Is Coaching Like Teaching Gym?

WHAT IS COACHING?

The name allegedly recalls the multitasking skills associated with controlling the team of a horse-drawn stagecoach. By the 1880s American college sports teams had -- in addition to managers -- coaches. Some time in the 20th century, non-sporting coaches emerged: non-experts in the specific technical skills of their clients, but who nevertheless ventured to offer generalized motivational or inspirational advice. 

Recent practices in performance coaching in non-sporting environments focus on non-directive questioning, provocation and helping clients to analyze and solve their own challenges, rather than offering advice or direction (see Tim Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis or Myles Downey's Effective Coaching).

Late 20th & early 21st-century coaching, in the sense that I mean it here, is an interactive process that helps individuals and organizations to develop more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. Coaches work with clients in all areas including business, career, finances, health and relationships. As a result of coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural skills, talents and desires. Coaches like me focus on leading with desire because we all have skills, I mean, I’m great at doing the laundry but that’s not what I would call my “right work” in the world. Since I'm going to work until I'm not alive, I need to do work that is enlivening, renewable, and rewarding.

Professional coaches are trained to listen and observe, to customize their approach to the individual client's needs, and to elicit solutions and strategies from the client. They believe that the client is naturally creative and resourceful and that the coach's job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has. While the coach provides feedback and an objective perspective, the client is responsible for taking the steps to produce the results she or he desires. If they don't take up their half of our work together, or just want to complain, I usually refer them to a therapist or encourage them to find a hypnotist.

Most coaching that is "out there" does not focus directly on relieving psychological pain or treating cognitive disorders. No one by my trained therapist friends walk the client through traumatic feelings or address emotional or psychiatric disorders. Note - to further understand the coaching professions in our neck of the woods, checkout: Puget Sound Coaches Association: http://www.pugetsoundcoaches.org/ 

Below are coaching specialties to review before selecting or exploring becoming a coach: 



Executive and Corporate Coaching:

Human Resources Departments interested in hiring external coaches

CEO's, executives, managers and other professionals who would like a coach

Companies looking to launch a coaching initiative

Companies intending to train their managers to be coaches

Initiative to prevent and/or cure burnout

Companies interested in coaching workshops

Companies wanting the support of a coach in any of the following: 
Systems analysis, strategic planning, process re-engineering; creating a compelling vision; launching and developing teams; or 360-degree reviews.

Small Business Coaching:

Entrepreneurs

Owners or Managers of small companies

Start-up companies (actual or planned)

Professionals in private practice

People who run a business from their home

Executives thinking of leaving companies and launching a business

Personal/Life Coaching [I offer the first four]:

Life planning

Life vision & enhancement

Interrupting Burnout via extreme self-care

Spiritual Direction

Relationships (Singles, couples, families, etc.)

Health & Fitness

Exploring Creativity

Financial Freedom

Teens & Children

Family Issues/Parenting

Attention Deficit Disorder

Career/Transition Coaching [My training & Joy]

People in career transition

People with a big career decision to make

People in a corporate job or considering a shift from one

People who work with women & men returning to work after working at home

Some who hire a career transition coach like to work with a coach familiar with the following:


Working with fears regarding: downsizing, global outsourcing, re-organizing, changing expectations of employees and employers; trends in the workplace; values and issues of loyalty and security; specific evaluation criteria for one’s company, future or career satisfaction; determining ones readiness to strike out on their own or look for another career.

Speakers Resource [I've really enjoyed speaking to large audiences on "cross-cultural connecting for collaborative success," "landing lasting leads through listening well" or "successful connecting to yourself and your client"]. Other resources:

Coaches who give keynote addresses.

Coaches who give talks to groups.

Coaches who give workshops.

As I said in my recent article about finding work you don't hate, more and more people are finding ways to invest in their future by turning to Life Coaches—something comedian Jon Stewart has made fun of recently by calling them “those non-credentialed people who act like you’re their friend but make you pay them to encourage you.” 

Not all of the people who do this are so facile. There are people like myself who focus on helping people in transition cultivate insights that prepare them for a different kind of workplace—one where it pays to be aligned, engaged and integrated. Most people I’ve encountered want to be paid well but really do “want more than just a paycheck.” They want a life that they feel good about, one where they feel useful, appreciated and purposeful. Getting the help of a good listener (coach or career counselor) to gain such clarity can only help.

Please let me know if I might help you in any way or if you would add anything to this list. Thanks.