What Can Life Coaching Do For Me?
The International Coach Federation (ICF) answers, “What is Professional Coaching?” as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential, which is particularly important in today’s uncertain and complex environment. Hence, this is a unique relationship.
Why Does Life Coaching Work?
The Professional Coach honors the client’s needs. Coaches honor the client as the expert in his or her life and work and believe every client is creative, resourceful and whole. Standing on this foundation, the professional coach’s responsibility is to:
- Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve
- Encourage client self-discovery
- Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies
- Hold the client responsible and accountable
The coaching relationship is unlike any other in the business environment. Consequently, the professional coach is responsible to develop a relationship that meets the needs of the client. Subordinates could learn a thing or two about serving the needs of the person with whom they report from observing this coach/executive relationship. For more; What is Coaching?
One would think the coach and the subordinate would share this responsibility but I dare think otherwise. If employees could realize they are responsible to make their supervisor look good, they could make significant advances in their supervisor’s eyes. Unfortunately, many see this as brown nosing at worst and being too political at best. Are you willing to try a new approach?
Why Professional Coaching?
Professional coaching is the art of identifying a client’s reality and co-creating an agenda that meets the needs of the client. This is classic gap analysis. Gap analysis accurately assesses reality, defines the vision, identifies the gap and creates a plan to achieve the desired future.
What is the biggest problem with all of this? Without doubt, it is the need to accurately assess reality! Reality Testing is one of 15 elements of emotional intelligence. So if most people aren’t accurately describing reality, how do we ever come to a solution to our problems? It’s quite simple actually; we stumble upon it or we address problems that don’t really exist.
How Can A Life Coach Help Me?
So many people address problems that do not exist! This is another area where professional coaching can help. What is the first thing we do in resolving a problem? Accurately assess reality. This is one of the things a coach can do that quite possibly no one in an organization can do. This is true in organizations, families, churches, individuals and where ever a coach is asked to intervene.
Good professional coaches accurately assess reality. Next, they listen to their client but they help the client see themselves the way others see them. Sometimes this requires a 360 review.
