The saturation of the coaching industry globally with individuals who have no training or understanding about what professional coaching is makes it important to define what coaching is so that the recipient of coaching services can understanding what coaching is and what coaching is not.
- 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.”
- Coaching can also be defined as “a growth–promoting relationship that elicits autonomous motivation, increases the capacity to change, and facilitates a change process through visioning, goal setting, and accountability, which at its best leads to sustainable change.”
- Coaching is chiefly about discovery, awareness, clarity and choice. It is a way of effectively empowering people to find their own answers, encouraging and supporting them on the path as they continue to make important choices. It is the client that determines the value and effectiveness of the coaching services they have received.
- Coaching is a gradual process, where insights and learnings emerge as much between coaching sessions as they do in them. Coaching takes place at the level of equivalence; i.e. lack of power distance in the coaching relationship between the coach and client.
- Coaching is a vehicle for helping people to achieve a higher level of well-being and performance in life and work, particularly when change is hard. The purpose of coaching is to encourage personal responsibility, reflective thinking, self-discovery and self-efficacy in the client.
I personally define coaching as “partnering with the client on a journey of clarity, self–discovery, learning and change to achieve a desired outcome.” The partner in this context is the coach and the coach uses a variety of tools, skills and techniques to work with the client.
What Coaching Is Not
Coaching is Not…
- Telling
- Advising
- Mentoring
- Counselling
- Therapy
- Training
- Education
- Consulting
Cheers to your growth and transformation.
