What is coaching? Where did it come from?

Coaching is basically an interactive process in which a coach helps their client work towards specific goals.

Coaching originated in the sports world when Timothy Gallwey (author of the groundbreaking book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’) realised that ‘the opponent within one’s own head is more formidable than the one on the other side of the net’, and that removing these obstacles would allow the player’s natural ability to burst through. In other words, he realised that ‘performance equals potential minus interference’.

This led to a new method of sports coaching which was less about issuing instructions on technique, and more about helping a player to use their own experience and internal perceptions to improve their game. Coaching therefore became a way of unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance.

The new coaching techniques soon began to be applied within the corporate setting, to bring about rapid change at the individual and/or corporate level. Coaching has since become an accepted staff development tool in many countries and has led to a coaching style of management being considered by many to be the most suitable for the modern workplace culture.

Coaching can be used to improve all aspects of our lives, and personal (life) coaching has been established in the USA for a number of years. It is now growing rapidly in the UK and Europe.

The coaching process

Coaching consists of regular sessions between client and coach. This can happen face-to-face, over the telephone, even by email. It is basically a question and answer session, with exercises and personal reflection added into the mix. Coaches differ in their styles and techniques, but usually cover the following topics:

• Define the goal
• Examine where you are now
• Create the motivation for change
• Create options for achieving the goal
• Devise an action plan, set deadlines
• Take action!
• Identify and remove the internal obstacles that tend to stop you
• Review progress and personal learning

OK, sounds easy enough, but why can’t the client do this on their own? Well, to paraphrase a saying from Einstein, ‘the thinking that caused the problem is unlikely to solve it’.

I’ll explain this a little more using an example: As we grow up, we make decisions about ourselves (e.g. ‘I’m not good enough’) and how the outside world works (e.g. ‘I have to fight to survive’). Some of these decisions are in place before we’ve even started school! Once our mind is made up we ignore any evidence to the contrary. Our thoughts, behaviours and responses become increasingly driven by these decisions, and we become limited in terms of what we believe to be possible. This is why we need the objectivity that a coach can supply in order to ‘think outside the box’, and do things differently.

For the client, coaching is about gaining insight and taking action to create a better future. Their personal journey through these stages is unique and all-important, and the coach aims to be almost invisible in the process. Coaches do not judge, they do not give advice, they do not tell the client what to do. Instead, they ask questions which help the client find the answer within themselves.

Why do people hire coaches?

Companies and private individuals hire coaches for a variety of reasons. They may be very clear about what they want, or they may have a general feeling of dissatisfaction, that something is missing or needs to be different. In all cases, the bottom line is change.

Where do coaches work?

1 – CORPORATE COACHING

Within the corporate environment, coaches work with individuals and teams at a variety of levels, on a wide range of subjects. For example:

Supporting change at the individual and corporate level:
- Support for a newly-promoted executive needing to grow into a new role
- Helping a newly merged organization create and live by a new set of corporate values

Performance improvement:
- Assisting managers to resolve their personal issues with e.g. delegation, emotional intelligence, leadership skills
- Helping team members become team players
- Helping an executive identify and change patterns of thinking or behaviour that are affecting performance or promotion prospects

Training managers in the coaching style of management:
- Teaching managers to use skills instead of transmitting knowledge
- Showing managers how to empower staff to find their own answers and to motivate themselves
- Helping managers to maximise staff performance by increasing their sense of responsibility, ownership and control

Resolving career crises:
Providing confidential, objective and independent support for individuals facing issues such as career burnout, lost motivation, problems with working relationships or lack of confidence.

Embedding the learning from formal training programs:
Many training programs e.g. in leadership development, now incorporate coaching as part of the learning process. This provides the trainee with an opportunity to reflect on their learning and explore the challenges they face as they apply it in the workplace. Since coaching is tailored to the needs of the individual, it can produce greater increases in performance and more rapid adaptation to change than would result from training alone.

Employee life coaching:
Coaches provide a confidential and independent ear for employees, helping them become more resourceful about issues affecting various areas of their lives, such as health, finance, relationships, or career. The coach helps them think about potential solutions, set goals and create action plans. Both the employee and the organisation benefit from the individual’s increased self-esteem, greater sense of control, and goal-focused, solution-oriented outlook.

2 - PERSONAL (LIFE) COACHING

Coaches also work with private clients, helping them to take control of their future by getting clear on what they want from life and creating goals and action plans to achieve it. The coach helps them to keep on track, and to remove the internal obstacles (such as fear of failure, low self-esteem) that would otherwise prevent them achieving their goals.

People with a general sense of dissatisfaction (e.g. who feel stuck in a rut, or who feel that life is passing them by) can be helped to holistically assess their lives, to visualise their ideal future, and start working to make it happen. Coaches also help people work on specific topics such as life balance, major life changes, relationships, confidence and self-esteem.

3 – SPECIALIST COACHING

Specialist ‘niche’ coaches are also beginning to appear, offering coaching on careers, goal-setting, confidence, parenthood, relationships, spirituality, life purpose, and happiness, to name but a few!

In Conclusion

Coaching has come a long way since the publication of Gallwey’s book in the mid-1970’s. The reason for this is that success is contagious - business leaders working on their golf swings were so impressed by the results that they decided to see what the process could do for their organisations. Coaching is also pervasive - executives realised that personal issues were often the root cause of their performance problems, and that changes in e.g. limiting beliefs brought benefits in more than just their working lives. They began to hire coaches privately to work on their personal goals.

Coaching is useful in almost any situation where a gap exists between where you are now and where you want to be. It can produce rapid and long-lasting results in terms of awareness, learning, change and performance. The process is positive, supportive, and always geared to the needs and wishes of the individual.

Organisations use coaching to increase the learning, performance, and work satisfaction of their staff. Benefits include improved productivity, improved working relationships, better teamwork, increased staff morale and retention, reduced stress, increased self-reliance and greater adaptability to change.

Private individuals from all walks of life work with coaches to create better futures for themselves, becoming happier and more successful as a result.

As a witness to the power of coaching in producing change, and to the improvements in personal and professional performance that result from it, I can confidently state that coaching can quite literally change lives for the better.