Coaching

What Is Coaching?

Coaches have been particularly prominent in the sports performance domain for a long time, yet, in the last decade, we have seen the profession of coaching widely translated into many other fields – business, education, the performing arts and life in general. There is often some confusion here as many people assume that coaching in these other fields is the same as in the sports domain. It is not.

Sports coaches are leaders of teams. Although there can be many common areas between broader-based coaching and leading, there is one fundamental difference – sports coaches are part of the team and lead the agenda of the team; broader-based coaches work with the agenda of their client. Coaches intervene in the way people act so they can take full advantage of their personal skills and knowledge.

THREE Levels Of Coaching

I subscribe to the philosophy that there are three levels of coaching:

Transactional Coaching is designed to set and achieve objective goals and address specific issues and concerns;

Developmental Coaching is designed to develop specific skills such as leadership and relating to others;

Transformational Coaching supports people to enhance their ways of being. This can involve the emergence of new values systems and worldview that can develop a capacity to observe and engage in life with greater complexity allowing for better outcomes in life.

How these levels of coaching apply depends upon your needs and ambitions. My skill is in the ontological approach to coaching, which has been a leading coaching methodology for many years. My work in further developing this approach has led to some fascinating insights in all domains of human activity and I have brought these distinctions to my coaching work. Different coaches will being different philosophies and skillsets to their work.

If you would like to find out more about my journey and approach then I invite you to listen to the recording below: