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.
We all have goals we want to reach, challenges we’re striving to overcome and times when we feel stuck. Partnering with a coach can change your life, setting you on a path to greater personal and professional fulfillment.
You might think of coaching like going on a road trip with a supportive passenger riding along with you. You are in control of the car and where it’s going – the same way you’re in control of your life, your destiny, your decisions, your future. As you drive, your coach accompanies you, assisting you on your journey to reach your destination.
When you partner with a coach, you are in the driver’s seat. Your coach provides support for accountability and self-awareness and helps you gain new perspectives. Coaches ask questions not to get an answer they desire, but to encourage you in meaningful exploration that can help you reach a new level of depth and performance.
Coaching is one of the many ways you can accelerate your personal growth in partnership with an expert, and in this sense has some overlaps with mentoring, therapy, consulting or training while maintaining several key distinctions.
Therapy
deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or in relationships with a focus on resolving difficulties arising from the past, improving overall psychological functioning, and dealing with the present in more emotionally healthy ways.
Coaching is based on client-initiated change, is future-focused, and emphasizes action, accountability and follow-through.
Counselling
is the process where you talk about your problems and issues in detail either intending to overcome them or to explore your thoughts comprehensively. A counselor is appropriate for help resolving long-term pain or distress, or for diagnoses and treatment of mental health challenges.
You can similarly speak freely about your state of mind with a coach but with the aim of getting to the outcome you are aspiring for.
Many people are helped by both coaches and counselors—sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially.
A consultant
is expected to diagnose problems, prescribe and occasionally implement solutions.
Coaching is founded on the belief that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks
A mentor
provides guidance and perspective based on their own experience. A mentor is usually a person who is more experienced or skilled in the same line of work that the mentee is interested in following.
The coaching process does not include advising or counselling. A coach is not required to have expertise or experience in your field.
Training
is led by, and is based on, objectives set out by the trainer and it assumes a linear learning path along a curriculum.
In the coaching process, the objectives are set by the client, and the coach does not dominate the conversation.
Coaching is based on client-initiated change, is future-focused, and emphasizes action, accountability and follow-through. Fundamental to coaching is the belief that you as a client have your own answers and the process of coaching enables your wisdom to emerge.