How Coaching Works : The Essential Guide To The History and Practice Of Effective Coaching  JOSEPH O’CONNOR AND ANDREA LAGES (PDF) 

WHAT IS COACHING?

Let s start with this question, before looking at how coaching works Coaching is a form of consultation to help the client. There are three main forms of a helping consultation based on how much responsibility the client has in the process.

First, there is the expert model, where the client buys expertise and has no responsibility for the outcome For example, you buy the services of an architect to design your house and project-manage the construction He does all the work, hiring the builders and decorators You pay the bills and then you live in your house

Second, there is the medical model of doctor and patient, where the client has a limited responsibility. Usually this is to take any prescribed medicine and follow instructions

Third, there is the process consultation model, where the client has complete responsibility. Process consultation is defined as ‘The creation of a relationship with the client that permits the client to perceive, understand and act on the process events that occur in the client’s internal and external environment, in order to improve the situation defined in the problem!”

This is an excellent definition of coaching, because it deals with relationship and process Coaching is a form of process consultation ® where the coach’s mam task is to help clients understand their way of generating problems, not to solve them.

Coaching is a means to an end. to help peop’e lead a full and satisfying life, and has many possible definitions. To get the most comprehensive view of coaching, we need to take a number of perspectives There is a broad consensus in the many books and schools of coaching with the following being some typical definitions:

” .. Sustained cognitive, emotional and behavioural changes that facilitate goal attainment and performance enhancement in one’s work or in one’s personal life’ .

… The art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of another’w.
Equipping people with the tools, knowledge and opportunities they need to develop themselves and become more effective’.

… Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to team rather than teaching them’

… Coaching is a powerful relationship for people making important changes in their lives’.

… Helping a person change in the way they wish and helping them go in the direction they want to go. Coaching supports a person at every level in becoming who they want to be and being the best they can be.

… Coaching is about learning… the coach and coachee enter into a learning partnership together. ”

There are many more definitions like these . They are pointers to help you look m the right direction; they give clues, not answers What are they pointing at? What can we take from these definitions?

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat them as they ought to be, we help them to become what they are capable of becoming.’
– Goethe

They are all abstract, because they are taken out of context but they show a common idea, a basic architecture of coaching These definitions contain four important elements in coaching – change, concern, relationship and learning We will take a brief look at each in turn.

Language: English
Format: PDF
Pages: 275