Coaching is a method of training, counseling, or instructing someone or a group on how to develop their skills to increase their productivity or overcome a performance issue. The supervisor is referred to as a coach, while the student is called a coachee. Our beliefs about the capacity of others have a direct effect on their performance, and the purpose of coaching is to unlock people's potential to maximize their own performance. It helps them learn instead of teaching or telling them. Let's take learning to walk as an example: most people don't learn to walk by following instructions.
We all have a built-in natural learning capacity that is much more amazing than we think and that, in fact, is disrupted by instruction. Coaching validates, supports and empowers people within an organization. It provides them with a neutral person with whom to address concerns about professional development, as well as a safe space to practice difficult conversations.Coaching is a method for achieving established objectives. The coach, through dialogue, helps the coachee (client) to correctly set a goal, to find the best way to achieve the goal and to reveal the inner potential hidden in a person.
The coach does not say how to achieve success, but rather asks questions through which the client himself finds the solution to his own tasks. The Cambridge dictionary defines coaching as the work or activity of providing training to people or helping them prepare for something. But this definition is not entirely accurate, because coaching is not training or preparation, but rather helps and supports on the path to achieving the goal. Creating strategies to achieve goals and celebrating those successes with a coach is an excellent way to build self-confidence. If the leader or coach doesn't believe that people have more abilities than they currently express, he won't be able to help them. Working with a coach is an incredible and powerful tool that helps create a more productive and engaging work environment.
It is generally accepted that coaching appeared in the 1970s as an extension of the ideas of the Human Potential Movement. The key skill of coaching is asking the right questions to help the person solve their own problems. Good coaches believe that the individual always has the answer to their own problems, but they understand that they may need help finding it. When leaders focus on potential and look at the foundations of coaching, such as curiosity, non-judgment, and partnership, they no longer measure people by their past performance or blame them for their mistakes. No discussion of training would be complete without mentioning Timothy Gallwey and his ideas about the “inner game”. But the coach's task is not to tell how he achieved success, but rather help the client activate his inner potential, reveal hidden capabilities and help him achieve his goal.
By adopting a coaching mentality, leaders can unleash large reserves of talent and motivation and a strong sense of purpose in their employees. However, employees across the organization can benefit from supportive advice, whether they take on a new role, develop direct reports, or informally influence their teams. Coaches must identify the stage in which a person is in order to use the correct type of language to help them move to the next stage. In coaching associations it is the coach who sets goals, defines strategy manuals and determines what success means. A mentoring relationship generally focuses on future professional development and broadening one's horizons, unlike coaching which tends to focus more on solving immediate problems or issues. Coaching has been shown to have a powerful and positive impact on self-confidence, well-being and work performance.
