What is Coaching?

There is often confusion about the meaning of coaching. Here you will find some useful information to know more about this professional figure.

The coaching activity accelerates the growth of the individual by allowing everyone to focus more effectively and consciously on the objectives to be achieved and the consequent choices to be made. ICF - International Coach Federation, the largest association of professional coaches in the world, defines coaching as a partnership with clients/coachees which, through a creative process, stimulates reflection, inspiring them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The coaching methodology adopted by ICF provides that the client is first of all respected, both from a personal and professional point of view, and is considered capable of effectively managing his / her life and work environment.

Each client/coachee is seen as a creative and resourceful person. Thanks to the activity carried out by the coach, customers are able to learn and develop the techniques and action strategies that will allow them to improve both performance and quality of life.

Coaching facilitates the experimentation of new perspectives and personal opportunities, the increase in thinking skills and in making decisions. It is also aimed at improving interpersonal efficiency and greater confidence in expressing the roles chosen in life and work.

What does the coach do?

The main responsibilities of the coach are:

1. facilitate the discovery, clarity and alignment of the objectives that the customer wishes to achieve;

2. accompany the customer in a personal discovery of these objectives;

3. ensure that the solutions and strategies to be followed emerge from the customer himself;

4. leave full autonomy and responsibility to the customer.
   

In coaching we observe "where the client is today", what the current starting situation is, and we define, in common agreement, what he is willing to do to reach "the goal where he would like to be tomorrow" by defining indicators of result. Generally, a coaching path starts with a personal interview (done in person or by telephone) to evaluate the client's current opportunities and challenges, to define the purposes of the relationship, to identify the priorities for action and to determine what specific results are to be achieved.

Among the scheduled coaching sessions, the client can be asked to perform certain actions that help him achieve his priority objectives. Furthermore, the coach can provide additional resources, in the form of articles, questionnaires, assessments or models to help the client's reflection and action. The duration of a coaching relationship varies according to the needs of the person or team. Factors that can affect duration include: the type of goals and results you want to achieve, the way people or teams love to work, the frequency of sessions, the financial resources available to support coaching.

In what coaching differs from other disciplines?

The coach is required to clearly communicate the differences between coaching, counseling, psychotherapy and other support professions. He suggests to the client, if necessary, to turn to another support professional, knowing when it is necessary and what the existing resources are. Differences with the profession of psychologist: “The Coach, as a professional, does not carry out prevention or treatment activities with respect to diseases or inconveniences, does not have an interpretative approach and does not make a personality diagnosis, does not make assessments of the person of any kind. If necessary, it can use questionnaires only to stimulate the person's awareness of specific behaviors. It also does not offer psychological support, but focuses on the growth and development of the person by accompanying him in the definition of achievable objectives, development of awareness, creation of possibilities and finally the choice of an action plan that goes in the direction of the objective. Differences with the profession of counselor: “The coaching relationship compared to the counseling relationship is not a helping relationship but an equal partnership relationship between a Coach and a Client. As a professional, the Coach does not offer solutions to existential hardships, does not explore the past, but supports the Customer to recognize his thought patterns and to activate all internal resources to achieve the goal he / she defines. "

Who is coaching for?

The coaching client can be a person or a team who wants to achieve a higher level of performance, learning or satisfaction. Reasons why a person or team can choose to work with a coach:

• there is something at stake, a challenge, a protracted goal or a great opportunity, and it is urgent, important or exciting, or all these things together;

• there is a desire to get results faster;

• there is a need to reverse the direction taken in work or personal life;

• there is a lack of clarity in the person in the face of the choices to be made;

• there is no balance between work and private life and this generates unwanted consequences;

• the person has not identified his main potential or knows how to best use them;

• there is a need and desire to be better organized and know how to manage better.
  

For more information about coaching visit www.coachfederation.org

"Having the opportunity to work with a coach, what would you like to explore?"

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