What is coaching?

• Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to  maximize their personal and professional potential.  A coaching partnership supports the achievement of  extraordinary results, based on goals set by the individual or team.  Through the process of coaching, individuals  focus on the skills and actions needed to successfully produce their personally relevant results.

How long does a coach work with an individual or team?

The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on the individual’s or team’s needs and preferences.  For certain types of coaching, 3 to 6 months of working with a coach may work.  For other types of coaching, people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period.  Factors that may impact the length of time include:   the types of goals, the ways individuals or teams like to work, the frequency of coaching sessions and financial resources available to support coaching.

How is coaching distinct from other service professions?

• Professional coaching is a distinct service which focuses on an individual’s life as it relates to goal setting, outcome creation and personal change management.  In an effort to understand what a coach is, it can be  helpful to distinguish coaching from other professionals that provide personal or organizational support.
   
  • Therapy—Coaching can be distinguished from therapy in a number of ways.  First, coaching is a profession that supports personal and professional growth and development based on individual-initiated change in pursuit of specific actionable outcomes.  These outcomes are linked to personal or professional success.   Coaching is forward moving and future focused.  Therapy, on the other hand, deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or a relationship between two or more individuals.  The focus is often on resolving difficulties arising from the past which hamper an individual’s emotional  functioning, and dealing with present life and work circumstances in more emotionally healthy ways.   Therapy outcomes often include improved emotional/feeling states.  While positive feelings/emotions  may be a natural outcome of coaching, the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals in one’s work or personal life.  The emphasis in a coaching relationship is on action, accountability and follow through. 
  • Consulting—Consultants may be retained by individuals or organizations for the purpose of accessing   specialized expertise.  While consulting approaches vary widely, there is often an assumption that the  consultant diagnoses problems, prescribes and sometime implements solutions.  In general,  the assumption with coaching is that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks.