What is a coach? Pros and cons of the profession

In this article we are with you the most in simple words Let’s look at what coaching is and how it differs from training and mentoring. We'll also look at how coaching actually works and how you can learn it.

And let's first figure out what this strange word “coaching” means.

Meaning of the word coaching

As often happens, such a beautiful foreign word as “coaching” has a completely prosaic meaning. This is a derivative of the word “coach”. This slang word appeared in British student circles and meant “private tutor”. More precisely, the word “coach” existed before, and, oddly enough, it meant “cart” or “carriage”.

Researchers believe that "coach" began to be used in figurative meaning, because private tutors helped the student quickly get from “point A” to “point B”. Just like carriages and teams in those distant times.

The word has since stuck, being used primarily to refer to sports coaches and what we would call school physical education teachers. Gradually, those who help people achieve success not only in sports, but also in other areas of life began to be called coaches. In our country, the words “coach” and “coaching” took root instantly, because introducing yourself as a “success coach” is much more pleasant than just a “success tutor.”

What is the difference between coaching and training?

By the way, if we talk about terminology, many people cannot understand how coaching differs from training. Even the coaches and trainers themselves cannot clearly explain this in simple words.

If you ask the coaches themselves for the definition of coaching, then most often they will tell you beautiful stories about how “a coach does not teach, but helps a person find his own path,” and that the coachee should “hear answers to all his questions.” within yourself." This is what, from their point of view, distinguishes coaching from training.

I don’t know about you, but such explanations never gave me an understanding of what this very coaching is.

But in fact, everything is again much simpler than it might seem. A trainer is a person who works with a group of people, while a coach works individually. It’s just that often trainers switch to an individual format (consultants are also “mixed in” with their consulting), and coaches agree to group classes, and thereby completely confuse everyone.

Yes, everyone wants to eat, and the whole fraternity of coaches/trainers/consultants work in the format that was currently purchased from them. Remember the main thing - if a person works individually, then most likely you are dealing with coaching. And if he calls himself something else, then most likely he simply doesn’t like the word “coaching.”

I think we’ve figured out the terminology, and let’s now talk about coaching and coaches in the classical sense of these words. That is, as about individual assistance to a person in solving certain problems in his life.

How Coaching Really Works

If you don’t bother with complex psychological tactics of coaching, schemes for developing relationships with a client, and so on, then all coaching can be divided into two large groups.

The first option is when the coach works “from below”, and the second is when the coach works “from above”. In the first case, the coach himself may not have any significant results in the area in which he “trains” his client.

And there’s really nothing strange or scary about this. Knowing how to do something and being able to explain how to do something are absolute different types activities, and this requires different sets of qualities and skills. I can prove this to you right now.

Teach what you don't know yourself

Tell me, do you speak Russian well? At the very least, it's good enough if you can handle the text of this article. Now try to take some foreigner and teach him to speak as well as you. What's the problem? You yourself know how to speak Russian. But for some reason, another similar foreigner, who, from your point of view, can barely connect two words in Russian, can teach a foreigner the language much better.

Another example - name me at least one great coach in football (hockey or anywhere else) who was previously a great player. There are simply no such people. Great stars become very average coaches, and previously unknown players lead their teams to championships.

Well, the last example - do you know how to ride a bicycle? Let's assume you can. Now try to explain how exactly you do this to a person who does not know how to ride a bicycle. The most you can say is that you need to hold on to the steering wheel, press the pedals and try to maintain your balance. Give your student such instructions and he will hurt himself within half a meter.

Moreover, if you try to understand what exactly and in what order you are doing at that moment, when you ride a bicycle, you yourself will hurt yourself (as in that joke about the hedgehog who forgot how to breathe).

Therefore, the well-known sarcastic expression “He who does not know how, teaches” is, firstly, absolutely correct. And secondly, it contains a very deep meaning. Therefore, “coaching from below” has a right to life.

How coaching works from below and from above

This kind of coaching works very simply - you look at a person’s situation from the outside and begin to give him advice. Ideally, ask leading questions so that he himself understands what his problem is (because people really don’t like being given advice). Do you agree that this is not difficult? We can almost always tell what the problem is with one or another of our friends. But at the same time we are like ourselves good advice For some reason we can’t give it.

The second option is “coaching from above,” where we have truly achieved significant success in some area and now help others achieve the same.

This coaching works very differently. Here we are not even trying to ask leading questions, and God forbid, to give advice. All our work comes down to the fact that we simply do what we know how to do and live the way we know how, and a person from the outside watches us and tries to imitate us.

Coaching and mentoring

This type of coaching is mainly common in the business environment, and it is already called mentoring or mentoring. Your mentor is always a person who has achieved a lot. He looks at your situation from above and knows how to reach a new level of development. Mentoring is based on the premise that “it is impossible to solve a problem at the same level at which it arose.”

That is, if you go in circles for years and always get the same results, and you can’t “break through the ceiling”, it means that somewhere in your algorithm there is an error due to which you “entered a cycle” (programmers will understand me ).

To “break out of the loop” you need someone from the outside to point out the mistake. Theoretically, you could probably find it yourself. But in practice this is very rarely possible. And absolutely independent searches will take you much more time.

Typically, working with a mentor-coach occurs in the following way. About once a month you meet with your mentor and begin to tell him exactly what and how you have done since your last meeting.

And then an interesting thing starts to happen. Firstly, in order not to blush for your “successes” in front of a big man, you will work much harder than if you did not have a mentor. And secondly, by structuring your actions to describe them in words, you yourself will soon stumble upon a repeating mistake.

Thus, the mentor, on the one hand, shows you by example how to do it right. On the other hand, it forces you to talk about what you are doing wrong. In short, very useful things these guys are doing it. Maybe you can learn this and make money from it?

How to learn coaching and make money

If you decide to become a coach, you will find no shortage of teachers. There are now hundreds of organizations around the world that train coaches. The names of these organizations alone speak of how cool everything is there - the International Coaching Federation, the Empire of Coaches, the American Academy of Professional Coaching, and so on and so forth.

After completing training in these organizations, you will be given a beautiful personalized certificate “with all the corresponding rights.” But training there is very expensive. And for some reason it takes a lot of time.

Generally, you won't be able to just show up and take some "full coaching course." The classes there are divided into several stages, and you need to go through them sequentially, and each next stage, naturally, costs more than the previous one. What's the point of this? And it really does make sense.

Coaching as a financial pyramid

It’s sad, but most of these organizations are ordinary financial pyramids. That is, they train coaches so that they, in turn, can also train coaches and earn money from it. And the levels were introduced to make it clear who can teach whom and for what money.

That is, a coach with a “first stage” diploma has the right to recruit students and train them up to the first stage. He gives part of the proceeds from this training up the pyramid, and keeps part for himself. If he receives the “second level”, then he can teach more and more expensively.

Thus, the operating scheme of such a structure is very simple - at the head is the “most important coach”, who is paid by all subordinates for the right to issue diplomas on behalf of this organization. In fact, new students pay money for this diploma. Look at some coach trying to sell his services. The most honorable place on his website is always given to the list of diplomas and certificates that he received during his life.

What do coaching and karate federations have in common?

This scheme of work was not even invented by the coaches themselves. Remember the various karate schools with their colored belts. Have you ever tried to test for high rank belts? Do you know how much it costs? And what do you think they give you there, besides the belt itself? That's right - a diploma that gives you “all relevant rights” (that is, the right to recruit your students, take money from them, and transfer part of this money to the head of the Federation of your style).

So, pyramid training existed long before the advent of modern coaching. I personally don’t see anything particularly flawed in such an organization of coaching training. That's just the way she is. It is only wrong if the coach remains inside the pyramid forever and does not even try to make money by putting his skills into practice.

But, thank God, there are also practicing coaches. And it is not surprising that most of the smartest of them are not members of any coaching federation, and have never even studied coaching as such. This activity does not fall under any licensing laws, and you, too, can start offering your coaching services and take money for it tomorrow.

How to offer them correctly, and how much money to charge for it, is a topic for a separate discussion. And here, I hope, I was able to explain in simple words what coaching is and how it differs from training and mentoring. And let's summarize all of the above in the form of an infographic.

What is coaching - infographic

I hope this article was helpful to you. Don't forget to download my book. There I show you the fastest way from zero to the first million on the Internet (extract from personal experience in 10 years =)

See you later!

Yours Dmitry Novoselov

We decided to give the most complete answer to the question “who is a coach.” IN modern world Every day a person faces new challenges and difficulties that must be overcome. Sometimes it is difficult to independently choose the right path in life, solve some issue or build your own line of behavior. In this case, a coach comes to the rescue - the same wizard who will help untangle the tangle of thoughts and actions, set priorities and reveal the hidden talents of his ward.

To understand who a coach is, you will have to turn to English language. A free translation allows us to interpret this word as both “sports coach” and “freight transport.” Regardless of which of these concepts is taken as the main one, a coach is a specialist whose task is to set emphasis, identify clear goals and help a person achieve these goals.

The goal of a coach is not to lead a person by the hand, protecting him from problems and difficulties, but to help him believe in himself, reveal his abilities, rely on his strengths and, with their help, move to new heights of his life!

A competent coach does not give advice, exactly what the client should do in a given situation. The uniqueness of this profession lies in the ability to listen and ask questions in order to bring a person during a conversation (coaching session) to an awareness of life situations and his own contribution to everything that happens to him. In other words, such joint work is aimed to form a person’s responsibility for his life, thanks to which he begins to build it in accordance with his goals and dreams.

Coaching: features of the process

Each stage of collaboration between a coach and a client is called a session, as a result of which the client must draw certain conclusions and, on their basis, form a strategy for his future behavior, set goals for himself and systematically carry them out. Usually the session lasts for 1 hour with regularity once a week. Thus, between sessions a person has the opportunity to test the planned steps in life, behavior patterns, etc.

This week between sessions is the most valuable thing in coaching for a client, because During this period, a person gains experience and feedback from the surrounding world and people. And, after a week, coming to the next meeting with the coach, there is already a huge platform for analyzing what was brought to life, what caused difficulties, what was connected with it and what can be done differently next time. At this moment, the coach gently helps the person look at the results obtained, gives support if necessary, and motivates him to take the next steps leading to his goal.

Studying the biographies of famous successful personalities, it can be noted that wise mentors, who can be compared to modern coaches, helped them overcome difficulties in difficult moments in their lives.

At one point in the collaboration, the client understands that professional and family problems arise not due to a lack of any knowledge, but due to complexities of character, habits, and personal qualities. After all, it is extremely difficult for a mature adult to painlessly accept his imperfections and begin to change something about himself. It is during the sessions that this understanding is born, awareness is formed regarding oneself, one’s relationships with people, one’s life.

And then a person is surprised to discover that he is 100% responsible for his life! That it is not the “asshole boss” who is to blame for the fact that he is not advancing in his career, but his own lack of initiative. That the fact that “love has left the relationship” is not the fault of the husband, who does not wash the dishes, but my attitude towards him with a claim and expectation that he should invest. And as soon as this understanding comes, everything falls into place.

Inner strength and faith come when a person suddenly understands that his whole life, every event and every person in it is his own doing. Every second, only you influence what happens to you. And those who work with a coach know this first-hand and live through their own experience.

To achieve the planned result, practicing coaches meet with clients regularly for 1 to 3 months (and sometimes up to six months) once a week. A long period of collaboration helps to form good habits, a new style of thinking that brings the desired results and positive changes in the client’s life. However, in addition to consolidating new skills and abilities, during periods of change people often experience disappointment due to the lack of quick results and a decrease in motivation to act. At this point, the support of a coach becomes especially important, helping the client cope with self-sabotage and possible “kickbacks.”

Sometimes a coach for a long time remains the only person who supports his client on the path of desired changes in life! After all, it is usually not easy for those closest to them to come to terms with the fact that suddenly a person ceases to be predictable, understandable and “convenient”. In addition, the changes that happen to a person imply that you need to conform and also reach a new level... and other people really don’t want to do this, because most people sit comfortably in their usual “comfort zone”. Therefore, on the way to change, a client will always have many temptations to “give up everything,” to give up on his dream... After all, it is very difficult to continue when you hear from friends and relatives: “Why do you need this?” “Stop doing nonsense!” “You won’t succeed anyway!”

And perhaps the person would have quit if he were alone...

But the coach helps him find inner strength and motivation to move on. Sometimes one question is enough for this, for example: “Imagine your life in 5 years. Nothing changed. What do you feel?" Although, of course, in a coach’s arsenal there are such “strong” questions that force you to look at things “soberly”, feel an influx of strength and inspiration, or expand the space of options much more. After all, a coach, in his own way, is a “master of asking questions,” which he deftly uses as a tool for working with a client.

In fact, in the process of moving towards a goal, clients encounter not only a lack of understanding of their immediate environment, but also their own fears, doubts, disbelief, and negative beliefs that do not keep themselves waiting long, especially when a person must take new, atypical actions to get new results in your life.

Therefore, the coach is always on guard for these “mental enemies.” Every coach knows that every person has limitless potential that they need to help them discover. Any person can be whatever he wants; do what he wants and have what he wants. This is the philosophy of coaching. And it has been repeatedly confirmed by examples from clients’ lives.

Speaking about the duration of the coaching contract (from 1-3 months to six months), it is also important to note that many requests that clients come with cannot be resolved in 1-2 meetings.

• Firstly, coaching, as we found out, is a process akin to training: systematically integrating new habits and skills into your life. When you come to the gym, you don’t expect that after the first workout you will immediately lose 10 hated extra pounds? But, with regular visits to the gym several times a week and maintaining healthy image life that becomes your habit, after 2-3-5 months not only you discover that you have changed, toned up, slimmer, become more resilient and confident...

The same approach works in coaching: planning and discipline in carrying out the planned steps for a period sufficient to consolidate the skill.

• Secondly, Often customer requests have results that are quite delayed in time. For example, a girl comes who has no experience of long-term relationships, does not have a man in mind with whom she would like to build such a relationship, and says: “I want to get married.” It would be strange if, together with the coach, they determined the time limit for achieving this goal to be 1 month. Well, or even 3. Of course, this is a task that cannot be solved with a click and it takes at least six months to achieve this goal. As a rule, this is a task that is very strongly connected with working on oneself, on changing one’s personal qualities, perception of oneself, men, etc. This is a complex process of transforming yourself and your life. And, of course, the efforts invested will bear fruit, but it takes time for the fruit to ripen.

Types of coaching

Despite the fact that coaching can be globally divided into business and life coaching, the concept of the method is based on the fact that everything in a person’s life should be harmonious. Since one area of ​​life can greatly influence another. For example, when working on business tasks, a person may experience insufficient energy to implement them due to feelings of guilt towards his family, to which he does not devote due time and attention. A sensitive coach will pay attention to this in time and help the client, through strengthening relationships (personal sphere), to obtain the desired results in work.

• Business—coaching. This, as a rule, is work with the top officials of the company, with top managers and owners. The format of work in business can be either individual or team. In both cases The joint work of the coach and the client is focused on the goals and objectives of the organization. Currently, companies have a growing need for employees who show initiative, responsibility and awareness. This, in turn, leads to the fact that elements of coaching begin to be introduced at the level of line management. In some companies (especially Westernized ones), the coaching approach becomes part of the organization's culture.
• Life coaching –This is an appeal to the client’s life as a whole.. A life coach works with a variety of requests from various areas of life. For example, building a career, finding a partner, starting a family, establishing harmonious relations, acquiring a balance between work and family, improving health, self-realization, finding purpose, etc. The coach’s task is to help a person find life balance in all areas of his life, through the discovery of talents and abilities, as well as the use of all internal resources.

A person who is confused or dissatisfied with his life, with the help of a professional, can work out everything life situations, find a way out of the current situation and determine the best path for yourself further development and self-improvement. The work of a coach is aimed at helping a person achieve the fullness of human life, awakening integrity and inner harmony. Addressing a person’s entire life as a whole can give him harmonious unity with himself and with the world.

The work of a coach: a combination of theory and practice

Typically, work with a client begins with assessing his readiness to interact in a coaching format and analyzing the current state of affairs.

• The fact is that not every person who comes to a consultation is ready to work on themselves and take responsibility for the result into their own hands. For example, it happens that a “complainer” comes to a session, who is used to complaining about life and pouring out his soul, but at the same time doing nothing. So he goes from one specialist to another, waiting for a miracle, a “magic pill” or super advice that can solve all his problems, but nothing in his life changes. And coaching, unfortunately, is also powerless here.

Thus, this method will be effective only for people who are determined and ready to act and change, and not wait, ready-made solutions who will be mistaken for them by someone else and who firmly believe that all the problems in their lives are caused by other people.

So, the first session allows the specialist to understand whether the client is ready to work on himself in a coaching format. In addition, both the person seeking help and the coach are determined to what extent they are suitable for each other for further joint partnership. Often such understanding comes intuitively, at the level of “chemistry” and value coincidences/discrepancies.

• The second important aspect of starting to work together is understanding the client's request and defining the desired result. It would seem, well, what’s incomprehensible here? Indeed, everything is quite obvious when a person comes with a specific request, for example: “I want to get married,” “I want to become self-confident,” “I want to improve family relationships,” “I want to open my own business,” etc.

But even with a “direct” request, if you dig deeper, it may turn out that the desire “I want to get married” is not mine at all, but my mother’s. That the goal of “buying a car” is not because I want or need it, but because everyone has... In general, after answering the coach’s simple question: “Why is this so important to you?”, the person suddenly realizes that it’s not at all this is what he wants. And then, together with the coach, the request is reformulated into one that will truly inspire and have value and true meaning for the person.

However, very often people come to a coach in a state of uncertainty. And usually it looks like this: “I understand that something needs to change in life, but I don’t know what?” or “Everything seems to be fine, but there is no satisfaction in life...” or “I can no longer do what I do and I want to find something I like... But I don’t know what it is?”

Then the special technique “Wheel of Life Balance” comes to the rescue, which allows you to determine the “reference point”. Thanks to this technique, the client understands and sees the starting point, the area of ​​his life, from which it is worth starting to work to achieve the desired changes.

Summing up the features of working in a coaching format, one involuntarily recalls the phrase: “No one can do exercises for you.” No matter how good the coach is, only the client himself can take all the steps towards the desired results. Often this is a person’s work on himself does not come down to any one action (take it and do/say this). It is associated with a change in worldview, with the formation of a new perception of oneself, with overcoming emotional and mental barriers (unconscious limiting attitudes).

Help in overcoming these obstacles and competent work to eliminate them, an undeniable belief in a person’s capabilities, a vision of his potential and its disclosure, provide support and maintain the client’s motivation on the path to change, which is the main task of the coach.

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Effectiveness of coaching sessions: money lost or skills gained?

There is one rule in coaching: it is not free. Why? Because what a person gets for free, he does not value. By and large, this is an additional motivation for the person who paid the money, so as not to go halfway towards his goal and not give up on it at the first difficulty that arises.

In all other respects, coaching works due to the coach’s faith in his client, an atmosphere of trust and openness, as well as through joint unidirectional actions.

This means that if, after drawing up an action plan for the week, the client comes to the session without completing his task, then the coach helps him to deeply understand why he did not do it. After all, a coach is more interested than anyone in ensuring that the client achieves his goals and results. A coach is not a teacher or a punisher who scolds or gives a bad mark for an uncompleted task. It is precisely these moments of self-sabotage, “forgetfulness” or fear that prevented you from taking a step that allow you to reach the real reason inaction and work with it. And, by the way, sometimes it is at this stage that it may become clear that the initially set goal was not the client’s goal at all.

Sessions with a coachhelp a person identify personal goals rather than imposed ones public opinion or life circumstances. The ability to find yourself and correctly formulate your thoughts, desires and plans will give you a chance for a prosperous and successful life. A person working with a consultant correctly sets priorities, highlighting only what is truly important in his personal and professional life. In the process of working with a specialist, a person learns to formulate his desires and needs, make plans for the future, and find the most attractive ways to achieve certain goals.

When starting to work with a coach, it is important to understand that responsibility for the result lies entirely with the client. Therefore, the client himself takes active steps to achieve results. And the coach’s responsibility is to ensure that the client achieves results with the least effort and cost and faster than if he did it on his own. In addition, all the skills and abilities acquired during fruitful work will remain in a person’s life even after the end of the coaching relationship, which means that he will be able to continue to use them in the future on his own.

This is a significant difference between coaching and related professions, such as psychotherapy or psychological counseling, which can last for years. In the process of working together with a coach, a person changes some part of himself, which harmoniously integrates into his personality, and he can show this facet on his own without the support of a specialist.

Working with a professional coach is a step forward, developing self-confidence and your abilities.

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What is the ideal coach?

The coaching profession implies that a person makes himself. To achieve the slightest success in this matter, it is necessary not only to become a certified specialist familiar with the theory and basic concepts, but also to be the most successful in some areas. Coach only, in person past the path success, is able to guide his ward along this path with inspiration and effectiveness.

That is why, despite the fact that we said above that a coach works with a client using questions, it is still the most main tool the coach is his personality!

Since coaching is working with a person or a team, the coach must have certain skills that help him make this process more successful. The following qualities can be noted that will help him in this:

• Communication skills. Because the counseling process involves communication, the ability to build trust, and listen and ask questions
• Ability to analyze difficult situations using various techniques and techniques
• A penchant for creative thinking. Working as a coach means imagining and expanding your usual vision from a new angle.
• Desire to help people. Only a sincere desire to make the life of another person better will make cooperation productive.
• Emotional stability which will allow you to soberly assess the client’s extremely difficult life situations
• Optimism and faith in the client. To charge another person with positivity, you need to radiate positive emotions yourself.
• Self confidence a very important quality to be a coach who inspires and trusts people
  
• Constant self-development and work on yourself

To become a good coach, you need to be rich life experience, it is advisable to be an expert in a particular field, as well as have your own personal achievements. This makes it much easier for a coach to determine his niche and be in demand in it.

For example, a once “unhappy person in a relationship”, having done long work over myself, completely changed and created the best relationships in my life. He became self-confident, developed a sense of self-esteem, learned to value himself and his partner, and every day there is more and more love in his relationship. It would be much easier for this person to be a partnership coach, because... he understands the client’s “pain” and knows what a difficult path of transformation it is. But he also knows that it is possible to pass it! After all, he himself is an example of the power of desire and the miracle that he created in life with his own hands!

And if you had a desire to work on the topic happy relationship in your life, which coach would you turn to?

Besides being lonely, unhappy and without a family? Or to this one, who radiates harmony, happiness and love, who has built the relationship of his dreams with his loved one?

I think the answer is obvious.

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Where to learn coaching as a profession

The popularity of this profession attracts the attention of not only potential clients, but also potential coaches. To become a coach you do not need to have a mandatory psychological education. Coaching is not taught as a profession for 5 years at university.

Rather, it is more correct to consider it as advanced training or additional education.

Currently, the coaching profession can be study in internationally accredited institutions that work according to a single standardized program (with an emphasis on business coaching). Typically such training lasts from 8 months to 2 years.

At our Academy you can undergo training based on the author’s methodology, which helps you master the format of life coaching in depth. Basic training lasts 4 months. Besides, After completing the basic coaching training course, you can. Which is very convenient and important, especially for beginning coaches trying to determine their niche.

Therefore, to get it right, ask yourself the question: Why do I want to learn coaching (to improve my own effectiveness or to work with clients)? What categories of clients and what requests do I want to work with?By answering these questions, you will understand what type of coaching you want to learn: business or life?

While studying at a coaching school, usually before the start professional activity a future specialist undergoes coaching from a more experienced and already successful master. This allows him to experience for himself how coaching technology works in the hands of a professional. Gives you the opportunity to achieve better results in exciting issues and not be a “shoemaker without boots.”

Besides, to maintain the professionalism of the coach, supervision sessions are provided, which allow you to work on and hone your skills in various coaching tools and receive feedback and recommendations from an experienced specialist.

Among popular professions, coaching occupies one of the leading positions. Why is this happening? What is special about this specialty? Who is a coach? Is it easy to become one? What knowledge and skills do you need to have? What is the difference between a coach and a trainer? Is it possible to master this profession on your own, or do you need to undergo serious training? Where and how do coach training take place? Are the services that coaches provide overrated? Is it possible to do without them? The answers to these questions are contained in the publication.

Who is a coach

A coach is a person who, through continuous collaboration, helps the client find answers within himself. His main role is to develop the client’s understanding of how he can implement the assigned tasks. A coach helps in achieving professional or personal goals. In the classical sense, a representative of this profession should not influence the client’s decision-making. His task is to organize the process in such a way that the person himself achieves the desired goal.

Unlike, a coach does not deal general development a person, but through the formation of specified skills. For example, establishing relationships with the opposite sex, promoting career ladder or personnel management. The mentor conveys to the mentee all the baggage of his life experience and knowledge, according to Western tradition, being called a mentor.

This does not mean that a coach cannot at some points take on the role of a mentor when such a task is set, for example, during the training of new coaches.

What is the difference between a coach and a trainer?

Another closely related concept to the word “coach” is a trainer. In many ways, the blurring of the boundaries between these two professions is due to the emergence of self-taught coaches, who retrained from being coaches in a new direction without undergoing specialized training and using methods familiar to them.

What is the difference between a coach and a trainer? The degree and methods of influencing the audience. The coach must develop certain psychological attitudes for his students that will allow them to make the right decisions almost intuitively. At the same time, he does not teach, does not instruct, does not give answers. The coach plays a more technical role.

For example, he can improve employee skills regarding an accounting program, teach them how to use their time wisely, suggest more effective sales techniques, etc. He must “chew and put in his mouth,” and the coach only stimulates the “chewing” process.

Coach doesn't give answers, its main task is to develop in a person the ability to achieve his own goals, to look for the necessary ways and solutions.

Many professional areas require certain personality traits, such as leadership qualities. Then, the lines between these specialties are erased and the work is performed by a single person coach. It helps to better master the profession and develop in the client an understanding of the correct behavior strategy. There is also a coach consultant who, on a consulting basis, helps set up a business or resolve other issues.

What knowledge and skills should a coach have?

Unlike a trainer, a coach must be strong in psychology, since his area of ​​work is the mind and subconscious. What is a coach? This is a psychologist, a sage, a professional in his chosen direction. A person who combines life experience with fundamental knowledge.

Therefore, many people work as trainers and consultants, but only a few decide to become a coach. The responsibility and cost of mistakes are too great. Therefore, there is a high risk of falling into the hands of a charlatan. When looking for a coach for yourself or your company, it is advisable to pay no less attention to this than when choosing a dentist or lawyer.

How to become a coach?

Since the coaching specialty is not regulated by academic science and the bureaucratic apparatus, it is impossible to find a special university for this profile. All academies and other schools are licensed by the same academies and schools. This is why the risk of quackery arises even at the learning stage. How to choose a teacher or training center? Based on specific cases, based on reviews from students and clients, based on their number, status. It is also important to always listen to your inner voice. After all, intuition fails less often than ostentatious diplomas or awards.

One of the most famous training centers – International Coaching Federation(ICF), uniting more than 24,000 professional coaches from 50 countries. This is the largest non-profit association of specialists in this field.

According to ICF ideology, coaches must fulfill the following roles:

• Stimulate the client’s independent development;
• Consider him reliable and responsible;
• Determine the goals that the client wants to achieve;
• Help him in independently developing the necessary strategy.

The process is built according to these principles. training future coaches. It is also wrong to reject the role of a coach for coaches. After all, no one will go to a self-taught doctor for treatment or send their child to an amateur teacher. Accordingly, this specialty also requires a teacher. In any case, you can always shift responsibility for an unsuccessful approach to your client onto him.

According to international certification, there are the following professional levels of coaching:

• ACC(Associate Certified Coach) – issued after 60 hours of training and at least 100 hours of practice;
• PCC(Professional Certified Coach) – requires 125 hours of study and more than 500 hours of practice;
• MCC(Certified Master Coach) is a degree of dedication that can be obtained after 200 hours of study and 2,500 hours of practical experience.

But many amateur coaches do things differently. They start with self-education and practice, and only then, at a certain point, they look for a mentor or simply switch to some other job. Not having sufficient knowledge and skills in coaching, they make a number of mistakes, including best case scenario, simply not providing any benefit. They impose their opinions on clients and try to solve their problems instead. In general, they behave unprofessionally and incorrectly, thereby undermining the authority of coaching.

Prospects for working as a coach

The best motivation to start studying and practicing are the prospects of this direction. Firstly, the market for coaching services is still developing, so there is little competition yet. Secondly, this profession allows you to constantly develop yourself. Thirdly, the work of coaches is highly valued by their clients (materially). Fourthly, this specialty allows you to work on a flexible schedule. Fifthly, coaches can find themselves in any corner of the world, constantly traveling. Sixthly, this is one of the fashionable professions, along with businessmen and actors. Seventh, a coach's income is not limited by anything other than his personal self-esteem. Working as a coach, you can set the rules of dialogue with the client yourself. The main thing is to live up to his expectations, otherwise you can spoil your reputation and immediately lose a couple of zeros in the price list.

Coach is a fashionable and popular specialty, which remains a matter of only a few. Many people try their hand, but not all succeed. Even having answered the question of who a coach is, there is still no guarantee that you will be able to find a real professional. The main thing is to rely on the prompts of your inner voice and adhere to its advice. Sometimes our intuition can be the best coach; it is advisable to just learn to hear it. If the inner voice is silent, then it is better to contact a specialist.

Many people have heard this today English word“coach”, but not many people fully understand what he does and how he can help. Some people confuse him with a psychologist, others with a coach. But this is not true.

So who is he, you will find out from the article. Let's consider the topic of coaching for businessmen. Why is it worth working with such a specialist? And what qualities should he have to work successfully?

Coaching what is it

This is an interaction aimed at achieving a specific goal.

The word itself means “cart” or “carriage”. Those. something that helps you get from point A to point B.

And for the first time they started calling tutors that way because they helped students achieve better results.

This word was picked up, and it became very popular not only in the West, but also in Russia. Coaches help people around the world achieve their goals.

The specificity of their work is that they do not do all the work for you. And they don’t even tell you what to do to get results. They ask leading questions so that the person himself understands the solutions. This is what makes their work so effective.

The process looks like this - at the first session you decide on a goal and a plan for achieving it, then you call each other after a certain period of time to check the result and make adjustments.

What is the effectiveness of such work?

Often the person himself cannot make a big breakthrough because he is inside the situation and does not see options for getting out of it. For this, we need an outside specialist who has an objective view of the task. It may lead to a solution that you never imagined. This means that the coaching is successful.

Let's look at the advantages of working with such a specialist:

1. Responsibility. Since you paid the money, you will try to recoup it. Therefore, you will be highly motivated for the result.
2. Since you will have to report, you will strive to do everything that is written in the plan. Here, making excuses to yourself will not help. There is virtually no procrastination.
3. A specialist can help remove negative attitudes that prevent you from achieving your goal. You may not be aware of them, but from the outside you can see them.
4. Will guide and help draw up an action plan to achieve the best results in the shortest possible time.

Areas of application

Coaching came from management, but now its methods can be applied to any area of ​​life. Therefore, it is divided into 2 main areas of application: business coaching and life coaching.

As the name suggests, business coaching is an option for businessmen, companies or their employees. The second is related to other areas of life, for example: self-improvement, personal effectiveness, etc.

Let's take a closer look at what business coaching is. It is very popular among businessmen, as it helps increase their profits and easily pays for itself.

Its goals are:

• formation step by step plan actions;
• restructuring of thinking to achieve the required results;
• increasing efficiency and motivation;
• creating a new business;
• progress and transformation of existing business.

How is coaching different from training or psychoanalysis?

Many people confuse coaching, mentoring, training and working with a psychologist. Therefore, let's take a closer look at what coaching is and how it differs from others?

A psychologist works with the past and deals with what was done. Helps you live through the experience and draw conclusions. However, psychotherapy can last a lifetime. Coaching usually takes from one to several months.

Trainings usually involve groups of people who are given advice on how and what needs to be done to achieve results.

There are individual trainings, but they also prescribe an action plan from the outside. And the coach helps you create this plan with the help of guiding questions. Those. You create your own success program, so it is much more effective.

A mentor is a coach who has himself achieved great success in the subject he teaches. He takes a person “by the hand” and leads him until the goal is achieved. He asks about the results and asks leading questions, i.e. controls and helps.

Is the coach obligated to have the same result?

Those. if you strive for a million, should he have his own million? In fact, this is desirable, but not required. Those. he may be a great coach, but a terrible businessman.

Let's look at sports, for example. Are all team coaches great athletes? No. In order to take the team to the top, they need completely different skills - tactics and strategy, and not the ability to be the best on the field.

Therefore, the well-known phrase may be applicable here: “He who does not know how, teaches.” But this is not at all necessary. It also happens that a specialist himself has achieved great heights and now you want to do the same. Therefore, it can lead you to your goal.

Who can become a coach

Although a coach is not a psychologist, he needs knowledge of psychology. In order to see a person and skillfully convey all your thoughts to him. In addition, it is necessary to study to become such a specialist. And often this training takes more than one month.

In addition, a person must have the following qualities:

• high level of empathy;
• communication skills;
• openness;
• flexibility of mind;
• high speed of thinking;
• creativity;
• willingness to grow and develop further.

The article gave the answer: “coaching what is it in simple words.” Now you fully understand what it is and how it differs from other specialists who lead to success. We hope you have seen all the benefits and decided to get coaching to achieve your goals.

We wish you success! Best regards, Sell Skill team.