What is Coaching?
Last week, I stated the New Year off with a bang - how to stop being hijacked by thoughts and emotions to freedom, leading from your value position. I said a couple of times that getting help with emerging from the murk s a strength. I still think there is misunderstanding about what 1:1 coaching is and isn’t so I wanted to write about it in case you’re considering coaching. Coaching is all about the person who is the leader.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity, and leadership.
In other words, coaching is a future focused, goal oriented, reflective dialogue. Each session’s agenda is determined based on what the client wants to talk about, relevant to their personal or organizational goals. The purpose may include but is not limited to: enhancing emotional intelligence and agility - a specialty at LIV, goal clarification, decision making, prioritization, gaining clarity, communication, or building actions. Each session usually focuses on a challenge and builds awareness to help the client find their own solutions. Assessments can be used to highlight the purpose and track progress.
Coaching isn’t therapy. That’s important. Therapy generally focuses on the past (what happened in your childhood, last year, last week) and then helps you heal or grow from it. Sometimes coaching is informed by the past especially identifying patterns as I wrote about last week but we don’t stay in the past. We understand origins to make informed decisions in the present. Is that thought, feeling, behavior needed or appropriate for the present situation? Coaching is present to future focused. Coaching focuses on where you are and where you’re trying to be, then coming up with an action plan to get there. While there is definitely a little bit of overlap, coaching and therapy are different.
Coaching also isn’t the coach providing all the answers and way forward to their client. Rather, coaching is about asking the right questions so you formulate your own action plan.
Coaching enhances the many strengths you have and helps illuminate new paths from within you. It’s all there inside just waiting for the right question to be asked to coach it out.
Schedule a complimentary call with me to talk about your coaching thoughts / goals - simply click here to access my calendar. If there isn’t a convenient time for you there, just give me a call, we’ll find a time 703-201-1490.
