What is coaching?
There are many definitions of coaching, but essentially it is all about enabling change. Let’s have a look at the following definitions:
- Managing is making sure people do what they know how to do
- Training is teaching people to do what they don’t know how to do
- Mentoring is showing people how the people who are really good at doing something do it
While coaching draws on some of the above, it is none of these – it is helping to identify the skills and capabilities that are within the person, and enabling them to use them to the best of their ability – and by that increasing the independence within the individual, to become self-directed learners.
John Whitmore (2002:8) in Coaching for Performance says, “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance; it is helping them to learn rather than teaching them”.
For more information, see:
Performance Coaching
Relationship Coaching
Prepare/Enrich
Life Coaching