Following the commencement of enrolment to study our company’s Personal Performance Diploma in coaching, we have been inundated with several inquiries from interested candidates, who are seeking explanations about what Coaching is, and how it helps.

In this post, I am going to provide as much insights as possible to explain professional coaching and how our studying our Personal Performance Diploma can help you become a highly effective coach.

There are many definitions of coaching, more so, as different coaching associations adopt different definitions for their members. I would rather define coaching in relation to process and results. So, coaching is a high-impact process of conversation that helps people to improve performance and sustain their results over a long time.

Coaching is not the same as mentoring, counseling, consulting, teaching, or training. It does not seek to tell people what to do, offer advice, or fix problems. Coaching is not a tool for instigating disciplinary measures on non-performance. Instead, coaching unlocks people’s potential to maximize their own performances and create their own solutions. In fact, it is helping people to learn rather than teaching them how to do their own jobs. The coach believes that the person being coached is an expert in his or her field, and has the competence to do the job. Therefore the coach does not interfere with how people do their jobs, instead, he or she assists them to achieve greater results.

You may be wondering, though; if the person being coached is an expert in his or her field, why then does he or she need the services of a coach? Good question!

Coaching is about helping people to improve their own capabilities, so they can perform better, produce more superior results, and sustain the results over time. From an organizational standpoint, coaching is ideal for helping highly effective leaders and professionals to improve their performance and be more productive. Many high-producing leaders may have serious blind spots that make them come across abrasively. Entrepreneurs and small business owners may have great business ideas but are afraid of pulling the ideas off the ground. Managers may have great strategies but lack the motivation or confidence to execute them. Many company chief executives have important decisions they want to make but are afraid of making them.  In life, relationship, or career, a person could perceive himself or herself as a failure due to his or her low self-esteem. So, coaching issues can be found everywhere, yet, its primary purpose is helping the other person to believe in himself, overcome their blind spots regardless of the situation, and make progress.

Why is Coaching Important?

Coaching is more efficient than many interventionist tools because the process is non-aggressive and does not require any lengthy analysis or report to get results. The coach and the coachee are simply working in partnership to achieve goals in a series of agreed short meetings, typically within 60 minutes.

Each meeting offers you the opportunity to coach the other person to generate important insights, gain deeper awareness about his or her situations, develop clarity and focus, create action plans to change how things are presently, and develop accountability to take action and achieve the desired change.

Coaching tools are seamless to implement. Once you have been trained to coach, you can easily fit your skill into your current role even if you are a mentor, counselor, doctor, accountant, lawyer, teacher, or trainer.

If you are a manager, coaching is a crucial tool that you can use in constantly developing your staff and subordinates into high performance, so you can gain leverage in your time for strategic matters.

As a consultant, you can coach your clients to make tough decisions, get out of their comfort zones, overcome destructive behaviours, embrace change, and make a more positive impact in their work. Coaching is the one skill that can turn you into a trusted advisor and confidant.

Other areas you can apply coaching and achieve superb results include people development, motivation, problem-solving, relationship issues, team working, strategic planning, task performance, and conducting appraisals and assessments.

What do I need to become a coach?