The Impact and Power of Coaching

A Lack of Understanding

Let’s start by defining what Coaching actually is. Now, this is important, because in our experience at Living Your Learning , this is where things often start to go awry. Put very simply, many people, teams, businesses, organisations and dare I say Coaches themselves, simply don’t understand coaching well enough, if at all, and as a result simply get it wrong, resulting in the experience being at best poor and ineffective and at worst completely negative and damaging. And this quite frankly is dangerous, because of the huge potential to actually do so much more harm than good! That is the impact and power of poor coaching.

A Few Ground Rules

So before we get into the mechanics of coaching, it is first crucial to understand a few, what I call ground rules. Firstly, coaching is a very specific practice that should not in any way be confused with others of a similar ilk. For example, it is very different to training, it is not the same as mentoring and should never, ever be confused with other practices such as counselling or therapy, which I have unfortunately seen.?

Secondly and in my opinion, having a bit of experience, knowledge or expertise in a given area does not in any way qualify an individual to be a Coach of any kind. Just like other specialist areas that impacts the welfare of people, it is vital that the Coaching practitioner undergoes training, has extensive knowledge of Coaching practice and is able to demonstrate not only the right skills, but also the right behaviours. In addition to this, it is also essential that without exception, stringent coaching standards and ethics are not only upheld, but also taken extremely seriously.?

What Coaching Is

Now we have the ground rules sorted, let’s get back to what coaching actually is. Fundamentally, coaching is about unlocking an individual’s or team’s potential in order that they can maximise and improve for themselves, their own performance. Coaching is therefore not about teaching or providing instruction. It is also not about simply telling people what to do either, although in Mentoring, which uses similar skills to those used in coaching, advice can be given.

Real coaching actually assumes a level of knowledge, skill and expertise is already in place and helps the person being coached find their own answers. This means that the skill of the Coach is in getting those they are coaching to find their own path and to take ownership and responsibility for their own development, improvement and performance. This is achieved through helping them to identify their own current levels of performance and why; then to define for themselves their goals, intentions, and a course of action and the impact of those; and then most crucially, following up on and reviewing that action and if necessary going back through the process until the desired level of development, improvement and performance has been achieved.

Oh and by the way, all this is done whilst also creating and facilitating a psychologically safe space where the person being coached can be themselves, try things out and openly and honestly discuss, explore and reflect on their progress without fear or judgement.

If You’re a Coach, then Behave like a Coach!

Coaching is so much more than just following a process or a model though, and there are plenty of them out there, many of which are fantastic frameworks for holding great coaching conversations.?

For me, Coaching is also a behaviour and a way of being, which can not only make or break the success of the coaching interaction and relationship, but also the success of the person or the team being coached.

First and foremost, coaching is not about the Coach in any way. A great Coach will remove all ego, will not push their own agendas or desire for success and will focus solely on the development, improvement, performance and wellbeing of the person or people in front of them. A Coaches sole purpose is serving the people being coached so that they can perform to the best of their ability and that is all they should care about.

Emotionally Intelligent Coaching

Now, in order to do this, a Coach needs to have phenomenal Emotional Intelligence. So what’s Emotional Intelligence? Emotional Intelligence is the ability recognise, understand and manage our own emotions, whilst also recognising, understanding and influencing the emotions of others and contains five key areas which are:

• Self Awareness
• Managing Emotions
• Motivation
• Empathy?
• Social Skills

Here at Living Your Learning, we like to articulate it slightly differently, particularly when using it in the context of coaching and they are:

• Complete Awareness of our thoughts, emotions, behaviours, strengths, development areas and how we are being perceived.
• Thoughtful Response to our thoughts, emotions and the world around us.
• Amazing Purpose that results in a positive impact on those we serve.
• Mindful Empathy and truly understanding and responding appropriately to other people's perspectives, situations, thoughts and emotions.
• Conscious Communication that inspires, informs, educates and adds value to those we serve and interact with.

However you articulate Emotional Intelligence, without doubt and without exception, in my opinion, a Coach must demonstrate these and the other behaviours I have discussed. These are non-negotiable for me and are just as vital as the coaching skill and ability itself. A Coach simply can’t coach effectively without these, therefore if you are Coach, seriously consider if you demonstrate these and demonstrate them well. If you don’t, simply stop coaching or get good at them. And likewise, if you are being coached, think carefully about whether your Coach demonstrates the behaviours being discussed here. If they don’t, please get a new Coach.

Benefits

Now, assuming that the Coach has the right skills, ability, technical expertise, attitudes and behaviours, and the person being coached applies and acts on what is discussed in their coaching conversations, the benefits of coaching are simply phenomenal and for me, potentially life changing. I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. My business wouldn’t exist without it. We wouldn’t be able to help develop the people, businesses and organisations we work with in the way we do without it. And all the successful business people and sports men and women, teams and clubs, both professional and amateur throughout the world, wouldn’t?have their success without it either.

That is the impact and power of awesome coaching.