Coaching is not something new or unusual. A familiar scene for most of us will be of an athlete being trained by an experienced coach with an aim to accelerate his or her performance. In business, however, coaching involves having somebody teaching and driving us toward our goals.
Nonetheless, I still come across many misunderstandings and myths around coaching. For example, some say that coaching is just therapy in disguise. Others say that coaching and feedback are the same and it’s just a matter of semantics, or that a coach is someone who tells you or directs you in what to do in order to help you excel. I have even encountered people who argue that coaching is merely for pinpointing one’s weaknesses or problems.
Now, I don’t think it is my place to judge and point fingers and say whether these statements are true or false. But what I can do here is speak on behalf of the science of coaching, something I’ve been familiar with for some time, in the hope to at least better clarify these issues.
Certainly, there are many types of coaches — athletic coaches, life coaches, leadership coaches, executive coaches, group coaches — and the list goes on. However, I will talk mainly about business coaching, which is one of the most effective business tools for improving performance.
Business coaching has gained a lot of ground as more leaders and organisations have come to understand how valuable it can be; thus, the ability to coach and develop others is being added to the ever-growing list of skills required for every manager. Therefore, to effectively implement coaching, let’s start by deflating some myths together, so that we can at least stay on the same page.
Myth 1: Coaching is the same as training.
I can certainly say that this point is wrong and it is a common misunderstanding among many. In fact, the two approaches apply completely different activities, although sometimes the skills involved are similar. Training is, more or less, geared toward providing information and equipping people with skills and knowledge, whereas coaching is a process in which the person being coached is allowed and encouraged to formulate a way forward, aligning their energy with their goals and eventually transforming themselves accordingly.
In other words, coaching helps fill the gap for those who have gone through training but cannot manage to truly change and transform their skills and knowledge into actions and insights.
Myth 2: A coach has to be an expert or specialist in certain areas to coach someone.
If you’re agreeing with the above statement, I can say you still don’t understand coaching well enough. Actually, if you expect to learn a lot of skills and knowledge, I’d suggest you to hire a trainer or a consultant — not a coach. A coach — a good one — will not tell you what you should do. Instead, he or she will ask you questions that make you think or reflect and finally come to conclusions and answer on your own terms.
Myth 3: Coaching and feedback are the same.
This statement might not be completely wrong. Still, the two terms cannot be used interchangeably as the process and communication method, as well as the focus of time, are different for each.
Coaching is an inside-out process that focuses on the “insights” from the person being coached, which should include how they think or feel about a certain topic, while being coached in relation to a particular situation. People are constantly asked to reflect and make sense of things in order to create “awareness” about themselves for future application. In contrast, giving feedback deals with what people did well (strengths) and didn’t do well (improvement) and is primarily about the past.
Thus, I’d say that giving feedback and coaching are not similar but they will be extremely powerful if used in conjunction with each other.
Moreover, one of the coaching techniques that I am advocating is “solution-focused coaching”, which empowers people to shift their mind to the future, and not dwell on the past experiences or reasons for present dissatisfaction. This particular approach is useful in activating the visual brain, which is used to solve complicated problems or find alternatives and solutions, which I will discuss in detail in a future article.
In theory, if coaching is being emphasised in your company, it means there will be more employee development, more efficiently conducted. But in reality, few managers know how to make coaching work, and one of the reasons is the misunderstanding surrounding coaching.
The three myths I’ve discussed above are examples of common misunderstandings that I wish to dispel beforehand, so that next week I can show you how effective and powerful solution-focused coaching can be to improve your employees’ potential as well as the organisation as a whole.
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Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand’s leading Organisation and People Development Consultancy. She can be reached by e-mail at arinya_t@apm.co.th or https://www.linkedin.com/pub/arinya-talerngsri/a/81a/53b
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