Coaching and You: A Powerful Combination

Posted on June 08, 2018 by Simmie Adams, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

Coaching and You: A Powerful Combination

The What and Why of Coaching

Q: What is coaching?
A: Coaching is a co-created partnership with a formal agreement between a coach and coaching client. The coaching client gives power to the relationship, drives the coaching agenda, and is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the coaching engagement. Coaches learn specific techniques and skills, approaches, and methodologies enabling the coaching client to develop their goals and design and implement actions to achieve them.

Q: What is the goal of organizational/business and life coaching?
A: The goal of an organizational/business coaching program is to provide all clients with access to a coach in order to increase transfer of learning, create a positive and supportive organizational culture, and promote personal self-awareness for professional growth. The goal of life coaching is to provide a safe environment in which the client feels comfortable with discussing their life’s issues, challenges, or situations with the coach then aid the coaching client to develop their goals and design and implement actions to achieve them.

Q: What is the vision and mission of a coaching program?
A: Vision-Across the organization, clients/employees are choosing to create a space for themselves and others to learn, develop, and discover. Mission-A coaching program develops behaviors resulting in increased performance, learning, leadership, innovation, and satisfaction.

Q: How does a Coaching Program relate to a Leadership Development Program?
A: A coaching program is integrated into a leadership development program, serving as a powerful tool for enhanced learning, development, and discovery for every participant. Often, leadership development programs are only open to senior personnel as part of their learning and development programs. By training everyone in an organization and providing them with coaches, the organization increases its propensity of developing its desired organizational culture.

A leadership development program is supercharged through coaching:
• Learning: When coupled with formal learning, coaching increase learning by 80%.
• Development: Employees can accelerate their capabilities by working on areas identified in behavioral assessments as part of their program.
• Discovery: Through coaching, the employees discover new perspectives and course of action to tackle similar issues, situations, and challenges.

The leadership development program strategy is centered around essential questions emerging and current leaders explore through formal and informal learning activities. Coaching provides an opportunity to get into deeper learning around the essential questions.

Q: Who is a coach and what makes them qualified?
A: A coach is a person who not only cares about organizations and people but who is also credentialed through a viable and reputable organization, such as the International Coaching Federation (ICF). There are many so-called credentialing organizations who through a short, such as weekend, course purports training a person to be a coach. ICF credentialed coaches coach through adherence with a code of ethics, which aids in setting them apart from other self-proclaiming coaches.

Q: What are the benefits of coaching?
A: Coaching offers many benefits to the individual being coached as well as to the organization as a whole. In a coaching relationship, the client benefits from one-on-one interaction and feedback focused exclusively on their own goals and development. The overall goal is to foster and improve learning, development, and discovery among all the clients at any time in their professional life or, specifically, when experiencing the leadership development program. Topic areas can range from career development to improving communications skills to resolving a workplace issues, situations, or challenges.

Benefits to the individual include:
• New perspectives on personal or organizational issues, situations, or challenges
• Improvements in individual performance goals and targets
• Increased self-awareness
• Greater clarity of roles and responsibilities
• Improvements in specific behaviors or skills
• Increased confidence and self-motivation

Benefits to the organization include:
• Improved use of individual’s talents and potential
• Commitment to individuals and their development
• Higher organizational performance and productivity
• Improvements in the attainment of organizational performance goals and targets
• Homed focus on mission and organizational objectives
• Increased creativity, learning, and knowledge
• Improved relationships between people and organizations
• Increase recruitment and retention rates
 

Coaching Practice and Processes

Q: What is the coach’s role in the coaching relationship?
A: The coach’s role is to support the client’s professional development by asking powerful questions, assigning developmental tasks as appropriate and with the involvement of the client, and challenging the client to stretch to reach greater heights.

The Coach:
• Provides objective assessment and observations fostering self-awareness and awareness of others
• Listens closely to fully understand the circumstances
• Serves as a sounding board to explore possibilities and implement thoughtful planning and decision making
• Champions opportunities and potential, encouraging the client to reach out and challenge situations commensurate with strengths and aspirations
• Fosters shifts in thinking by the client, which reveals their fresh perspectives
• Challenges blind spots to illuminate new possibilities and support creation of alternative scenarios
• Maintains professional boundaries in the coaching relationship, including confidentiality, and the adherence to the coaching profession’s code of ethics

Q: What is the client’s role in the coaching relationship?
A: The coaching client (aka coachee) is ready for coaching when they are willing to devote the time and energy to make real changes in their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions.

The Client:
• Determines their own coaching goals, topics, and agenda
• Is willing to explore possibilities, new ideas, and fresh perspectives
• Takes courageous action in alignment with personal goals and aspirations
• Engages in big-picture thinking
• Utilizes the tools, concepts, models, and principles provided by the coach
• Assumes full responsibility for personal decisions and actions
• Is accountable to the coach and respects the coach’s time and completes assigned tasks

Q: Can I choose a specific coach?
A: You may request a specific coach. It is important to ensure the coach and client are compatible.

Q: What is in a coaching agreement?
A: The coaching agreement between the coach and coaching client is a very important part of the coaching process. A professional coaching relationship exists when coaching includes an agreement (including contracts) defining the responsibilities of each party.

Having a written agreement establishes a clear understanding between the coach and the coaching client about the parameters of the coaching relationship, including, logistics, fees, and scheduling.

In forming coaching agreements around confidentiality, coaches should be aware and inform their clients of the limits of confidentiality by law.

Limits of confidentiality include: the revelation of having committed a crime; the treat of harm to self or others; the report of sexual harassment or abuse; and the requirement by laws or a court order to share particular information.

Q: What if I do not like the coach?
A: Coaches are not equally trained; all valid and appropriately credentialed coaches are trained to provide coaching. So, it does not matter who your coach actually is. However, if for any reason, you would like a different coach or an additional coach, you can certainly request one or get yourself a different one. All valid and appropriately credentialed coaches will support your decision and work to make your transition as easy as possible.

Q: What is appropriate for me to talk about with a coach?
A: A coach can provide support on a wide range of topics to include but not limited to:
• Address an urgent or compelling challenge
• Develop leadership attributes and emotional intelligence
• Work on results from behavioral or 36-degree assessments
• Aid in new role/position transitions
• Organize and prioritize professional responsibilities
• Clarify vision, create meaningful goals, and develop achievable action steps
• Solve individual and team leadership challenges
• Excel in self-awareness and self-management
• Develop strategies for balancing work and life
• Identify core strengths and recognize how best to leverage them
• Gain clarity in decision-making and purpose

Q: What is a typical coaching session like?
A: Typically, the coach and client will meet in person or on the telephone to become acquainted, to discuss the goals for coaching, and to set up a time for a first meeting. During the first meeting, the overall goal of the coaching relationship is typically discussed and the coaching agreement for a set period of time is reviewed and signed. Subsequent sessions are related to the overall goal. Within the sessions, the coach will ask the client questions allowing the client to explain the reality of the issue, situation, or challenge on which they are working. They will explore options the client can consider. The sessions ends with an action or an inquiry the client commits to pursuing for the sake of learning and furthering the goal. The nature of the question typically allows the client to break through blocks in their thinking and to have revelations and transformation.

Q: What is the average time clients meet with a coach?
A: The length of a coaching engagement differs depending on the coaching client’s need or agenda; however, most coaching engagement last six months. In some instances, the coaching client may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a short or longer period. According to the ICF, factors impacting the length of time include: the types of goals, the ways individuals or teams prefer to work, the frequency of coaching meetings, financial resources available to support coaching.
 

Other Information about Coaching

Q: Will what I discuss in coaching be reported to anyone?
A: The coach and coaching client have a coaching agreement stating what is said is strictly confidential. The coach will not divulge a discussion unless the limits of confidentiality are violated. Limits of confidentiality include: the revelation of having committed a crime; the threat of harm to self or others; the report of sexual harassment or abuse; and the requirement by law or a court order to share particular information.

Q: How is coaching distinct from mentoring, counseling, or therapy?
A: Coaching can be compared to other service practices used in supporting or development employees or people in general. Mentoring has a strong place in the support and development of employees but differs from coaching significantly. In mentoring, the mentor is typically more experiences than the mentee. Unlike a mentor, a coach does not need to be an expert in the client’s formal occupational role and may have never held a job at the coaching client’s level. Unlike the mentor, who provides advice, the coach is an inquirer of the coaching client’s thoughts, intentions, desires, and goals.

Counseling/therapy is another service practice that is always conducted by professional counselors and psychologists, who have received specific training focusing on clinical diagnoses and therapy of patients. When compared to therapy and counseling, while positive feelings and emotions may be a natural outcome of coaching, the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals in one’s work or personal life. The emphasis in a coaching relationship are on forward progress on goal accomplishment through future action, accountability, and follow through, while the emphasis in counseling or therapy focuses on reflecting on past circumstances, thoughts, behaviors, and emotions.

Definitions

Certified Coach: An individual who has completed all of the requirements of a coach training certification program at a similar level of as the International Coaching Federation.

Coaching client: One who seeks the support and skills of a coach. The coaching client can be the one who is receiving the coaching. (aka client, coachee, and coaching client are used interchangeably.)

Coaching activities: These activities include conducting or receiving coaching for 30 minutes to one hour in person, on the telephone, or through other conferencing approaches. Activities also include training events offered for training or continuous learning purposes.

Coach in Training (CIT): Someone enrolled in a coach training program or working with a coaching supervisor or coach mentor in order to learn the coaching process or enhance and develop their coaching skills.

Coaching: An activity which includes partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires tem to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaching is a distinct service and differs greatly from mentoring/training and counseling/therapy. Individuals, who engage in a coaching relationship, can expect to experience fresh perspectives on personal issues, situations, or challenges as well as opportunities, enhanced thinking and decision-making skills, enhanced interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence in carrying out their chosen work and life roles.

Coach mentor: One focusing on the development of coaching skills for ongoing development and support of coaches.

Executive coaching: A system to help individuals develop the skills and acumen needed to succeed as professional as the executive level. It focuses on interpersonal skills, political savvy, striking a good work-life balance, and developing leadership abilities.

Formal coaching: When an appropriately trained and certified coach engages in a relationship with a client using a formal coaching agreement, utilizing core coaching competencies and skills, demonstrating confidentially, and ethical behaviors.

Informal coaching: When an employee, who has taken training in coaching skills engages in a coaching conversation with another employee with the goal of helping the second employee work through an issues, situation, or challenge. Supervisors and peers can engage in informal coaching with direct reports and peers.

International Coach Federation (ICF): A prominent association in the United States and around the world offering coaches a credential based on their level of experience. They define the standards and competencies for coaching.

Mentoring: A system of providing support and advice to individuals as they seek to grow, whether personally, or in their capacity as professionals.

Professional coaching relationship: A confidential coaching relationship that includes a written agreement defining the responsibilities of both parties.