What People Misunderstand About Coaching
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity, and leadership.
Executive coaching is different from sports coaching. Sports coaches instruct, direct, strategize, and drive their athletes to win. In many ways, the sports coach is in the driver’s seat, with the team as passengers. In executive coaching, the coach sits in the passenger seat, with the client driving. The coach brings the process, but the coaching goes where the client takes it and explores what the client wants to explore.
To be clear, executive coaching is not:
Teaching, instructing, or advising. Coaching involves helping the client to reflect, build their awareness, and tap into their own inherent wisdom to reach new awareness and understanding of themselves.
Consulting or problem-solving. Consulting focuses on a problem and the conditions surrounding it, whereas coaching focuses on the person and supports them as they tackle the problem. If you had to decide between two options, a consultant might do a thorough analysis and offer their expert recommendation. The coach doesn’t offer solutions. The coach is there to help the client solve their own problem.
Mentoring. We turn to mentors to hear the knowledge they’ve learned from their life’s experience. When you say, “when I was in this situation, here’s how I handled it,” you’re acting like a mentor rather than a coach. Coaches don’t need experience in the client’s topic to create profound transformation. The coach relies on the craft of coaching to help the client unlock their own expertise.
Giving feedback. Sometimes people say that someone “needs coaching” when what they really mean is that they need feedback. Feedback is most effective when given directly by colleagues or a manager. Coaches can then help clients process feedback they’ve received and can support them in getting the feedback they’d like to receive from others.
All of these are essential tools in any helper’s toolkit. They’re just different tools from coaching tools. Coaches may call on these practices when they believe it would be helpful, but ground their practice in distinct coaching competencies.
From an article by Deborah Grayson Riegel, Mark Zumwalt, Priya Nalkur, Ben Olds, and Signy Wilson in Harvard Business Review, December 7 th , 2023.
