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Training & Development
What’s coaching?
By Linda Peterson
MEd, BSN, Coach (0RSC)
W
hile living in Egypt I had a funny experience with coaching. I was
taken to meet a school director who was the cousin of a good
friend. She thought I was there for an interview. I thought I was
there for a friendly visit. When she found out I wasn’t there to be interviewed
for a teaching position she asked me, incredulously, What do you do then? I
coach, I told her. What’s coaching? she asked. The cheeky part of me wanted
to answer, Who cares what it is? It works!
You can’t EXPLAIN coaching.
You have to try it. So I tried it
with her, and within moments
we were in an empowering
discussion about her role
in the school and how she
wanted to improve it. Ten minutes
later one of her teaching
staff came by. Do it with him.
Whatever you did with me, do
it with him, she insisted excitedly.
I did. This young teacher
became instantly engaged
in thinking about his teaching
practice and identifying ways
in which he would like to improve
his performance. By the
end of that meeting I had an
offer to do a coaching session
with the whole school staff. At
the end of that coaching workshop
with staff I had a job offer
that was tailored specifically to
coaching – staff development.
They wanted more coaching
because coaching works.
About coaching
Coaching is NOT GIVING
ADVICE. It doesn’t matter
how professional, how experienced,
and how knowledgeable
someone is, if they are giving
you advice they are NOT
COACHING. If the so-called
“coach” has an answer or
strategy for you, they are NOT
coaching. Consulting, maybe.
Coaching? No. Coaching is
conversation that transforms
people’s performance (Peter
Rock, Quiet Leadership).
It facilitates the changes that
YOU want to make. Notice
that word “you”? Coaching
is NOT about making the
changes the coach wants you
to make.
Coaches believe that the client
is her/his own expert. They
know that giving unsolicited
advice insults and de-motivates
people. When we arrive
at our own insights, those
insights are followed by a
surge of hormones that create
motivation and goal-oriented
action. This is how our brains
work. Coaches are masters
at creating conversations that
lead the client to new insights,
then co-designing actions that
will create the life the client
wants.
A life coach believes you are
naturally creative, resourceful,
and whole (not broken
or needing fixing). Today
I received an email from
an Egyptian woman who I
coached. She wrote, “You did
a great job turning my life into
a better one”. It sounds like
I did it for her. That might be
her perception, but the fact is,
SHE figured out the answers,
and she did the work, not me.
Coaching set the conditions
where she was resourceful,
that’s all.
Make sure it’s
the right kind of
coaching
The Weatherhead School of
Management studied coaching
and found that coaching
based on the client’s goals
(not weaknesses, faults, or
areas needing improvement)
activates the parts of the
brain that create learning and
behavioral change. Coaching
based on improving weaknesses,
faults, and problems
generates negativity that shuts
down learning.
Your employees
need coaching
Coaching is not just for your
personal life. A Gallup Poll in
May 2009 found that 71% of
employees are disengaged
at work. Unlike other generations
that were satisfied with
routine jobs and obedience to
tasks, Generation Y demands
meaning and engagement.
Coaching does that. After
just a few months of coaching
employees showed increased
engagement, more goal
achievement, more energy,
higher performance, and better
decision-making. According
to some internal coaching
clients, “This is the first time
the organization has given us
something that actually helps
us do our job” (David Rock,
The Art of Coaching in Business).
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