I am pretty sure that a lot of you have heard the word “coaching” at least once or have seen it somewhere online. From my own experience of working in a corporate environment, I can say that coaching at some point was a bit of a mythical term when people who have never actually experienced a real coaching session would use it with a sceptical note. It was a popular sarcastic joke that, for example, a manager is “coaching” a team member which actually meant that an employee is being taught what to do. It couldn’t be further away from the truth of what coaching is.
So what is it? Every coaching professional can give an answer that slightly differs but usually it is about the same thing. Coaching is a development process when a coach helps a client to find and maximise his potential. To put into simple words, it’s a conversation where a coach has a role of a thinking partner and by asking questions and using coaching methods helps a client to look at the topic from a different perspective, find necessary solutions.
I would generalise possible coaching topics into these main categories:
- I want to stop doing something but I can’t;
- I want to start doing something but I can’t;
- I don’t like what I am doing but I want to;
- I don’t know what I want to do;
- I want to be better at something what I am doing;
- I want to feel different;
- I tried to solve this question on my own but it didn’t work.
3 things I wish I knew earlier about coaching:
- It is not a luxury service that only high level managers can afford. Now coaching is available and affordable for everyone, sessions are organised online as well;
- A topic for a coaching session can only be related to work. Absolutely not, whatever you need to talk about, you can;
- I don’t have any problems which means there’s no need for a coaching session. Not entirely true – coaching is not only about solving problems but also about making good things even better.
Coaching is not:
- A chat with a friend where you just can talk about everything what’s going in your life, complain a bit, get compassion and after come back to the old ways;
- A therapy. We do not dig into problems and into the past. We don’t search to answer “Why?”, we work on “What’s next”;
- A consultation. We don’t give advice, we don’t need to be experts on a matter.
Are you curious to experience coaching yourself? Book your first appointment here https://augam.fr/en/making-an-appointment/ and let’s talk.
With best wishes for growth,
Dovilė
Your thinking partner online, in France (Savoie), Switzerland (Geneva region)