Coaching? It rings a bell…

It is probably becoming a more and more popular word. Or at least it is present with more frequency in our business or personal discussions. The augmented complexity and competitiveness in our society demand us to look for alternatives to stand out and get the needed attention. And coaching is definitively a tool that can help us with that. So, let’s start with some formal definitions, given by recognized institutions in the field, in order to frame the context:

ICF (International Coaching Federation): “Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential”.

ICC (International Coaching Community): “To help a person change in the way they wish and helping them go in the direction they want to go”.

And let’s continue now with some historical background, because the word coaching is probably better recognized by everybody when associated to sports. Still, the origin of the word is not coming from there but from a well-known place, one that can bring some proud to anyone who is making anything out of coaching in their lives, the Oxford University. There, at around 1830, the term was introduced in connection with the figure of an instructor or trainer, sort of slang used to define a tutor who supports a student in an exam. In the end, it named the act of helping someone to overcome a barrier to move onto a superior status of knowledge.

The above-mentioned typical connection in between sports and coaching would only come later and would evolve into a more general term. Actually a sports coach is an individual who manages a team or an athlete, including in that role more activities than just those from the pure coaching definition, such as technical training, administration, public representation, etc. The figure of sports psychologist, what is becoming more and more popular nowadays in sport technical staffs, is probably closer connected to the original meaning of coach, rather than the main coach figure, if we look to soccer, for instance.

In relation with these insights, it is important to differentiate coaching from other similar concepts in which there is a relationship of influence in between two people, where one is the giver and the other the receiver of the flux of knowledge. In activities like teaching, training, mentoring or consultancy, the client is receiving instruction and expertise from a more knowledgeable person. On contrary, in coaching, the expert is the client, since they are the ones who have the answers. It is only the role of the coach to uncover and unleash those.

In the same line, it is also important to highlight that a coach is not a therapist or a counsellor who treats, with the aim of healing, people’s problems. Coaching deals with mental growth, with identifying and revealing undeciphered opportunities, it does not deal with mental or health issues. That is more severe and belongs to a more scientific approach whose attention requires intervention from psychologists, psychiatrists and alike doctors and specialists. One thing is to restore your homeostasis and the other one is to maximize your potential; it is important to realize about this differentiation.

From a practical perspective, coaching works from a main pillar: questions. They support the coachee in the search for the right answers, the ones that only her or him has, and nobody else, not even the coach. And here it is where the interesting part comes. Let´s pretend you are providing great answers to all the questions that you find on your way, either own ones or from others close to you. That is ok, but you may be having just precision, not necessarily accuracy. Therefore, it is important to go back to the drawing board and reflect about which are the right questions that would lead you to the right answers, those that will help you reach the epicentre of the target. And that is the mission of the coach, the art and the science of the coaching role.

Looking at it from other angle, it is also a scenario that allows you to turn problems (not healthy, nor psychological), or at least mental barriers, into opportunities. Mindset and attitude come here together. And all of that is coachable. It is coded inside everybody, from nature. Some have it more superficial, some less. Right keys just open right doors.

Ignacio Vilas Eguileta

zenotalent Owner & Founder