Professional coaching is one of the least understood and most misunderstood professions today. The wide application of the term ‘coaching’ blurs the lines that sharply demarcate professional coaching from coaching found in the educational or sports arenas.
Are you curious about professional coaching?
Do you want to leverage coaching to achieve your goals?
Are you an aspiring professional coach?
Whether you want to put a toe in, throw a line in, or dive in & explore this sea, it is best that you understand the nuances.
Below are the ten principles of professional coaching.
Professional Coaching is a transformational journey of self-discovery that translates into personal and professional excellence.
Coaching is universal in application.
Thus, coaching is for all, and anyone can leverage it: leaders, doctors, defence personnel, astrologers, politicians, artists, and musicians.
Professional Coaching differs from mentoring, guiding, leading, therapy, and counseling.
Mentoring, guiding, counselling, leading, etc, are adult-to-child relationships where someone instructs, and the other follows. In contrast, coaching is a partnership, an adult-to-adult relationship. There’s no telling or advising, only bringing out what already lies within the coachee by providing a safe & non-judgemental space for self-discovery & expression.
Coaching is transformational.
What Coaching is not – a band aid job that caters to the superficial symptoms of an issue.
That is why ‘Coaching is bigger than coaching,’ as Sir John Whitmore said.
Professional Coaches focus on the process
Coaching is not by chance.
The coach approaches them for a transformational shift only when a coachee is ready, even subconsciously.
Bill Campbell, the Trillion Dollar Coach, said, “The traits that make a person coachable include honesty and humility, the willingness to persevere and work hard, and a constant openness to learning,“. These traits arise when there is an internal pull or willingness at a very holistic level.
We have seen many instances where coaching is ‘forced’; because management wants it or the culture warrants it. Engagement of this nature will yield significant results if there is an internal pull.
To Coach is a Sacred Art & Practice
Professional Coaching is NOT cognitive.
It involves empathy, listening at all four levels, and deepening the coaching presence. So, aspiring coaches must put aside all conscious knowledge from the cognitive space propelled by the ego and instead sharpen their intuitive abilities.
Which also signifies that coaching goes beyond the templates, frameworks, and pre-set questions. It is an entirely new and intuitive journey! It requires unlearning and copious amounts of relearning.
Humility and readiness to learn are prerequisites for a Professional coach.
Coaches coming from the state of humility hone their coaching mindset!
We have seen many instances where the leader stepping in to become a coach has an ‘illusion of coaching’. Mainly because they have practised coaching at some level in their organization. While that experience is valid and significant, ICF Coaching is a different ballgame. It is coaching for the potential and not for the performance alone.
Both nature and nurture shape good coaches.
After all, it is a marathon, and you need adequate support from multiple actors at different milestones of this journey!
To be a great coach, one must be clear about the “why” of coaching.
We have seen professionals become coaches only because of the market potential and the profession’s flexible lifestyle. We agree that the market potential is high and the dollars at the end of this tunnel are lucrative, but the “why” of coaching has to go beyond the financial ROI. It has to be a calling to serve, touch lives, and positively impact people, cultures, and relationships.
Reach out to us today.
Do you want to leverage leadership/executive coaching to advance your professional goals as a leader or organization? Reach out to us today.
Here’s what makes us the best.
● 10 years and going strong
● 1000+ global leaders coached
● 50+ organizations worldwide benefitted (incl. Fortune 50 companies)
● 350+ coaches trained
You can check out our website to learn more about us.
