What is coaching?
There is extensive literature on what is coaching or is not. Coaching, according to the Oxford dictionary, means the movement of a person from one place to another that is journey and travel. According to the TDK, coaching means is “the service provided to improve people’s leadership or managerial characteristics and skills, and to achieve more effective results by targeting a certain purpose”.
Coaching is a planned development relationship established between the coach and the coachee to achieve the desired performance.
The basic definition of coaching that ICF defines is a partnership relationship with a customer in an inspiring, thought-provoking and creative process to maximize personal and professional potential in today’s uncertain and complex environments.
Coaching is a creative process that activates thoughts by acting jointly with the coachee. An inspiring process is carried out in order to maximize the personal and professional potentials of the coachee in accordance with their needs.
What is not coaching?
Coaching is an interactive method that enables individuals and organizations to achieve extraordinary results by increasing their performance. Also, coaching is a new profession recognized in the world and in our country. It can be confused with different professions and specialties through it is a new and developing profession.
Coaching is not therapy; ın therapy, the focus is often on resolving past difficulties that hinder the individual’s emotional functioning in the present, improving overall psychological functioning, and addressing them in more emotionally healthy ways in the present. Coaching focus on the future. While positive feelings and emotions are a natural consequence of coaching, the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies to achieve specific goals in the individual’s work or personal life. The role of coaches is not to “cure” the negativities and effects of the past, but to support the person in building his/her future in the best way for himself/herself by focusing on one’s potential and goals.
It is not consultancy; although counseling approaches vary widely, it is assumed that the counselor will diagnose problems, prescribe, and sometimes implement solutions. In coaching, there is an assumption that the coach and individuals or teams have the capacity to come up with their own solutions, providing discovery-based approaches and frameworks.
It is not mentoring; a mentor is an expert who provides wisdom and guidance based on his own experience. Mentoring can include giving advice, counseling, and coaching. The coaching process does not involve giving advice or counseling and instead focuses on individuals or groups who set and achieve their own goals.
It is not education; Educational programs are based on goals set by the teacher or trainer. In the coaching process, the goals are determined by the coached person or team with the guidance of the coach.
Bibliography:
https://www.icfturkey.org/kocluk-hakkinda/kocluk-mesleginin-farki-nedir/
A Gestalt Coaching Primer: The Path Toward Awareness IQ by Dr. Dorothy E. Siminovitch MCC