Coaching is all the rage now.

It seems like everyone has a coach, and we’re not just talking about kids soccer or NBA players, either. Is coaching right for you and your organization?

Coaching is a set of principles and practices that enhance a person’s development, capabilities and results through new awareness, new knowledge and new actions.

Coaching: The Art of Growing As Leaders and Getting Great Results

Coaching can be the catalyst for positive change. Coaches work with people who strive for personal and professional excellence. People who build insight and clarity of purpose focus their energy on development goals that matter to them and to their organizations as well.

Many people make the decision to hire a professional skilled in the art of coaching. They have different reasons:

• They have been successful at work, but now struggle with a new job that doesn’t feel like quite the right fit.
• They face a daunting personal or professional change, and they’re unsure about how best to proceed.
• A difficult relationship vital to the team’s success isn’t going well, and they need news ideas to make it work smoothly.
• Things are going well for them at work, but something tells them they could do their job even better.

I’ll Know A Good Coach When I Have One

Good coaches take people where they are today and help them move towards the goals and objectives they are trying to achieve. Through good coaching, individuals focus on the behaviors that will move them positively towards their goals as quickly as possible. Working together, the coach and the “coachee” agree on the areas of focus and develop a map for progress.

Good coaches build a relationship of trust and honesty with the person they are coaching. They need not be particularly alike but it is important that both people feel they can be open and direct with the other. Sometimes the coaching relationship is needed only for a few meetings while at other times it can span a period of many months. There is no one-size-fits-all…each situation is unique and tailored to the needs of the individual. Considerations such as the scope of the issues being presented, budget, and availability of time to work on the coaching map can all influence the rate of progress.

How Coaching Works

Most often, the coach meets with a new client weekly for several weeks in person. After mapping out the strategy together, additional meetings are scheduled perhaps two or three times a month for shorter intervals. These meetings may be in person or by phone. Together, we work towards the identified goals using a variety of techniques and tools until the client feels satisfied that they have made the kind of progress they identified at the beginning of the process. A coaching situation often utilizes activities, exercises, self-assessments, and readings.

One of the major tools we use in coaching is Hogan Assessments (download pdf: 324k). Sharon is a certified Hogan administrator. She also knows the Heimlich Maneuver and isn’t afraid to use either one to help our clients.