Coaching
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Read about our coaching packages: leadership, sales, presenting and cold calling
What is coaching?
Training, (n) the process of bringing a person to an agreed standard of proficiency by practice and instruction
Coach (n) one who instructs or trains
Coach (vb) to instruct, direct, or prompt
So it seems that coaching is one to one training! But there's more to it than that.
Training implies that the trainer has all the knowledge and must give it to the learner.
Coaching implies that the learner has all the knowledge but doesn't translate it into behaviour.
Coaching is an enabler. By itself, it doesn't do anything. A typical coach might help you set goals or move obstacles, but there's nothing that you couldn't do yourself. So the question is: Why aren't you doing it yourself already?
A coach is someone who acts as a timekeeper, pace car, metronome, guide, benchmark or whatever metaphor works for you. A coach provides a unique, external, supportive view of where you are and where you are going. A coach is not connected to you emotionally, and has no vested interest in you keeping things as they are. A coach only wants what you want, and a great coach only sees you as you aspire to be. A great coach is not concerned with where you have come from, or why you are where you are, or why you can't have everything you want. A great coach is a catalyst, accelerating the changes that you want for yourself.
A coach might inspire you to make changes or take action. A coach might help to remove barriers that you have placed in your path. A great coach might even reflect back to you your beliefs and behaviours that stand in the way of what you want to achieve.
We can come up with a definition of coaching itself, such as:
Coaching is an interactive, collaborative approach to development and learning that is based on the client’s own skills, standards and goals rather than any external benchmarks.
Or we can define coaching by its relationship with other approaches that appear to be similar:
Managing
Counselling
Mentoring
Teaching
Training
In fact, many people use the term coaching interchangeable with those words, creating some confusion about what coaching is, and more importantly what it is not.
Some people say that coaching is non-directive, and that the client always drives the progress and direction taken. In fact, many successful coaches are highly directive, and a good coaching relationship is an ebb and flow of ideas and experiences.
Some people say that coaching must be objective and the client’s performance must be benchmarked against agreed, universal standards.
In sports coaching, it’s easy to tell if a sprinter is running faster than the world record or not. Or is it? Benchmarking is easy – the hard part of a coach’s job is figuring out what the client is doing at less than 100% efficiency.
This is really where the job of a performance coach lies – not in recognising what the client is doing wrong, but in recognising the one or two specific behavioural changes that will lead to improved performance.
It’s easy to look at a sports coach, coaching a sprinter, and think you understand running. In fact, it’s far more complex than you can imagine and there are many variables that the coach must be aware of. It’s the same when we are coaching sales people, managers, leaders, engineers or anyone else in an organisation. To coach them means to presume they already have all the knowledge they need to do their job – the difference comes in how they apply that knowledge.
Why is coaching becoming more popular?
Coaching is training for the Internet generation, the 21st century. Consider the changes in our daily lives over the past 50 years - computers embedded in everything, with graphical user interfaces in cars, photocopiers and drinks machines. Computers part of everyday life - at home, for leisure and on the move. email is becoming the only way that geographically diverse communities can stay in touch - sharing experiences using digital cameras in mobile phones and holding conversations using text message.
Even if you don't consider yourself to be comfortable with all the technology, you can't ignore the speed with which we can all access information on any subject. For you to be reading this, you must be familiar with the Internet and have access to a PC. That means you can access information on any subject, from any library or expert in the world, in a matter of seconds. In short, you don't want to wait for tomorrow's newspaper to read yesterday's news.
We have learned to expect information now, or even sooner. Customer service is online, and business information is available in real time, not next month when the accountant sends you the paperwork. When you buy a new gadget or get a new piece of computer software, you don't want to sit and read a manual. Worse, you don't want to go on a training course. You want to play with it and see what it can do. When you know what you want to do, but can't figure out how to do it, do you book yourself on a training course? No, you press F1.
Computers, and computer based devices, are designed to be intuitive to use. They are designed to be played with. They don't have complex command structures that have to be remembered and typed verbatim, as was the case just 20 years ago. They have icons, images, interactive tutorials and even intelligent assistants that pop up to help you. Customer support centres can move to India, not just because of the cost, but because users like you are becoming more advanced as the software becomes better at adapting to your needs.
You already have the experience to do 99% of the things you need to do. For the rest, you have the most important skill of all - you know how to find out.
So coaching is training for your generation. The generation that doesn't need telling what to do by an expert, and who doesn't need to learn what isn't relevant to you, right now. You want answers when you have questions, not before and not after. You want help when you need help. Sometimes you just need a little help to find the easier way.
Coaching helps you to perform better using the skills and knowledge you already have.
Ask us for more information about coaching, or to arrange a first meeting
What about standards or licensing for coaching?
Currently there are none, and this will be the situation for some years until coaching develops the public body of knowlegde and self regulation that promotes it from a field of study to a profession. At the moment, in the UK, the first steps are now being taken towards this, as the government now recognises coaching as an area of work for which occupational standards may be defined. Communications In Action is taking part in the consultation process for creating national occupational standards for coaching and will be working with these standards as they emerge.
At all times, we are aware of our duty of care to our clients and we work towards our own ethical and professional standards to ensure our clients receive a high quality, professional service.
What does a coach do?
Why do the most successful people already have coaches? Surely, if they're successful, they don't need any help?
Coaches don't help you or advise you or do your job for you. A great coach is like a mirror, reflecting back information which you need in order to develop, but which is outside your field of vision. A great coach understands where you want to be and helps you find your way there.
Where change is involved, a great coach is like a catalyst, accelerating a natural change process. You may have the desire and motivation to change but not the means or resources. You may need a few new ideas. You may need help with a specific problem. You may just need help getting back on track. We can help you with all of this.
With some clients, we meet just a few times and that's all that is needed to solve a problem and get back on track. With others, we may develop a longer term supporting relationship. The client always chooses because the momentum and commitment for growth must come from within you in order to be effective and permanent.
With organisations under increasing pressure to demonstrate return on investment in everything they do, traditional classroom training has finally been recognised as inefficient and ineffective in developing the personal skills necessary for success in business. Business and executive coaching not only provides a means of developing the people at the top of the organisation, it is also extremely impactful and effective, leading to outstanding results in a short space of time.
Team coaching, working with the relationships within a business, is also extremely effective in creating high performance teams that are able to work together to deliver greatly enhanced results.
In all of these situations, the coach simply asks you questions to get you to think of all the things you haven't explored yet - either because you don't know about them or because you are afraid to. The coach provides a supportive environment for your ideas and aspirations and helps you to think through the steps you need to take. Imagine having a new business idea and telling your friends and family about it, how many of them say "sounds great, what do you need to do?" and how many say "but it will never sell" or "it sounds like a lot of hard work" or even "you just don't have the experience to do something like that, who will buy it?" In short, where other people ask you "Why?" the coach asks you "What if?" Having fully explored the idea, you may or may not decide to go through with it, yet you have fully explored it. It didn't fall at the first hurdle, tripped up by fear, doubt or disbelief. It was given a fair chance.
The business ideas that flourish are not the greatest, most unique ideas - they are simply the ideas that are nurtured and supported. We can help your ideas to flourish - whatever they may be. The ideas that succeed are the ones you commit to, so you don't have to worry about having the best idea, or the best business case. You only have to worry about being comitted, and that is definitely something a great coach can help you with.
Is there a coaching process?
Some coaches have been trained to follow a rigid process, unfortunately clients do not fit neatly into that process and therefore the most effective coaches are those who can adapt easily, drawing on a wide range of disciplnes, tools and techniques. We could say that a high level coaching process is as follows:
Find out what the client wants > Help the client to get it
And it's important to realise that the relationship you have with a coach extends beyond the central feedback mechanism. We could describe a coach, at the most fundamental level, as someone who:
Holds a mental model of behavioural excellence
Compares the client's actual behaviour to that model
Translates the differences into behavioural change for the client
So, if we took a complex task like sales or leadership, we could break it down into a number of discrete components for which the coach could provide valuable information about the client's behaviour. Usually, these differences are unconscious and so the coach often only needs to bring them to the client's attention. Often, the coach needs to use more specific techniques to bring about behavioural change. There is where an experienced coach differs greatly from someone who has only attended a coaching training course. Anyone can tell you what you are missing or doing wrong, yet only an experienced and highly skilled coach can present that to you in a way that makes it easy and enjoyable for you to change your behaviour and enjoy the results that you get from that change.
What kinds of coaches are there?
Lots and lots - as coaching develops and becomes a competetive market, coaches try to specialise and find niches. You'll see adverts for performance coaches, success coaches and even wealth coaches. At Communications In Action, we are simply Business Coaches which means we work with a broad range of professional clients in areas relating to personal and business performance.
We see coaching as a spectrum of disciplines which you need to think about carefully in order to get the results you want:
At one of the spectrum are organising coaches such as life coaches, who look for long term relationships and support you in a generalised way. They help you to organise your life and plans and to maintain your present level of focus. If you need to change anything, it will take a long time but many clients don't want to make changes, they just want to stay on track.
At the other end are the transformational coaches who have very specialised, unique skills and toolkits. They are able to bring about transformational change, very quickly. If you are ready for that, and if you are ready to accept the impact such change will have in your life, then transformational coaches are the best route. In order to make the best from a transformational coach, you need to know what it is you want.
In the middle are the catalysts. These coaches accelerate the pace of change in your life. They help you to change the things you don't know how to change, and they help you to stay on track to. Their focus is on improving your performance with what you are already doing. They don't turn your life on its head, but they don't let you off the hook either when it comes to realising your potential.
At Communications In Action, we tend to work in the area from catalytic to transformational coaching. We mostly work as catalysts for change, but when the need for transformation is there, we have people with those unique skills too, and we use those skills carefully to help bring about change in a broader context.
Ask us for more information about coaching, or to arrange a first meeting
Why does coaching work?
My simple answer to this is "because clients want it to". It's a collaboration between coach and client. The client already knows what he or she wants, the coach helps to accelerate that process. Coaching works because the client provides the desire and the motivation, the coach provides the guidance and the specific change tools.
A coach also has a very different perspective than the client, helping the client to grow beyond their own self imposed boundaries. Think of any goal you could set yourself, or any standard you could benchmark yourself against. The problem is that you only know what you know, and you can only see as far as your own horizons.
When we set goals for ourselves, they are invariably constrained by our fears - fear of failure, of success, of risk or even of change itself. We protect ourselves from these dangers by staying within our comfort zone. No doubt you have experienced being pushed close to the edge, and feeling the discomfort and concern that this brings. Sometimes we get pushed outside of our comfort zone altogether. When this happens in a stressful way, our fears are strengthened and we learn that it's even more important to stay safe and not to change anything. When this happens in a safe and supportive environment, we learn that our fears are not protecting us - they are hindering our own growth. We learn to push beyond our doubts and grow, to become what we aspire to. This is the area where a coach works - providing the safe and supportive environment that enables you to really grow. |
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Coaching works because it is personal, often intensive and builds upon and refines an individual's existing skills and talents. Ultimately, the only way to really know what a difference it will make for you is to get in touch and find out for yourself. Call us now on 0870 1620802 or email to learn more about business coaching.
Is coaching new?
Coaching is seen by some people as the 'latest thing' in development. In fact, there have always been coaches, they just haven't been formally recognised as a body of professionals until relatively recently. In the past, people like consultants, mentors, managers and friends influenced you and helped you to solve problems and plan for the future. By working with a coach, you are accessing a specific and powerful skill set that you can use to make changes and develop yourself in the way you want to.
Outstanding managers and colleagues have always coached the people around them. In organisations today, it's more common to find managers having to manage upwards and having little time to support the people in their teams. A professional coach can therefore play a key role in the development of that team, bridging the gap between expectation and performance in exactly the same way that the coach of a sports team does.
Whether you're an individual or a company, we can surprise you with the results we're able to achieve, easily and quickly.
Coaching and training together form a powerful, integrated development approach which combines fast results with the power to unlock limitless human potential.
We coach a wide range of clients, from high profile individuals through to whole teams. The common element is that all our clients have specific business goals they want to achieve and we help those clients to achieve those goals easily and quickly.
Ask us for more information about coaching, or to arrange a first meeting
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