What is Coaching?

In broad terms coaching can be used to:

• Coach for skills – when an executive needs to acquire certain knowledge, skills, abilities, and perspectives, but cannot realistically do so in any other fashion. This is more akin to mentoring as the coach may contribute in a way that goes beyond the active listening and questioning of coaching relationships.
• Coach for performance – when an executive needs to improve their performance in a specific area(s) and
• Coach for development – where the executive either has been promoted, or will be promoted shortly and the new position requires the development of new competencies.
• First 100 days coaching - to support a manager who has just been recruited or who is newly promoted.

Socrates reportedly once said “I cannot teach you anything, I can only make you think.” So the fundamental approach to coaching is not new! Coaching involves listening first and foremost, but in a focused and mindful way prompting with questions that will help someone both reflect and then find the right solutions for them. It pays attention not just to someone’s words but to how they speak and act and it is a partnership of equals.

Coaching is often bought by an organisation and focuses on business-related topics, with specific aims around business objectives. These can be derived from annual appraisals, from the company’s key performance indicators (KPIs) or from, say, the challenges of a takeover where differing cultures may be the issue. It is an effective way to support new joiners: research done by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) in partnership with Development Dimensions International (DDI) among 600 managers suggested that making the transition to a management role was second only to divorce in traumatic life events (People Management magazine 14 th June 2007). The results showed newly promoted leaders needed more support and coaching is one way to provide this.