What coaching is...and isn't.
My instructor is a Master level coach, the highest level of credentialing offered by the International Coaching Federation. After a session with her, you'll find yourself with a grin stretching from ear to ear and feeling like you can take on the world. So when she did a demo for us, it goes without saying that she'd do an amazing job. Or, so I thought.
Classmates commenting afterwards were acting like they'd never seen anything like it before and making statements that had me wondering, "Have they ever even seen a coaching session?" Surely, they must have. In fact, I know they have because we've all completed the same pre-reqs.
Maybe their instructor didn't demonstrate as well as mine did? Or maybe, because I've been coached before, I have a better idea of what the experience of coaching is like. Either way, I realized if people training to be coaches were surprised about what coaching actually is, other people must be too.
So, let's get clear about what coaching is and isn't.
Coaching is a process where the coach empowers the client by asking curious, solution-focused questions to reach their own solution.
The purpose of coaching is to help move you toward your desires, to increase your overall life-satisfaction and well-being.
COACHING IS NOT:
Telling you what to do
Fixing the problem for you
About focusing on the past
COACHING IS:
A partnership between two people
Supporting you to find your own solution
About moving forward, changing the present or future
You can change anything you want to change - feeling good enough to go after that job, managing expectations around your health, how to deal with feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list, uncovering your life purpose, increasing your confidence so you can talk to your boss- anything.
A coach can support you in making a change.
Tell me below, have you ever been coached? What was your experience like?