Coaching

Coaching is a form of professional consulting or accompaniment of people who want to increase their performance in the professional or private environment. It is a promotion of individual problem solving as well as self-reflection and self-awareness with the aim of strengthening self-confidence and a sense of responsibility, thus ultimately ensuring help for self-help. Originally, the term “coaching” is derived from the English word “coach”, which means “carriage”. The function of a carriage is to transport people to a certain destination. This also reflects the principle of coaching: a person is supported to reach an individually chosen goal quickly and safely. Since the end of the 19th century, the term has been used in the Anglo-American world primarily in the field of high-performance sports. Top athletes receive comprehensive support from a coach, whereby the pure training is supplemented by personal support and psychological motivation, e.g. during a competition. In the 1970s to 1980s, the term also appeared in the context of management. It gained more and more importance as a personnel development measure in which a coach acts as a consultant and supports especially people in management positions in their tasks. Until today, many different coaching approaches have differentiated, differing for example in their target groups (team coaching vs. individual coaching).

Indications (areas of application)

From a personal point of view, coaching is a very individual form of consulting that is tailored to concrete needs of the coachee (the person to be advised). Therefore, the indication for coaching depends strongly on personal factors. However, there are also classic situations in which a person wants to change in behavior or personal attitudes and actively resort to supportive guidance:

  • Most often, this occurs at times of current “crisis.” This is a problematic situation that often involves drastic changes and serious decisions. This can take place on a personal level and is triggered, for example, by serious illness, a divorce, losses, environmental disasters, etc. On an operational level, it can be fundamental restructuring, mergers of systems, or financial stress. In any case, a crisis affects a group of people or an individual and can be threatening and stressful as well as challenging and an opportunity for change. Because a crisis represents a time when old patterns of behavior are discarded and new developments are sought, it is an excellent time to be supported by professional coaching.
  • Less serious, acute challenges from the professional or private environment can also be an occasion for coaching. Here, the coachee feels the desire to change his behavior to better cope with certain situations and stresses. It can be important projects, decisive career steps or the adjustment to certain family roles give the occasion to be advised and supported by a coach.
  • In addition, long-established principles and manners, where a need for improvement is realized, are also suitable to be abolished or changed by coaching. It may be the development of leadership skills or the adaptation of communication.

From an economic point of view, coaching is an investment in the human capital (employees) of a company and leads to a higher performance of the entire company through innovative personnel development. Even without specific occasions, many managers see the need to promote their own competencies and the skills of their employees. In order to improve flexibility, teamwork or creativity, professional coaching is often resorted to. Through flawless cooperation, good social skills and increased learning ability of the staff, one ultimately hopes for a competitive advantage of the entire company.

The process

The coaching conversations take place in several sessions and in a time-limited framework. The coach works out a fixed coaching concept that explains his approach, interventions and methods. In order to exclude manipulations, this concept must be made accessible to the coachee.An understanding of the overall concept is also a basic requirement for the best possible support of the coachee.

Procedure

The process of coaching can be schematically divided into sections:

  1. Perception of the need for coaching: It is crucial for the success of coaching that the desire or need for it is expressed by the coachee himself and is based on a voluntary basis. Without this basic requirement, any consultation would be meaningless.
  2. First getting to know each other: in the first contact between coach and coachee must first create a trusting relationship for a positive working relationship. For this, some information about this working alliance is collected in advance:
    • Reason for consultation: What was the coach consulted about? Why this particular coach? What does the client expect? Was the coaching ordered?
    • Intertwining between coach and coachee: Do the two already know each other? What image does the coach convey? Are there connections to superiors?
    • Previous consulting experience: Is this the first coaching? Which topics should be avoided as “faux pas”? Which topics are indispensable?
    • Appreciation: it is important for the coachee that the difficulty of his initial situation is recognized. His decision and courage to seek counseling must be appreciated by the coach.
  3. Conclusion of contract: A contract is concluded between the coach and coachee on the basis of the first acquaintance, which is a kind of consent from both sides to carry out the coaching.
  4. Goal setting: together, goals and their priorities are set. What should be achieved / prevented / maintained? Which goals are the most important? Conflicting goals should be identified, so that one of them can be dispensed with for the time being. Furthermore, it should be determined beforehand how it will later be recognized that a certain goal has been achieved. Will a particular behavior change? Will performance be increased?
  5. Interventions/Methods: The methods and intervention techniques of coaching are very diverse and can be used as desired depending on the need. The following is a list of some examples of methods:
    • Active listening: On the one hand, the coachee is given enough time to tell the story, and on the other hand, the coach gives feedback on the conversation, summarizing what has been said and reflecting it back to the coachee. Also, certain emotional content can be actively highlighted by the coach to make the client aware of their importance.
    • Questions: targeted questions are one of the most important tools of coaching. On the one hand, they serve to gather information for the coach, on the other hand, to generate information when the coachee has to search for the appropriate answer.
    • Stories: The coach thereby tells stories or anecdotes that serve the coachee as a mirror for self-recognition or as models for example, problem-solving attempts.
    • “Inner conference”: this method has its advantage in difficult decision-making, where the client is in an inner conflict. A kind of “conference” between the individual voices / opinions of the coachee is replayed, so that after an extensive discussion, a compromise is finally found.
    • Communication analysis: communication sequences that have been remembered by the coachee as “difficult” are replayed and analyzed.
    • Conflict analysis: confrontations are analyzed and suggested solution patterns for the future.
    • Change of media: drawing utensils, clay, building blocks, dolls, etc. are used to express the thoughts of the coachee. The coach acts more as a coordinator. The interpretive function is rather taken over by the client himself.
    • Role change / role play: certain situations are replayed, whereby these can be better perceived and analyzed. Future confrontations can be prepared and practiced.
  6. Evaluation: the coachee reflects on the success or failure of his previous sessions. Especially the preceding goal setting is taken up again at this point and analyzed.
  7. Conclusion: through self-reflection, the coachee can cope better with certain situations and feels able to solve similar problems independently in the future. The coaching ensured a “help for self-help”.