What is Coaching?
Coaching is a goal orientated process that helps you navigate change, improve performance and reach personal and professional goals. There are different types of coaching, each of which can help you navigate life from a varied angle.
Coaching can be focused on career or personal or both.
The coaching process doesn’t result in a list of things you need to tick off. Instead, it requires you to analyse, reflect and then take action. This makes coaching a learning conversation. One where you’re encouraged to leverage your strengths so as to achieve success in one or more areas of your personal and/or work life.
Coaching is a reflective learning process.
Choosing the right type of coach is determined by what your goals are, therefore which area(s) of life you want to focus on.
5 Different Types of Coaching Explained
While the focus behind the different types of coaching differs, all coaching is typically reflective rather than directive in manner. The Business coaching category includes executive, career and skills coaching. Relationship coaching focuses on everything from communication through to stress management and emotional wellness, such that it is a mix between personal and work life. While life coaching focuses on personal outcomes.
- Executive Coaching
- Career Coaching
- Skills Coaching
- Relationship Coaching
- Personal Life Coaching
1. Executive Coaching
Executive coaching focuses on developing the performance of those in leadership positions, specifically executives, directors and senior management. It does this through fostering a better self-awareness and encouraging personal growth so as to enhance strategic thinking and improve soft-skills. Executive coaching is also called leadership or performance coaching.
Key Focus Areas of Executive Coaching
- Leadership skills.
- Strategic thinking.
- Performance enhancement.
- Achieving goals.
- Soft-skill development, for example improving communication.
- Enhancing resilience and adaptability.
Usually, executive coaching takes place within one-on-one sessions. During these sessions clients have an opportunity to reflect and develop a personal awareness. For example, developing a better understanding of their strengths and work on weaknesses or specific issues they find challenging. This process can be a powerful platform for improving performance in work environments as it aims to transform leaders to be more confident and inspiring.
2. Career Coaching
Career coaching is ideal for anyone who wants to achieve career focused goals. For example, those who’ve just started out in their careers, people who want to advance and anyone looking to make career changes.
How a Career Coach Assists
- Skills assessment.
- Clarification of goals.
- Professional development.
- Identifying opportunities and career-based roles that are “good fits”.
- Career transitions.
- Understanding the job market.
- Networking.
- Providing accountability.
- Encouraging motivation.
The career coaching process helps clients understand the world of work and their own personal development. Within this space, coaches assist clients in establishing a career action place with, the intent of enhancing employability.
3. Skills Coaching
Skills coaches are a great resource for those who want to develop specific skills in their professional or personal lives. A skills coach focuses on building on a client’s existing abilities so that they can achieve their goals in a faster and more effective way. There are various types of skills coaching, such as life skills coaching, leadership skills coaching and soft-skills coaching. Some skills coaches specialise within specific industries, for example where more technical skills are needed.
5 Focuses of a Skills Coach
- Identifying and refining career goals.
- Flagging objectives and measurable goals within existing roles.
- Recognising personal and career development needs.
- Upskilling to enable better performance linked to achieving specific tasks.
- Overcoming obstacles.
Skills coaching sessions involve one-on-one programmes, which are tailored to a specific individual’s knowledge, experience, maturity and ambition. The focus is on achieving both individual and company objectives. The coaches who run these programmes, typically possess qualifications and experience in the areas in which the skills-transfer coaching is offered.
4. Relationship Coaching
Relationship coaching aims to assist individuals, couples and groups build healthier and more fulfilling relationships. Unlike therapy which is past focused and seeks to understand root causes, relationship coaching is future focused and results (goal) orientated.
5 Goals of Relationship Coaching
- Fostering stronger, healthy and fulfilling connections with other people.
- Improved communication and listening.
- Better conflict resolution skills.
- Setting of and aligning personal goals.
- Successful navigation of life changes.
Relationship coaching achieves its goals by teaching clients how to apply practical strategies, tools and techniques within their lives. Through these, clients develop better self-awareness and are, for example, better able to understand other’s perspectives and empathise with them.
5. Personal Life Coaching
A personal coach is great at supporting and keeping a client motivated and accountable while they make changes in their lives.
7 Ways a Personal Life Coach Can Help
- Assist with identifying personal goals.
- Strategise and develop plans to achieve goals.
- Promote self-awareness.
- Highlight and enhance understanding of potential, skills and talents.
- Provide accountability.
- Help boost motivation.
- Assist with remaining focused.
This type of coaching assists individuals to discover answers based on their own values, preferences and perspectives. Personal life coaching is a more reflective than directive process. The life coaching process therefore attempts to instil knowledge by asking questions and challenging clients to find answers from within themselves.
Coaching will enable you to discover and utilise your strengths.
How to Become a Coach
Whatever your personal attributes, strengths or interests, there is a coaching role for you. It’s a career through which you can positively impact lives around you, while engaging in life long learning. Explore your options for studying coaching through SACAP (South African College of Applied Psychology). SACAP offers a range of coaching courses, all of which are accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and approved with COMENSA. For more information, enquire now.
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