FAQ’s About Coaching
What is coaching?
Coaching is a powerful relationship between people who share a commitment to attain a level of optimum effectiveness in the use of his/her talents and natural abilities. The coach uses skills to define and explore particular gifts, find out how these gifts work and apply them toward professional and personal success.
What’s the difference between traditional supervision and coaching?
Supervision using coaching skills is a more hands-on approach than most traditional models. Coaching is a pro-active strategy that both teaches and models leadership development and supervision in a manner that encourages the discovery and use of one’s unique gifts. It sets limits and guides without crushing creativity.
How can coaching skills be used in supervision?
Supervisors can effectively move staff toward mission priorities by coaching them to use their own best gifts, desires and visions for the greater good. This means that a supervisor can set a goal before staff members and help them to develop their own personal strategy, style and values to accomplish it. The freedom of choice that they are given to design their own paths makes a difference in the amount of energy they will put into the task and how they ask others to do the same.
What’s the difference between coaching and mentoring?
A mentor is usually seen as an expert; someone who will show his/her protégés “the ropes”. A coach is an expert in the process of coaching. A coach can use his/her skills to produce remarkable results regardless of whether he/she is an expert in a particular area or not. Coaching strategies can be used in mentoring relationships with great success by teaching, modeling and using powerful questions that evoke deep learning that is often remembered for a life-time.
What is a possible strategy for the use of coaching in an organization?
Coaching is particularly helpful to:
- Individuals with great potential for leadership
- People who have lots of potential, but are struggling to succeed
- Those who are in a transitional season of life
What’s the difference between coaching and therapy?
Therapy often invites people to sit in the passenger seat and look in the rear-view mirror at their lives. Coaching invites people to sit in the driver’s seat and look through the windshield at what lies ahead. Both are valid strategies toward growth to be used at appropriate times and settings in a person’s life.