Individual coaching

Coaching is a process where a coach supports a person in making changes, learning something new or achieving goals.

Coaching is a partnership between coach and client. The coach is a professional facilitator who helps the client to achieve goals in his or her professional life. It is up to the individual to find the solutions, but the coach ensures that the client has the tools to do his or her best and to learn and develop in the way he or she wants.

In this way, the coach does not have to be an expert in his or her client’s field of work, but a bystander who guides them to the right next steps.

Coaching has been defined in many ways. At its core, coaching is:

• A process that supports professional development and helps an individual find the next step in their professional life.
• Coaching supports people at every level to be the person and leader they want to be.
• Coaching builds self-awareness, helps to find options and supports the path to change.

The ultimate aim of coaching is to help people to make progress in their working life or in a particular area, to overcome obstacles and problems. A coach is there to support you when you need to take the next step in your career, lead a team, make big changes in your organisation or make a successful start in a new job.

Coaching unlocks a person’s potential to succeed and maximise their capabilities. A coach is not a teacher, but rather a facilitator who supports you in finding solutions.

Working with a coach offers a number of advantages. Regardless of the person’s goals, dedicating time to personal and professional development can help improve self-confidence and self-awareness.

Anyone’s career can be a time when they feel lost or insecure. In such cases, coaching can provide clarity, direction and focus. If a person is struggling to make changes, coaching can help to increase self-awareness and understand how to change certain behaviours or habits.

If a person is finding it difficult to motivate themselves to take or complete important actions, a coach can be the one to help them define a goal and set an action plan.

And finally, if a person needs to learn a new skill (from technical skills to building emotional resilience), coaching can accelerate the learning process.

One of the foundations of coaching or co-searching is that we already have all the answers we need inside us. The role of the coach is to help the client simply to find those answers. This is done through a variety of conversational techniques, including questioning, active listening, observation and reflection.

Through the use of these techniques, the person gains greater self-awareness and can often arrive at insights they have not seen before. Coaching is a process in which you receive focused attention from an impartial and non-judgmental person who helps you to understand how best to move forward in a given situation to achieve your goals.

Coaching can use a variety of models and methods. In order to ensure progress, coaching often focuses on goal setting. Typically, after the session, people are encouraged to create a list of action points so that they know what steps are needed to move forward.

Coaching relies on the coachee’s commitment to the process and an open and honest relationship with the coach.

In countries with a longer tradition of coaching, coaching is used primarily to unlock the full potential of the most successful senior and middle managers. A coach can also be used when there are specific problems or deadlocks that need to be resolved.

There is no specific time to hire a coach. It depends to a large extent on the company’s growth trajectory and the individual’s personal development. You don’t have to wait until the company stops growing, a key manager or team member leaves. Many business owners use regular meetings with a coach as a health check on their working life.

When important decisions need to be made, or major strategic initiatives need to be taken, a coach can be the one to offer an objective view and help resolve the issues you face.

We have already looked at what coaching is, but there are a number of similar professional services that are still different from coaching in some respects.

Mentor

Mentoring is when a senior colleague who is considered more knowledgeable and experienced provides advice and guidance. Mentoring involves wide-ranging discussions that are not necessarily limited to the context of the job. A mentor is a person who has extensive work experience in the client’s field.

A coach, on the other hand, is an expert outside the field who helps to identify existing answers and translate them into actionable activities.

Consultant

A consultant provides expertise and solves business problems or develops the business as a whole. A consultant deals with the whole or specific parts of an organisation, rather than the professional development of individuals. Consultants influence individuals only indirectly.

Consultants are often engaged when a company has a known problem that needs to be solved. A coach, on the other hand, can help you to identify what the core of the problem really is.