations: you have chosen a good specialist.

Now for some more misconceptions. There is an opinion that coaching can be divided into 2 subtypes: freestyle and process.

Freestyle, free style, is a type of coaching in which the client purchases several hours of sessions from the coach in advance for a variety of tasks, and an action plan for solving these problems is created during the work.

Therefore, process-based is when the client has a vision of his future and his goals, and the coach, based on the data received, builds a step-by-step plan for realizing such prospects using algorithms and processes.

If you want to find yourself a good specialist or become one, then both of these statements should become taboo for you. No specialist who respects himself and his client will work in a free style, since there are certain rules for conducting a session. Also, no coach will arrange any further actions for the client.

Because coaching is when the client does everything himself. And the main task of the coach is not to leave a single step from the position of the coach during the session. Now do you understand what the point is? The client, through his awareness of the problem, does what he needs.

The coach does nothing instead of the client, because he has a completely different task. To get a little closer to understanding who a coach is, watch the TV series “Billions.” It very clearly shows the work of such a specialist in a company that makes money from the resale of assets.

Types of coaching

Despite the fact that coaching can be globally divided into business and life coaching, the concept of the method is based on the fact that everything in a person’s life should be harmonious. Since one area of ​​life can greatly influence another. For example, when working on business tasks, a person may experience insufficient energy to implement them due to feelings of guilt towards his family, to which he does not devote due time and attention. A sensitive coach will pay attention to this in time and help the client, through strengthening relationships (personal sphere), to obtain the desired results in work.

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Globally, coaching is divided into two areas:

• Business coaching . _ This, as a rule, is work with the top officials of the company, with top managers and owners. The format of work in business can be either individual or team. In both cases, the joint work of coach and client is focused on the goals and objectives of the organization. Currently, companies have a growing need for employees who show initiative, responsibility and awareness. This, in turn, leads to the fact that elements of coaching begin to be introduced at the level of line management. In some companies (especially Westernized ones), the coaching approach becomes part of the organization's culture.
• Life coaching is about addressing the client's life as a whole. A life coach works with a variety of requests from various areas of life. For example, building a career, finding a partner, starting a family, establishing harmonious relationships, achieving a balance between work and family, improving health, self-realization, finding purpose, etc. The coach’s task is to help a person find life balance in all areas of his life, through the discovery of talents and abilities, as well as the use of all internal resources.

A person who is confused or dissatisfied with his life, with the help of a professional, is able to work through all life situations, find a way out of the current situation and determine the best paths for further development and self-improvement. The work of a coach is aimed at helping a person achieve the fullness of human life, awakening integrity and inner harmony. Addressing a person’s entire life as a whole can give him harmonious unity with himself and with the world.

Fact #1: Coaching is not about teaching other people.

If you have already watched at least one episode of the series “Billions,” you should have noticed that the coach’s client does everything himself: he finds a problem, builds a goal and draws up an action plan.

Therefore, coaching is not about teaching other people. It is assumed that the people who take the session are competent enough to solve all the tasks assigned, and also have all the resources for this. Both physical and mental.

The most important thing is that coaching requires a productive change in thinking, and not the acquisition of any new knowledge. In this case, correct goal setting is of particular importance.

It may seem that coaching is very focused on the problems of the situation, but, nevertheless, the main focus is on achieving results. At the same time, a good specialist should push the client to deeply study the current situation. But not from the position of solving the problems that exist now, but from the position of finding resources to set and achieve goals.

Once again, the task of coaching is not training, but the development of new skills in strategic thinking and action in the future. Problems and conflicts that existed in the past cannot be solved by coaching.

Yourselfbranding

A coaching session is about what awaits the client in the future, and not about what happened in his past. If you want a coach to teach you something new, then you need another specialist. If you want to solve your current problems, then a coaching session will definitely not help you.

I am sincerely surprised why the Internet is teeming with a flock of coaches, but none of them can explain to the common man how they can be useful to him. In response, we usually get a bunch of “obscene” words like: facilitation, transformation, meditation, mediation, and so on.

Even I could not avoid terminology and mentioned the “position” of the coach.

The concept of "coaching"

In the last century, the definition of “coach” was used in everyday life by students of English institutions. This is what they called tutors who help you effectively master a subject. Connoisseurs of this language may wonder why modern coaching specialists use the word “carriage” (coach translation from English). This is actually a fairly accurate definition. The coach becomes a kind of vehicle for the client. You can get to your goal much faster by carriage than by walking to it, wandering along unfamiliar roads.

Coaching has a specific range of tasks. Specialist:

• clarifies goals;
• evaluates their reality taking into account the client’s characteristics;
• develops a plan to achieve results;
• helps to realize them.

Each person has the opportunity to achieve certain successes, competently arrange personal relationships, using individual characteristics. But often a person does not take into account his own characteristics, uses general recommendations, popular guidelines, imposed goals that do not correspond to personal abilities and inclinations. Dissonance arises, which leads to disappointment and endless problems. Coaching promotes the realization of individual qualities and their effective use in professional activities and personal life.

Fact #2: The position of a coach is not the position of a mentor.

This is really something that many experts are silent about, but in vain. Because, in my opinion, without understanding this fact it is impossible to explain in human terms what coaching is.

So, my friends. There is such a thing as a coaching position. Any deviation from this position, and even more so getting used to the role of a mentor (mentor), is a gross mistake on the part of the specialist. A coach does not teach or give advice. Therefore, he cannot be a mentor.

Here are a few mistakes that lead to losing your coaching position:

1. Failure to make coaching strategic. The coach should pay attention not only and not so much to current goals and results, but to focus the client on strategic results.

1. The coach talks too much. During a coaching session, the client speaks 80% of the time, the coach speaks 20%. Yes, yes, the same Pareto rule works here.

1. Failure to convey to the client the benefits of stress and tension. As soon as the client’s tension is detected, it must be resolved by directing it to useful actions.

1. Failure to grasp what the client is actually saying. You need to watch not only the words, but also the intonation and gestures, which sometimes clarify the situation even better than words.

1. Perceiving the client's problem as one's own. If the client has a situation that is familiar to the coach, then most likely this will lead to falling out of the coaching role and giving advice.

1. To give advice. Based on his situation, a coach can give advice, but this is a grave mistake. Because what one person has already done cannot always be done by another.

It is strict adherence to the coach’s position that is the key to conducting a successful coaching session, which can help the client develop new skills and build a successful strategy to achieve the desired results.

More and more often, coaching has begun to be used specifically in the development of professional skills. Moreover, it is so common that some people have developed a stereotype that coaching is almost the same as consulting.

Fact #3: Coaching is not consulting.

In a broad sense, consulting is something that is related exclusively to business. But it should be remembered that consulting is ordinary consultations, renamed in a Western manner for the purpose of repackaging and marketing benefits.

Since coaching is increasingly associated with business processes, the line between it and consulting is considered blurred. But it is not so.

Yourselfbranding

The topic of consulting is a topic for deeper study and deserves a separate article. For a clearer understanding of the difference between consulting and coaching, let’s make some clarifications. There are three types of consulting:

1. Methodological. When a client is given a technique and he implements it independently

1. Joint. When the client implements the technique under the strict guidance of a specialist.

1. Full construction. When a specialist implements a technique for a client independently.

To understand that coaching is completely different, you can compare a coach to a running coach:

1. Can an athlete independently implement long- or short-distance running techniques? Obviously, it can, but the coach should always be nearby and direct all the athlete’s efforts to those elements of running that are not working out as desired.
2. Can a pre-planned methodology be successfully implemented for an athlete runner? Obviously yes, but the coach’s task is to understand the current situation of his ward, choose the best training option for this particular person and, thus, reveal his potential.
3. Can a coach run at the Olympics instead of his student? Obviously not.

This is a classic example for understanding coaching - the coach acts as a sports trainer. In my understanding, such a comparison is not entirely correct, but to clarify the difference between consulting and traditional coaching, it is quite acceptable.

The most important thing is that counseling people should be considered a type of activity in which training takes place in one way or another. And you and I have already agreed that coaching is not what it seems.

In addition, coaching, unlike consulting, involves observing and accompanying the client to the result in order to make sure whether the client actually carried out all the planned steps and achieved the result.

History of coaching

“Coaching (coaching from English - “training”) is a teaching method during which a person called a “coach” helps the student achieve a certain life or professional goal. Unlike mentoring, coaching focuses on achieving clearly defined goals rather than overall development.

Coach is a trainer in English-speaking countries. As a term, it came into Russian from English, and in English it comes from the name of a cargo vehicle, which was named after its place of origin.

The first use of the word “coach” to refer to an instructor was recorded around 1830 at the University of Oxford - a “coach” in slang began to be called a person who helps a student prepare for an exam. The word "coaching" has come to mean "getting people from where they are to where they want to be." In sports, the use of this word was first recorded in 1861.

The development of coaching has been influenced by many fields of knowledge, including pedagogy, psychology (including sports, clinical, social and industrial), leadership theories and others. Since the mid-1990s, coaching has developed into a separate discipline, with professional associations such as the Coaching Association, the International Coach Federation and the European Coaching and Mentoring Council being involved in the development of training standards.

Initially, coaching developed thanks to research in the field of sports psychology: important for the development of coaching were the works of sports coach Timothy Gallwey, who created his own humanistic principle and an entire school of coaching that influenced many leading coaches in Great Britain and his student John Whitmore. Gallwey's book, The Inner Game of Tennis, is often cited as the first major publication to pivot from sports coaching to life coaching, developed into a separate discipline by Werner Erhard, Laura Whitworth, John Whitmore and Thomas Leonard.

Janet Harvey, president of the International Coach Federation, believes that the development of coaching began in the 1970s with the Human Development Movement and Erhard's training company. Thomas Leonard, who founded Coach U, the International Coach Federation and the International Coaching Association, worked for Erhard in the 1980s; he was the first successful popularizer of coaching.

Many coaching organizations have standards of conduct and “codes of honor” that they consider necessary to adhere to in order to protect the interests of clients.”

What is coaching

A few more definitions of what coaching is. Source: Internet.

“When analyzing existing literature and publications on coaching, it turned out that the following words and expressions are most often repeated to define the concept of “coaching”:

• technology;
• philosophy;
• non-directive approach;
• non-directive technique;
• systematic support in the process of achieving the goal;
• a specific, special form of rational clarification of the situation;
• working with the future;
• efficiency improvement technology;
• worldview approach;
• special method of counseling;
• unlocking potential;
• the process of psychological support in achieving goals;
• motivation system;
• positivization of thinking;
• a new way of thinking."

As Timothy Gallwey puts it:

“Coaching is about unlocking a person’s potential in order to maximize their effectiveness. Coaching is an art that must be learned primarily through experience. From an Inner Game perspective, coaching can be defined as facilitating mobility. It is the art of creating, through conversation and behavior, an environment that facilitates a person's movement toward desired goals in a satisfying way. This requires one important ingredient that cannot be taught: caring not only about external results, but also about the person with whom the coach is working.”

Coaching is about consciously helping another person to consciously discover their potential in order to maximize their effectiveness and creatively transform their personal experience towards their desired goal in an atmosphere of caring and satisfaction.

From the point of view of the standards of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), coaching is defined as follows: “... a partnership process that stimulates the client’s thought and creativity, in which he, with the help of a coach, maximizes his personal and professional potential.”

The Professional Standard “Coach” on the website of the Association of Russian-speaking Coaches (ARC) gives the following definition:

“Coaching is the organization of independent activities of capable adult citizens to develop and mobilize internal and external resources. The main goal of this type of professional activity: improving the quality of decisions and actions to achieve life, professional and business goals through developmental dialogue with the participation of an independent specialist - coach.”

Coaching is the conscious and caring assistance of another person in learning to achieve their desired goals by unlocking their own potential and maximizing its effectiveness, by mobilizing both internal and external resources and creatively transforming their personal experience through the ability to think independently.

“If we consider coaching as a process of facilitating the actualization of a person’s natural ability to learn and think independently, then we can formulate the following:

1. The basic prerequisites for coaching, arising from the universal foundations of cognitive activity, are: reliance on the natural ability to learn; actualization of the ability to think independently.
2. The basic condition of a coaching relationship, which is a necessary condition for starting the natural learning process, is trust.
3. The basic requirement for a coach is the ability to care for the client in such a way as to provide him with the necessary conditions for his self-realization.”

Valiullina Liliya Mazhitovna. Member of the ARC Professional Ethics Committee, ARC supervisor. Excerpt from the book: “Coaching: Methodology, Scientific Foundations and Professional Ethics.”

Fact #4: Coaching Really Works

I’ve read that coaching doesn’t work at all, and therefore the only chance to earn at least some money from this type of activity is…. Training other coaches.

It is assumed here that this whole sandbox is nothing more than an ordinary MLM or network business. And other “advanced gurus” call organizations that issue certificates for coaches nothing less than financial pyramids.

If this were true, then the sole purpose of these organizations would be to have a critical mass of such coaches who would train other coaches. But not everyone receives certificates after completing the training. And you should take this into account if you suddenly decide to undergo expensive training.

But let's return to the effectiveness of coaching. Let's remember that the entire process of a coaching session is built on the position of a coach, whose only task is to apply behavioral models in practice. A coach, if he is a really good specialist, acts as a kind of cloud drive on which all these models are stored. And the coach’s duty is simply to guide the client through all stages of a particular model, depending on the client’s initial request.

Then what is the main point? What is the secret of this whole phenomenon, if the coach simply observes, and the client does everything himself? I will now try to explain this in the simplest language).

The whole secret is the client’s full awareness of the problem and the desire to achieve results in the future. Remember how psychologists work? It’s the same story: they say that only the client’s awareness of the problem is the right path to recovery.

By the way, this is why coaching has nothing to do with therapy. For some problems (for example, alcoholism, drug addiction), coaching does not work. Because the level of awareness of such people exceeds the physiological dependence.

A coach, with the help of his tools, must achieve such a level of awareness in another person so that he not only sees for himself all the possible ways to solve problems for the future, but also finds hidden resources to achieve these results. And also, the most important thing is to put them into practice.

At the same time, the coach must make it clear to the client that the responsibility lies entirely with the client, and not with the fact that some wrong tools were used in planning, methodology, or anything else. Full responsibility of the client is the key to successful implementation of the results of the coaching session.

Here are the results a coach can achieve from his client:

1. More conscious actions
2. Immediate application of the outlined steps
3. New impetus for new actions
4. Determining higher priority goals
5. Impatience with situations that lead “down”

And also to the question of the effectiveness of coaching. Think for yourself: if it didn’t work, would large corporations in the United States begin to pour billions of dollars into their budgets? Obviously not.

Okay, you say, helping people and getting good money for it is cool. But since everything is so good, where is the fly in the ointment?

Types of coaching

Coaching touches different areas of life. One of the classifications is based on this diversity, highlighting the following main types of coaching:

• Life coaching;
• Business coaching;
• Personal coaching;
• Sports coaching;
• Coaching in education;
• Coaching in management.

Life coaching

The core of life coaching is learning how to set goals. The coach helps the client better understand himself and his true desires, and set priorities. A person begins to feel more confident and understands the need to work “here and now” to create the desired future. In the rhythm of modern life, people often find it difficult to maintain a balance between rest and work, career and personal life. Communication with a life coach will help you put things in order in your life, learn how to manage time, and set goals correctly.

Business coaching

Coaching methods are ideal for business. Its essence is to help the client reach a new level and clearly set goals. A coach will help you create an action plan for a successful career. The essence of business coaching is to teach a person to quickly and correctly solve complex issues. Often counseling is not directly related to the client’s professional activities.

Personal coaching

A coach helps a client believe in themselves, get rid of the influence of disappointments and past failures, and change their thinking style to a positive one. Thanks to coaching, a person learns to achieve his goals in the shortest possible time and at the lowest cost. The client stops belittling himself and his successes and believes in his uniqueness and value as an individual.

Sports coaching

A coach helps an athlete get rid of fears and self-doubt and develop strengths. Collaborative work is aimed at working on oneself, managing emotions, and increasing perseverance. Coaching in education. In the process of work, the coach helps to increase the students’ motivation for self-development and unlock their potential. Students who have completed the course of “educational” coaching achieve high results without coercion. The coach also helps organize the educational environment and build the learning process taking into account the individual characteristics of the students. Coaching helps teachers change their attitude towards their work and start using non-standard teaching methods.

Management Coaching

Management coaching is characterized by two main methods. The first method is to structure interpersonal and professional relationships in a team. The second method is based on planning and motivation. Coaching courses help employees realize their potential, become more proactive and conscientious, and learn more coordinated and teamwork.

Another classification of coaching is based on the number of participants. Coaching is divided into:

• command,
• organizational,
• individual.

Team coaching is carried out with a group of people united by one goal. For example, employees working on one project, or specialists from one department for whom teamwork is important. This type of coaching is also suitable for sports teams and married couples.

Organizational coaching is working with the head of an organization (enterprise) to identify his personal potential, as well as the potential of other employees or the entire enterprise. This type of coaching aims to improve the successful performance of the entire organization.

Individual coaching is work with a person, affecting all areas of his life, aimed at increasing self-confidence, setting realistic goals, and achieving them.

Fact #5: The main problem of all coaches

And here it is: most coaches absolutely do not know how to make money! Moreover, both “certified” and “self-taught” from books. And when I write these lines, I am quite serious.

I have one friend who studied at a fairly serious school, received a more or less sane certificate, but what she does next is a mystery to me.

Some strange Facebook live broadcasts on the topic of successful success or how to achieve the unattainable. Some kind of incomprehensible group “Notes of a practicing coach”, a hundred likes from friends and those who just came to look at a beautiful and spectacular girl.

Behind this background of travel photos, entrepreneurial events and other paraphernalia of success, I clearly see commercial failure.

The point here is rather the inability to monetize oneself from the point of view of marketing packaging. There are a lot of such coaches on Facebook. They all talk about the same general topics without specifics, but for some reason the queue of clients is not visible.

So, if you are just such a coach, then know that you lack packaging your skills into a simple and understandable result for the client. Having the tools to solve problems is not the same as being a good seller.

Therefore, if you want my personal opinion, then the marketing block is the first thing that a future coach should go through in training. And you can start with something simple. For example, from a free mini course on attracting first clients for consultations and coaching. Here is the link.

It is also important to understand that this problem concerns both those who got a job in a large corporation or a medium-sized company, and those who work freely as freelancers. In both cases, you need to improve your skill in presenting your results, which you can promise to the client.

Please take a few minutes to review the materials at the link. They will definitely help you in monetizing your knowledge. Even if you are just starting your journey as a coach.

When I started my coaching training, I clearly understood where and how I would apply this knowledge and what exactly I would earn from. If I were creating programs for certifications, then already at the first stage there would definitely be a topic of monetization.