Abstract
This paper will discuss the role of coaching in an organization setting, team setting and in life in general. The paper will also cover what are the core competencies factors that should be employed for a successful coaching process, it will also analyze the factors that contribute to negative coaching and finally it will outline the key elements that should be employed for an effective coaching session.
Table of contents
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Coaching
- Factors Contributing to a Successful Coaching Process
- The Coachâs Competence and Commitment
- Sound Coaching Techniques
- Good Coaching Process
- The Coaching Relationship
- Client Factors
- The professionalism of the Coach
- Factors Negatively Influencing Coaching
- Factors emerging from the Clients
- Factors emerging from the Coach
- Key Elements of the Coaching process
- Sound Coaching Tips
- Conclusion
- References
Introduction
Coaching
Coaching can be defined as the process of supporting individuals, teams and organizations in the venture of becoming or realizing their goals and dreams. Thus coaching is the process of making dreams and goals realities in the concerned peopleâs lives or jobs or any other sphere in there professional lifeâs like athletics.
Coaching entails its focus on future potential and how it can achieved exhaustively. When coaching is applied on someone it tends to portray certain kinds of benefits that could not be seen before in the individual, skills are sharpened thus they become highly skilled individuals, through coaching areas that need development are identified thus room for improvement is created, coaching provides an avenue through which guidance can be accessed by an individual or team, coaching tends to support continual learning which is a process that should be undertaken daily by the team or individual, lastly it instills the team work spirit as well as enhances the productivity level of the team or individual. (Fredrick 1999),
Factors Contributing to a Successful Coaching Process
Coaching is a process that involves two groups of people: the coach himself who sets out the guidelines and the client, the individual who receives the guidance and instructions in order for him to realize his goals. For a successful coaching process then certain factors have to be implemented, and be surveyed so that this process can be termed successful. These factors are six in general and will be discussed as follows:
The Coachâs Competence and Commitment
Coaches core competencies can be discussed into three segments these are; business, coaching, and psychology. For the business part of it compromises of whether the coach has business skills meaning is he business savvy? Will the coach be able to be conversant with organizations in the level of culture, politics, dynamics is he flexible in mingling with the clients who form this kind of groupings who term themselves as business elites, and thus he has to be armed with corporate awareness tools if he is to deliver his coaching procedure.
Without these he wonât experience acceptability and credibility in these circles. As a coach he is supposed to understand his role thus he should be competent most coaches think that because they are skilled they can coach any kind of client that comes along but this is wrong he needs to be armed both corporate wise and psychologically to enable him pass his skills to his client with effectiveness. (Hubble, Duncan and Miller, 2004)
The coach needs to be well equipped in psychological matters in the sense that some assignments come with behavioral implications, thus he needs to be capacitated to handle the behavioral changes in the client. The coach needs to asses whether the client needs psychological training as he is being coached.
For instance for an executive manager the coach needs to asses him for other psychological underlying factors such as stress, high blood pressure, family life, lifestyle issues that are preventing him from performing.
All in all the coach has to be able to have a comprehension of what and who he is dealing with if its corporate be armed with its awareness, has to be able to work in a results focused environment, has to be aware of organizational politics, appreciate career development and executive derailment, he has to have and understanding of coaching theory and principles, he has to be a good communicator by being a o good listener, he should allow silence, allow reflection, clarify goals, provide performance feed back, which should be encouraging and motivating to the client.
The coach should be committed for an effective feel of change in the part of the client to be felt, for the client to know that the coach will be behind him no mater what is a motivating factor. (Hubble, Duncan and Miller, 2004)
Sound Coaching Techniques
A coach has to employ sound coaching principles when coaching, he has to offer assistant ship in the learning process, by being patient as the learner takes on the developmental changes. The coaches should use dialogue to connect with their clients thus the need for them to be prepared emotionally and psychologically before a session commences.
The coaches should device ways through which challenge and support can be balance because too much of the other can distort the other. A methodology to apply the three principles can be applied through the principle of applying the clients story- the client should be given opportune time to give he story, the clients thinking process- he should be given time to reflect on his story, clients feelings- the after thoughts should be fully explored by the client and the coaches effective use of self- the coach should but his full input right then not waiting till time elapses for him to have wishful thinking as I wish I had said this then. (Bruce 2001)
Good Coaching Process
The coach should be well informed on whom he is contracting he services too; to enable him familiarizes himself well with the client. The coach should be a good assessor when it comes to his client, for him to work effectively he has to correctly asses his client in order for him to implement his coaching well. He has to create an agenda which he should fully implement during his coaching tenure. This will cover how he is going to go about it what he is going to achieve in a certain time frame, classify the clients capabilities. (Fredrick 1999)
The Coaching Relationship
This is the most critical issue since it directly touches on the client and the coach who are the two main players. There is the question of chemistry does the coach gel well with his client? It is insane for a coach to think just because he is highly skilled coach he will automatically have a good rapport with his clients. For an effective coaching process then the coach has to improve his relationship status with his client. This can be done through therapy and the counseling world.
The coaches should be accommodating to different kinds of people when it comes to behavior, he should be non-judgmental, non- possessive, and he should practice congruence meaning he should act according to his value and belief in other terms being genuine. (Bruce 2001)
Client Factors
This consist of clients strength, and supportive elements in the environment, from a coaches perspective they include clients motivation, persistence, and sense of responsibility if this key factors are considered then there must be positively in the outcome of the coaching process.
The coach should identify with the client by him being able to recognize that the main aim of the client contracting him was to uplift some form of hope and expectancy in his life thus working towards this should be his main agenda. The coach should also identify with the level at which the client is if he is doing well psychologically it means he can identify with him well but in a depressive situation the coach should implement ways in which he can come to that level and uplift the client first. (Fredrick 1999)
The professionalism of the Coach
Coaches should exude some form of work ethics when it comes to this specialty, this has prompted the emergence of such bodies like international coaching federation, the European mentoring and coaching council and the association of coaches. Their main role is that of making sure regulations of the ethic code are implemented.
The syllabus used for teaching coaches should also be standardized to enable the bodies to operate well and effectively when the coaches have these guidelines they tend to work well under outlined guidelines. They understand there boundaries and limitations. Poorly trained coaches may find themselves in questioning alliances with their clients which may affect their work in a negative way. In the clients mindset when he goes out to hire coach he expects him to deliver thus professionalism has to be maintained if success is the outmost goal for the coach. (Bruce 2001)
Factors Negatively Influencing Coaching
These factors will be discussed in two main arenas that is factors brought about by the clients themselves and those made prominent by the coaches fraternity. The two groups being the main players in the arena they have be the ones influencing the coaching process either negatively or positively. (Bruce 2001)
Factors emerging from the Clients
At times the client may experience serious levels of psychological problems which may prove difficult for the coach to penetrate, thus the need for the client to diffuse or deal with his psychological problems first so that the coaching process can continue.
The client may battling with serious interpersonal problems that need to be dealt with first before the actual coaching starts thus its for the client to first act with the way he deals with others before he starts getting the fruits of the coaching process. Low self awareness and lack of motivation; if the client canât have the eagerness of going through the coaching process then no one can instill those first grains of enthusiasm.
The client has to understand the importance of the coaching process in his life and look out for the after fruits of the sessions. Insufficient openness and excessive defensiveness, the client should be able to be open enough to enable the coach to carry out his duties efficiently, being too much defensive also blocks the coach from penetrating the client to know where the real problem lies.
Unrealistic expectations of the coach or coaching process, this may come about when the client doesnât understand that it is a process that takes time and needs patience hence makes it impossible for the coach to implement an intensive session. This also brings in the issue of clients not having commitment in the process, the clients donât follow up on their assignments given, giving the coach a blow in his effectiveness in coaching this particular client. (Fredrick 1999)
Factors emerging from the Coach
Insufficient empathy for the client, insufficient interest in the clientâs problems when the coach tends to ignore certain issues raised by the client the lack of communication becomes an upfront problem this barrier has to be opened in that for them to relate well. The coach may assume he is highly skilled and thus doesnât need to practice patience in order to get to the niche of the problem. The coach at times can takes a long short and underestimate the seriousness of the clients problem this brings the issue of lack of commitment in the case of the coach, each client should be analyzed with the greatest precision and care.
The coach can sometimes tend to overreact to the clients story this will hinder development in the coaching process, the client may react by not divulging any more information that could be useful in unearthing his true potential. The coach could depress their relationship when they have unresolved disputes that are carried over to the next sessions; this will cripple the whole process making a negative impact to the coaching process. (Fredrick 1999)
Key Elements of the Coaching process
For positive results in the coaching process there are three major elements that need to be applied for an effective coaching process to be realized. They are as follows;
Personal chemistry with the coach-The two main players should experience some form of comfortability zone, this because the coach should hold some level of degree when it comes to trust since for the process to develop the client will need to share with him some confidential information.
Comprehension of what success is in behavioral terms for effective coaching process the coach is supposed to have an effective way of finding feed back from his client he should define methods through which they can feel and understand how to experience ultimate success from their presumed desolation state.
Substantive leverage for motivating behavioral changes- For improved effectiveness the coaches should try to apply some form of motivational attitude to the clients to enable them fully partake their coaching classes. Each client that comes in comes with different kind of solutions to be effected. Thus the coach should treat each case as uniquely as possible. (Bruce 2001)
Sound Coaching Tips
The coach should seek opportunities to learn, this they can do by attending regular seminars, watching other coaches, reading widely and researching through the internet. Each client is unique thus the coach should implement unique communication skills to each client. The coach should take the initiative of communicating to the individual client on his progress.
The coach should stick to the set standard code of ethics when operating with clients. His aim should be that of arming his clients to be self sufficient, independent and responsible better human beings while discovering their hidden potentials. (Bruce 2001)
Conclusion
Coaching as a business has widely taken root , most people want to have the best when it comes to organizations, when it comes to children doing well in school, when it comes to competition such as athletics, thus there is an outmost need and gap that needs to be filled in this sector. Thus the need to improve professionalism when it comes to coaches looking out for clients meaning they should be rounded people who can deal with anyone in the society. Being just skilled is not the answer but how well you tackle your clientâs unique problem is the ultimate goal for each coach in whatever area.
References
Bruce.P. (2001), physiology of executive teaching coaching, Human Kinetics Publishers.
Fredrick H. (1999), hand book for coaching, wily, john and sons publishers.
Hubble A, Duncan B and Miller, S. (2004), âthe Heart and Soul of Change: American Psychological Association.