THE ART OF COACHING

"You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself."

– Galileo Galilei

Effective Coaching

By: Vadim Kotelnikov

Coaching Defined

Coaching is the art and practice of inspiring, energizing, and facilitating the performance, learning and development of  the player. (Myles Downey)7

Each word in this definition is a key word:

• art – though there is science to coaching, coaching is an art in the sense that "when practiced with excellence, there is no attention on the technique: the coach is fully engaged with the player and the process of coaching becomes a dance between two people, conversationally moving in complete harmony and partnership. At this point the intelligence,intuition and imagination of the coach become a valuable contribution - rather than being interference for the player."⁷

• inspiring – coaching is about helping the player to unlock his or her true potential through raising awareness, inspiring new ideas and encouraging creativity

• energizing – coaching is about energizing the player through effective communication, soliciting suggestions, and building a can-do attitude

• facilitating – implies that the player has the capacity to have an insight or creative idea and to think something through for himself

• performance – anything a coach says or does should be driven by the intention to improve performance, i.e. to achieve greater effectiveness or efficiency of the player

• learning – refers to a broader domain, how to approach a task or master a new technology; looking beyond immediate objectives, the future performance of the organization depends on learning

• development – refers to personal growth and greater self-awareness.⁷

The Goal of Coaching

The goal of coaching is to guide vision, urge excellence, and empower the one being coached – the player – through establishing a firmer connection with his or her inner authority.