What Coaching is
Coaching is a method based on a partnership relationship with the Client that aims to recognize, enhance and develop strategies, actions and procedures in order to achieve the goals set in the client’s future. It is a specialized intervention that aims to develop potential, overcome personal limits, and increase the client’s performance. It is characterized by movement, from the current situation the client lives to what they desire in the future.
The purpose of a Coaching relationship is to allow people to develop and implement their personal and professional change. This happens through finding their personal potential and resources, and the goals they desire to achieve.
The achievement of self-awareness and self-realization are supported by the effectiveness of the Coaching relationship itself. This latter is a one-to-one relationship based on “doing”, where the Coach supports the Client on setting the goal and planning the necessary actions by sharing a “common path” in which the Client remains the absolute protagonist of the whole process.
Indeed, it is about a process relationship based on training personal potential and improving the Client’s performance.
This process essentially focuses on:
- the identification of specific challenging goals,
- the definition of the related action plans for achieving them,
- the motivational, relational, strategic, and operative support that the Coach has towards the Client,
- a creative, evolutionary, generative relationship, driven by positive emotions,
- the reduction of complexity of organizational, managing, and decision processes,
- the achievement of self-realization through the identification and use of the Client’s personal potential.
Researches
Researches by ICF (International Coaching Federation) show it improves self-confidence by about 80%, performance by about 70%, improves communication skills by 80%, and has an ROI (Return On Investment) of 86%. Furthermore, the overall awareness of the profession of Coach is 66% and people’s willingness to participate is also high.
Outcomes of Coaching
Respondents saying they have participated in a coaching relationship (7,971). Source: 2017 ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study.
Here are some interesting articles about the positive impact of Coaching on Financial Times and Forbes.
Areas of action
As a method based on personal improvement, Coaching can be applied to personal, professional, and sports fields, in order to overcome decisional, strategic, and operative difficulties, where there are no psychological or disabling disorders or disease problems. The fields of application are several. Anyway, the main areas correspond to Life, Business, and Sports Coaching.
Life Coaching
Life Coaching focuses on single individuals with the aim to help them develop self-awareness and self-efficacy programs in order to achieve specific goals in the future. It can be used in every aspect of people’s private life, from work to relationships, study to the relationship with oneself, especially in situations in which there is a change or passage through different stages of life.
The main focus is on the Client’s present and future development. It aims to identify, clarify and achieve the goals, develop action plans, improve communication, work/life balance and relationships. Life Coaching finds application to the family, as well as to the individuals. In this case, it distinguishes into areas like Parent, Teen, and Coaching for the couple.
Business Coaching
The focus of this area of coaching is on the business world. In this case, the Coach supports the Client in achieving their professional goals by improving the efficiency of performance, deepening the meaning they have for the person, developing a clearer vision and higher self-awareness. The Client is accompanied on a personalized path for the optimal development of their professional skills by exploiting their potential.
The main benefits are related to an improvement in self-efficacy, decisional and delegating process, time management, productivity, leadership, and communication. Business Coaching can be applied to different areas. In fact, we have Executive Coaching when the intervention focuses on managers and executives, Team Coaching when it refers to groups of works, or Corporate Coaching when the focus is on the whole organization.
Sports Coaching
This is the area related to the world of sports. It is a path through which the Coach supports the Client to achieve high levels of performance in the competitions. This happens through the definition of specific objectives and how to reach them. The action is directed to improve the athlete’s motivation, persistence, and resistance in order to achieve a higher performance in the competition.
Sports Coaching finds its application to both individual and team sports. In individual sports, it helps the athlete define goals, maintain concentration, and not lose confidence in their abilities.
On the other hand, within a team, it can be essential to maintain harmony between all the members of the team.
