3 minutes read
When we hear the word ‘coach’,
the first thing that comes to mind is probably a sport coach - someone who
guides or teaches a person or a team at a particular sport. Very occasionally,
coaching may mean the act of providing guidance or giving special classes in
sports, a school subject, or a work-related activity. It’s the most common
definition of coaching term being used and widely accepted. However, this time,
in defining coaching, I would like to refer to International Coach Federation
(ICF), a US based coach certification body.
ICF defines coaching as partnering
with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to
maximize their personal and professional potential.
You may be wondering whether there is any other coaching certification
body other than ICF, that I mentioned earlier. As a matter of fact, there are
four International Coach Certification Bodies that are well-known these days,
which include:
- Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (WABC) based in Canada
- International Coach Federation (ICF) based in the US
- International Association of Coaching (IAC) based in the US
- European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) based in Belgium
People often get mixed up between
the term ‘coaching’ and ‘mentoring’.
Hence, I think it’s necessary to revisit the difference between coaching
and mentoring. From ICF website, a
mentor is an expert who provides wisdom and guidance based on his or her own
experience. Thus, mentoring may include advising, counseling and coaching. On the
other hand, coaching process does not include advising or counseling. Instead,
it focuses on individuals or groups setting and reaching their own
objectives. Based on the above statement
mentoring session can include coaching but not the other way around.
On coaching session, a coach
should not give any advice or guidance. Any action should come from
coachee. No one will feel happy when
they are told what to do. Thus, actions that come from coachee himself is
likely to create higher ownership and commitment. If there is a behavior
change, the change will sustain longer. To support coachee to come up with
action, coach roles are to actively listen and ask powerful questions to seek
for clarity, insight, possibility, blind spot that eventually results in action
and commitment from coachee.
The foundation of good coaching
relationship is trust that leads to openness.
Professional certified coach is bound to Ethics Code, one of which is
confidentiality. Hence, it’s important to ensure that your coach is a certified
coach. The certification could come from
any of the above certification bodies that I mentioned earlier. There are also independent coaching training
providers who provide certification but in general, certificates issued by
international coach certification bodies have better credibility.
What are the benefits a coachee
can get from coaching sessions? If you search on google, the search result will
come up with a long list of benefits. Coupled with my experience as a coach and
coachee, below are condensed list of the benefits that you will get from a
coaching session:
●
Heightened self-awareness and self-regulation
Before starting
the session, coach usually will ask coachee to fill in a series of question
about him/herself. The idea is for coach
to know coachee better and subsequently helps coachee to know about him/herself
better. At a later stage through
coaching session, coachee will be able to identify his/her emotion and be
responsible of his/her action. Impacts
of self-awareness and self-regulation are confidence, openness to changes and
gain trustworthiness.
●
Increased levels of motivation and happiness
In coaching
session, coach will help you to find your true motivation, an internal
motivation that linked to self-improvement rather than only external motivation
that other people will see. Motivation will give you strength when things get
tough and give you perseverance in the face of adversity. Knowing your internal
motivation will lead you to find your happiness and feeling of fulfillment in
your life.
●
Establish and act towards achieving goals
Through
thought-provoking process during the coaching session, coachee will come up
with series of action to achieve his/her goals.
Before ending the coaching session, coach will ensure that coachee has
the commitment to make action into reality.
During the series of coaching session, coach will follow up on the
action plan, to check on the progress before continuing to others topic. It’s helpful to have someone to remind you on
things that you should do in the midst of your busy mind and help you to keep
track of your action towards your goals.
●
Improved performance
When people
look for a coach, they look for solution to their problem. On the process of
finding the solution, coach will help you have clearer vision of what you want,
keep on your priority, challenge you and hold you accountable for your actions. All of these will improve your performance as
you walk the path to your success to become a better person.
●
Safe Place to Gain Perspective
Do you ever
feel afraid to look bad or someone else will find the fault in you? Sometimes
it is hard for us to admit our fear and weakness because most of us would like
to appear near perfect or have less weakness.
A coach will help us to acknowledge our fear and our weakness. A coach
will also help us to overcome it. A
coach will help us to look at things from a different perspective that we may
feel afraid to look at or different angle that we miss. As a human being, we
have our blind spot, to have someone helping us with no judgement and
self-interest will give us a safe place to gain perspective.
After finishing coaching session,
I always ask feedback from my coachee. It is for me to improve myself and also
to understand how they feel about the coaching session, whether they get the
benefits, whether they gain something, whether they feel the change.
Below are some of the feedbacks I
got from my coachee:
“Coach helped me to achieve my goals and gave questions that pushed me
to find the answer on my own. Now I am able to manage my time better and define
my priority.”
“Coach is able to help me see myself clearly, now I’m more confident to
make my own decision.”
“Coach helps me to explore and expand myself. I come up with my own ideas to improve
myself.”
Having seen
the benefits of coaching, I view it as an investment for life. Many successful people claim that the most
important investment is the investment made on yourself. Thus, ask yourself
this question: how do you want to improve your life? If the answer is one of
the benefits mentioned above, then it’s time for you to start your journey with
coaching. Happy coaching.
---YK---