What is a coach?
“A Coach is someone that sports teams have to show them how to get better, right? The guy on the side line shouting orders?”
Well, yes and no.
“Look, I don’t need coaching; there’s nothing wrong with me.”
I’m sure that’s true. Professional Coaches view their clients as naturally intelligent, creative and whole and they don’t need ‘fixing’. It’s not like counselling.
“Really? What’s the difference?”
Counsellors look into the past to understand the causes of problems; they provide diagnosis and give advice and recommendations. For example, they might look at cases of low self-esteem or negative self-beliefs to uncover and understand the past events that are the origin of current problems. The focus is on the past and present, and on healing.
A coach believes every client is naturally intelligent, creative, resourceful and whole. A coach partners with the client/s in a thought-provoking and creative process to maximise their personal and professional potential. A coach honours the client as the expert in their own life and has the best answers to their own problems. The coach’s job is to unlock the wisdom inherent in the client.
Standing on this foundation, the coach’s responsibility is to:
- Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve
- Encourage client self-discovery
- Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies
- Hold the client responsible and accountable
“Okay, but why would I need a coach?”
Is there someone in your life — personal or professional — with whom you just don’t get along but you need to or want to? Someone you always seem to be fighting with? Someone you always disagree with, who never listens to you? Is there any relationship you would like to improve? A coach can help with all of these situations.
Coaching has historically been a one-to-one activity, but the skills and tools of coaching can be equally applied to relationship systems. We are in relationship systems all the time — parent-child relationships, siblings, friends, manager-staff member, and the teams we work in.
The success of these relationships is determined by how effectively we communicate with one another, how we deal with conflict and solve problems together.
Organisation and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC) is an approach that identifies the relationship between people as an entity in its own right, with its own atmosphere and culture, distinct from the individuals that are its members. ORSC Practitioners view the relationship system as the client, and coach the whole relationship system. Through this work, the team or partnership as a whole is strengthened. And who doesn’t want to be part of a strong partnership or team?
