Article by Matt Somers

Let’s develop our understanding of coaching by considering how it compares with other ways of developing people. Specifically, let’s consider:

Coaching and TeachingCoaching and TrainingCoaching and MentoringCoaching and Counselling

Coaching and Teaching

We know from our own experience at school that teaching tends to be delivered to groups, to a predetermined lesson plan, with people of mixed abilities developing their understanding as best they can.

Of course, teaching can be given on a one to one basis and there are countless people who have benefited from being taught or tutored in this way.

However, the dominant party in the teacher-pupil relationship is the teacher. The teacher will be concerned with passing on knowledge, facts and wisdom and as pupils, we usually take a passive role and try to soak it all up.

There is little, if any, scope to shape the agenda so we have to do our best to interpet what is being taught and match it with our own experience.

Coaching on the other hand is more often than not delivered one to one. It is the person being coached – often called the coachee – who sets the agenda and decides on the issue to be considered. As coaches, we are not there to provide input or advice or to tell the coachee how we would do things. Instead our role is to probe and encourage and help the coachee make sense of things for him or her self.

This can be a difficult concept to grasp, so let’s look at a comparison. When we get up in the morning we usually pad across the hallway to the bathroom and begin the mammoth task of making ourselves look presentable.

For some this will mean dragging a razor across their face and a comb through their hair, whilst others will concentrate on applying make up and hair spray etc. All of this would be extremely difficult to achieve without that most trusted friend: the bathroom mirror.

But does the mirror say “Ooh I wouldn’t do it like that” or “that’s not how we usually shave here” or “you’ve never done your hair like that before”? Of course not! Nevertheless the mirror proves helpful in finding out what’s going on and achieving our aim of looking presentatble.

When we are coaching we are trying to perform the same function. The best coaches will hold up a ‘mirror’ so that people can develop a deep sense of self-awareness. When people are highly self-aware they have more choices about how to move issues forward.

Coaching and Training

With this in mind we can see that coaching is different to training. Training is concerned with helping people to perform in their roles of course, but again it is centred on the trainer and the subject matter, not the individual.

Coaching and Mentoring

Coaching and mentoring share many of the same skills and abilities but are usually delivered by different people. A mentor is typically a senior person of greater experience who is invited to take us ‘under their wing’ and let us benefit from their wisdom.

If it is coaching we want however, we are probably best advised not to seek a more experienced person who may be overly tempted to persuade us to ‘do it their way’.

Given that we can now see that coaching is wholly concerned with drawing out and not putting in, we can also see how it is possible for anyone with the right skills to coach us – their position in the organization is irrelevant.

Coaching and Counselling

When we consider how coaching compares with counselling we need to think about the limitations of coaching. Coaching in organizations is concerned with helping people with performing well in their jobs, not in dealing with deep-rooted problems from the past.

There’s a chance of course that our coaching exposes some painful or difficult personal issues, but we need to know when to refer to expert help. Many effective coaches have never trained as counsellors or therapists, but can still deliver excellent coaching support.

In the end this comparison is probably just an exercise in semantics. Do we really need to worry what method is used to develop people as long as they are being developed?

The short answer is no, but we do need to understand the unique qualities of coaching so that we can use it with choice and with greater care.

In reality good coaches draw on all of these different approaches as they work with individuals and will not be concerned with whether they are coaching or teaching at any one point in time. However, they will be wholly concerned with using the right approach based on the needs of the individual and the demands of the situation.

About the Author

Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years’ experience. He works with a host of clients in North East England where his firm is based and throughout the UK and Europe. Matt understands that people are working with their true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides a simple yet elegant key to this lock. For a bumper load of coaching tips and tricks – including FREE resources – visit http://www.mattsomers.com

Episodio n.º 175