Coaching (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what coaching is, what it is for and what its advantages are. In addition, we tell you what a coaching session is like.

What is the coaching?

He coaching (from English coach“trainer” or “tutor”) is a form of professional assistance that consists of advising companies, organizations or individuals by a specialist company or an experienced person in the area of interest. That is to say, consists of a form of external mentoring or tutelage provided by a third party (called coach) to address specific challenges and problems.

The terms coach, coaching and, although it is less used, coachee (“advised”, that is, who receives the service of coaching) are all anglicisms, that is, loanwords from English to the Spanish language, and that is why they are always written with italics. However, these terms have become fashionable in the professional and business world, and have become a way of referring to a mentor, advisor or hired monitor.

The work of coaching It is, at the same time, similar and different to what an educator or teacher can provide. From a coach Guidance, advice and teachings are expected, but unlike the teacher, the coach He gives them from his personal experience and/or professional, and not only of their training. Furthermore, the coaching It is a form of advice ad hocthat is, applied to a specific issue, problem or process that needs to be faced, improved or transformed.

There are different methods and procedures of coachingas many as areas in which it can be applied. However, in general terms it consists of a process of dialogue and specialized support, through which individuals or organizations are prepared to face a challenge in the best possible way.

What is the use for? coaching?

He coachingIn general, it consists of specialized and focused advice, which operates in the short or medium term. The tasks of coachtherefore, are based on teach, advise, prepare and monitor the progress of an individual or an organization, facing a transformationa specific challenge or difficulty that would otherwise be much more difficult, risky and unpredictable to face.

For example, a company that has human resources problems can hire another company, dedicated to offering human resources services. outsourcing in the area, to help her resolve her personnel dilemma. Then, the contracted company assigns a coach (or a team of them) to oversee the human resources restructuring work that the applicant company needs to undertake.

Other cases of coaching They may involve sports advice (to exercise properly), literary advice (to improve writing), nutritional advice (to lose weight safely), among many others. He coaching It serves to have specialized help when facing a process, which not only covers specialized technical areas, but also motivational dynamics and monitoring so that everything goes in the best possible way.

Types of coaching

There are many types of coachingdepending on the specific area in which advice is needed. Broadly speaking, it is possible to differentiate between:

Coaching business. It consists of providing technical services and specialized support to small and medium-sized companies that need to face complicated processes, such as restructuring, relaunches or profound changes in their dynamics.
Coaching sports. It consists of accompanying athletes in their training and preparation for an important sporting event or to begin a new stage of their professional careers.
Coaching executive. It consists of providing continuous improvement and training services for the managerial and executive staff of an organization, in order to improve their performance and leadership capacity.
Coaching literary. It consists of combining the dynamics of the individual literary workshop with literature classes and editorial preparation, and everything that is useful to a novice writer.
Coaching transformational or transcendental. It consists of a personalized accompaniment service, in which the coachee to organize your life, develop your talents and thrive as an individual.
Coaching ontological or motivational. It consists of providing emotional, psychological and motivational support to a person so that they discover what they want to do and cannot, or at least so that they identify what they want as a life project.

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Advantages of coaching

He coaching has the virtue of being specialized, individual and applied advice, that is, it focuses on the process or problem at hand, rather than providing advice from a general perspective.

A coach Not only does it help to have the necessary elements to face a challenge, but it also helps to think about it, to determine what can really be changed and, finally, accompanies the individual or organization as they implement their changes. It is a work of close contact, in which there is the full attention of the coachunlike the teaching training exercise.

What is a session like? coaching?

There is no single method to carry out a session of coachingsince it is not really a standardized activity, but rather a mentoring task that varies depending on the coach and of coachee. However, in publications about coachingthe GROW method of Graham Alexander and Alan Fine is often referred to.

This method gets its name from the English acronym formed by the initial letters of its steps, that is:

Goals (“goals”). The first step of the work of coaching consists of identifying, together with the coacheethe goals or objectives that you want to achieve. For example, you may want to reformulate your business structure, or start writing a novel, or prepare for your sporting debut in a competition.
Reality (“reality”). The second step consists of the detailed study of the matter at its starting point, that is, of things as they are. How close is the coachee to meet your goals? What is missing? In what aspects should you work more? These are key questions for planning tutoring.
Options. The third step consists of identifying the viable options, that is, the possible paths to move towards the determined goals. In this the experience of coach is key to saving coachee the time wasted in trial and error.
Will (“future actions”). The last step of the work of coaching It consists of the planning and execution of actions to meet the set goals, which is carried out under monitoring and expert advice from the coach. At this stage the coach must measure, evaluate and provide feedback to adjust the process as it happens.

Coaching and mentoring

In some areas, the difference between the tasks of coaching or advice and those of mentoring or mentoring. Although this difference is not formal or universal, for many it lies in the fact that the coach focuses on the processes of coacheeserving as a mirror and without revealing much of himself; while the process of mentoring It is much deeper and more intimate, because the mentor Share your life experience and get much more involved in the preparation of coachee.

That is, it is a methodological distinction: while the coach provides tactical preparation, applied to the situation in which the coacheehe mentor provides more strategic, more general preparation.

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