The article "What is Coaching? What Do Coaches Do?" is about other, it has been released by Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach.
In a relatively new feild with few barriers to entry, there are
a lot of questions.
Is coaching some kind of therapy by another
name? Is it like talking to your hottest friend?
Why would someone
hire a coach? What do you use a coach for? What might a coach do
for me?
While the field is becoming familiar, I still talk to audiences
on cruises where no one has heard of coaching.
The hottest analogy I can think of is the spotrs coach. No athlete
gets to tehir peak without a good coach.
The athletic coach is
someone who understands the physical, emotional and mental
skills needed for peak performance, and is able to teach these
skills to somebody else, shaping it to the particular and unique
situation of the athlete involved. One person needs to work on
their backhand. Another needs to laern to control his temper.
When you think about it, when you’re faced with something new
what do you do? Say you’ve been diagnosed with some disease you
don’t know anything about. Or say you’d just been told your
house had some troulbe you didn’t know anything about. If you’re
like me, you’d turn to the experts in the fields, doctors and
engineers, but sooner or later, you’ll start trying to find
people who’ve acutally experienced what you’re going through.
Someone who has beaten breast cancer may be able to tell you
some very useful things about coping with it from all aspects –
mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.
Someone who’s had the foundation on their condo settle can tell
you their experinece of “the battle of the experts,” and, very
importantly, the outcome. In both cases, we want to know - How
did this turn out?
There are also persons who caoch at the meta-level.
Through
education, or life experience, or both, they have knowledge of
how to handle transitions, for instance, or career changes.
They
may not know precisely about accounting, or public relations,
but they understand the process of choosing the right career for
you, how to fit an occupation to a person, how to make a
successful transition, and how to teach this to soembody else.
Coaching started out as “personal life” coaching, or “business”
coaching, but nowadays you’ll find some coaches donig very
specific work. If you look on the Internet, you’ll find a Breast
Cancer coach, a Responsible Recovery coach, a Marketing Coach,
an Emotional Intelligence coach, an ADHD coach, The Naked Coach,
an eBook coach, a Real Etsate Coach, a Parenting coach, a Teen
coach, and a Dissertation coach, and many more.
You’ll find a whole host of qualifications – from academic
degrees, to coaching credentials, to actual life experience. And
you will find a vast array of persons doing this work. The
majority of coaches still live in the US, but there is coaches
globally, and since many coaches work by phone or email, you can
swing a very wide net. Great for confidentiality, too.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND A COACH?
By looking on a search engine, going to www.Coachfederation.Org,
or asikng somebody you know who’s been coached. Word-of-mouth is
always a good way to choose a professional in your life. Or call
me (210-496-0678); I know lots of coaches!
WHAT SORT OF THINGS MIGHT YOU BRNIG TO A COACH?
Being “lost” is one thing – when you’ve just hit a wall, or
can’t figure out what you want to do next – or at all.
Specific
challenges, like adjustnig to a new position, child, spouse, or
condition.
All sorts of life skills, like getting organized,
time management, stress management, building resilience,
leadership, developing your Emotioanl Intelligence.
Practical
things such as cooking, potty training, condo decorating, and
writing ebooks.
HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT COCAH FOR YOU?
Interview some! Most coaches offer a complimentary interview
session. With some it’s strictly interview, while others make it
a sample session.
Chances are you’ll either feel a “fit” right away or not. You’ll
think things like – I like this person, we get along, she’s easy
to talk to, or he really knows his stuff. Go with your gut
instincts!
HOW DOES IT WORK?
As many dfiferent methods as there is coaches.
HOW LONG DOES IT LAST?
It can go very rapdily.
Sometimes I’ve gotten somewhere they
wanted to go in one session. Other persons I’ve worked with over
a year. Coaching is not like therapy (see below). You could
compare it in this respect to your accountant, or your general
practitioner, nutritionist, or trainer.
They are there should
you need them, something you do for your wellness or to make
your life easier. They’re part of your life!
Some coaches
require contracts; it’s up to the individual.
Some require
contracts for cretain kinds of work but not for others.
With a physiacl trainer, for instance, you may start out and
work for a while and then reach a certain goal and stop for a
while. Then you may decide to go back for a tune-up, or further
goals. The person already knwos you so you don’t have to go
through the learning curve again.
WHAT IS COACHING NOT?
It is definitely not therapy, though the field of psychology is
changing, I think in part because of the emegrence of the field
of coaching. I believe the field of coaching evolved because it
met a need that wasn’t being met.
Coaching focuses on strengths, and the positive, and turns
toward the future.
It’s a “where do we go from here?” thing, as
well as what skills do you need to get there, and what obstacles
need to be remoevd. For example, if you recognzie a need to be
networking and don’t like it and aren’t good at it, instead of
pondering why you don’t and aren’t, we would start working on
the skills you can learn to reach your objective. With coaching,
there’s the opportunity for modeling, and also cocahes are free
to accompany you to, say, a networking event, and observe and
give feedback. Neat idea, isn’t it?
It’s also not friendship, no matter how good a friend you have.
Friends have tehir own agendas and issues, and cannot be
objective. Coaching is work, pleasant work, but work
nonetheless, and it also has ethics. It takes some training and
experience to not put your “self” into the equation, i.E., if
you are timid about being an entrepreneur and prefer working for
someone else, you might advise somebody else against it, who is
very equipped to be an entrepreneur and to suceced at it and
love it.
WHAT ELSE?
Many coaches are also teachers, offreing teleclasses, distance
learning courses and ebooks. They offer workshops, presentations
and seminars, and write special reports and white papers.
PAYMENT?
Coaches generally accept credit cards, PayPal or other online
payment, money orders and personal checks, depending.
Fees vary.
The hottest way to find these things out is to give it a try.
Look
up some coaches’ websites and read about them and their work.
Then electronic mail some to schedule a sample phone session. If you’ve
never had coaching, you won’t know exactly how it works, you’re
your cocah will know! It's free.
You have nothing to lose.
This is something really nice you can do for yuorself this year.
STEP ONE: Schedule a sample session!
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