What do you think coaching is?
By: Vaqas Masood
Tags: Coach, Beagile, Coaching Skills, Transformational Coach, Coaching

A few days ago, I was telling one of my colleagues that I’m taking coaching classes. The first thing he asked me “What will be the benefit?”. My answer to that question was as simple as “So I’ll be able to coach people”. He became intrigued and ask me to coach him. Seeing his interest in being coached forced me to ask him an obvious question, “What do you think coaching is?”

To be honest, before taking coaching training, even I didn’t have the idea of what it is. This made me realize that there are a lot of people who don’t know what coaching is. So, I decided to write this article explaining what coaching is, but let me start here with what coaching is NOT!

Coaching is not about advising. But when people look for a coach, often they are looking for someone who can give them advice, tell them what they should do about their problems, what is best for them. Even though they are looking for some advice, think about how many times have you enjoyed receiving advice from others. Telling you what is best for you or what you should do.

Teaching, Mentor, Consulting & Counselling/Therapy is also not our cup of tea. Coaches are not gurus or life experts who know it all and teach others how to live their life. The same is with mentoring & consulting, as coaches our job is not to share our experiences or our expertise with others so they can apply them in their life. Lastly, coaching is not counseling or therapy. Since counseling or therapy relates to healing others, and coaching is not about healing anyone, it about holding unconditional positive regards towards the clients and believe that no one is broken or needs to be fixed.

Now let’s look at what coaching is? Coaching is about empowering others to take responsibility for their decisions or actions. Have you heard a saying,

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; Show him to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime” — Proverb

As coaches, it’s not our job to help or advise others because it doesn’t encourage them to engage with their minds and work out the ways themselves. When our clients become more responsible and take ownership of their decisions and actions, naturally they become more empowered to create the change they want to achieve.

“Responsibility breeds empowerment” — Kain Ramsay

By definition from ICF (International Coaching Federation),

“Coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”

Coaching is a process and it’s a client-driven process. Unlike other professions — teaching/mentoring/consulting/therapy — where the said professional is considered the expert and they drive the process. In coaching client is considered the master of their journey, coaches consider the client is resourceful and creative in finding their own solutions/answers. Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximize their performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them*. As coaches, we offer our clients another perspective by asking them the questions that they most likely aren’t asking themselves. Ergo, coaching is a process where coaches help the clients find their own solution rather than offering them their advice or opinions.

“Coaching focuses on future possibilities, not past mistakes” — *Coaching for Performance by Sir John Whitmore

Coaching is a progressive process, it starts with an end in mind — a tangible goal or a vision — which a person wants to achieve or work towards. It focuses on a person’s present and moves them to the desired future state.

One very important point I would like to highlight here, that coaching doesn’t work if the individual does not have the desire or yearning to create change in themselves. As mentioned before, coaching is a client-driven process, and coaches neither drive the process nor have their own agenda. Therefore, if the individual is not ready to accept their reality or take responsibility for their decisions or actions, no amount of coaching can have an impact.

In conclusion, people commonly associate coaching with sports coaching — where generally the coach is an expert in the field, who will train and guide the person they are coaching. But in reality, coaching is about partnering with the client and believing that they are always capable of finding their solution/answer. They just need a different perspective to unlock their potential.

I hope I was able to simplify and explain what coaching is (and is not), and you enjoyed reading about it. Let me know your thoughts in comments. Keep Agiling On!