We decided to give the most complete answer to the question “who is a coach.” In the modern world, people daily face new challenges and difficulties that must be overcome. Sometimes it is difficult to independently choose the right path in life, solve some issue or build your own line of behavior. In this case, a coach comes to the rescue - the same wizard who will help untangle the tangle of thoughts and actions, set priorities and reveal the hidden talents of his ward.
To understand who a coach is, you will have to turn to English. A free translation allows us to interpret this word as both “sports coach” and “freight transport.” Regardless of which of these concepts is taken as the main one, a coach is a specialist whose task is to set emphasis, identify clear goals and help a person achieve these goals.
The goal of a coach is not to lead a person by the hand, protecting him from problems and difficulties, but to help him believe in himself, reveal his abilities, rely on his strengths and, with their help, move to new heights of his life!
A competent coach does not give advice on exactly what a client should do in a given situation. The uniqueness of this profession lies in the ability to listen and ask questions in order to bring a person during a conversation (coaching session) to an awareness of life situations and his own contribution to everything that happens to him . In other words, such joint work is aimed at developing a person’s responsibility for his life , thanks to which he begins to build it in accordance with his goals and dreams.
Definition
The word “coaching” itself in modern interpretation is translated as “training”. The definition goes like this:
Coaching is a special type of consulting, during which a specialist, that is, a coach, helps his client achieve certain personal or professional goals.
There seems to be nothing complicated in the definition, but nevertheless it does not answer our questions, so we will understand the concept of “coaching” and explain what it is in simpler words using examples.
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A “very middle-level” manager lives in city N and has a desire to go for an internship in London. But he just can’t begin to act; he doesn’t know from which side to approach this issue and what specific steps to take. What can you do here:
- Search the Internet and try to find ways to solve the problem. But knowing does not mean doing it, and there can be a lot of information or, conversely, little. In the first case, our hero will spend months reading other people’s stories, but will never find a solution for himself; in the second, he simply won’t find anything.
- Meet someone who has already walked this path and ask for help. But, firstly, it is not entirely clear where to look for such a person, and secondly, each person goes to his goal on his own paths, and someone else’s track may be too narrow or wide for us.
- From scratch, try to solve the problem on your own, develop an action plan and, “stepping on a rake,” spending a lot of time, effort and energy, still find your way.
- Contact a coach who will help you find the shortest path to your cherished goal.
What it is
Coaching helps you find a direction in life, decide on priorities, start acting and develop.
Every person has a period when he is lost and does not understand how to live further. Apathy, sad thoughts take hold, productivity declines, desires and goals disappear. During such a period, a coach will come to the rescue.
When life loses its colors, work is hated, there is discord with friends, a hobby no longer pleases, a reboot is needed, outside help, a fresh look. Coaching is a process of inspiration, rebirth and recharge.
Coaching began to gain popularity relatively recently; little was said about it until the 1990s, although it has always existed as a phenomenon. A coach does not teach a person, but helps him learn and want to develop. Nobody will give lectures. You are the creator of your own destiny; a coach will only guide and reveal your potential, increasing productivity and awakening interest in life.
Sometimes we begin to live automatically, spending the minimum possible, and losing momentum. A coach helps you rethink your attitude to life, understand how you can use skills, talents, time and resources, because there is only one life, and every day should be lived with pleasure, and not in vain.
Features of coaching in our country
It is believed that coaching originated in 1974, when Timothy Gallwey published his book “Tennis as an Inner Game”. So this theory is not new, and now in the USA and Europe many people are resorting to the help of coaches.
In our country, the attitude towards coaches, as well as psychologists, is quite ambiguous. Many people believe that they do not need the help of such specialists, and the purpose of all these consultations is to make money from simpletons. There will still be no result and it will probably get even worse after brainwashing.
The situation with psychologists is gradually changing, more and more people admit that they have psychological problems and strive to solve them. Perhaps coaching will soon become more popular.
Difference from other types of consulting
There are several areas of consulting that can be confused with coaching:
- Working with a psychologist. The specialist has the appropriate diploma, and communication with him is aimed mainly at solving psychological problems: fears, phobias, difficulties in communicating with loved ones.
- Working with a trainer. The simplest example is related to sports. The trainer has the necessary knowledge in a certain area and clearly gives instructions on what and how to do correctly, and outlines a training and nutrition program. A business coach or a personal growth coach does roughly the same thing.
- Working with a mentor. A mentor is someone who has already achieved high results in a certain activity and helps a newcomer go along the same path, advises him, and sets a personal example.
In fact, coaching is different from these types of consultations, although it uses some tools from the same psychology. A coach, unlike a psychologist, does not solve problems or work with the past, but helps to achieve goals in the future. Unlike a coach, he does not describe the program, does not give advice or indicate what to do.
How much can you earn
The high demand for coaching has led to high salaries for specialists. A coach’s income depends entirely on his performance, reputation, work experience and word-of-mouth reviews, which largely influence public opinion.
Beginning coaches can earn $50 in one session. Experienced specialists earn approximately $100 for one session lasting no more than 1.5 hours.
Professionals with extensive experience consulting with star clients (athletes, musicians, big business owners) have higher incomes, amounting to thousands of dollars per session.
If the problem needs to be resolved quickly, sessions will require 2-3 months. More complex cases increase the period of communication between the coach and the mentee from 6 months.
Simple arithmetic helps to calculate a coach’s income by simply multiplying the number of sessions conducted by the tariff set by the coach.
However, it is important to understand that before reaching the appropriate level of income, it is important for a beginning coach to develop a base, experience, and collect feedback on the results of his work. Therefore, novice coaching specialists who do not have reliable stories of client success must be prepared for the fact that the fees will be more than modest.
Average prices for sessions in the capital and other large cities are an order of magnitude higher than the cost of sessions in small towns and regional centers, where coaching services remain less in demand.
How does a coach work?
A coach's job is to ask the right questions. There may be many or few of them. The task is to lead the client on his special path to achieve the goal. Coaching tools help:
- Understand what is happening in a person’s life now, that is, determine point “A”.
- Clearly formulate the goal (point “B”) and the time frame for its achievement.
- Work out a step-by-step plan for moving from point “A” to point “B”.
At the same time, the coach does not give any advice; the client comes to all conclusions himself, develops a personal plan that matches his aspirations and character.
I hope it is now a little clearer what these specialists do.
Adviсe
To coach effectively, follow these tips:
- Don’t hide anything from the coach, be open and sincere, answer questions honestly, because the vector of your life’s development depends on the answers.
- Focus on the result, act, develop, become better every day than yesterday.
- Remember that there is only one life, it is important to live it consciously, and not procrastinate and do something you don’t like for pennies. A coach will help you find your strengths and apply them in life to become more successful and increase your earnings.
- If problems arise in the company, the efficiency of employees has decreased, despite their high qualifications and extensive experience, urgently hire a coach. Investments in coaching will quickly pay off in increased staff productivity and efficiency.
- When hiring a coach, be sure to ask for certification, experience and reviews, and have a small conversation to understand whether the specialist is right for you.
Types of coaching
Most often, such specialists do not deal with all issues, but specialize in one of the areas:
- building a business;
- management of an enterprise, government agency or other organization;
- leadership;
- personal life;
- self-development and personal growth;
- sport;
- personal effectiveness.
Typically, in one meeting, called a “session,” the coach works with one client, unlike trainings, which are most often conducted for a group of people. Depending on your goals and desired results, you may meet frequently for a short period of time or rarely for a long-term plan.
Conclusion
Coaching is an activity that inspires and stimulates achievement. The coaching technique consists in the ability to correctly ask questions that provoke certain mental activity in the client and lead to the necessary answers and conclusions.
Have you used the services of a coach? Tell us about your experience in the comments and don’t forget to rate the article.
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Author of the article Ekaterina Chistyakova Freelancer. In my free time I am interested in business.
How to know if coaching will help
If you have a goal and are ready to go towards it, then you can achieve the desired result yourself, but it’s difficult to move alone. We do not see the situation from the outside, cannot evaluate all the possibilities and give in to difficulties.
Coaching helps you chart a clear path, follow it more quickly and painlessly, and avoid losing the right direction. If there is no goal or internal motivation, then it is unlikely that coaching will help.
Another important point is that you must have trust and respect for the specialist. If a person is unpleasant to you, you doubt his competence and suspect that consultations will be of no use, then it is better not to waste your time and energy.
In other cases, you may well contact such a consultant. Many people think that only businessmen or managers need this, but in fact, anyone can bring their tasks to a professional. After all, we still come with them to our wife, husband, friend. This is also cool, but sometimes more qualified help is needed.
How to choose a coach
We have already partially touched on this topic. To benefit from each session, you need to trust a specialist. Therefore, in coaching, not only techniques are important, but also a person’s personal qualities:
- attentiveness;
- desire to help;
- listening skills;
- lack of envy and desire to impose your opinion;
- patience;
- sense of humor.
Here in front of you is a wonderful person who is endearing and inspires trust. But this is not the only important thing. For a long time I was interested in the question that is probably spinning in your head: “How do you understand that this is a professional and not an amateur who read a couple of books and decided that he is a coach?” After all, universities do not have such a specialty, but they still study this profession somewhere.
Yes, there are special training centers for this. Training takes place in a course format from 1 to 3 months of intensive classes and up to 10 to 12 months of distance learning. These centers receive certification from the International Coaching Federation (ICF), which is how the level of training of specialists is monitored. A professional coach must have an international certificate.
How else to distinguish a good specialist:
- Usually he specializes in some specific tasks, and not in all areas of life.
- He himself has good results in this area. A business coach, for example, may have his own business or quite a lot of experience in leadership positions.
- He does not impose services and does not try to show that he is smarter than everyone else.
- He clearly states the cost of the session and does not try to hide or disguise it.
- Works personally with an individual and rarely with a group.
- Reviews from his clients are publicly available.
To be confident in the consultant’s competence, listen to the recommendations of people you trust. This approach works in most cases.
Skills needed to be a good coach
The most important attribute of a real trainer is the ability to support and guide the learning process of his client. A good coach does not consider himself an expert who can solve all problems and get answers to all questions. Instead, he has a strong desire to help the person find the answers themselves.
There are a number of key skills that you will need in coaching. To become a real master, you must:
- Have high emotional intelligence: understand people well, treat them with respect and show interest. You must truly want to see other people develop and grow.
- Show empathy and be able to build relationships.
- Have developed communication skills.
- Accumulate information and convey it to the person you are teaching. As a rule, the coach has well-developed active listening skills.
- Be able to focus on deeply understanding a problem by organizing and evaluating input data.
- Ask questions correctly. It is believed that a coach should never give an opinion, but only ask questions to guide the person being coached in an advisory role.
- Be tolerant, give the person time to try their hand. The coach should not get annoyed if the client makes mistakes, but rather focus on finding ways to correct the situation. Tact, diplomacy and balance are skills that must be in the arsenal of a good coach.
- Proficient in various tools for interacting with people (psychoanalysis, neurolinguistic programming, Gestalt therapy, etc.).
A true coach is truly happy when the person he is coaching achieves success.
Coaching creates an invaluable space for personal development. Moreover, this is a promising industry that is just beginning to develop in Russia, and it is likely that in the near future another official profession will appear on the labor market - coaching. It is worth noting that already a certified trainer receives from 2 to 50 thousand rubles for one hour of work.
Therefore, the answer to the question “Does it make sense to study coaching?” sounds like this: yes. Of course, being a coach is not an easy job. You need to be responsible for another person, to be his guide in achieving goals and making dreams come true.
Friends, if you are the type of person who enjoys being responsible, gets satisfaction from serving others, and is happy when you see the expression of gratitude on the face of someone you have helped, then you might make an excellent coach. Go ahead, don’t be afraid to learn new things and good luck!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- The GROW Model for Coaching
- Tasks to be performed
- Development of a marketing strategy
- Business motivation model
- Customer Journey Map: what is the value of a customer journey map and how to create it
- Business strategy development
- The benefits of failure and failure
- Six Emotional Leadership Styles
- Psychological intervention
- Game "Balloon" for team building
Keywords:1LLL, 1Communication
How to become a coach
Coaching is becoming increasingly popular in our country. We often adopt the experience of Western Europe in business and life, so we can assume that this trend will continue in the near future.
Now an experienced specialist receives from $100 per session, which lasts from 60 to 90 minutes. By developing and conducting regular consultations, you can earn good money.
To obtain the appropriate education, you need to go through the following steps:
- Find a training center that works according to the program of the International Coach Association and is ICF certified. Then raise money and allocate enough time for training.
- You can become a certified coach only after you have worked with clients for at least 100 hours in free sessions. This is an integral part of education.
- Get a certificate and start telling your friends that you have become a coach.
- Start maintaining a page on social networks and set up other channels through which people can find you and seek help.
Who is the profession suitable for?
Many people are able to obtain a certificate of completion of special training in coaching, supported by an official certificate. However, only coaches who have the following qualities become successful, sought-after professionals:
- Those who sincerely want to help the ward find himself, find his “I”.
- Knowledgeable in the psychology of interpersonal relationships.
- Those who know how to find non-trivial solutions to guide and stimulate the mentee to make decisive changes.
- Proficient in the techniques of establishing quick contact with the mentee.
- Possessing personal charisma, conducive to communication.
- Creating the most comfortable microenvironment for communication during the session.
Highly professional coaches devote a lot of time to self-development, promoting a personal brand, and constantly polish their interpersonal communication skills - this means that the greatest success in the coaching profession can be achieved by people who love and know how to learn, train, and work tirelessly on themselves.
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