About Coaching
You have goals, dreams, and things you want.
But is wanting enough?
Have you found you chase the same goals over and over, but never seem to get there?
That’s where coaching comes in. Coaches are professionals whose job it is to help YOU achieve your goals.
The International Coach Federation (ICF) has defined professional coaching as follows:
“Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaching honors the client as the expert in his/her life and work and believes that every client is creative, resourceful, and whole.”
The Client-Coach Partnership
As a coach, you “partner” with your client in the most literal sense of the word. Yes, you know more “stuff” about your area of expertise. That’s fine and the way it’s supposed to be. But you don’t know more “stuff” about your client than he or she does. And so coaching only works when both parties form a genuine partnership built on mutual sharing, collaboration and cooperation. This is of particular importance and sometimes difficult to do when you think you have the solutions and answers for your client.
So what do professional coaches do? They provide an ongoing partnership that helps their clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Ultimately, coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.
And how do they do it? Coaches listen and customize their approach to individual client needs. They believe that their job is to support their client to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that they already have; the true embodiment of “empowerment.”
In short, coaches:
- Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve;
- Encourage client self-discovery;
- Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies; and
- Support the client to get into action and achieve their desired results
Sound simple? Yes, as with most things in life, success is simple, but not easy. A good coach is one who INSPIRES and SUPPORTS you to achieve the dream you’ve always WANTED but never thought POSSIBLE.