This week is International Coaching Week (ICW), sponsored by the International Coach Federation (ICF) to educate the public about coaching whilst allowing coaches to give something back.  It seems to me that the most fundamental question coaches need to answer this week is this:  what is coaching, anyway?  And how does it benefit clients?

Let’s get clear about this.  Most of us don’t go to the doctor’s because we want medicine or an operation.  We go because we want to get better.  The consultation, the medicine and the operation are not the aim of our visit but the means by which we seek to reach our aim.  In the same way, we don’t commission a builder to build an extension because we want more bricks and electricity.  Rather, we have some dream of what our home might become and of what it will do for us as a result of having an extension in place.  In the same way, coaching is a means to an end, rather than the end itself.

So, what sorts of aims do clients bring to coaching?  In truth, these vary enormously, though there are some underlying themes, the first of which is to improve performance.  An athlete might work with a coach to improve his or her performance, for example, and yes, so might a senior leader in the workplace or a mum at home.  For the athlete, performance might equate to gold medals or record-breaking achievements.  For the senior leader, performance might equate to additional income on the bottom line or to something more personal, like the ability to do a cracking job within just forty hours a week.  For the mum at home, performance might equate to managing the tasks associated with raising children and running a home in ways which afford every member of the family a sense of security, comfort, peace and fun.

Often, the aims clients bring to coaching reflect some kind of discomfort to which they want to give attention.  So a second theme in what clients want from coaching is greater ease.  The athlete may well be achieving fabulous results, for example, but wants to overcome the inner nerves that both detract from the joy of the sport and hamper the achievement of true world-class outcomes.  The senior leader may well want to improve results at work but also wants to feel less stress and enjoy a happier life at home as a result of achieving better business results in less time.  The mum at home may be yearning for greater ease and balance.

These and other outcomes come from making simple adjustments that make a disproportionate and positive difference to the person seeking coaching.  The athlete may change his or her inner talk in ways which replace nerves with focus, excitement and motivation.  The senior leader may adjust his or her attention in ways which lead to more effective decision-making and in turn to improved outcomes from less work – and a sense of inner peace.  The mum at home may adjust her standards from “super perfect” to “good enough” in areas where good enough really is – well, good enough!  In this way, she may feel less stress, self criticism or resentment and enjoy more ease and fun.  Perhaps the most exciting thing for clients of coaching – and for their coaches – is that coaching produces both immediate results and, by facilitating clients’ learning, lays the foundations for ongoing changes and improvements.  Few clients of coaching come looking for learning though many take learning from coaching that produces dramatic improvements to their performance and to their quality of living.

So what is coaching and how does it work?  Coaching is essentially a partnership between coach and client which supports the client of coaching in finding new ways forward.  You can read some of the comments my own clients have made about coaching by following this link or you might like to look out for tomorrow’s special offer in order to have a direct experience of coaching.  In short, and as a reminder, coaching is a means to an end – and a means to reach ends you barely dreamed of reaching on your own.