Coaching - what it is and how it works
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IN THIS COLUMN, we will go deep into coaching to understand its dynamics so that you will know the "inside story" of what a coach does. First, we will define what coaching is and then go further to explain what and how it works to enable people to break
HOW IS COACHING DEFINED?
To start off, there are so many definitions of coaching that they can boggle the mind. Many coaching schools take different perspectives in their treatment of coaching. Some regard it as a conversation, an enabler, a catalyst, a relationship, a communication tool and so on.
While Corporate Coach Academy regards coaching as a “larger than life” matter that should not be reduced to a small phenomenon, it has a more encompassing definition that is able to bring out the full essence of what coaching is.
In this regard, coaching is defined as a deep learning partnership with systematic steps to empower a person to attain courage, capabilities and commitment to achieve fulfilling goals.
Let us explore the meanings of some of the key words in three parts of this definition.
“Deep learning partnership” is about a very strong and meaningful relationship that engages more of the heart of the person where the emotions and feelings of a person reside. For transformation to take place, the person’s “internal engine” will be the most effective place for the coach to work on.
Courage, capabilities and commitment are in this order. This means that first, the person needs to pick up courage to act, followed by trying out, which helps him or her acquire the capabilities before fully committing to doing more after seeing the results of the actions.
Fulfilling goals is helping a person find the compelling purpose of achieving the goal that he or she truly wants rather than doing this for others.
WHAT IS THE OUTCOME OF COACHING?
The key outcome of coaching is the recipient’s ability to accelerate performance to achieve a goal. This can be done because it works on both the “inner self” (intrinsic) and “outer self” (extrinsic) of the person.
Working on the intrinsic self is perhaps the greatest feat that a coach can do more than any other professional. Going into the intrinsic entails exploring people’s inner world where their deeper emotions, feelings, underlying issues, roadblocks and other “shadow issues” reside. When they can be corrected or removed, it frees people from their self-imposed prison walls to do what they always want to do.
This can be expressed in a formula: potential minus self-limiting-beliefs equals high performance.
Taking this approach, the coach supports people in winning their “inner game”, where they find the mental strength of courage, self-esteem and determination and so forth to fight off their self-limiting beliefs of fears, anxiety, and doubts and others.
HOW DOES A COACH DO IT?
The key focus of every coach is to help the ward win his or her “inner game”. The inner game is about the battle between the positive and negative self-talks that are taking place inside a person. Literally, the work of a coach is to help the ward raise the volume of his or her positive self-talk to suppress the negative ones. It can be as simple as changing the self-talk from “I can’t” to “I can.”
Winning the inner game or the removal of negative self-talk is about the successful removal of the ward’s self-limiting beliefs (SLBs). In doing this, the coach listens curiously and attentively to their words and outlook, which give clues to the nature and type of their SLBs, which could be anything from fear to self-doubt, guilt, anger, helplessness and so forth.
Once these are identified, the coach challenges the ward to rationalise and evaluate the benefits they are gaining (or losing) in holding on to such beliefs.
At the same time, they are challenged to see how much more they can gain from adopting an alternative (or a more empowering) belief.
When a coach succeeds in getting the ward to remove their SLBs, it also means that the critical perquisites of high performance relating to self-esteem, courage and self-confidence are being strengthened. Thus they are now on their way to experience the freedom of a better world.
Corporate Coach Academy is a coaching school in Asia to certify leaders of all backgrounds to become manager-coaches or professional certified coaches in this region.
Log in to www.corporate-coachacademy.com or e-mail [email protected] for details.
