Coaching in simple terms. What it is

Coaching is not just consultation. Almost every person, before plunging into this activity, considers it to be ordinary consultations or trainings. They all think they already know how it works.

But this is an erroneous opinion, everything is completely different. That is, when a person really begins to understand this, the idea of coaching changes radically. There is a clear idea of what coaching is, and also how it differs from those same consultations or trainings.

What is coaching?

The word coaching has gained popularity in the UK. So English students called private tutors. It would seem such a beautiful word and such a simple translation. However, the word “coach” began its existence much earlier and was translated as “cart” or “carriage”.

So, a coach is a tutor? Almost. A coach is a person who helps his client achieve their goals. The whole point of coaching is for a person to use exactly those skills that he has developed best, that is, to do what he is more developed in. These skills will open up and show themselves during coaching.

Coaching is a process in which a person is helped to achieve a specific goal that he has set for himself. In practice, this is a period of time during which the client is helped to find answers to questions within himself, as well as to reveal his skills and abilities. Ultimately, the client comes to achieve their life or professional goals.

Who is a coach?

Let’s take a closer look at who a coach is. In fact, this is a person who, as a result of close cooperation, helps the client with the search for the answer within himself. The main task of the coach is to help the client develop an understanding of how he can achieve the task.

The peculiarity of a coach is that he helps a person achieve personal or professional goals without influencing his decisions. That is, the client must reach the goal on his own under the guidance of a coach. The task of the coach is to point out mistakes to the client without direct advice. How to do it? Through dialogue.

Ask a person a leading question, and he will figure everything out for you. Here it is, the essence of the work of a coach. But this is a method of coaching “from below”, there is another – “from above”.

The difference between a coach and a mentor

The coach, unlike the mentor, is not engaged in the general development of the client, but in the development of certain skills in him.

For example, skills in personnel management, the ability to communicate with the opposite sex, and so on. The mentor transfers to the receiver all his baggage of knowledge that he has accumulated throughout his life, and the coach helps the client gain experience himself.

The coach does not give answers to questions, but helps the client find them within himself. Thus, the coach is an auxiliary tool for the client, in contrast to the mentor, which is a ready-made plan of action.

The difference between coaching and training

In terms of terminology, most people wonder what the difference is between coaching and training. Moreover, many trainers and coaches themselves cannot answer this question.

If you approach a coach, he will start telling you the standard stories about how coaches help people find answers to their questions and achieve their goals. But this does not give a complete understanding of what coaching is.

In fact, everything is much simpler, a coach is a person who works with a group of people, and coaching is an individual activity. But, sometimes, coaches work individually, and coaches switch to group classes, which completely confuses everyone.

In general, if a person works individually, then most likely he is a coach. And if he presents himself in a different way, then perhaps he simply does not like the word “coach”.

How coaching works in practice

If we discard all complex schemes, we can divide coaching into two groups. The first is the work of coaching “from below”, the second – “from above”.

What is bottom-up coaching and how is it different from top-down coaching? Everything is simple. Coaching from below is observation from the outside. That is, the coach observes the person.

His main task is not to give advice directly, but to build a structure of leading questions in such a way that with their help the client himself comes to the answers, he himself understands his problem.

Being able to do something and being able to explain to a person how to do something are completely different things that require different skills.

Coaching “from above” is a completely different scheme. Here we do not give any leading questions and, moreover, we do not try to give advice. In this case, the opposite is true.

We are an object of observation for the client. We already have success in a certain area (field of activity, be it an online business or something else) and continue to do what we are good at. A man from the side is watching us.

In the first option, coaching may not bring any significant results in the field of training your client’s skills, and this is not a big deal. The most important skill that he will gain is the ability to independently find and solve a problem that prevents him from moving on.