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Coaching |
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Me |
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The word coaching has changed from a word almost universally associated with sports to one used by a very wide range of people and professions to describe what they do.
Coaching in this new context has developed over the last 15-20 years from total obscurity to become a well defined and maturing discipline. While this may be strong evidence that coaching fills an important need in the market, it may also give the impression that everything to do with personal change, growth and development is "coaching". If that were indeed true, we could perhaps dispense with the word "coaching" altogether and just call it "everything". Ok, jokes aside. Let me share with you some thoughts about what coaching is and how it might apply to you. How to think about coaching Coaching brings you together with a coach in a collaborative relationship that uses discovery, goal setting and strategic actions to realize extraordinary results. Coaching is also a style of relating specifically focused on developing your potential as an individual that combines an extensive body of knowledge with many new technologies. Coaching puts the responsibility for results squarely where it belongs: with you. It's about your life and your goals. Only you can make it happen, whatever the "it" happens to be. Coaching is interdevelopmental in that the collaboration develops both the coach and the individual being coached. Coaching is a form of consulting. Like a consultant, a coach helps you and/or your business to:
In addition to the above, the coach "stays with" (coaches) the client to:
In a nutshell, all coaches are consultants, but few consultants are coaches. Although that is starting to change a little. Some distinctions that maybe helpful to you in thinking about coaching: Coaching has some similarities with consulting. Consulting is typically short-term with the consultant being directly responsible for certain deliverables. Coaching is longer term with the client being responsible for all deliverables. A coach supports the client with goal setting, learning new skills or going through behavioral changes. All coaches are consultants, few consultants are coaches. Coaching is not therapy. Therapists work on past issues that are causing current behavior or healing something that is broken. Therapists aim to bring you back up to normal. But some therapists are embracing coaching. Coaches focus on the future and help clients move forward by setting personal and professional goals. Coaches work with the whole you to build you up from where you are, to change what passes for normal altogether. But some coaches specialize in restorative coaching which is bordering on therapy. Coaching uses principles from sports coaching. These are principles like teamwork, going for the goal and being your personal best. Unlike sports coaching, professional coaching is not based on win/lose competition. A coach strengthens the client's skills instead of merely helping him to beat the other team. It's always win/win. Why the Coaching Voyage The Coaching Voyage came about as a result of my own search for ways to increase the value to my clients. Something that would let me integrate all that I have learnt over my 25 years as an accountant and management consultant to hundreds of companies in Europe, USA, Canada and Mexico. There is no shortage of smart people in the world, truly there isn't. And the book stores are full of books and programs of all sorts to help you, me or anyone else with all manner of problems, real or imagined. I have read a great deal of this myself. So why one more thing added to the pile? The new new thing in the anchorage Well, things do change over time besides the fact that we get older. What is new in the arena is coaching. This is a bigger deal than you might think. Why? Because the traditional assistance model was one of teacher student or consultant client. Often you get the feeling that it was more like preacher hapless subject. The weakness of all of these constellations is the fact that after the teacher/preacher/consultant leaves, all that is left is book learning/faith/fat report. The student/hapless subject/client is left to his or her own devices trying to muddle through on the road to the promised land. The advice may have been great and the plans wonderful. But they were really just offered in the spirit of: "Do this thing that I say is great and all will be well." As if execution doesn't matter. As if the capabilities and resources of the individual doesn't matter. Well they do. So left to their own devices, people always struggled and too often failed to reach the results they were told to expect. The No Help condition One way to describe this is to think of it as No help. Here is how a group of the worlds foremost experts on organizational change put it in a recent book: "As investments in change initiatives go up, more help is required which might include coaching, training, consultation, mentoring, or other forms of guidance for developing a change initiative. So what is the answer? Well, you'll be interested to know that Professor Senge and his colleagues think coaching is a key ingredient. In his first landmark book, The Fifth Discipline (1990), there was no mention of coaching. In the second landmark book, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (1994), there was no mention of coaching. But The Dance of Change (1999) has a whole chapter on coaching and comments scattered throughout the book. Or how about this more recent endorsement: "Corporate coaching ... is a grassroots movement that is spreading in some of the unlikeliest corners of corporate America, including IBM, AT&T, and Kodak." This is significant because it clearly demonstrates that coaching has broken through from private art to public practice just in the last few years. When thought leaders embrace a concept or practice like coaching, then everyone benefits as increased development of and investment in coaching produces new tools and experiences for others to learn from and apply.
What is Coaching? What is the Coaching Voyage? The Benefits of Coaching Goals that Coaching Can Help With How Coaching Works |
Elias Canetti (1905-94) What is Coaching? What is the Coaching Voyage? The Benefits of Coaching Goals that Coaching Can Help With How Coaching Works 
The Digital Norseman - Chase Your Dream (My personal site) Matto Grosso - Words from the Bewilderness (My weblog) |
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© Copyright 2002 Preben Ormen. All rights reserved. |