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One of my best and favorite maxims in business is that: ‘you cannot do it alone!‘ It is something that reminds me that learning and association with the right people are integral parts of success.
Coaching is the best well-kept secret for the success of many people and a diversification factor for accelerating learning and skill development in many areas of life.
If you want a proof of that then you should take a look at Tony Robbins work or review the results provided by John C. Maxwell, David Allen, Lolly Daskal and many more worldwide coaches!
I am practicing consulting and coaching for many years now and I have recognized the catalytic impact coaching can have in the life of people who wish to get tangible results in their life.
What Coaching Is?
Coaching is not a form of consulting as many people think. First of all, coaching is not a general term. It is very specific and focused on one SPECIFIC subject. Second is not a science, it is a practice aiming at providing specific and pre-determined and pre-agreed results for someone!
It is something I have argued a lot with many people. There is not a general principle of coaching not you sign-in a life-long coaching contract!
If you want a general definition of coaching you could use the following one:
Coaching is a form of development in which a person called a coach supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a coachee. Occasionally, coaching may mean an informal relationship between two people, of whom one has more experience and expertise than the other and offers advice and guidance as the latter learns; but coaching differs from mentoring in focusing on specific tasks or objectives, as opposed to more general goals or overall development. (Wikipedia: Coaching)
Coaching is, usually, a 1:1 interaction between a person has a specific how-to (coach) and, usually, a person (coachee) want to bring a specific result (related to the expertise of coach) in his/her life!
You may have and a different form of coaching when a coach coaching more than one person at the same time, but this is more a learning procedure, rather than a straight coaching session.
In any case, a coaching session, related, or should be related to a specific area of knowledge, know-how or skill and should, always be, as goals, SMART:
- Specific – you should have defined (and articulated it) clearly what you want to achieve with your coaching, what results do you want to bring about, and in what areas of your life.
- Measurable – you should be able to measure where you are and where you want to be! Without a metric nor you nor your coach would know how close or far you are at the moment!
- Assignable – You should always know you would be the owner of the action. If you are not able yourself to perform the specific task, who is the one who going to do it?
- Realistic – you should be serious when you set your goals. You cannot have a coach about how to be successful (too vague and too broad). But you can find a coach to help you learn how to improve your presenting skills!
- Time-related – the most important part of the coaching equation. You should always engage in a coaching session knowing beforehand how much time you need to achieve your goals you have chosen for your coaching!
Ideally, an excellent coaching is when you decide to do JUST one thing (you pick up ONLY one goal) and try to find someone (a coach) who would be able to help you succeed it!
Coaching Is A Form Of Learning?
Many people believe that coaching is a form of learning! Good coaching it is! But coaching is not related just to learning.
It is focused primarily on the growth of specific skills, traits, knowledge, etc. and targets to an overall personal growth and development!
I believe strongly that business or social results (and as a consequence the success in any area of your life) depend on the personal growth!
You cannot be a successful entrepreneur is yours don’t know what success means to you and you haven’t defined how to measure this success.
My recipe for a successful practice is to find out what you need to learn to become efficient to your life and work and find the right people or/and the right procedures to help you achieve it!
And that takes time because you need to commit yourself to doing so! Either within a coaching session or with a personal learning path, including yourself to devote some hours a week to learning for instance how to play better the piano!
You need to cultivate the right mindset, to form and practice the appropriate habits, to keep on exercising your new skills, etc.
On the other side, though, to be a coach, is not easy as well! You also need commitment and study all the time to provide the best possible value and results for your clients!
What You Need To Pay Attention To! Focus On The Art Of Coaching
As a coach, your job is never too easy. You need to focus all the time on the things can bring the required results to your client! And you need to study all the time, not the progress of your client but the worksheets of people have achieved results similar to the results you seek your clients to achieve!
After a while, coaching might become a habit (for the good coaches only!) but that is not enough! There are things a good coach might need to take attention to! Things can signify the success or failure of his/her client!
Among these things are the:
- changing requirement of your client,
- advances or modifications in an area can impact the work you do with your clients,
- volatile business or personal environment,
- the way you communicate and build rapport with your client, and
- what exactly skills or/and features you try to develop to your client!
All these can really impact your work and affect your most valuable assets of your client: trust! Trust and attention are the sole things, a good coach cannot afford to lose in order to have a successful coaching practice with your clients!
