Coaching
"A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are."
Ara Parasheghian
Using a range of instruments, such as listening, intuition, curiosity, feedback, and powerful questions the coach dialogues with the coachee and helps him to clarify what objectives he really desires, the best strategies to reach them, the practical ways to overcome obstacles and increase self-confidence.
The responses that the coachee generates step by step to move along his path towards realisation are profound, intimate, interior steps and emerge through the stimulating action of the coach.
Coaching is not therefore based on the transfer of knowledge between a passive coachee and an "expert" coach. It does not give solutions, it does not define the good or the interest of the coachee. Coaching helps people to change and transform themselves (into what they really desire), helping them to identify and overcome inappropriate behaviour, bad habits, patterns that hinder growth and create problems in reaching the goals set. The focus always remains on action (the results are measurable!). The fact that the coachee takes responsibility for the final results is essential for the coaching path to be effective.
Coaching has age-old cultural roots: Socratic maieutics. Professionally, however, people began to start speaking about coaching from the 1960s, when in the United States the coaching model used in sports began to be transferred into other spheres of work.
Coaching is now a profession known and recognised around the world, counting on more than 30,000 coaches, about 18.8% of them specialised in executive coaching, 18.3% on leadership development, 15.7% in life and personal coaching. 71.2% of coaches are members of the ICF.
The global coaching market generates approximately 1.5 billion dollars.*
As things stand today, it is the most effective method to develop the potential of individuals and reach specific goals.
A study by International Personnel Management Association demonstrates that while training improves productivity by an average of 22%, with coaching it reaches 88%" (Financial Times - Public Personnel Management, Washington, 1997).
To summarise, with coaching a person can:
- clarify what she really wants and set higher goals
- be more focused on action
- make fully-aware choices
- reach objectives faster
- reinforce strenghts
- stop self-sabotage
- increase self-esteem
- think out of the box
- remove external, but above all, internal obstacles
The most common specialisations in coaching are:
*Source: Global Coaching study by Price Waterhouse Cooper for ICF, July 2007