In my last (lengthy) article about what an Agile Coach is I mentioned professional coaching as once of the stances, but didn’t go into too much detail. I’d like to expand on that concept a bit in this article and give a quick introduction to professional coaching. My last article’s length got away from me a bit, so I’m going to do my best to keep this short and give the important bits – but more detail and nuance may be better for a future article.
Professional Coaching is a partnership between the coach and the coachee to have a series of creative and throught-provoking conversations that focus on the growth and development of the coachee. The coach holds space and the belief that the coachee is an expert in their life and work, and that by helping them to examine themselves and the world around them thy can unlock their potential. The goals and the direction of the coaching should arise from the needs of the client, and uncovering these is often part of the initial steps (and continually ongoing after that).
Since a coach is helping the client to generate their own successes, coaching is different from things like consulting, therapy, mentoring, training, and even sports coaching. A coach will not resolve conflict, give advice, do the work for or force the coachee to take any specific action. However, the coach will listen in a profound way, reflect things back, keep information confidential, and create a supportive relationship while providing a structure for making things happen in the conversation.
I’ve found professional coaching to be very beneficial for myself. It can help me to see blindspots, encourages me to reflect on myself, challenges me in ways I don’t expect, and overall is quite a positive force. In particular I found it very useful when working through a career change and interviewing for jobs and figuring out how to resign. I can’t always figure out or articulate exactly how the coaching has helped, but afterwards I always feel like I have taken a step forward and made some progress. I’ve noticed in the weeks following how my awareness shifts and I observe new things about myself.
Coaching typically involves specific agreements or a coaching contract before beginning the engagement. Some coaches may even have a conversation before this to see if they even want to take the client on, or if the client really wants to start an engagement with the coach – since this is relationship is entered into and agreed to by both parties, either may not want to engage or move forward if the fit or timing is not right. Often doing inventories and exercises early in the process can help to clarify values, and create a vision. A coach will typically be in a deep level of listening to really understand the coachee, and pose challenges and questions that help the client reflect and move forward.
Hopefully this article has given you a better understanding of professional coaching and how it might be useful for you. If you’d like to learn more, or work with me, feel free to contact me at Edward@agile-ideation.com