Frequently Asked Questions

WHAT IS COACHING?

Everyone wants to know how they can be better, how can they improve and be the best they can be. Coaching is the answer.

Coaching is not telling people what to do; it is helping them clarify and control their life. It is helping them evaluate what they are doing now in their life in the light of their goals, dreams, values and intentions. It gives them new choices and leads to change. Coaching helps a person go beyond the mental blocks of what they thought was possible. Coaching works as a partnership between coach and client, it helps to clarify goals, to make them challenging and motivating, then to achieve those goals with the energy that comes from their deepest values.

Coaches are specially trained to work with people from all walks of life to help them achieve their goals, live their values and be the best they can be.

HOW IS COACHING DIFFERENT FROM THERAPY AND COUNSELLING?

Counselling and therapy are to remedy the client’s problems. The client comes to therapy or counselling because they feel dissatisfied with their life and want relief from psychological and/or physical symptoms.

They want to get away from pain or discomfort rather than move towards desired goals. Therapy and counselling often seek to understand the past and what went wrong in order to be better in the present. Coaching focuses on the present and future. A coach may work with a client who has a good life but wants the coach to help them make it better still.

HOW IS COACHING DIFFERENT FROM CONSULTING OR MENTORING?

A mentor is a senior person in the business who guides a junior person from their greater experience. A coach does not have to be a senior person in the client’s line of business. The client has to know the business, not the coach.

Consultancy deals with the business system as a whole. A consultant’s recommendations affect individuals indirectly. Coaching affects individuals directly. Coaching will very often be part of a consultant’s recommendations for a business.

WHAT IS THE BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF COACHING?

Here are a number of principles:

• All human beings dream of fulfilling themselves and they deserve the opportunity to be their best.
• People create their life experience and a coach can help a client to create the life that they want.
• Intellectual understanding is not enough. Change means taking action.
• There is no such thing as failure, if you do not get what you want, you find another way. Failure is just a short-term way of saying that you have not succeeded – yet.
• Everyone already has all the resources we need or can create them. No one is helpless. The client has the answers, the coach has the questions.
• A coach works to increase the amount of choice in the client’s life.

Coaching is an equal, synergistic partnership.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF COACHING TO INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS?

Individuals will be clear about what they want from life. They will go after it with passion because they have cleared away the obstacles that blocked them.

They will have a more satisfying and happier life in every aspect. Professionally, they will be more effective and skilled at their work and get better results.

For organizations, coaching is a long-term investment in higher business performance. It is the most cost-effective way of getter higher performance from key individuals. Coaching is evidence of the company’s commitment to developing its people and contributes to a supportive organizational culture with high morale.

Coaching retains key employees and avoids:

• The cost of retraining.
• The loss of company knowledge to competitors.
• The drop in productivity when personnel leave.

CAN COACHING CREATE DEPENDENCY?

No. The coach wants the client to be autonomous and achieve what they want. They make it clear from the start that the client is responsible for, and owns the results of the coaching. Coaching works to make the client more self-reliant, not less so.