Coaching – What is it all about anyway?

(Part 1)

The International Coaches Federation defines Coaching as: Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches’ help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.

Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach’s job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has. It supports and deepens intention and growth over time so that the changes you want to make become a pert of your natural fiber the change becomes sustainable. All to often we attempt change with good intentions but with out the extra support quickly dissipates and we are back in to our old habits.

The clients that I have had the privilege to serve and journey with have called coaching a ‘transformational experience’. They describe a sense of goundedness and ease with decision making that they have never experienced before. One client stated “Our coaching relationship has been the key to unlocking potential within myself. I am consciously making choices around my attitudes, my energy level, and my perspectives in both my personal and work issues. These choices have repeatedly affirmed my power to change and grow, and I have had a number of experiences where others have told me that I have made a positive difference for them”.

Tomorrow: Why Coaching?