What is coaching?
It's the proverbial question!
I was browsing the www.irishcoachingsolutions.ie LinkedIn site recently (join us at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2515281) as well as my other groups when I came across a post about Coaching in a marketing group I'm in. Ever the curious mouse I of course clicked to the post which brought me to an interesting post by Elaine Rogers who was discussing the myths of coaching:
While Elaine certainly adds her own point of view, it's a type of post I've seen many places in the past and it inspired me to voice my opinion here.
Right across the web, in magazines and books, every article I read about what coaching is amounts to some variation of "Coaching is different to mentoring because..." and "Coaching is not counselling because..." etc. Even in my own training, the first day was covered by "This is what coaching is not". I sat patiently waiting for the "this is what coaching is" slide to come along...but it never did.
What I struggle with most is this.
Imagine if a client came into you and said "I don't want this and I don't want that and I don't want the other"...you know the first question you'd ask as a coach is "What DO you want?"!!
So my question is, why aren't we coaching ourselves?
Imagine if a client came into you and said "I don't want this and I don't want that and I don't want the other"...you know the first question you'd ask as a coach is "What DO you want?"!!
So my question is, why aren't we coaching ourselves?
For an industry that's all about defining goals and working out a strategy to achieve them, what makes it so difficult for us to do the same?
What do you want coaching to be?
What do you want coaching to be?
Gosh Brian I can think of so many things that coaching IS and am happy to share them with you. I agree there is a tendancy amongst coaches NOT to own the coaching space and corresponding offer. Coaching to me is about growth, developing new perspectives, seeing that you can be in choice and be a bigger observer. I am an ontological coach and am very clear about the distinctions involved in my offer. Nice post Brian perhaps you will give the coaching community some inspritation to think positively about this learning methodology
ReplyDeleteRegards
Tara
Hi Brian,
ReplyDeleteMight be easier to get comments about what coaching is not rather than what it is. I have the same problem you mention. Many coaches try to distinguish coaching be what it isn't. It isn't mentoring, it isn't counselling, it isn't training. OK so what else is it not?
My view it that it is what the customer wants it to be, but then I have an unusual approach to coaching. I will help the customer to explore what it is they want from the relationship and I will also input what I think they "need" from the relationship.
Too often coaches try to avoid the directive approach, but the reality is that often the client needs to be told what they need, and all the rest.
I am a counsellor and mentor if they need one. I do not exclude these roles. But I know my limitations and if I begin to see the limits of my ability approaching, I will happily refer the client on to someone better qualified.
I think there is a lot of waffle and fluff around the role of a coach, because some coaches don't like to be pidgeon holed or cornered where they can be called upon to account for the money they are being paid.
To be honest, when you have eliminated what a coach isn't, there is very little left that cannot be filled by the drunk at the end of the bar.
Please enlighten me.
Regards
Cormac