What is Coaching?
The purpose of coaching is for a more experienced person (the coach) to help a less experienced person grow to become more effective now and in the future. The helping takes account of the needs, strengths, and weaknesses of the individual and the organisation. Coaching often involves passing on knowledge, tips, and good practices, opening doors for the individual, and counselling.
Why is coaching important?
People are a substantial and expensive investment for an organisation. Another person’s attention and interest will help them grow. The coaching process benefits the receiver by accelerating their learning and rewards the coach by showing them what they know. The business gains through the added value provided by more effective people.
How is coaching done?
The coach has informal conversations with their client. The content of these conversations can include counselling, passing on experience, giving feedback, giving information (about the organisation, clients, etc.), and opening doors inside the organisation.
What are the skills of coaching?
A crucial skill, especially at the beginning of coaching, is for the coach to create a trusting relationship where the client can relax and accept help. The coach needs diagnostic skills (questioning and listening) to decide what help will be helpful.
The help required could be counselling skills to enable the client to think through a problem after expressing their feelings. It’s hard to think when you are unhappy or angry. Counselling is a skilled activity that requires the ability to listen attentively, accept and enable the expression of feelings, ask questions that help people think, and refrain from judging them.
The coach will also require feedback skills. He/she will pick up information about the client’s performance, which may be valuable to that person. Give the feedback as information, not judgment.
Another useful form of help is for the coach to open doors or provide introductions for the client. They can provide information about who the people are and what makes them tick. This information will make these meetings more likely to go well.
Finally, the coach is likely to have much specific experience that would be valuable to pass on. Transferring experience is a skilled activity. It demands a high-quality relationship, enough time, good communication skills in both parties, and determination to transfer key ideas in small pieces that can be assimilated.
How can coaching skills be acquired?
If you coach, you must develop yourself actively, preferably by having coaching.
On courses, you can learn trust-building, diagnostic, counselling, and feedback skills using standard methods. Taking turns helping each other also works very well.
Coaching and Organisational Culture
The coaching process requires the coach and client to engage in an open, close and mutually supportive relationship. The objective of the relationship is learning. This activity necessarily takes time. Organisations tend not to value learning, helping and thinking as much as time spent doing and selling.
Coaching skills are valuable for managers and others, and the process itself is valuable to the organisation. Anyone who is interested in developing staff will require these skills. The more informal and naturalised the coaching, the more effective it will be.