Do you know what coaching is about? Are you sure you are being coached when someone offers you his/her help?
There are three key distinctions that set coaching aside from any other kind of support you may get:
Coaching is Intentional
Coachign is Professional
Coaching is ABOUT YOU
Video transcript.
What does coaching mean for you?
The word coaching is so overused that has lost its meaning.
So, we hear Fitness coaching, Financial coaching, Marketing coaching, Social Media coaching… And, the common denominator to all of them is that they are professionals who have developed a system or program to teach you how to do certain things, for you to become better at something.
This is what coaching is understood out there.
Well, I have to tell you that that teaching or telling you how to do something is exactly what coaching is not about.
Let me start with the definition. The International Coaching Federation defines coaching
as “…a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires a person to maximize his personal or professional potential”
if you think about the support you got in your life I'm sure that you will remember now a few names who really contributed for you to become the person you are today. Definitely myself, I'm really thankful for those who helped me in some specific situations, in my personal and professional life, and that they have contributed to who I am today.
But this support, this help that sometimes is called mentorship, is not what real coaching is. And to make it clear, today I would like to make three distinctions about what coaching is versus this other support that we have got in the past.
Distinction number one: I have to say that coaching is Intentional.
When we decide for coaching, we have a specific situation or problem that we don't know how to handle, we identify the person who can help us, we decide for how long we want to work with that person, we agree with that person on the process, and we identify which is that we want to achieve.
In that support that you got in your personal or professional life. well... things were left to chance. By chance you had somebody at your workplace who could help you in one situation, or by chance, there was somebody in your family who knew somebody else who could help you, who could support you, who could advise you in some specific area.
Well, coaching is Intentional: we decide what we want, with who we want to work, and what we want to achieve. This is really specific.
The distinction number two is that coaching is Professional.
The people whom we get the support from, the coaches, are professional people who have learned different skills, who have a code of conduct, and professional and ethical guidelines. So, working with them, it's working as a contract, with a contractual agreement, like you could work with a lawyer, or you could work with a consultant.
So everything is professionally done and you can really rely on this person’s capabilities to conduct that process with you.
And the third distinction that I would like to make today is that coaching is 'about you'.
How many times you had the feeling that somebody who helped you in the past
helped you because he had some reasons, personal reasons, or personal interest, for you to do something, or to get better at something else?
When you work with a coach the only objective, the only purpose of that person, of that coach, is for you to become successful. No other interest at all.
So these are the three key distinctions that can make you more comfortable by working with a coach. And well, me telling you what coaching is probably will not make too much difference. It would be like explaining, trying to explain the red color to a colorblind person.
The real benefit for you is to experience coaching if you didn't do it before.
Experience coaching today. Most of the professional coaches offer one session for free, so contact several of them, have one free session with each one of them, and, at the end, select the person who resonates more with you, the one who your intuition is telling you "This is the person I want to work with for the next 6 or 12 months on this specific topic".
And, for sure, by being professionals, you have all the certainty that you're working with somebody who is really prepared and ready to support you.
I hope that these distinctions and these comments help you better understand something more about the coaching profession, and I'm encouraging you to get deeper, and to take the step and hire a coach.
So, if you have any other comment, you have any other suggestion, idea... please
feel free to write below, and hopefully this helps you move forward in your professional or personal life.
Thank you very much for listening. My name is Eduard Lopez.
See you next time!