A Coach is a highly experienced individual who is the driving force behind the development and growth of millions of people worldwide.
At some point in our lives, everyone turns towards a coach or mentor to guide us through a challenging situation or task. Traditionally, a student coach or master-apprentice relationship involves the student or apprentice seeking help and the coach or master coming up with a solution derived from years of experience.
Several disciples, seekers, students, or apprentices in every industry require proper coaching and guidance to grow into their role. Therefore, a coach’s role is widely considered one of the top three most essential Leadership Coaching competencies.
Types of Coaching
The traditional art of coaching unlocks an individual’s potential to maximize their performance. The coach helps the client achieve their peak and produce fruitful results in their personal and professional lives.
Primarily, there are two types of coaching-
- Life Coaching
- Leadership/Executive Coaching
Before moving further, we must understand the difference between these two coaching methods.
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Life Coaching
Life Coaching helps train an individual to deal with their personal life. This coaching is all about the individual rather than any business plan. An expert Life Coach can help clients understand their objectives and goals and identify the factors restraining their effort to meet these objectives and goals.
The life coach often helps clients find the perfect balance in their lives, improve their outlook on life, and build positive relationships. The success of Life Coaching gets measured by the fulfillment and happiness of the client in their personal life.
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Leadership/Executive Coaching
In contrast to a Life Coach, an Executive or Leadership Coach deals with their client’s professional aspirations. In the business world, the top leaders get tasked with handling many people (subordinates, shareholders, the public, etc.) Such decision-makers require coaching as well. An executive coach may suggest that the leader focuses on specific, measurable outcomes as they impact their business role. The success of Leadership Coaching gets measured by the client’s professional achievements.
Some people don’t even require a professional degree to become a life or leadership coach to guide people working under them.
Here are 5 top coaching practices which any business leader or manager can implement to train and accelerate the growth and development of people around or working under them:
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Show Genuine Care
Without care, coaching turns into a mechanical process. When people feel and believe that you genuinely care about their well-being, they tend to open up more and become co-creators in their development journey. Therefore, when you want someone to grow in their career, coach them with genuine care.
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Listen and Empower
For coaching an individual, you must listen and understand their thoughts. Listening is an essential factor in coaching someone both professionally and on a personal level. It also keeps your client engaged and provide them a sense of getting their voices heard. When their opinion gets valued and respected, they’re far more likely to push harder towards success.
Any form of coaching requires both empowerment and encouragement.
When you are leading a business, your employees are highly likely to have several questions, input, and feedback. Therefore, always encourage them to share their opinions.
Some will have no problem speaking their mind, while others require a lot of encouragement before they open up and share their input. Listen and respect everyone’s opinion, discuss thoroughly before dismissing them.
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Frequently Ask Questions
Coaching is not all about training the other person. As a coach, you can learn something new. Therefore, the coach-client relationship must be open-ended filled with guiding questions, leading to more productive coaching conversations. These chats help you understand the mindset and the capacity of your client.
Instead of giving constant orders and directives, try sourcing new ideas from them. People learn and develop the most when they uncover the solutions themselves.
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Praise and Appreciate Hard Work
Coaching requires a balance. With criticism, there must be a sense of appreciation when your client does something right. If the conversations revolve entirely around what’s not working, it becomes demoralizing rather than motivating.
The recognition of small details your employee pushes your client to build from that and improve further.
Analyze specific things that are going well, and let your employees know that you recognize and appreciate them.
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Individualize Your Approach
Before coaching someone, you must understand that every individual reacts differently. Your techniques that might work wonders for some might end up demotivating someone else. Therefore, analyze and individualize your coaching approach.
It may also depend on the stage at which they find themselves in their respective careers or their business position. Depending on this, some require extra care and effort than others.
In Conclusion, Coaching an individual is not a walk in the park. It requires an investment of time and regular practice. Without practicing the tips mentioned above, there will be a minimal transformation within your coaching career and your client’s personal or professional life.
If you are searching for a life coach or a leadership/executive coach in Hong Kong or around the Asia-Pacific region, look no further than FELIZ Consulting. FELIZ is a leading boutique coaching and training company based in Hong Kong, providing fun, bespoke, valuable, and interactive corporate training.
Additionally, FELIZ Consulting provides coaching, consultancy, and facilitation services across the Asia-Pacific region.
FELIZ Consulting has gained an impressive and rapid reputation in Hong Kong and the region, especially in the legal and financial industries.
