In the modern world, it is difficult to reach heights or maintain them without having a kind of assistant nearby. An assistant who does not advise or teach anything, but clearly draws the path in a person’s mind and destroys existing stereotypes. His task is only to form an understanding of how to achieve the goal. And this is not an easy job.

Human life can be like a trip along a familiar route: flickering landscapes outside the window and a repeating mechanism of movements, expressionless glances from fellow travelers and empty conversations. But the trip can be completely different: full of feelings, aspirations for success and faith in achieving goals. How to transfer yourself to another reality? How to get out of the endless tunnel of everyday life?

The solution to the problem is hidden in the internal reserves of the human personality; discovering them is the task of a professional coach. It is he who helps a person get out of the rigid shell and reveal rich creative potential.

Several people are considered the founders of coaching. The concept of internal game action, which lies at the basis of the technique, was developed by Timothy Gallwey. In the early 70s, he published the bestseller “The Inner Game of Tennis,” where he formulated the essence of the idea.

Timothy worked as a tennis coach, improving the performance and psychological preparation of athletes. During professional training, he discovered that very often his ward's opponent was on the wrong side of the net, but in his head. Careful study of the technique of performing a strike and total control played the role of a poor assistant in achieving results. But the game, which was relaxed, automatic and somewhat intuitive, was much more effective.

And he began to teach not the technical side of things, but... way not to think about it. The value of such a correction of thinking in favor of automatic, internal human processes was not long in coming: his system was highly appreciated by sports professionals, and subsequently by business professionals. T. Gallwey's wards included not only athletes, but also representatives of major companies: IBM, Apple, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Rolls Royce.

Twenty years later, another author, John Whitmore, on the pages of the book “High Performance Coaching”, Gallwey’s theses were further continued in relation to business and management. Whitmore argued that T. Gallwey's clear and understandable concept can be used in any situation. To this end, he developed the GROW model (Goal - Reality - Choice - Will), structuring the client’s request on a different plane. Thereby stimulating the subconscious search processes.

In 1988, a new star appeared in the coaching orbit - Thomas Leonard. He not only systematized scattered information, breathed life into it and forced it to work actively, but in 1994 he laid the foundation of the University of Coaches, and also created several international structures, including the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Describing history in dates, the 80s can be called the period of the spread of coaching in the United States and its activation in German society. The 1990s saw the heyday of coaching in many European countries, while in the United States the field began to become more specialized.

Understanding the terminology

Today the term “coaching” is extremely popular. People use it when discussing topics:

Coaching – what is it?

What does one-on-one coaching mean?

What is a coach?

What is the meaning of a coach’s activity, what does he do?

What is the benefit of a coach?

There is still no single definition of coaching, and this is what makes it unique. Many founders of coaching and coaches who have achieved outstanding results say it this way:

Coaching is the art of creating, through conversation and behavior, an environment that facilitates a person's movement toward desired goals in a satisfying way.

Timothy Gallwey

Coaching is not a technique, but a method of managing and interacting with people, a way of thinking, a way of being, a structured process...

John Whitmore

Coaching is a long-term relationship that helps people achieve exceptional results in their life, career, business or community service.

International Cooperation Federation (ICF)

And, although the definitions are different, all organizations and practitioners have a common understanding of the inner essence of coaching. Any one of them will say:

Coaches don't teach anything.

Coaching is a type of interaction with a client when you can achieve results that were previously considered unattainable, or reach a goal faster and easier, without influencing decision-making, but only by organizing the process in a certain way.

The difference between coaching and training, consulting and the work of a psychologist

The word “coach” is translated as “trainer, mentor.” It began to be actively used in the 80s of the last century and was initially associated only with sports. Those. with a person who taught a certain technique for achieving results, practicing a sequence of movements, actions and tempering the psyche.

Little by little, this term migrated to the field of training, where the “trainer” was the teacher. Training should be understood as a dynamic learning technology aimed at developing (forming) a specific skill. A special feature of the training is the use of a social aspect in the learning process, when group members interact with each other, exchange experiences and emotionally support each other. The training teacher, being an expert in his field, explains and teaches how best to achieve the goal, advising the most favorable choice in a given situation. Most often based on step-by-step instructions: do this - you will get that.

Consulting, training and even the work of a psychologist are within certain, strict boundaries of a recognized training scheme, technology or method of treatment. The specialist prescribes, indicates and recommends a way to achieve the goal.

This approach is fundamentally different from Coaching or Business Coaching. The latter create an environment for activating one’s own thinking and searching for a way out, and do not recommend or advise. Coaches search for a solution together with the client. In other words:

coaching is not classical consulting or training with its immutable rules and strict recommendations. This is not a frozen form, but a living system capable of changing, where the main thing is to find solutions to problems not for a person, but together with him. Coaching takes an individual approach. This is a study of oneself, the desire to find answers not in the external environment, but in one’s own head, in one’s internal thinking processes. Which turn out to be much more effective than any advice.

Today we will learn what coaching is and what is the secret of its effectiveness. Coaching cannot be called ordinary consulting or training. Yes, this method took a lot from psychological counseling and borrowed elements of training, but it has its own distinctive features, expressed in this technique.

Determining the value

What is couching?

First of all, it is worth understanding what is included in the concept of coaching. From English the word “coach” is translated as “train”, “instruct”, “inspire”. Why did the method get this name? The fact is that its origins lie in the field of sports. And methodological principles and techniques were borrowed from organizational, positive, and cognitive psychology.

Coaching is a method that combines the principles of counseling and training, but not in the classical form. First of all, the difference is that in coaching the main place is given not to instructions, but to motivating the client to change.

A professional coach (trainer in coaching) will never give any strict recommendations . He, together with his client, seeks answers to questions that arise during the consulting process. That is why the main tool of a coach is the art of asking questions that gradually lead the client to the right exit. In the process of a kind of interview, he helps a person reveal his potential and develop it to the maximum.

Coaching recognizes that no one knows more about personal problems than the person himself, so it is he who must find the right solution. And the coach plays the role of a guide in this process. It is possible to study coaching in Russia in several organizations, for example, training is offered by the National Institute of Professional Coaching, they provide good education and are located in Moscow.

In coaching, all work is built on four stages, each of which must be completed to achieve a sustainable result.:

1. Setting a goal.
2. Checking whether the goal is realistic.
3. Developing a plan for achieving the goal, which should include ways to achieve it.
4. Direct realization of the goal is the stage of will.

Coaching is a system of interaction aimed at quickly achieving positive results. . In the “here and now” mode, the coach, together with the client, looks for ways to achieve a clearly defined goal, for example, in the area of ​​work, personal life or self-development. But, unfortunately, coaching will not be able to help the person who does not want any changes. This is expressed in the fact that he wants to get a result, but at the same time is not ready to take any action, looking for excuses for his passivity.

Key Coaching Concepts

We have understood the concept itself. There are also other concepts that exist within the method:

• Client. The client can be either an individual or an organization. That is, this is a person who uses the services of a coach and expects positive results. British coaches can still call a client a player.
• A session is a process of conversation between a coach and a client, taking place according to a specific structure.
• The coaching format is, directly, the interaction itself or the means of interaction between the coach and the client.

By the way, coaching can use elements of yoga, breathing exercises and even NLP for effective relaxation, which promotes openness of consciousness to finding the right solutions and positive changes.

Who founded the method

We owe the emergence of coaching to Timothy Gallwey. In his book The Inner Game of Tennis, published in 1974, he formulated the concept of this method. The main idea is that the athlete's main rival is not another person or some circumstances. The so-called “enemy in the head” becomes an obstacle to achieving the goal.. It is he who interferes with the realization of goals.

The coach acts as a mentor who, however, does not impose anything on his client. It teaches the player to independently seek ways to achieve stated goals by overcoming internal obstacles. When a person learns this, he will no longer need a coach.

In 1992, John Whitmore continued to develop coaching ideas, applying them to management and business. He embodied his thoughts in the book “High Performance Coaching.”

It is impossible not to mention Thomas J. Leonard. He became the founder of the University of Coaches and a number of other organizations that train and unite coaches who practice the coaching method.

The most popular varieties

Today, different types of coaching are known, which were developed as this method developed, based on the need to adapt it to certain conditions or areas of application. It can be classified according to several parameters:

1. By number of participants:

• Individual coaching.
• Group (or corporate).

1. By area of ​​application:

• Business coaching. Its purpose is to find effective ways to achieve the company's goals. A coach must work with both organizational leaders and groups of employees.
• Career coaching. Its purpose may be to accompany the client in his job search, to assess professional capabilities and competencies, to choose the most effective path of development, etc.
• Life coaching. Involves individual work with the client. A person can turn to a coach with various problems: in work, personal relationships, self-esteem, health. Together with the coach, the client looks for ways of positive achievements in problematic aspects of life.

Modern technologies open up wide opportunities for both the client and the trainer himself. If previously only the face-to-face format of coaching (personal meeting) was available, now the correspondence format is also being successfully implemented. For example, telephone coaching and via the Internet using social networks and programs are becoming more and more popular.

Read with this article:

Almost every person has the resources with which he can achieve any goals and realize his wildest dreams. But often they are hidden, and not everyone can find them on their own. Stereotypes, fears, habits, negative experiences and, as a result, self-doubt interfere with this.

When a person feels that he can no longer live as before, that the time has come to change something radically, but does not know how to do this, he resorts to the help of a special type of psychological counseling called “coaching.” What is it?

Who is a coach

From English, “coach” is translated as “mentor”, “trainer”, that is, a person who leads to the achievement of the planned result. As a rule, this is a professional psychologist who helps people who turn to him find their hidden reserves. And having found them, he leads the client to the goal he himself has set. After all, the coach’s task is not to impose his ideas and not to offer his own way out of the current situation, but to create psychological conditions so that a person can do it on his own. To do this, a specialist helps to see the situation as if from the outside, verbally formulate goals and desires, and do this quite clearly - so that the person himself understands what he really wants. And only after this can you begin the path to achieving them.

A coach is essentially not a mentor, but an attentive interlocutor. After all, he doesn’t teach or give any advice. What a professional psychological coach gives to a client is much more than just psychological training. This is coaching. We will try to tell you what it is in this article.

What is coaching

During the counseling process, a professional coach asks the client the “right” questions, thanks to which the person begins to understand the essence and depth of the situation. After this “insight,” he becomes able to find the most optimal paths to a clearly formulated goal. This is precisely the essence of the process called “coaching”. What is it? In simple words, it can be described as a method of counseling by a professional who helps his client clearly outline his intention and outline the path to achieving it.

Thus, even the most insecure person, who is at a crossroads in life, will be able to make the most correct decision and develop a behavioral strategy that allows him to act effectively and flexibly in the current situation.

The peculiarity of coaching is that it does not impose a ready-made solution on the client, but helps the person develop his own style of effectiveness. Coaching as a type of psychological training is based on the psychology of success and optimism. After working with a coach, clients begin to understand that they already have sufficient potential to achieve their goals and solve life issues that have arisen.

Working with a coach involves new positive changes in the life and work of the person who turns to him for help. The effectiveness of this type of psychological counseling is expressed in the specific results achieved after working through the problem together.

Etymology of the words “coach”, “coaching”

Let us now consider what the word “coaching” means and what it is from the point of view of linguistics.

This English term means “to instruct,” “to teach,” “to inspire,” or “to train.”

In the 16th century, a “coach” was a name given to... a cart or carriage. In a sense closer to the present understanding of this word, it was first used at Oxford University in 1830. Then, in youth slang, a “coach” began to be called a person who helped a student prepare for an exam.

It would seem that what is common between a cargo vehicle and a tutor? However, upon careful analysis, such a commonality can be traced: both of them endure something. The first is cargo to its destination, the second is the student to a new level of knowledge. In the modern understanding, a “coach” also takes people - to where they want to be, to the new reality to which they strive. That is, a coach is someone who takes his client to his goal and helps him move forward.

From the history of coaching

Coaching initially began to be practiced in the field of sports psychology. In the 90s of the 19th century, the word “coach” entered the lexicon as the name of an athlete’s trainer. Then they began to call any mentor or instructor. Coaching as a type of psychological assistance arose at the intersection of psychotherapy, mentoring and sports coaching. Gradually, this type of activity developed into coaching for achieving results in life.

In 2001, the coaching profession was officially recognized in the United States. Nowadays, the direction continues to improve and develop, finding new areas of application. In developed countries, the staffing table of almost every enterprise officially includes the position of a trainer-coach. At least those that are led by visionary people. After all, the costs of maintaining such a specialist pay off handsomely.

The difference between coaching and regular psychological counseling

From the outside, coaching and psychological counseling are very similar: a specialist talks with the client, helping him solve problems. But in essence these are completely different types of psychological assistance.

If counseling is aimed at solving a specific problem, for which the psychologist turns to the client’s past, then the coach’s questions are aimed at the future - coaching is focused primarily on the goal, which is formulated only in a positive way; talking about problems is strictly prohibited. That is, instead of discussing what the client does not want, they talk about what he strives for. A coach helps a person who has desires and dreams to realize them and make them more specific and clear.

Among the objectives of this special type of psychological training, one can highlight such as helping the client accept himself, create attitudes and values. Coaching is also intended to teach the client to understand himself, believe in his own strength, and trust others. All this will help a person find ways to effectively solve problems.

It is only at first glance that it seems that the psychologist is simply talking to the client. In fact, he does a tremendous amount of work, using his professional knowledge, life experience, as well as special methods and techniques.

Coaching Methods

When working with a client, a coach uses various psychological methods, which depend both on the goals set and on the professionalism of the mentor himself. Among them:

Active listening;

A method of asking powerful questions;

Psychology of Conflict Resolution;

Stress management;

Brainstorming method;

Methods of building and managing a team;

Technologies for effective personnel management;

Coaching sessions (individual and group);

Trainings on effective communication skills.

Coaching tools can also be questionnaires, projective techniques, elements of depth psychology and many others.

Coaching Techniques

A professional coach uses various techniques when working with clients that help a person effectively achieve their goals. Among them:

• suggestive paraphrasing;
• hearing;
• clarification that helps the client see new means of achieving his goal.

These coaching techniques help people achieve success, rising above their current selves, and allow them to help the client in different areas. They are used in almost any type of coaching.

Types of coaching, their features

Based on the number of clients with whom a specialist works simultaneously, a distinction is made between individual and group coaching.

Now there are about five thousand types of such training: from VIP coaching to social work. It is developing in the following directions:

Personal coaching;

Business coaching;

Academic;

Financial;

Health coaching that helps clients with chronic or terminal illnesses learn to live with them.

In America, there are even trainings for housewives and pregnant women.

Let's take a closer look at some types.

Personal coaching

Personal or individual coaching includes several types, including life coaching and coaching for people with attention deficit disorder. What is their essence?

Life coaching is designed to help the client specify his own aspirations and desires, and formalize personal goals.

A special type of personal coaching is helping people suffering from attention deficit disorder. Its goal is to reduce the impact of dysfunction of goal-directed activity. A specialist helps such people organize themselves to set and achieve goals. It is very important in this type of training to help clients identify their strengths.

Of course, coaches are not doctors; they do not treat people with attention deficit disorder who turn to them, but only help them simplify their daily lives.

Business coaching and financial coaching

The goal of business coaching is to improve the performance of an institution or enterprise. Coaches help clients achieve professional goals, work to improve communication skills and effectively resolve conflicts. The assistance of professionals is also essential in creating a unified team capable of working harmoniously and productively due to the fact that goals - personal and corporate - become more conscious, a creative atmosphere is created in the team, and the labor potential of employees is used as efficiently as possible. This type of coaching helps to identify leaders in the team, and also allows management to motivate subordinates with non-material incentives. After psychological training, people begin to work with greater interest, and the return on such work becomes higher.

A relatively new form of such activity is financial coaching. What are we talking about? The coaching program is designed to help the client overcome psychological obstacles to achieving financial goals. Such a coach helps the client form the right attitude towards money.

Academic coaching

Helps you acquire skills for learning success. This is a special coaching: training after it becomes more productive due to the fact that the client’s attitude towards learning as a whole changes. A specialist is not a tutor in any particular subject, but works with an attitude towards the process of acquiring knowledge. After such study, students reveal their potential and begin to achieve high results. Coaching helps to create a desire for self-development, as well as to build the learning process itself, taking into account the individual personal qualities of a particular person. Such coaching makes learning conscious and enjoyable.

So, let's summarize. One of the methods of psychological counseling is coaching. What this is, in simple words, can be explained as follows: this is the creation by a coach, while working with a client, of such conditions under which he independently finds ways to achieve his own goals, having previously clearly formulated them. And forward - to new victories in life!

When talking about what coaching methods are, many experts mistakenly narrow the range of tools that are successfully used in practice. In fact, the more tools for achieving results in the arsenal of each coaching specialist, the higher the client’s chances of success.

COACHING METHODS

In the modern world, coaching is perhaps the most effective way to achieve your goals. Working with a qualified coach allows you to resolve many issues, prevent difficulties in the future, and ensure the selection and implementation of optimal strategies for personal and professional development.

When talking about what coaching methods are, many experts mistakenly narrow the range of tools that are used in practice. In fact, the more tools for achieving results in the arsenal of each coaching professional, the higher the client’s chances of success.

THE MOST COMMON COACHING TECHNOLOGY

The most popular method used in coaching training is the question-and-answer method. Sometimes this coaching technology is also called mentoring. Its essence lies in the confidence that every person contains within himself the potential sufficient to achieve any high result. Accordingly, when using this coaching method, training consists of the mentor asking the student a series of clarifying or leading questions, giving him the opportunity to objectively assess the current situation and independently find ways out of it. In a word, this coaching technology lies in the coach’s ability to ask the right questions that encourage the client to self-analysis.

WHAT COACHING METHODS LEAD TO THE BEST RESULTS?

In addition to the question-answer method, there are also other coaching technologies. According to specialists from the Psikonsulting Center, training using a training system, advisory classes and others can be no less, and sometimes even more effective, than “classical mentoring”.

Speaking about what specific forms work with a coach takes, we should highlight three main types:

• trainings,
• processing,
• consulting

WHAT IS COACHING TRAINING?

Many people are probably familiar with the very definition of training. Professional coaches of the Psiconsulting Center often use this method. Coaching training helps ensure productive knowledge exchange and effective skill development. Unlike conventional training sessions, this coaching tool involves one-on-one communication, during which the specialist helps the client to believe in themselves and get in the right frame of mind.

CONSULTING AND COACHING TRAINING - WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

Consulting has one important difference from coaching training. During training, a specialist not only directs the efforts of his “mentee” to achieve the desired result, giving him complete freedom in choosing a method, but advises, suggesting possible schemes of action. At the same time, the coach himself is a competent specialist in the area in which the client is experiencing difficulties.

ANOTHER KIND OF COACHING TRAINING IS PROCESSING

This method involves the coach conducting a specific process that clearly demonstrates to the client what to do to achieve the desired result. In this case, psychological techniques such as NLP, PEAT energy therapy, brainstorming and other equally effective tools are widely used.

When working with clients, the coaches of the Psiconsulting Center do not limit themselves to one specific method, but offer comprehensive coaching and training. Our specialists are fluent in all known technologies for conducting coaching sessions. At the same time, in each specific case we create special training programs, because all people are unique, there are no identical companies, identical teams. An individual approach coupled with innovative developments are the principles of activity of coaches, psychologists, consultants, and business trainers of the Psikonsulting Center.

The main reward for a teacher is the success of the student. As for coaching, the best result of a specialist is the self-realization of his mentee.

Coaching is a special training method aimed at achieving clearly defined goals (this does not mean the general development of a person or a set of qualities, but qualities that are exclusively necessary to achieve specific goals). It involves working together with a coach, a person who is a trainer in a given area (life or professional).

Coaching and mentoring have more common semantic positions than development and mentoring, that is, they have a clear focus on the direction of activity, instead of an extended improvement plan.

Types of varieties of training method

There are many types of coaching, depending on the scope of its application, and the main ones here are life coaching (life) and corporate coaching (professional). The first is very close in its techniques and in many ways borders on psychology; specialists practicing this area can be certified in many related specializations (medicine, sociology, teaching), but at the same time not be a pure representative of any of them.

In simple terms, career-related coaching usually deals with improving employee performance, and is conducted for corporations or executives to develop leadership management skills, as well as receive critical feedback from a consultant on the specifics of running a business.

Coaching development techniques can be used when preparing athletes for competitions and when choosing a career, even when developing a strategy for completing homework.

Coaching for managing your financial flows (relevant for large companies and managing the family budget), as well as healthy lifestyle coaching (helping to maintain health or cope and learn to live with chronic diseases) are not so common, but very effective strategies. Often in such narrow branches there is not even the name of a coach as a coach; more often they are called consultants, or coaching methods are used by doctors and economists, but the essence of noticeable positive changes does not change.

Often such methods are subject to criticism of morality, since the basis is the achievement of a goal, often the ways and means are not taken into account. In addition, unlike activities in similar areas (psychotherapy, sociology), a coach follows clear work algorithms and requires the client to strictly adhere to advice, while activities in this area are not legally approved, and only the Federation of Coaches regulates actions and results.

Definitions of coaching are varied, and include shaping a person’s environment in such a way that moving towards a goal brings pleasure, creating conditions for development, and the inseparability of a long-term relationship between the client and the coach, since coaching and mentoring are similar in many ways. This also includes the definition of coaching as a system of interaction between the social and personal, professional and creative abilities and gifts of all participants in the process to obtain maximum further benefits.

To avoid confusion about the concept of what coaching is, you should distinguish between coaching, training, consulting and psychotherapy (it is these areas that are most often confused with each other and people leave dissatisfied with the results due to the initial wrong choice).

So, in the training there is a certain scenario and recommendations from the presenter on the best behavioral strategies, that is, you take a ready-made answer and learn to apply it to your life.

There are no ready-made answers in coaching, and the consultant will work with you to find the best solutions. The coach searches for these solutions, supports, consults and guides you in your movement until the moment of achievement (this is the criterion for completing the work, and not the time spent or the number of sessions).

This is different from consulting, where you receive advice and recommendations, after which no one else is involved in the client's life, leaving the chosen techniques to his own consideration and in order to receive new advice, new relationships must be established. Perhaps the most similarities in building partnerships between coaching and psychotherapy, however, if a therapeutic session is characterized by a fairly extensive attention to the traumas of the past, then in coaching all attention is focused on the present moment and the desire for the future.

Coaching sessions can be one-time (or periodic) when the client addresses a specific issue - this type is considered freestyle. In contrast, there is process coaching, when many different problems are touched upon, whether connected or not, for which a separate program is developed, the duration of which can be a year or more.

The types of problems addressed are usually divided into behavioral (when there is a need for certain reactions, for example, uncertainty in the presence of a large number of people), evolutionary (involving personal development or development as a professional), transformational (affecting existential problems of meaning and purpose).

Coaching, as a form of training, is effective when working with negative emotional states, such as prolonged grievances, uncontrollable, pathological and processing them into positive ones (this does not necessarily mean excluding these emotions from the experienced spectrum, but allows you to direct them in a direction that is beneficial for the individual). High results of coaching strategies for building resistance to external traumatic events, maintaining a holistic self-perception and maintaining adequate self-esteem (as well as increasing it), as well as in the fight against addictions (relationship or chemical).

In life coaching, you can develop the necessary personal qualities (confidence, positivity, and devotion), and eliminate unwanted or destructive ones. You can also work with behavioral strategies, habits, and the ability to manage your external manifestations and internal states. But in addition to such clear goals, there is an opportunity to understand your life path, formulate the goals themselves that you will want to strive for and overcome unforeseen critical life changes that knock down previous guidelines (divorce, military action, change of profession, and many others).

Business coaching

This is one of the popular branches of activity in this area and represents a relationship at a professional level between a coach, as a development specialist (business or professional competence of an individual employee) and a client (manager, HR manager, individual employee with set personal goals). Just like life coaching, there is constant support, accompaniment and development of strategies for achieving goals, and this relationship lasts exactly as long as it takes to achieve the stated needs.

Business coaching is most in demand among managers of medium-sized businesses, where it is not possible to hire a sufficiently large number of specialized employees, and you have to monitor everything yourself.

Problems may arise from a lack of knowledge in any of the areas (it is difficult to combine an accountant, a motivating psychologist and a purchasing manager, having the same mastery of all skills), from workload and the inability to keep track of all processes (this may also be an incorrect distribution of tasks, flaws , and lack of rest). Among non-work moments, quite often personal relationships that inevitably arise when running a small business have a great influence on the success of the business - colleagues become friends, the boss knows what the employee’s child is sick with, and family members get involved in the work process, which completely confuses the understanding of what is happening.

A coach is able to look at the situation as a whole and from a development perspective, to identify weak points (and these will not always be purely work moments; sometimes personal life influences much more significantly). After setting the problem and identifying goals for work, a plan is drawn up to improve the company’s efficiency, taking into account the identified inhibitory factors.

Corporate coaching does not exclude individual coaching of each employee for the purpose of his promotion or training, improvement, communication in a team, building a personal effective work concept, or strengthening the necessary qualities (perseverance, strategic thinking or leadership qualities). Such activity is a little reminiscent of a psychologist specializing in the psychology of work, with the difference that the psychologist must provide the most correct conditions for activity, while the coach is able to reorganize the entire team and search for those moments that will bring employees joy from the work they do. Also, a coach will never leave simply after seeing the results; usually, after the work he has done, there are new instructions for working with the team, the corporate culture itself has been reorganized and a clear plan for further actions.

Business coaching can be carried out by an internal coach of the company, who has a position and responsibilities in the organization, and is responsible for the productivity of the processes entrusted to him (this usually happens in large holdings). Where it is not possible to retain a coach on a permanent basis, the mechanism of an invited external consultant is in place, whose work in the organization ends when goals are achieved (usually the services of specialists are resorted to when the company is in crisis). But you shouldn’t rely on specialists, since any manager is a coach for his employees, capable of increasing their motivation or understanding regressive processes.

Subspecialty business coaching specialists are invited to transform an existing project or open a new one, while establishing partnerships or increasing staff motivation. But advice and interventions can also be important when drawing up advertising products and establishing pricing policies, since such moments are often influenced by a person’s internal perception, his personal ambitions and complexes, which can give rise to ineffective prioritization.

Ericksonian coaching

The problem of teaching a person effective life strategies has always been the prerogative of psychologists, and it was based on the fundamentals of studying the functioning of the brain and psyche that the leading principles of coaching were developed. Marilyn Atkinson, who studied the works of Milton Erickson, founded a university where everyone could exchange and develop the data already available in this direction (at the moment it is an accredited educational institution). Erickson himself developed the concepts of psychotherapy and, using principles in life that had not previously appeared in scientific circles. It was these ideas that allowed a person to change not only working moments and some traits of his personality, but also his entire life, taking control of its manifestations and further course.

The methods that did not fit the concepts of psychotherapeutic schools were shocking, but they worked. Their basis was the search for an optimal solution, starting from the situation that had already developed, without unnecessary companies in the past and searching for reasons. The first and main course at Erickson University was built on counseling to find solutions, using hypnotherapy. From this moment on, coaching training began, where the basis was the movement of a person forward and transforming his life for the better. Consultants practicing this new type did not seek to find the deep root causes of the crisis, nor to identify all the problematic factors; their gaze was always directed to the future, believing that it does not matter to look for where a person caught a runny nose, it is much better to start treating it, even without knowing the reasons.

Ericksonian coaching owes its name to the fact that it is based on the principles and methods developed by Milton Erickson. The primary among them is faith in each person and the presence of all the necessary resources to resolve his own problem situation, and the coach is only a guiding function, asking questions to help find a way out. And the next thing is the understanding that absolutely any person is capable of internal changes, his life, business or any other part, and is able to quickly notice the results of the changes.

In addition, if you delve into the Ericksonian coaching model, you can say goodbye to the attacks of those. Who considers this model immoral. The basis for achieving change is built on a harmonious combination of four different polar concepts: science and art, relationships and plans, strategies and innovation, as well as material and spiritual. And it is the maintenance of an equally high level of development and mutual transition of these parts that contributes to harmonious development.

Models

As in any system that promotes human development, coaching has its own models that are the basis of the session. This is a set of techniques that allow you to see the situation holistically, and not its individual components, since the problem area is not always the one that requires reorganization; participation in other areas may be required. Also, these models allow the coach himself not to be influenced by distorting factors and remain adequate to what is happening. There is not one model, since the direction itself is relevant in working with various areas of human life and has absorbed the principles of various theories - this provides variability in application and the exclusion of actions that are ineffective for a specific situation.

The general principles for all coaching models are to establish open and trusting relationships (the basis for them is complete confidentiality of the information received and ongoing processes), the formulation of goals and values ​​is based on the interests, expectations and needs of the client, regardless of the beliefs of the consultant. This is facilitated by another unifying principle - the first step will always be a detailed survey of the client and familiarization with the situation, as well as subsequent training in independent actions.

Selecting established models, sifting out those that best suit the coach’s personal style, or a combination of existing ones does not reduce efficiency, but always gives rise to a new approach. If you come to five different specialists with the same request, you will receive five different strategies.

The most common GROW model, which includes the stages:

– identifying and setting short-term and long-term goals;

– studying the current situation;

– study and search for existing opportunities to achieve the goals;

– determination of future actions, including the designation of both the actions themselves and their time period, as well as the persons involved.

Independent application of the model, even knowing its stages, is very difficult, since obtaining new information requires a view from the other side, and this is not the view of a coach. His task is to ask a large number of questions that help the person to see for himself the breadth of the situation, new opportunities and risks.

Technicians

Techniques are the tools with which the client’s goals outlined in the request are achieved. Their arsenal is large, and sometimes they are born during the session, but there are basic ones that are suitable everywhere.

The main technique is questions, since direct advice is not part of the concept of the system itself. Questions allow you to find out the situation and force a person to reason and think. Unambiguous closed questions are not suitable for this; the question should be posed in such a way that it generates an answer similar to a short story, and then clarified using questions of the same type.

The next important tool is scaling, which can relate to both the emotional state (anxiety at the level of eight out of ten) and the state of affairs (profit is four levels out of ten). It helps not only to establish the client’s current position and picture of the world, but is also necessary in setting goals.

Coaching is a very specific activity, and the formulations “increase self-esteem” are too vague; it becomes necessary to establish at what level self-esteem is now, and what level a person wants to achieve. You can further drill down by setting time frames and prioritizing metrics.

Another scaling option is a time line, where a plan for achieving a goal and its main stages are outlined on conventional time periods. The technique is good for unloading the perception of large and complex situations, when a long project or hard work is broken down into clearly visible pieces, the achievement of which is visible and planned.

If the coach sees that the client’s own resistance is interfering, then the “what if?” technique is used, where it is assumed that the difficulties identified by the person have been eliminated. It acts bypassing consciousness and sober reason, which releases a lot of creative energy to resolve issues. Also a good technique for identifying true values ​​is when a person for each answer is asked the question “what is valuable in this for you?” and so on until the series of dialogue reaches a dead end - it is the latter that will be the true value of the client. The discovery of such values ​​gives an understanding of why others fail, for example, when the core value of a relationship, a career can systematically collapse in order to preserve these relationships.

The longest technique is the coaching wheel, which requires a visual (by dividing the circle into sectors) representation of a picture of the client’s life, where each part will personify a certain side (friendship, money, health, family, and so on) with symbols of the level of development of this part. This way, areas that require attention are identified, and it also makes it possible to harmonize life when it is especially unclear what the reason for the uncomfortable feeling is.

This is just a list of basic techniques that can be combined with each other and with others, some of them are perfect for self-coaching or to deal with the current situation, some require the direct participation of a coach. Despite the simplicity of some and the complexity of others, effectiveness does not depend in any way on the duration and resources spent, accuracy of application is more important, sometimes one simple question can give a person great inspiration and understanding of changing the situation.