Coaching Spectrum & Why Leaders Choose Coaching

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The  coaching spectrum

In its purest form, coaching is based upon the practice of asking powerful questions to help a coachee unearth assumptions, and recognize or utilize resources to find the most suitable actions to address their goal, challenge or issues. The coach also needs to be able to raise observations and bring alternative perspectives into view which may challenge the coachee’s assumptions. This requires choosing a coach with which you can have a relationship of trust above all else.

In addition, each coach also brings additional background and skills that can also be useful for providing real-life examples as reference. Prior to her roles as a coach, Anna worked in different business roles and functions including client-facing sales and business development roles, as well as project management roles requiring the ability to work with engineers and across company functions.  Anna also brings deep knowledge in the profession of organizational development and human resources – covering organizational development consulting roles to other human resource professionals, through to being on the “front line” of human resources as expert and trusted advisor to managers and leaders to help them craft people strategies to support their teams and business objectives.

This diagram from an Harvard Business Review article presents one way in which a coach may flex to the differing situations of a client’s need

Source: Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2009/01/what-can-coaches-do-for-you


Why business leaders choose coaching

Coaching has become much more common in businesses and organizations in the last few years, so there are more people able to provide real examples of how coaching has helped them. Of course mentoring and leadership training courses still have their benefits and can be very valuable, but coaching provides a space for development and learning that is powerful in a different way.  For more information on the power of coaching especially in business and leadership coaching, here are a couple of useful interviews with business leaders:


Why coaching might help you, how to choose a coach and coaching platform/media

As mentioned above, trust is essential for an effective coaching relationship and part of that trust depends on chemistry and connection with the style and approach of your coach. For this reason, one coach can be very effective for one person but that same coach may not be as impactful for another person.

For example, some people may prefer someone who has a more direct and matter-of-fact approach than someone who comes with a different type of town or different style of questions. Furthermore, our preferences might change over time as we start to understand what type of style we feel helps us more effectively challenge our own assumptions and explore new perspectives on the world.
In addition to the coach themselves, there are multiple other factors to consider as you think about how to get the most out of coaching. For example, some people prefer coaching only in person and find that coaching via online technology is not effective. Anna’s first experience of coaching was over the phone as video conference or video chat technology was not as advanced as it is today.  This means that she is equally happy coaching across a variety of media whether voice-only, via video technology such as Teams, Zoom or Hang-out or in person.

For people who think they would only be happy being coached if they could see the coach (whether in person or via online technology) don’t forget that there are also benefits to the voice-only option as you can stop worrying about how you appear and close your eyes and think deeply.  Specialists in professions which depend on deep listening also confirm that we have a tendency to over-value the importance of body language ( as shared by this interview with a hostage negotiator by the World Economic Forum).

For more details on Anna’s coaching practice, please click on the areas of interest below:

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