Value of Coaching
Want To Be A Star Performer? Hire a Coach
A coach can help you tap into your potential to achieve your goals and to live a more fulfilling and productive life.
The job of an athletic coach is to bring out the greatness in athletes in their sport. Similarly, the job of a professional coach is to bring out the personal and professional greatness in individuals in life and work. Star athletes have coaches. If you want to excel in your professional and personal life, then consider hiring a professional coach.
What is Professional Coaching?
Professional coaching is relatively new and is still in a state of rapid development as people become aware of its value. Professional coaching ranges from life coaching, which focuses on life planning, life balance and life issues to career coaching to ADHD coaching which focuses on helping those with ADHD overcome the daily challenges of living with this disorder.
Professional coaching is trendy, and like many trends there is a tendency to broadly use terminology to describe other, but different practices that have been in existence for many years. So many people make the word “coaching” synonymous with “consulting,” “training,” “managing,” “facilitating” and “mentoring.” While no one can control the use of the word “coaching,” its broad use can be confusing. In this article I use the definition of coaching provided by the International Coach Federation (ICF).
“Coaching is an on-going relationship which focuses on clients taking action toward the realization of their vision, goals or desires. Coaching uses a process of inquiry and personal discovery to build the client’s level of awareness and responsibility and provides the client with structure, support and feedback. The coaching process helps clients both define and achieve professional and personal goals faster and with more ease than would be possible otherwise.”
Many people realize that they are capable of living a more fulfilling and productive life. A coach acts as a catalyst to help clients achieve their goals. The client possesses the potential. The coach lowers the energy threshold for achieving the end result. Coaching taps into human potential; and focuses on what’s working and what’s possible, rather than on what’s wrong and broken. Coaching focuses on the present and future, rather than on the past.
The Coaching Relationship
Coaching is an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. The coach creates a safe, trusting space for the client to develop in. Coaching provides an opportunity for the client to experience self-directed learning, create dreams, pursue goals, get results and build confidence. Coaching deals with clients’ current goals and issues and it looks at real-life situations the client is facing. Coaching is guided by ethics and confidentiality.
Coaching is non-judgmental listening, inquiry, feedback and support, which allows the client to grow, learn and achieve results quickly. By careful listening and asking thought-provoking questions, a coach helps the client move forward. Coaching is inquiry-oriented rather than advice-oriented, soliciting and developing the client’s ideas and input instead of the coach making suggestions and giving advice. Professional coaches believe clients are resourceful, creative and whole and with proper support, they can solve their own challenges. The coach believes the client is the expert in his or her life. Through coaching clients learn the skills to continue to develop and grow even after terminating the coaching relationship.
Respondents to an ICF coaching survey reported the most common outcomes of working with a coach are: increased self-awareness, setting better goals, a more balanced life and lower stress levels. Many reported increased self-confidence and an improvement in their quality of life.
Increased self-awareness often results from examining one’s emotions, behaviors, values and life purpose. This increased self-awareness provides a strengthened framework for decision-making and action. Self-awareness is also key for emotional intelligence and professional effectiveness.
People working with a coach may set better goals as coaches encourage their clients to set goals around their values, around what matters most to them. Setting more meaningful goals along with the reinforcement and accountability provided by the coach typically accelerates attainment of goals.
Issues related to life balance and time management are significant issues for those with ADHD and it is common for ADHD coaches to focus on issues of personal fulfillment and self-mastery. Success in these areas leads to increased self-confidence and improved quality of life.
Lower stress levels often result when a client becomes more in alignment with his or her values, from improved relationships brought about by increased self-awareness and self-mastery and from improved life-balance. Coaches also help clients find simpler ways of accomplishing their objectives, thus leading to lower stress.
Anyone who is ready to develop exponentially can benefit from working with a coach. The best candidates for coaching are people who already enjoy some measure of effectiveness and success in their life, but would like to accomplish more with less struggle
Tips for Working Effectively with a Coach
- Be willing to invest the time and energy to achieve rapid interpersonal and professional development
- Be open to considering new perspectives
- Experiment with new ways of behaving; treat your life as a laboratory for learning
- Keep scheduled appointments with your coach-make a commitment to value coaching
- Work on any assignments between coaching sessions
- Be open and accepting of honest, but non-judgmental feedback as your coach will often be direct with you
- Prepare for coaching sessions in advance, knowing what you would like to discuss.
- Be open with your coach. Tell the full truth of any situations you want to be coached on.
- Tell you coach if you are not getting what you want or expect from the coaching relationship.
This article, originally written by Clare Marshall Wood, has been modified by Cynthia Hammer, MSW, who is both a life coach and an ADHD coach.