What is coaching?

Katarzyna Szac-Krzyżanowska - Manager at PwC’s Academy in Poland

Coaching, or not coaching? That is the question!

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             What is coaching? This, seemingly easy question, is being posed to different coaches, bringing different answers.

On the one hand – there are certain coaching definitions and rules provided by respected authorities in this field and institutions, which provide the framework for professional coaching. On the other hand – every coach works in their own style, using preferred approaches, tools and methodologies. This leads to individual approaches and ways of working, allowing the coach to remain authentic.

Despite the possibility to bring one’s own preferences as well as personality to the coaching sessions, there are certain common features, which should be taken into account to stay professional. One can write a book on the specificity of coaching (and, actually, many are already written – highly recommended) and it is a challenge to present it in a few paragraphs. However, driven by the idea of spreading the good that it brings, I will do my best to present the key aspects and my definition of coaching.

Ironically, let’s start from: what coaching IS NOT?

Coaching is not equivalent to many other forms of working with another human being (or groups of people), such as: mentoring, counselling, psychotherapy, motivational speaking, or providing feedback. Coaches do not give advice, do not provide solutions, do not share their opinions or experiences, do not point out mistakes and reprimand, nor do they focus on one’s past.

What IS it, then?

The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”

This partnering manifests itself through mindful listening, observations, following what the client says and how (and what they don’t say!), sharing those observations and asking questions, which provoke the client to make personal discoveries, broaden awareness, develop and reflect. As a consequence, the client answers their own questions and reach their own goals. The coach is also equipped with tools and techniques to which the coachee may be invited during the meeting.

Apart from the very definition of coaching which, despite its consistent meaning, can take on different wordings, there are a number of principles that define coaching work which, from my point of view, are most important.

  • Partnership between the coach and coachee (client), based on the “I am OK and you are OK” principle. If this rule is broken, the coach or coachee will dominate the relationship over the other party, or both parties will feel bad – we want to avoid that. It is very important that both the coach and the coachee feel good working with each other and trust one another. However, this does not mean that it is always comfortable - on the contrary, the coachee often touches areas that go beyond a certain comfort zone. It is all the more important that the client trusts their coach to be open to work "at depth."

  • Empathy - since we invite the coachee to openness, discomfort and topics that are often sensitive - we must show empathy. The client will also sense this and it may affect the extent to which they will discover the next layers of the so-called onion in our company and touch what is really important.

  • Confidentiality - the coach maintains confidentiality and does not disclose any information from the session outside of it. This principle, as it is probably easy to guess, is extremely important and undisputable - also in a situation where the coaching process is sponsored by a third party, e.g. the employer. In such case, three-party meetings can be proposed, during which the coach, coachee and representative of the sponsoring partner are present – still, it is the coachee who decides what they are willing to share. What is also acceptable and an important element of the coach's development is sharing anonymised "cases" from coaching sessions during supervision or mentoring. However, this must be done with the consent of the coachee.

  • Responsibility - what is interesting about coaching is that the client is responsible for the results of their coaching work. This is due to the fact that the coach does not advise, does not propose solutions - it is the client who comes to their own conclusions and makes (or not) decisions and actions on this basis. What the client will get from the coaching process is closely related to what the client will bring to it – the topics they will raise, the extent to which they will open up and what they will be ready for. What the coach is responsible for is to comply with the principles of professional coaching.

  • Working with the goal - in principle, coaching is work on the client's goal(s). We distinguish between the coaching process (a full series of meetings) and a coaching session (a single meeting). The client should have a goal (or goals) for the entire coaching process (for example - increasing self-esteem, preparing for the role of a manager) and for individual sessions (for example - preparing for a conversation with one’s boss, finding the first step to start running). Goals are defined by the client, although in the case of third party sponsored coaching the client is also invited to talk about the goals for the coaching process. What is interesting, however, is that the goal may change during the process - as a result of their work, the client may realize that something else is important, or that the essence of what they are working on lies elsewhere.

  • Faith in the client's resourcefulness - this principle is related to the partnering relationship between the coach and the coachee - we assume that the client has all the resources (i.e. skills, knowledge, experience, support of other people or material resources) to achieve their goals, either right away or step by step. It is often in the process of coaching that the client discovers their resources, realizes how much they already have, or what and how to reach them in order to get closer to the goal.

  • The present and the future - what is really interesting and useful for me in coaching is focusing on what is "here and now" - feelings, emotions or thoughts, and on working towards the desired future through the set goals. Here I am very much inspired by this quote by Maria Robinson: "No one can go back in time and write a new beginning, but anyone can start today and add a new ending." As a rule, we do not delve into the past, as this is not the role of coaching.

  • Curiosity – one may say that without curiosity, there is no coach! It is this curiosity of the other person that is the source of powerful questions, which are to evoke reflection, engage and activate the client. It also invites the client to discover themselves.

  • Courage – perhaps it comes as a surprise to the reader, but yes – courage is an important element of coaching. With it, the coach will sometimes ask an uncomfortable (yet very powerful!) question and will be ready to invite the client to dive into difficult, yet important topics. Strong emotions from the client may arise – however, if the coach is led by good intentions and belief in its usefulness for the session and the client, then a certain dose of courage is more than welcome.

  • Learner, not master – last, but not least – a principle saying that the coach is not expected to be an expert in the topics that the client comes with. For instance, we do not need to understand agile project management or the specifics of copywriting – we, as a coach, do not advise, lecture or even share our experience. Furthermore – the coach can learn a lot from the coachee! If what the client wants is an advice or opinion, they should reach out to a mentor or adviser (who, by the way, often use coaching skills and techniques as part of their work). However, if the client is ready to work on their own resources, with the support of a companion in this interesting journey – welcome to coaching!

When to use this form of work?

Coaching can be a good solution for countless situations and topics. These can be, for example, business issues, private life matters, relationships, values, aspirations, development, habits, beliefs, projects. In the last months popular coaching topics revolved around uncertainty, difficult life situation, or feeling of being lost in the specificity of our times. Coachees want to understand their needs, have control over stress, build their resilience and regain balance. 

I often see a distinction between “life” and “business coaching. It may be that a particular coach prefers to work with clients who come with business goals, or on the contrary – those related to their private lives. However, from my observations, these goals are fluid. A client, who wants to increase their efficiency at work may come to the conclusion that in order for that to happen, they need to focus on their family and personal growth. What then? We follow the client. Therefore, it is important for the coach to be open to the variety of topics the clients may come with for the process or session and be ready for a holistic approach.

The coach should be also sensitive and attentive to what is useful for the client and offer other types of work, where they believe it would be appropriate. It may be that the coachee, not fully aware of the specificity of coaching work, is really expecting mentoring or counselling – in such case we should clarify the expectations, describe what coaching work is about and decide together on further cooperation. There are also situations which show that psychotherapy would be more useful for the client. If so, the coach is obliged to share such recommendation with the client. It is not uncommon for people who have already benefited from therapy to decide on coaching work.

Coaching in business

Coaching can also be an integral part of an organization's culture. I believe that it is then very valuable both for employees who benefit from this type of self-development as well as for leaders who apply a coaching approach to develop and communicate with their teams. More and more often I observe team leaders, managers of various departments and people holding the highest positions in companies who decide to participate in a professional coaching course. The main goal of such a decision is to acquire knowledge and skills that will support them in becoming more aware, open and empathetic partners in business relations. I believe that the coaching approach largely supports contemporary leaders in responding to the needs and challenges of different generations and environments. In today’s VUCA times expectations towards them are changing towards not being a so-called "role model", but inspiring everyone to become one for themselves.

How to become a coach?

I am glad that coaching is becoming more and more popular. This means that more people have the chance to benefit from this form of work, and its importance and effects are appreciated. At the same time, the commonness of describing oneself as a coach raises some concerns related to the abuse of this somewhat catchy title.

It needs to be remembered, that it is a demanding profession and one should prepare for it properly. In order to become a coach, and at the same time feel confident in this role, it is necessary to complete a comprehensive course. It is worth paying attention to whether it is a course accredited by widely recognized coaching institutions, e.g. the International Coaching Federation or / and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council - then we can be sure that the course is based on high standards, competences and rules set by professionals. The next step is gaining an individual accreditation - here I must mention that not every coach decides to pursue this step. It will certainly be an additional asset and indicator of quality, especially that obtaining such a title is associated with appropriate coaching practice, supervision and continuous improvement.

Not every graduate of a coaching course will decide to work in a "pure coaching" way. Perhaps you will decide to combine coaching with mentoring, or simply use coaching skills in your role as manager. You can also simply use the time spent on the course to get to know yourself better, broaden your knowledge and grow your skills without the intention of sharing the acquired competences at work with others - and that's OK too :)

So – is it worth to get interested in coaching? There is only one right answer here – of course! It is definitely worthy to enrich your experience by participating in a coaching program, benefit from being a coachee and testing yourself in the role of a coach. Especially now - in an unstable, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, this can be a great opportunity to reflect in depth on our priorities. In the era of ever-present technology, fast pace of life, overabundance of information and stimulation, the time that we can fully devote to ourselves is precious. And this “me” time (albeit in the company of a coach) is what I wish for all of us.

 

The article was published on September 25, 2020 in Charaktery 
Online access on the site: https://bit.ly/358y6cC

Contact us

Katarzyna Szac-Krzyżanowska

Menedżer, PwC Poland

Tel: +48 519 507 220

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