Executive coaching, personal coaching, workplace coaching, life coaching, career coaching! The list goes on – even marriage coaching can be secured today. Coaching has become a bit of a phenomena and many people are confused about how, when, where or why they might want to use the services of a coach. People want to know if coaching is money well spent and they need to see that coaching has demonstrable benefits before spending their hard earned cash or the training budget.

As with sport, coaching is about improving performance; changing habits; making the game fairer; adjusting to new rules, regulations and environments; honing skills; practicing new methods; learning new approaches; keeping up with modern techniques; being abreast of the latest advances and technology and generally staying on the balls of your feet and anticipating the future. PHEW! That all sounds like hard work, and you would be right, it is. Coaching is a paradigm in personal and professional development that focuses on the recipient doing the work, whilst the coach observes, supports, encourages, focuses and reviews what the participant is doing.

Often in training programs it is easy for the participant to sit in the room, attend the training, pass the tests and gain a qualification without too much effort at all. Some training simply requires that the person turn up and listen. Whilst sharing of information is very good it rarely results in changes to practice and improvements in process or personal satisfaction. It is rarely linked to productivity benefits or measurable improvements in outcome.

This is where coaching can come to the fore. Coaching  is about making changes, improving performance, enhancing relationships and generally moving forward. It uses processes that allow for demonstrable improvements. A good coaching program should be able to demonstrate through clear measures how the situation is changing and the improvements that are occurring.

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An executive coach will work with senior members of a corporation (or organisation such as government) to hone their skills and management practices. Coaching is about the process of bedding down new practices and identifying opportunities for high performance. An executive who is coached has a sounding board for ideas and the coach can also provide resources for research and development. Coaches can turn managers into leaders given the right person with the focus and attitude to transform.

Have you ever found yourself wondering “what am I doing wrong?” or “why am I stuck here?” or “how do I move forward?” In this situation the person wants change, can see that things are not working and just can’t figure out how to bridge the gap to a preferred state. This is where a coach can assist. The coach will not provide a prescription for change. Telling people what to do has never had the same success as allowing them to experiment with the options and choose what feels best for them. The coach will explore the issues with the participant, set some goals, help to prioritise actions, provide some tools for moving forward and then assist in consolidating the new behaviours or changes to ensure the participant doesn’t slip back into the same dilemma.

So now we can see why coaching has been picked up and applied to many areas of life outside the sporting arena. It is a process for getting unstuck, an avenue for personal or professional improvement and a way of consolidating new habits. No wonder it is becoming more popular.