Who is a coach? What is the purpose of this profession? When do you need a Coach? How to choose a Coach? How to distinguish a real coach from a real charlatan.

Nowadays, many famous people- Athletes, actors, executives of Fortune 500 companies, etc., use the services of a coach. In England, an experiment was conducted, thanks to which it was confirmed that a person working with a coach reaches his goal 15 times faster than if he went to it himself.

Among the well-known executives who used the services of a coach and introduced coaching as a management technique is the former chairman of the board of directors of Google Eric Schmidt.

From 2001 to 2011, Eric held the position CEO Google and, together with the founders - Sergey Brin and Larry Page - coordinated the company's activities in the field of technology development and business development. Under his leadership, the company has significantly expanded its infrastructure and product portfolio while maintaining a strong innovation culture.

In a famous interview with Fortune Managize, Eric Schmidt said:

"Leaders get so much different advice. I don't even know where to start. What comes to mind is to hire a coach.

Board member in 2002 John Doerr told me: "You need a coach".

I replied : "I don't need a coach. I am a successful manager. Why do I need a coach? Something is wrong?".

He replied: "No no. You need a coach. Everyone needs a coach".

So Bill Campbell became my coach, and Google did a lot of good.

Every famous athlete, every famous successful person has his own personal trainer (coach) who watches his actions and says: “Is that what you meant? Do you really want to do this?“ and gives him a clearer vision of the future (perspective). One aspect in which people are ineffective is the ability to see themselves through the eyes of others. The coach really helps.”

First, Eric hired a coach for himself, and then he himself began to reveal the potential of each employee with the help of coaching.

Yelena Isinbayeva- Russian pole vaulter, two-time Olympic champion, bronze medal winner Olympic Games 2012, in an interview she said:

“If the coach is engaged in “pumping” skills, improving physical training, then the coach reveals internal potential athlete."

Another a prime example - Steve Jobs .

Back in 1979, Steve Jobs' coach Mike McCool helped him discover the concepts of focusing on three skills:

empathy,
focus on the main
exploiting the irrationality of people's thinking.

Jobs said, "Thanks to Mike, I realized that people really judge a book by its cover." Therefore, he paid great attention to the packaging of his gadgets. He personally designed the iPod box and put his name on the box's patent. Jobs said, "We want the feeling you get when you open an iPhone or iPad package to set the tone for how you experience the product."

Also, Steve Jobs in an interview expressed the following thought:

“It's great to have a person who constantly reminds us that we are on the right track and that we are moving towards the goal. After all, we have an incredible amount of work. And when you have to walk a thousand miles, and you take only the first step, it seems that the path is unrealistically long. And it helps a lot when someone says: yes, you are one step closer to the goal, the goal is real, it is not a mirage. So if you have a long way to go, you need to constantly remind yourself of this.

After a high-profile visit to Russia by Tony Robbins, a lot of discussion arose around the figure of the coach - from jokes about " simple truths” on Twitter before the lawsuit from the girl who said that after his performance . The industry of such trainings in Russia is still very young and is most often associated with characters like Robbins or ordinary scammers. At the same time, in the West, coaching is rooted in different professional fields. And Russia, despite all the distrust, is inevitably moving along the same path: leading universities are already preparing coaching specialists, and the business environment is weeding out unqualified personnel. We figure out who needs coaching services, how not to miscalculate the choice and why it is important to respect personal boundaries when working with a consultant.

Coaching or psychotherapy?

Coaches focus on the future: they help build a career, establish communication with subordinates or managers, and plan professional development. “Where should I go next? What areas am I strong in? How to find a balance between personal life and work? Coaching performs two tasks: it helps to find a solution to a specific problem and suggests thinking about the prospects,” says Maria Morozova, executive coach, managing partner of BuroAkzent and head of the ethics committee of the Russian-speaking Coaches Association (ARC).

Coaching exists in a variety of areas and manifestations. Executive coaching works with top management, business coaching improves company results through sessions with individual employees, shadow coaching (from the word “shadow”) involves covert observation of a person to analyze his behavior in a professional environment. Coaches motivate athletes, help them master specific skills (speaking in front of an audience and negotiate convincingly) or prepare for a specific event (an interview or a deal). Coaching can be group, individual, leadership (for building relationships in a team), career or managerial (when the leader takes on the function of a coach in the company). There is a specialist for almost any request regarding work and professional development.

With such a spread, you need to choose a specialist who will be well versed in a particular topic, and ideally have relevant experience. “It is impossible to be a good coach without specialization. Preparing for an oral presentation, developing your career in a company, conducting complex negotiations - these are all different requests, and in each case I would recommend different specialists. In the first, a professional speaker, in the second, a person with experience in career counseling and knowledge of organizations, in the third, an experienced negotiator,” says executive coach, consultant Ward Howell and faculty assistant professor psychology NRU HSE Alexey Ulanovsky.

When should you not go to a coach? If you are confused in your life, Ulanovsky believes - and suggests turning to the age-old institute. Coaching will not help overcome anxiety, let go of resentment, or deal with psychosomatic pain. Mental problems may require long and careful work, while coaching is aimed at quick result and a limited number of sessions.

At the same time, many coaches are suggesting that the industry be bolder. Recently, life coaching has been gaining popularity, promising to solve not only problems with work or teams, but also understand privacy from family relationships to bad mood in the morning.

At the same time, such specialists emphasize that they work only with mental healthy people. “Life coach works with those who are already doing well, but want even better,” explains life coach Veronika Nazarova. At the same time, ICTA life coach and enneagram trainer Maria Demidyuk believes that good long-term life coaching is not particularly different from psychotherapy, because it solves a similar range of problems: it works with friendships, romantic and work relationships, goal setting, and motivation. “Coaching, as a younger direction, quickly absorbs and integrates working methods,” says Demidyuk.

The demarcation line between psychotherapy and life coaching, according to a member of the expert council of the sreda.io portal and the head of the laboratory of counseling psychology and psychotherapy of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education" Natalya Kiselnikova and ACC ICF coach Elena Shcherbina, can go through work with. You should not contact a life coach when you are experiencing a divorce or the death of a loved one. Coaches will not help you get rid of addiction.

In general, Kiselnikova and Shcherbina note, the difference between coaching and psychotherapy is becoming increasingly blurred, if only because of the popularity of Solution-Oriented Brief Therapy (ORCT). “In ORCT, working with a client can take from one to five sessions. Therapists focus specifically on the resource side, more talking not about what a person fails, but about what he is successful in. Such psychotherapy is very close to coaching,” they say.

“I don't believe in life coaching. It reminds me of a bag into which everything is dumped. The barrier to entry is zero - anyone can call themselves a life coach. This area does not have the quality control system that business coaching has.”

Considers Ulanovsky. Despite the fact that life coaching is considered a separate discipline in the West, the range of its competencies is very similar to the tasks of psychotherapy and the line between them is not obvious, says Maria Morozova. Kiselnikova and Shcherbina believe that life coaching has the right to life, but more high qualification: “When working with requests that are not related to a career, interaction with the personality of the client begins, where the laws of psychotherapy already apply. Coaches who want to work at this depth need a psychotherapeutic education.”

A scene from the film Dead Poets Society. 1989

University or certificate?

“In Russia, the market for coaching has formed faster than professional community. Coaching is an area of self-naming where there is no consensus about reputable schools and methods yet,” says Leonid Krol, coach, business consultant and professor at the Faculty of Psychology at the Higher School of Economics. When choosing a coach, he recommends paying attention to the length of the program he graduated from and the teachers. There are not so many reputable teachers in Russia, and it is worth checking their qualifications not by reviews, but by cooperation with large companies, well-known educational institutions and media that you trust. Also, the program in which the coach studied must be accredited by a reputable professional organization. The most famous of them are the ICF (International Coaching Federation) and EMCC (European Coaching and Mentoring Council).

For a start, you can pay attention to the graduates of the programs state universities. At the National Research University Higher School of Economics and Moscow State Pedagogical University, coaching is taught in the master's program, at MGIMO - on the program professional retraining, and RANEPA also has a bachelor's degree, where consultants are trained.

“University professors rarely know how to coach. It is important to understand with which practitioners they launched the training.”

In resumes, coaches often indicate that they hold various international certificates. They are issued for hours worked - this means that the coach recorded his session and put effort into paperwork. Experts are skeptical about certificates: “The certification level in professional organizations- this is primarily the number of hours, and this does not indicate quality. This is more of a personal achievement than an important marker for clients. I work at the level of boards of directors, and I have never been asked about such securities,” Morozova believes.

Ulanovsky warns about the opacity of the certification system: “Certification turns from a good idea into a marketing move both for coaching associations that sell it, and for the coaches themselves, who build their positioning on it. These certificates cannot yet be compared in quality with those issued by respected psychological and psychoanalytic associations.” Kiselnikova and Shcherbina believe that certification in the ICF and the ARC (Association of Russian-speaking Coaches) can be a sign of professionalism, but urge not to confuse ICF certification with membership in the same organization, which is provided for an entrance fee. It is also a good idea to check when and where the coach passed the supervision - it is organized by the same ICF and EMCC. “If a coach does not pass supervision, it is difficult for him to understand how good he is right now and notice own shortcomings", - says Morozova.

But still, the best proof of the coach's professionalism is his cooperation with well-known, large companies and well-known consulting firms. Find out where the coach is recognized as one of their own. Maria Morozova notes that coaches work in a tight environment and information about non-professionals and impostors spreads very quickly. So before the session, it is worth making inquiries in the area where cooperation with the consultant is planned.

A scene from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. year 2012

A charlatan or a half-educated?

The specialist must understand what he is paid money for both in group and in individual sessions. The coach should not turn into a psychotherapist when working with specific skills or professional goals: this speaks of low qualifications. Of course, such advice is not applicable in the case of a life coach, but whether to trust him or a psychotherapist with their private affairs, everyone decides for himself.

Morozova notes that a coach also has no right to give direct advice: “A good specialist never interferes with his experience. It is important for him to structure the dialogue so that the client finds the answers himself.” An exception is if he has special knowledge and experience, for example, in building motivation in a team or building a sales department. In this case, consulting is separately prescribed in the contract, and you should learn about the quality of its services from previous clients.

The coach does not tire with stories about his achievements, does not put himself above the client, does not teach him to live, does not replace human contact with stories about how the brain works, perception or motivation, Leonid Krol believes. Although, he suggests, the coach's questions or statements can sound provocative if it helps to better understand the client's needs, nature and goals: "Of course, when choosing a consultant, one must rely on objective criteria, but it is equally important to feel the sincerity and interest of the coach."

In this article, I want to shed some light on the topic of coaching, as post-Soviet space there has been a lot of mixed information about coaching and coaches. Some people got to the right coaches and are very happy with the result, while others got to the charlatans and realized that they just lost money.

In addition, I will give you some tools to get you started on what coaching is all about.

In this article, I will cover:

Who is a coach (history, definition).
The difference between a coach and a psychologist, trainer, consultant.
How to distinguish a coach from a charlatan.
What kind of questions do clients turn to a coach for?
How can a coach be useful to a client?
What a typical coaching session looks like.
How much can a coach earn?
Can coaching be helpful to you?
Can you become a coach.
What it takes to become a coach.
My coaching journey: how I became one and what it gave me.

I am sure that my thoughts will seem objective to you, since, on the one hand, I am a certified coach, and on the other hand, coaching is not a source of my income, since my main job is personnel management on the largest Ukrainian TV channel. In addition, I myself hire coaches for the development of company employees and see different representatives this profession.

I have been a certified coach for several years now. When I tell others that I am a coach, they always ask me the same questions:

Who is a coach? What is it, coach? personal growth?
How do you work with clients? Do you give them advice?
Is it true that clients pay $100 for one coaching session?
And you really only ask questions?

Everyone has heard the word "coach" for a long time. Each of us has different associations with the word “coach”. Someone imagines a personal growth coach, someone a psychologist, someone a charlatan-infobusinessman, and someone, maybe, an avid NLPer.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with coaching. It’s just that all these people at one time caught the trend of the popularity of coaching and began, among other regalia, to ascribe to themselves the newfangled word “coach”.

Real coaches don't teach anything at all.

But everyone will probably agree on one thing: coaches make good money. And it's really true. A coaching session, even for a novice coach, costs $50 already, but experienced coaches charge from $100 to $200. But there are those who can charge $500 or even $1,000, but these are usually very well-known coaches who work with business owners, and this work is limited to either a series of intensive coaching sessions, between which there is a pause of 6-12 months, or, on the contrary, episodic meetings once a month.

But what is most striking is that real coaches (and what a real coach is, I will tell below) do not teach anything at all. They don't tell you what decisions to make, they don't make you work better or harder. And what is no less striking is that they do not talk to the client about his past, but, as a rule, about the future.

So why do people who ask questions about the future get thousands of dollars from their clients?

Let's try to figure it out. Let's start with a definition.

What is coaching?

Official version:

coaching(English coaching - training, training) - a method of counseling and training, differs from classical training and classical counseling in that the coach does not give advice and hard recommendations, but seeks solutions together with the client.

My version:

coaching- this is a special kind of work of a coach with a client, thanks to which the client achieves outstanding results faster, more joyfully and easier than he himself would have worked to achieve them.

A bit of history

Timothy Golwey

It all started with Timothy Galwey, who was the author of the concept inner game which formed the basis of coaching. The concept was first described in the book The Inner Game of Tennis, published in 1974. It is this date that can be considered the date of birth of coaching.

The idea of the inner game came to him while working as a tennis instructor.

The enemy in the head is much more dangerous than the opponent on the other side of the "grid". The task of the coach is to help the player remove or mitigate internal obstacles. As a result, it will appear natural ability a person to learn and achieve efficiency. The goal of the "inner game" is to reduce any interference in the unfolding and fulfillment of a person's full potential.

Timothy Galwey

JOHN WHITMORE

He developed Galwey's ideas in application to business and management. John Whitmore is a British racing driver, one of the UK's leading business coaches, and the creator of the popular GROW coaching model.

John was a student of Timothy Galwey. In 2007, he received the President's Award from the International Coaching Federation (ICF), recognizing his work in promoting coaching around the world.

THOMAS LEONARD

Considered the creator of coaching as we know it today.

Thomas was a financial consultant. One day, he noticed that his most successful clients didn't so much ask him for financial advice as they asked for personal business advice. Business leaders and CEOs were interested in learning how to quickly respond to a changing economic environment how to effectively manage employees, and someone simply could not formulate their future professional goals.

Here are just a few of Thomas' accomplishments:

Founder of Coach University (www.coachu.com), International Coach Federation (ICF), International Association of Certified Coaches (IAC) and CoachVille.com project.
Developed 28 personal and professional programs.
Author of six books for coaches and 14 internal exclusive works for Coaching University students.
Among the more than 28 programs he has developed, Clean Sweep is very popular with us.

How coaching has evolved

From the 70s to the mid-80s - the stage of the birth of coaching in the United States.
Mid 80s - coaching began to spread in the US.
Mid 1980s - coaching intensified in Germany.
The end of the 80s - in Germany, the development of personnel through coaching began.
The beginning of the 90s - in Europe and the USA, the division of coaching into specializations started.
Mid / late 90s - in Europe and America, coaching is actively gaining momentum.
From 2002 to the present day - a phase of in-depth professionalization.

The difference between coaching and other types of assistance and counseling is shown in the graph:

Thus, coaching is the only type of counseling in which the client is the expert and the coach only asks questions.

How to distinguish a real coach from a real charlatan?

coach	Charlatan
Studied at a certified school coach (ECF or ICF) and can present their certificate	Didn't learn coaching at all, learned from books, learned from another coach, studied at an uncertified school
Inspires confidence, does not press with its authority, does not impose services	Does not inspire confidence, convinces of the need for his services, uses manipulation techniques
Asks a lot of questions	Talks a lot and gives advice
When asked about the price, he gives a direct answer with a specific figure.	Does not name the price, asks how much you expect, offers to pay "how much you can"
Has a specialization (career coaching, life coaching, business coaching)	Ready to work with any request
Can talk about his own successful experience in the chosen field. For example, when offering coaching to executives, you can tell about his at least 5 years of experience in managing a team of 20 people or more	Cannot confirm experience in the selected topic. So, for example, while doing relationship coaching, he himself does not have a partner

»
Separately, I want to talk about the "coaches" who studied at Erickson University coaching.

It is worth noting that due to the fact that Marilyn Atkinson spent many years of her life calling her former NLP teaching the newfangled word "coaching", now many students of this school are perceived as coaches. I do not want to challenge their right to be called whatever they want, but I am obliged to shed light on this issue.

Who is Erickson, whose name is called his teaching:

So, Erickson (Erickson) Milton Hyland (1901-1980) is one of the most popular American psychotherapists XX century.
Wrote over 140 papers on psychotherapy. In 1923 he developed a number of methods hypnotherapy, including the method of raising the hand.
Erickson - Founder and President American Society clinical hypnosis(American society of clinical hypnosis), founder and editor of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. Regularly held his famous seminars hypnotherapy and short straight psychotherapy.

Erickson's biography does not indicate that he was a student of one of the well-known coaches at that time (they are on the list above). In addition, Erickson himself did not call himself a coach, and his science - coaching.

But then came Marilyn Atkinson, who taught her NLP followers. However, at some stage she began to call herself a coach, without specifying who she studied with. Here is information about her:

Marilyn Atkinson - President of Erickson University International, Doctor of Psychology, coach, world famous trainer, student Milton Erickson, famous psychologist.
Marilyn is the author of many works, since 1985 she has been teaching and consulting in the world's leading corporations, and is the founder and president of Erickson University International (Canada) to this day.
Marilyn is the author of books on coaching: "MASTERY OF LIFE: the inner dynamics of development", "ACHIEVEMENT OF GOALS: turn system”, “LIFE IN THE FLOW: coaching”.

Therefore, internationally certified coaches often challenge Atkinson's right to call themselves a coach, as well as her students.

For what questions do clients turn to a coach?

The range of questions with which clients turn to the coach is really very large. Here are some of them:

Business planning, budgeting, goal setting.
Establishing a balance between work and personal life.
Solving difficult situations.
Achieve maximum productivity at work.
Solving business and personal problems.
Making key decisions and developing strategies.
Increasing sales.
Manage my life instead of letting other people manage me.
Increase my company's profitability by at least on the….
Take the adrenaline out of my life so I don't burn out.
Accelerate my own development.
Develop a path for my own growth.

An example of specific queries I've worked with:

Which career path to choose.
How to overcome your weaknesses to become a marketing director.
Learn how to manage a company (a person has recently become a partner).
How to talk to a shareholder about your development.
Increase your income by 50% in 6 months.
Creation passive income$200 for 10 months.
Buying a car (not on credit) for 1 year.
Career advancement to a manager position in 1 year.
Reducing stress and tension so that work is high.
Find a boyfriend by the end of the year.
gaining life balance(so that work is not at the expense of other areas of life).
Increasing the level of well-being and energy.
Learn to manage your time, identify your capabilities, and effectively set deadlines for completing tasks.
Bringing order to life (instead of the existing chaos).
Lose 5 kg in 3 months.

What does a typical coaching session look like?

A typical coaching session lasts 60-90 minutes. If the meetings are frequent, it can be reduced to 30-45 minutes. Meetings usually take place in a cafe or restaurant, as well as at the client's workplace (in his office or meeting room). Less often, a client comes to the coach's office.

Before the coaching session, the client forms his request - a certain task for the duration of the session. During the session, the client with the coach will have to find a solution to his request.

The result of the coaching session is a clear understanding of the client, what to do to achieve his goal, and an action plan, usually for a week.

During the session, the coach asks the client questions and uses various coaching tools.

A typical coaching session follows the GROW model that Whitmore came up with:

Goal - what is your goal? What do you want to achieve?
Reality - describe your situation now.
Options - what are the options for achieving the goal? Who can help you? What do you need? Let's do some brainstorming.
Will - what needs to be done to achieve the goal? What are the next steps? When could you do it?

One of the tasks of a coach is to raise the bar for the client. That is, helping the client bet more lofty goals to achieve more in life.

Now, as promised, I give one of the coaching tools.

This is a tool for a comprehensive assessment of the client's life and search weaknesses in her.

There are 30 questions here. Each question must be answered "yes" or "no".

Now calculate your score separately in each area. If the sphere scored less than six "yes", then there are problems there. If eight or more - everything is fine. Between six and eight - it would be worth improving.

And now your goal is to do it in 90 days to collect all 30 “yes”. Weak? ;)

How much can a coach earn?

Most often, a coach will charge $100 for a coaching session.

Clients do not apply one-time, but buy an average of 5-10 coaching sessions (private clients usually take five, corporate clients - 10). In such cases, the coach can make discounts.

The coach is not loaded 100% of the time. A load of 40–60% is considered good, since the remaining time is required to move around the city, attract new customers, maintain sites, and so on.

Many coaches give trainings, which in general also charge about $100 an hour.

Let's take a typical working day of a person - 8 hours. With a load of 40%, our coach will work 3 hours a day. This will be three coaching sessions of 60 minutes each. For such a day, the coach will earn $ 300 (provided that the coach did not give discounts).

A coach earns $6,000 in 20 working days.

This is a person who does not engage in any other activity besides coaching. There are few of them, but I know a few representatives.

More often than not, a coach's income fluctuates between $3,000 and $10,000.

If coaching is not the main activity for a person and there is a permanent job besides it, such a coach conducts no more than one session per day. And not for all 5 days he has clients. Usually it is 3-4 days. What makes 300-400 dollars a week or 1200-1600 dollars additional income per month.

There are coaches who practice coaching solely to maintain their experience and have one session per week. That gives 400 dollars a month.

Can coaching be helpful for me?

Are you ready for coaching?

Rate from 1 to 4, where 1 is incorrect and 4 is completely correct.

You can count on me to be on time for meetings.	1 2 3 4
I will honor agreements and keep my word	1 2 3 4
I want to listen and take advice from my coach	1 2 3 4
I'm direct and I promise my coach a "no games" relationship	1 2 3 4
I will immediately tell the coach that I am not getting the desired result, if i get that feeling	1 2 3 4
I guess I have limiting beliefs my development, and now it's time to take steps moving forward	1 2 3 4
I am ready to expand my scope and replace the ineffective behavior more efficient	1 2 3 4
I'm fully prepared to go out new level In my life	1 2 3 4
I want to experiment with ideas and concepts which the coach will offer	1 2 3 4
I will immediately tell the coach that he crosses my personal boundaries, and in this case I will ask him to change his approach	1 2 3 4
I am ready to change HERE and NOW	1 2 3 4
I know what I want and will use a coach to get it	1 2 3 4
I am fully aware that I am solely responsible for the results.	1 2 3 4
I want the coach to always tell me the truth under any circumstances.	1 2 3 4
I have necessary resources to pay for coaching, and I consider coaching a worthwhile investment in my life	1 2 3 4

»
___________ total score

Outcome:

60–53. You are a very good candidate for coaching!
52–47. Are you ready. A slight resistance holds you back. This is where coaching starts.
46–39. You are in a waiting position. Before we get started, we'd better talk first about why you think about coaching.
38–0. Come back when you're ready to make a decision. Now you are not ready to take responsibility and make significant changes in your life. Coaching for those who are READY. Now may not be your time. This slice gives you an understanding of where you are now.

Can I become a coach myself?

You can safely answer yes to this question if you can answer yes to all of the following:

You want to help other people achieve their goals.
We are ready to become a model for them and to achieve our goals in different areas of life.
We are ready to allocate time for training and basic coaching practice (more than 100 hours).
You have time for coaching sessions after graduation.
Ready to learn, train to conduct sessions in the presence of others, receive feedback from the coach.

What does it take to become a coach?

The algorithm here is the following:

Choose a school that suits you based on location, course times, reviews, and is ICF certified.
Collect money for the course ($1,000-2,000).
Complete a training course (average 1-3 months of intensive classroom training 2-3 days per week or 10-12 months of online classes once a week for 60-90 minutes).
Start hosting free coaching sessions. You need to spend at least 100 hours.
Start telling people around you that you've become a coach.
Create your site.
Start attracting clients.

My coaching journey: how I became one and what it gave me

Initially, I went to learn coaching not at all to practice coaching, but to improve my leadership skills. My team grew from 2 to 10 people, and I needed to learn how to manage them effectively. Since I had read all the major books on management at that time, I was looking for management advice in the field of leadership.

Leadership training did not arouse my interest and respect, so I switched to coaching. I met a coach who told and showed me what coaching is, and my training began. I studied at International Academy MAXIMUM coaching (don't count it as advertising) with Maxim Tsvetkov for 10 months, every week for 90 minutes in the format of webinars.

Doing all my homework, I began to set goals for myself, work on achieving them and saw the effectiveness of coaching as a way to achieve goals (although I just wanted to learn how to manage people).

Coaching works like magic: it is enough to set a goal and realize the ways to achieve it, as you automatically start working on it.

By the end of the course, I already had clear goals in all areas of life. In addition, my employees have noticed a change in my management style, and our relationship has become an order of magnitude better.

I needed coaching practice to get my certification, so I started coaching everyone I knew. It so happened that many of them very quickly achieved their goals. One of my subordinates, after a month of coaching, left for a higher position in another company with salary twice as high. :)

I realized that coaching works like magic: it is enough to set a goal and realize the ways to achieve it, as you automatically start working on it.

I received the certificate and began to inactively coach those clients who came to me mainly on the recommendation. Over time, there are more such clients. But for me the main priority is my career: I want to become a CEO in 5 years, so I don't devote as much time to coaching as I could. For me, it is rather an opportunity to earn pocket money for my favorite toys (phone, laptop) on the weekends.

What coaching gave me:

Achievement of a number of goals (career, health, salary).
Experience managing people in a more democratic style.
Meeting new and interesting people.
Awareness of your purpose.
A more balanced life.
Improving relationships with others.

For more information on coaching and development, please visit my website. :)

Often foreign word"coaching" (coaching) can be heard in the office of a large company, which by the nature of its activities is associated with foreign firms and has access to the market abroad. This word is unlikely to say anything to an ordinary citizen. It will only raise a number of questions: what is it, "coaching", plain language why and who needs it. Is training the same or something else?

This relatively young phenomenon is often confused with business or psychological counseling. But we can assure you that coaching, which helps people to formulate their goals and achieve real results in professional activity and personal life, occupies his own, and only his own niche. Clients who receive such a service significantly improve the quality of their lives, increase general level knowledge and begin to feel more confident in terms of their creative potential. So what is coaching? What problems does it help solve? Let's figure it out.

Coaching, what does this term mean?

The word "coaching" comes from the English coaching, which means the process of preparation, tutoring or training. You can choose any of the three translation options that you like the most. Someone who helps to learn is called that is, a coach, tutor or mentor.

What is the job of a coach? Asking a large number of questions to his client (perhaps that a person has never asked himself before or did not want to do this), the trainer allows you to look at the problem from a different angle. In the process of coaching, in the mind of a person who applied for help, the stereotypes that have developed over the years are destroyed and new habits are naturally formed. Moreover, the analysis of everything that happens is carried out by the client himself, and the coach only helps him in this.

What problems does a coach help solve?

Going to coaching, you must clearly realize that no one will solve your problems for you. And only you are the "blacksmith of your own happiness." Okay, so what is the function of a coach then? The role of the coach is to:

determine your desires;
highlight the main idea;
identify what exactly is preventing you from developing in the right direction, and help eliminate this problem;
gain confidence in yourself;
find motivation to develop an effective solution to achieve their goals;
define main vector development in terms of professionalism and life;
help to see new horizons;
make a plan to achieve your desires.

That is, the coach does nothing for his client. It simply helps a person to find resources and draw up a specific plan of action. The main goal of the coach is to bring the client to the realization of what needs to be done to achieve the intended goal. But the person will achieve this by himself, and only by himself.

Personality of the trainer

Coach - who is he? This is a successful and accomplished person, all the time in the process of working on himself. That is, he is constantly developing not only as a professional, but also as a person.

To become a coach, you need to get an international certificate. Only this way and nothing else. A coach is determined solely by the number of hours worked. The coach must be:

Pleasant in communication. Then clients will be able to open up to him and tell him about the sore.
Be trustworthy.

Be able to listen.
To ask questions the right way.
Read the client's reaction to various stimuli.
Be able to adapt the methodology for each specific person.
Flexible. That is, do not put pressure on the client and be able to stop in time.

How is coaching different from training?

By and large, nothing. Formally, it is believed that training is a session conducted with a group of people, and coaching is exclusively personal work with a client. But who prevents the coach from working with a certain individual, and the coach from advising many at once?

Who needs coaching

It is necessary for those who want to develop, understand themselves and their desires to the full extent, reveal their potential to 100%, improve their lives, and also achieve significant efficiency in their business. And there are more and more such people in our country.

Who doesn't want to be successful in love, personal life or work? Everyone. But not everyone knows how to do it. But it was not in vain that Kozma Prutkov said: “If you want to be happy, be it.” That is, everything is in the hands of the person himself. There are simply questions that he should be helped to answer. This is where the help of a professional coach is needed, who, using the system special issues, will help a person to determine the blocks that prevent him from getting closer to his goals.

Fundamentals of coaching

The philosophy of the method is quite simple. Each individual:

knows what he wants;
sure that he is capable of more;
wants to be successful and happy;
he himself is responsible for how his life proceeds on planet Earth;
knows that he can do anything if he wants to.

Varieties

Coaching touches on a variety of things. And it's only natural. Based on this, coaching is divided into several types:

(or life);
in the field of education;
career;
in business;
sports;
in the field of management.

According to the number of participants, coaching can be:

corporate;
personal.

Communication format:

face-to-face (at a personal meeting);
by correspondence (by phone or skype).

Life training

What is life coaching? The client wants to get rid of personal disappointments that have haunted him in past life, again believe in your strength (both physical and moral). Stop thinking in a negative way, start thinking positively and doing what he wants, and not everyone around him.

In this he can be helped by a coach who, by observing, asking and listening, provides him with support in accepting independent decisions about the most effective ways to achieve the desired. The client's self-esteem rises, he begins to appreciate himself as a person, and also believe in his exclusivity.

Coaching in education

How to increase the motivational component of students for self-development? Is it possible? Coaching in education is able to cope with the tasks. As a result of the work of coaches, students begin to achieve high results. And without any coercion on the part of teachers. The coach also works with teachers, changing their attitude to their professional activities and motivating them to use progressive teaching methods.

Career

What is career coaching? Recently, this is what they call consultations about the assessment of their professional opportunities, career planning, choosing a specific development path, as well as all issues related to finding a job.

A career coach works with people who want to create their own future, increase their income and enjoy all the positive things that happen.

Naturally, the coach does not offer ready-made recipes, but tries to inspire a person to find independent solutions and motivations for certain steps.

Business coaching

What does this mean in terms of business? Everything is very simple. The main task of this type of coaching is to help a person who has his own business (whether small or medium), to develop it properly. The coach should focus on a rigorous analysis of the decisions made by the leader, as well as to determine how his personal life and friends affect the course of the business as a whole.

The coach helps the client and his company to reach a radically new level of development. Moreover, the work is carried out not only with each leader and manager individually, but also with groups of employees. That is, individual progress is assumed, which implies the development of a more effective leadership style, as well as the development of motivational and emotional competence. It also provides for teamwork, which implies its rallying to solve common problems, the formation of a specific strategy and analysis of the interaction of employees with each other.

Business coaching helps the client learn how to respond correctly and quickly to situations that may arise in the course of work, resolve conflicts that have arisen and build working relationships with employees.

Sports

This type also exists. What did you think? And who will save athletes from all those fears to which they are subject? Who will help to cope with emotions and inspire future champions with self-confidence? Of course, these are coaches.

Management coaching

Coaching in this area is:

Motivation and planning.
Analysis of relationships (professional and personal) between employees in a team.

What is management coaching? It helps employees to reach their full potential, learn how to work in a team, become more proactive and more conscientious about their duties.

Corporate

This type of coaching is carried out with a small group of people (for example, employees of one department) who are united by a specific goal (working on a project) and for whom teamwork is very important.

In addition, corporate coaching can be used by members of one big family or sports team.

Personal

Individual coaching helps a person to discover in himself the potential that was not previously revealed, increase self-esteem, concentrate on real tasks and ways to achieve them. Sometimes a person is not quite sure of his abilities. The coach helps to move to new round in development, to achieve tangible personal changes, to get rid of bad habits, carry out the implementation of not only current, but also new projects, as well as balance your personal life with professional activities.

Coaching Methods

There are several types of coaching:

A specially organized conversation between the coach and the client. It's called a session.
A method that involves the use of a specially prepared questionnaire. Technology helps to better understand the reality, based on the analysis of the tasks. Moreover, the collection of information that is necessary to achieve specific purpose, and the client himself performs the analysis independently, but under the strict guidance of a mentor.
The interaction of the coach with the person who asked for help, with the involvement of elements of yoga. The method contributes to a better understanding of the task and the choice of measures to achieve it.
To ensure better cooperation with the client, the conversation can be structured using breathing exercises.

How to become a coach

How can you become a coach? You don't need to graduate for this. educational institution and obtain a diploma in psychotherapy or psychology. There is no need for this. It is enough just to be an educated person, improving both personally and professionally. And also have basic knowledge of psychology, and to be more precise, the psychology of communication.

Previously (10 years ago), coaching training could only be done abroad. Today in Russia there are a great many such schools. For example, you can contact the International Coaching Academy on this issue and get trained online. Upon completion, graduates receive international certificates. The academy accepts both beginners and professionals who have a desire to improve their skills. Why not!

Another option to get coaching training can be courses. They are organized either as master classes (with personal participation) or as online classes. Coaching can be useful not only for managers of large firms and their employees, but also ordinary people who are not afraid of change and want to live in harmony with themselves.

Erickson and his principles

The method is named after the American psychotherapist Erickson, who in 1923 developed the technology of hypnotherapy, based on the characteristics of functioning. human brain and psyche. The scientist's principles regarding how to take control of your life and move forward towards your goals shocked the enlightened public. But life in practice confirmed the correctness of Erickson's ideas.

The method is based on three main principles:

Any individual can make himself different, as well as change his attitude to the people around him, to the business he is engaged in, to strategies. And the results will not have to wait long.
Each person who asked for help has all the resources (sometimes hidden) to solve their problems on their own. The coach only helps to find the best way out of the situation by asking questions according to a certain algorithm.
Personality change is possible.

The core of Erickson's coaching is the four-square model. It confirms the idea of a balance between the spiritual and the material: business plans and personal relationships, innovations and strategies, art and science.

Finally

Now you know what it is - coaching - in simple terms, as well as what tasks it helps to solve. Yes, this phenomenon in our country is only gaining momentum, but we can confidently say that coaching is not at all a useless event, but a very necessary one. By the way, coaching and "jospars" are one and the same, what was described above, only for residents of Kazakhstan and in their native language.

Coaching is one of the many new words that burst into our lives and became familiar before people fully comprehended them. Coaching - what is it?

This is not a training, although they have much in common, not a direction of psychotherapy, not counseling. Coaching is done by the most different people, proudly calling themselves coaches, but often with difficulty explaining the principle of their activity.

And the literal translation of the word "coach" is even more confusing, because this concept is translated from English as "carriage", "wagon".

If you do not see the goal in life, or it seems difficult to achieve, if you are tired of running in circles for a ghostly "carrot", then you need a "carriage". She will comfortably take you to the pinnacle of success along the shortest path. This is coaching.

Coaching is a personality-oriented activity that provides conditions for self-realization of a person and accompanies him on the path to success.

The specialist who provides this support and creates the conditions is called a coach.

Why coaching is needed

This is a relatively new phenomenon social life society, which became famous in the late 1990s in the UK and the USA. But even today, according to statistics on the WPA website - "Academy of Coaching Excellence", in the United States about 50 thousand people consider themselves to be a "coach" profession.

And their number is constantly increasing. There are far fewer coaches in Russia so far. According to the Internet magazine "Secrets of the Firm", there are only 3 thousand of them, but, according to forecasts, over the next 5 years this figure should increase 15 times.

Coaching is essential for difficult situation when a person himself cannot find a way out of it. And often he is not even aware of the problem, but simply feels dissatisfaction with life and a desire to change everything, but does not know what and how to change.

The work does not bring satisfaction, there are no prospects for growth, and the individual does not see himself in any other type of activity. A favorite business that a person is ready to do 24 hours a day does not bring income. And I would like to turn it from a hobby into a business.

Life has faded and lost its colors, the goals that I would like to strive for have disappeared from it.

A woman understands with alarm that her existence has turned into a dull run in a circle: “home-work-home”. And life passes, and fear arises because of its meaninglessness.

Repeated attempts to organize their business ended in failure, and a person gives up and there is a feeling of his own helplessness and mediocrity.

These are all real and familiar situations. Finding a way out of them on your own is very difficult, and often impossible, since a person sees his problems from the inside, and not in relation to the outside world, and is focused on his experiences, and not on prospects.

You can turn to friends for help, but they have enough problems of their own, and few people want to look like a loser in front of their friends.

It is in such situations that a coach is required - an inspirer, a professional in unlocking the potential of a person, which he sometimes does not even suspect.

The coach owns a set of methods and techniques that allow you to comprehend your abilities, see real prospects for activity and ways to achieve success.

Coaching as an activity

There are several areas of social and psychological support for people who want to solve their problems or engage in self-development. They have a solid history, authority and accumulated baggage of methods.

First of all, they are various directions psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, personal growth trainings, consulting and mentoring (mentoring).

Coaching was born at the intersection of these activities, but has significant differences that allow it to be competitive in the market for such services.

Coaching and training

Especially often the work of coaches is compared with trainings, and sometimes they put an equal sign between them. Both of these directions are forms of influencing a person and controlling his behavior. And their goal is positive changes in the life of the individual.

Coaching can be called the closest relative of training, as it was born in a sports environment, and “coach” is slang English students means "personal trainer" or "tutor", who literally "drags" the ward to success.

But still, two serious differences do not allow identifying coaching with psychological training.

Trainings in the form in which they are common today have group form and is considered the most efficient. And coaching involves individual approach for each client and individual lessons.

Although there is “team” coaching, it is less common, and even within it, the coach works with team members individually.

Training is the formation of certain skills - behavioral, emotional, communicative, etc. Its goal is human development. And how and where the individual will apply the acquired skills and whether he will do it at all is beyond the interests of the coach.

The main task of coaching is not personal development, but the definition of goals and the creation of conditions for their achievement. A coach does not teach, does not form, does not develop, he directs a person’s thinking in such a way that he himself finds answers to his questions and options for solving problems.

Coaching and psychology

A coach works with a person individually, which is impossible without a good knowledge of psychology, because a person must see his own prospects and opportunities.

The disclosure of the inner potential of the individual involves the solution of a whole complex psychological problems and withdrawal internal barriers. However, classifying coaching as purely psychological techniques it is forbidden.

Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis solve correction issues mental state and are aimed at changing the subjective sensations of a person, his attitude to reality and to himself.

The main task of psychoanalysis is "opening abscesses", identifying past problems.

Coaching is not concerned with the past, it is focused on the future. He does not seek answers to the question "why?", but stimulates the person himself to find the answer to the question "how?".

How to make life better? How to find your place in the world? How to solve the problem?

Coaching and consulting

Wikipedia defines coaching as a consulting activity, but the similarities between the two are only superficial. A coaching session is really similar to counseling and is a confidential conversation between the coach and the client.

However, the goal of the consultant is to provide the client with a package of tips that will help him deal with the problem. How a person will use them, the consultant is no longer concerned.

Unlike a consultant, a coach:

does not give advice;
does not offer ready-made solutions;
interested in revealing the inner resources of a person who himself must see his own path;
accompanies a person throughout this path, stimulating him to overcome emerging obstacles and internal barriers.

True, in practice, most coaches cannot resist advice, although professionals consider it inappropriate. Because the most effective way will be the way to solve the problem that the client himself has found, and does not perceive it as imposed from outside.

Coaching practice

The main goal of coaching is to awaken a creator in a person, a creator own life and he is capable of more than he thinks. Coaching methods are focused on achieving this goal.

Question Method

The basic technique of coaching is as follows: the right questions evoke mental activity of the client. Finding answers to the questions proposed by the coach allows you to solve several problems:

specify main problem client;
help him realize the primary task;
find out what hinders its solution;
unleash the inner potential of the client;
encourage him to find his own solution.

The method of questions is not new. It was used by the ancient philosopher Socrates, who believed that it was right questions asked will help to find a solution to even a very confusing problem.

This method includes the coaching technique - GROW, developed by the founder of business coaching, Sir John Whitman. It includes four groups of questions.

G oal (goal) - what goal the client wants to achieve.
R eality (reality) - what happens in reality.
O ptions (options) - possibilities or options for getting out of the situation.
W ill (intentions) - what needs to be done first.

Based on the method of questions, communication between the coach and the client is built, which is called a coaching session.

Organization of a coaching session

The session takes the form of a dialogue and lasts from 30 minutes to 1 hour. By asking the client questions, the coach not only clarifies his situation and problems for himself, but encourages the person to find his own solution.

A coaching session can be held not only in person, but also via Skype or by phone.

In total, there are usually at least 5 sessions, and more often (up to 15), and each meeting of the client with the coach should have a specific result, in the form of solving an intermediate task, drawing up an action plan, or readiness to change something in life.

In addition to dialogue questions, the coaching session may include "homework" - actions planned during the conversation that the client must complete by the time of the next meeting with the coach.

As a result of a series of coaching sessions, a person receives not only a solution to the problem and real positive changes in life, but also acquires the skills to discover their own capabilities, which they can then use on their own.

Types of coaching

Given the rapid spread of this type of service, it is difficult to single out generally accepted classification. There are many types of coaching, even more areas in which coaches work. But most often there are two main types.

1. Business coaching, focused on working with business representatives and solving issues of its organization, promotion, efficiency, financial incentives, finding a niche, etc.

2. life coaching aimed at improving the quality and meaningfulness of life, solving personal problems, overcoming conflicts in relationships, developing life strategies etc.

Both of these types are equally popular, however, women are more interested in life coaching, for whom personal life is usually a priority.

There are also individual and team types of coaching. But their difference is not in the format of the sessions - in the team meetings of the coach and group members are also held individually.

The difference is in purpose. The team is aimed at solving problems of a group nature, for example, improving the efficiency of teamwork.

There are other types, for example, Erickson coaching, named after the American psychotherapist M. Erickson. Methodological foundations This type of coaching is being developed by specialists from Erickson University International. And in Life coaching, a metaphorical direction has recently gained popularity.

As in any other young and dynamically developing activity, processes of transformation and innovation are seething in coaching, strategies are being developed, new directions are emerging and quickly disappearing. While coaching is still far from developing traditions and generally accepted criteria and principles.

Who can be a coach

It's pretty actual question, since the coaching profession is only gaining popularity in our country, and there are many who want to try their hand at it. The answer is simple: anyone with the ability to coach can be a coach.

Is education needed? Yes, education is needed in any field, but getting a coaching profession is not so easy. For example, an international certificate can be obtained by completing the ICF program - the International Coaching Federation, as well as at the Global Coaching University or the International Coaching Academy.

There are still a lot of courses and individual advanced coaches who offer expensive, but fast learning. But its quality is questionable.

In mastering the coaching profession, it is not the certificate that is more important, but personal qualities and abilities that not everyone possesses. Except general knowledge in the field of psychology, sociology and management, a person must have the following qualities:

openness and communication skills;
patience and kindness;
high level of empathy;
attentiveness and ability to feel the interlocutor;
flexibility and high speed of thinking;
creativity;
readiness for self-development and mastery of new techniques, techniques, etc.

Only possessing these qualities, a person can lead his client to success, even if he himself is not very versed in the professional activities of the customer.

Is it necessary to be the most successful person? Ideally, yes. But the definition of success is different for everyone. The main thing is to be able to inspire people, inflame them with the desire to move forward.

And all more people understand the importance of the work of a coach, who is not only able to objectively and impartially assess the situation, but also to awaken the desire and strength to move forward.

And what is important, do it yourself, so do not feel like a helpless loser, able only to obey someone else's instructions.

Portal for the student. Self-training