Week 2 Coaching Assignment - Part one: Coaching Summary

By Muriel Guillod

After an introduction about coaching in the first week of the class “MNG-6060 Communication in Groups and Organisation”, having read the article by Bastiaan Heemsbergen “Coaching from the inside out: Creating Exceptional Results” and finally some personal research, I have now come up with my own definition of coaching and the key competences a good coach should be demonstrating.

In my opinion, coaching is a very useful way to help a person develop his own abilities and be aware of his yet untapped potential. For that purpose, the coach must be able to create a trustful environment, where communication is safe, where mistakes are allowed and where the coachee feels at ease to develop his skills by trial and errors. While he doesn’t give directions or advices, a good coach should demonstrate empathy and active listening skills in order to fully understand the coachee and be able to put himself in his shoes. The coach should accompany the coachee through his journey of self-development and self-discovery by giving him the right tools to go forward, and be by his side at all time. Whereas safety is always guaranteed, the environment should at the same time not be deprived from any risks, for the reason that too much safety creates the risk of making the coachee afraid of the unknown. On the contrary, by having a sphere where failures are allowed, the coachee should further develop his ability to handle new challenges and overcome unknown situations. In other words, he should then be able to see challenges as an opportunity rather than as a threat.

Whereas coaching doesn’t sound like a difficult task to be performed, it yet requires to be carefully trained. Even though some people might be born with predispositions for coaching, the essential skills might be learnt and need in any way to be improved and developed. A good coach should be adaptive, i.e. be able to adapt his coaching style to the person he is coaching, because every individual has a different personality and way to handle problems and see solutions. He should also be able to identify the potential in anyone and help that person realize its full abilities. Probably one of the most important skill for effective coaching is the active listening. The coach should let the individual speak without interrupting him, and only after reflect on what the coachee just said by asking reflective questions aimed at guiding him into a deeper level of understanding of his own personal thinking. By summarizing and mirroring, the coach will help his coachee keep the focus on what is essential, while also allowing him to get a better evaluation of his own strengths and weaknesses. As mentioned by Heemsbergen, “the coaching process affirms the person, seeks to clarify choices and acts as a catalyst for action” (p. 1). Thus, I couldn’t emphasize more that the goal of coaching is to provide the coachee with tools to overcome his problems, but not to give him ready-to-use solutions. What is more, there is never one good solution which fits everyone, but rather multiple possible solution, each suitable for one specific individual. And as the proverb says, “it is not the final end which matters, it is the journey”. Therefore, the coachee should figure out by himself how to cope with his challenges, as what matters most is to understand the process of how to overcome a problem, and not how the problem was dealt with eventually.