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Coaching is a form of help for people who want to enter the path of self-development, and thus improve their competences and develop in the professional or personal field. The techniques used in professional coaching are based on psychological knowledge, especially issues related to motivation, learning techniques and more effective problem solving. Who is coaching for?
What is coaching?
Coaching is a development technique that is based on cooperation between the client and the coach. A partnership relationship, regular meetings and talks are to facilitate the coaching person in achieving specific goals – developing business competences, learning better time or financial management, and developing better health habits. There are many types of coaching, but it is worth distinguishing first of all team coaching and individual coaching.
On the one hand, coaching is currently very popular, on the other hand, there are many negative opinions about it. Such dissonance is the result of the appearance of the term “coaching” in the context of successful people who give universal and unbelievable recipes for success. The phrases about the power of positive thinking and the possibility of doing virtually anything, if you want to, also have bad associations.
In practice, striving for changes in life is a complex process, and people are properly prepared to lead coaching sessions they work individually with the client and set achievable goals.
Everyone has different needs and difficulties in structuring daily duties. The task of the coach is to learn about his predispositions and skills, as well as to propose methods of working on himself in such a way as to achieve the desired results. Actual achievement benefits from the help of a coach however, it requires the use of a qualified person, and not a trickster who promises unrealistic achievements in a short time.
Also check: Mental health – diet, sleep, exercise, and other factors
Coach, psychologist or psychotherapist?
The coach’s help can bring benefits if this form of help responds to the client’s expectations, and at the same time will not conflict with his mental state. This is why it is important to distinguish between coaching, psychological consultation, developmental psychotherapy and clinical psychotherapy.
Coaching focuses on managing certain specific resources at the client’s disposal. We are talking about resources such as motivation, skills, beliefs and potential covering various areas of life. Working with a coach is quite commonly associated with business coaching, i.e. a development process aimed at broadening the professional competences of employees. In this context, coaching is sometimes used as employee training, which is often organized by companies, e.g. for people in managerial positions.
The coach’s support is appropriate for healthy people without psychological problems. If we are struggling with mood disorders, adaptation problems or symptoms indicating other psychological problems, it is better to consult a psychologist. It is worth mentioning here that the profession of a coach can also be practiced by people with psychological or psychotherapeutic education. So if we find such a qualified specialist, he will be able to assess whether coaching is an adequate form of support for us.
In case of doubt, we can always start with a psychological consultation – a psychologist can make a psychological diagnosis and discuss current problems and past experiences with us. If he sees fit, he can refer us to psychotherapy.
In the case of clinical psychotherapy we are dealing with the process of treating mental disorders, as well as their diagnosis and prevention. It is a form of help for people struggling with emotional difficulties, as well as with chronic mental illnesses, which often require pharmacological treatment.
Increasingly, it stands out too developmental psychotherapywhich is not aimed at helping people with deeper problems or disorders. As the name suggests, its goal is to support the client who wants to better understand himself, discover his potential and overcome certain barriers that prevent him from fulfilling himself in life. In this form of psychotherapy, we focus on the aspects of personality development, shaping attitudes and beliefs, which affect a person at various stages of life.
When does coaching work?
Coaching and personal development involve analyzing the client’s current problems. Thus, the present situation and possible paths of development are considered, without delving into the past experiences that have shaped thinking and behavior. Coaching supports the client in the learning process, encourages them to independently analyze difficulties and change their approach, and motivates them to act.
One of the basic forms of cooperation between the coach and the client is individual coaching. There are many varieties of it, the differentiation of which is based on the designation of other areas of activity and goals.
Personal coaching will work when our expectations include:
- better time organization, more effective planning of professional tasks and reconciling them with personal life;
- practicing interpersonal skills;
- dealing with routine and bad habits;
- finding a way to deal with frustration;
- the need for an external source of motivation to act and achieve goals;
- willingness to fulfill yourself better in the professional sphere;
- the desire to reduce the level of stress and find a way to effectively relax;
- implementation of a diet, regular exercise and other healthy lifestyle assumptions;
- learning self-motivation;
- searching for new ways of personal development.
Group coaching is a specific type of training and is closely related to business coaching. It allows a group of managers to work together or to improve the team’s competences, which is why it is directed mainly to companies.
It should not be forgotten that coaching is a process that requires not only time, but also commitment and willingness to develop in specific spheres of life.
Read more: Psychotherapy – when is it worth using?
Coaching – types
In addition to the previously mentioned types of coaching, the following can also be mentioned:
- Medical coaching – dealing with work with patients and medical staff;
- Professional coaching – related to development and career;
- Investment coaching – usually associated with personal investments (see also: Financial advice, Investment advice);
- Life coaching – focused on relationships and personal life;
- Executive coaching – work with the management of enterprises;
- Diet coaching – focused on building healthy eating habits and a permanent change of destructive beliefs / behavior regarding eating, consistently strives to obtain a healthy, stable body weight.
Find out more: Coaching – how much does it cost?
Coaching — historia
The first use of the term “coach” in connection with the term instructor or trainer appeared around 1830 in Oxford University slang for the teacher who “led” the student through the exam. The word “coaching” therefore describes a specific process of “transporting people” from where they are to where they want to be. In turn, the first use of the term in relation to sport was in 1861.
Historically, many areas have had an impact on the development of coaching, including adult education, Human Potential Movement in the 60s, LGAT groups such as Erhard Seminars Training (founded in 1971), leadership studies, personal development and various fields of psychology. The University of Sydney offered the world’s first coaching psychology research unit in January 2000, and various academic associations and journals on coaching psychology were established in the following years.
Also check: Mentoring – when is it worth using?
Coaching – efficiency
One of the studies from the American research tried to establish the effectiveness of coaching as a procedure to counteract procrastination. In a randomized controlled trial, 84 participants were assigned to individual coaching, self-study, group training, or group training under a controlled setting.
The results indicated that individual coaching and group training were effective in reducing the procrastination problem and facilitating the achievement of the goal. Individual coaching provided a high level of satisfaction and was better at helping participants achieve their goals, while group training was effective at promoting the acquisition of relevant knowledge. The results for the self-study group indicate that performing the exercises independently without the support of the trainer is not sufficient to achieve high goals.
In addition, the mediation analysis shows that the trainer’s transformative and transactional leadership behavior influenced participants’ perceived autonomy support and intrinsic motivation, which translates into favorable coaching outcomes.
The results can help in choosing the right methods of HR development: if there is a general need to systematically prepare employees to perform specific tasks, group training seems to be appropriate due to the lower costs. However, when certain aspects of working conditions or individual development goals are most important, coaching can be identified. However, more research is needed to compare the relative effectiveness of coaching with other interventions in different contexts.
The conducted research shows that coaching and training effectively improve results, but also emphasize the beneficial effects of coaching for clients and achieving their goals. In addition, to shed light on the basic mechanisms of coaching effectiveness, researchers expanded their research into the transactional and transformational leadership behavior of coaches.
By adding cognitive and motivational factors (perceived support for autonomy and intrinsic motivation), a better understanding of the interrelationships between the leadership behavior of the trainers and the experiences and needs of the trainers during the coaching process was obtained. It has been shown that transactional and transformational leadership behaviors influence client perception and motivation, and that these experiences portend coaching success.
These are important findings as they provide trainers with the knowledge to create highly effective learning and development environments. However, to gain an in-depth understanding of the specific features and limitations of different methods, further empirical research is needed to test their relative effectiveness and the underlying processes.
See also: How to choose a good coach?
Coaching – ethical issues
With the growing popularity of coaching, many colleges now offer trainer training programs accredited by professional associations. Some courses offer a couch certificate even after a few days of training. For example, in America, some ICF accredited “comprehensive” training programs require a minimum of 125 student contact hours, 10 hours of mentoring and performance evaluation.
These are very low training requirements compared to the training requirements of some other assisting professions: for example, a California psychologist-counseling license requires 3000 hours of supervised work experience. However, for example, ICF offers a “Master Certified Coach” credential, which requires demonstration of “2500 hours (2250 paid) coaching experience with a minimum of 35 clients” and a “Professional Certified Coach” credential with lesser requirements.
Other professional organizations similarly offer entry-level, secondary, and advanced trainer accreditation options. Some trainers are both certified couche and licensed counseling psychologists, integrating coaching and counseling.
Critics perceive life coaching as psychotherapy, but without legal restrictions and regulations of state psychologists. There are no licensing rules / requirements for couchs. Due to the lack of regulation, people who do not have formal training or certification can legally be called couchs.
Coaching — self coaching
Can you be your own coach? It depends on the definition of coaching and what our expectations are for the help of the trainer. If coaching is designed to help us move forward in life, be it professional or personal, we can certainly do it ourselves, using the wide range of resources available as part of personal development.
For example, it is worth setting goals for yourself, reading books, listening to CDs, going to talks and participating in discussion groups that will help us open our minds, gain new perspectives and gain new ideas that will help us develop and solve our problems.
However, it must not be forgotten that we can often gain much more thanks to the help of a professional coach:
- a good coach should be able to help us gain clarity of thinking, define real problems;
- the coach should be an expert in listening, so that he / she is able to know what questions to ask to really help us, as well as listen and question possible contradictions;
- it should also hold us accountable for our actions, because we often have good intentions but do not implement them;
- can play an enormously supportive role by being there to listen with complete impartiality, without judgment and opinion, which is difficult even for best friends and relatives, and because he is not so, can ask questions that no one has ever dared to pass.
Therefore, in order to answer the question “can we be a coach for ourselves?” there is a short answer which is “yes, to some extent, but a coach can really accelerate our development and help us achieve a lot more.”