Coaching - a new approach Pam Rigden demystifies coaching; a light-hearted look at what it’s all about
The term ‘coaching’ has recently begun to appear in the fitness arena, but what is it exactly, where did it come from and how is it distinguished from everything else out there.
Coaching has been a buzzword in the business world since the early 1990’s when it first appeared as a discipline in it’s own right; ‘a structured way of helping individuals take their lives forward’ (1) It was viewed as being different from teaching, training, counselling and therapy. More recently our fascination as a nation with reality TV has seen a proliferation of programmes, all variations on the same theme, where various professionals attempt to help people improve their lives. We’ve got Sussanah and Trinny telling us what not to wear; the dinner party investigators and various other TV gurus such as the Life Doctor, The House Doctor, The Life Laundry, and high profile debt counsellors - and that’s just on terrestrial! Everybody, it seems, has jumped on the coaching bandwagon as they carve out a niche for themselves. Is it ever likely the public are confused as they struggle to decipher the difference between life, personal, performance and executive coaching. Which would you choose?
Knowing exactly what’s on offer in our own industry isn’t straightforward either; various hybrids for example, lifestyle coaching, mind-body coaching, weight management coaching and high performance coaching have appeared. Stress Management is no longer de rigeur, while
Work-Life balance ( ie. don’t get stressed in the first place – which, actually, makes a lot of sense), is the new black, which happens to fit nicely with the current enthusiasm, and hopefully it’s not just a trend, for all things yoga. Add to the mix lifestyle consultants and lifestyle counsellors and it’s not surprising that we’re confused too. Who is offering what? I have yet to discover what a Life Strategist is and, as for those people who look in people’s fridges, what are they called, (apart from plain nosey !)?
The fundamental questions to be answered though are,
Can coaching, in it’s purest form, be applied to the work we do in the fitness industry? And
Does knowing how to coach help you help your clients?
As a personal trainer and coach I would say YES, unreservedly. The benefits you derive both personally and professionally through an awareness of coaching are huge. And, for the clients whose annual fitness quest has become part of a pattern that doesn’t get them the results they want , coaching (especially when combined with NLP) reaches the parts that other tactics don’t reach.
So, first up, let’s take a look at where the term came from
It’s ironic of course, but the term has been borrowed from sport - and, if our definition of a sports coach is someone who is concerned with passing on specific techniques in conjunction with designing and overseeing the athlete’s training schedule then, if we read client for athlete, we are already coaches! Certainly I was an athletics ‘coach’ before I trained as an NLP Coach. Perhaps, then, Fitness Unlimited’s new course should be called “Coaching for Coaches”!
So, what inspired the coaching movement to borrow the name? The beginnings of coaching in the business environment can be traced back to Tim Gallwey’s Inner Game (2) books of the mid 1970’s. But in fact, while much amateur sports coaching back then was (and in many cases still is) an enthusiastic mixture of encouragement, demands and instructions, he was not a traditional coach in any sense.
Gallwey’s approach was innovative in that he gave much thought and attention to his own teaching style. He discovered that players self corrected when he gave them free reign rather than when he pointed out errors and taught more directly. In fact, when a player tried to incorporate his suggested improvements, they became more anxious and inhibited - and achieved less. Conversely when a player relaxed and held a picture and feeling of the desired result, their game improved. Consequently he recommended that his players pay more attention to their own experience.
He suggested that
“ neither mastery or satisfaction can be found in the playing of any game without giving some attention to the relatively neglected skills of the inner game. This is the game that takes place in the mind of the player, and it is played against such obstacles as lapses in concentration, nervousness, self doubt and self condemnation. In short, it is played to overcome all habits of mind which inhibit excellence in performance. ( The Inner Game of Tennis, Introduction)
The rest is history as they say; the Inner Game books topped the best seller lists and the value of Gallwey’s style of coaching became apparent. Business leaders in the U.S. and Europe enlisted his help and the principles of the Inner Game were applied to professional development. Essentially sports coaches who subscribed to his way of working took the Inner Game skills into the business environment. More recently however developments in coaching have taken place in business coaching and life coaching rather than on the sports field.
So what is coaching, and what is it not?
The ICF ( International Coaching Federation) (3) define coaching as
“ an ongoing partnership that helps clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life …..in each meeting, the client chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client into action. Coaching accelerates the client’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice. Coaching concentrates on where clients are today and what they are willing to do to get to where they want to be tomorrow”
Basically coaches work one to one with their clients, often on the telephone. Fundamental to coaching is the coach’s belief that the client knows what they want , and that it is possible – given the right way of going about it and the right resources- for them to achieve it. Coaching doesn’t involve telling your client what to do or how to do it: in fact the client already has the answers to the questions what and how, even though they might not have realised it. The client can expect the coach to help them find those resources and work towards their goals. The coach will keep them on track so that they do what’s necessary in order to make steady progress. The most successful coaching relationships however, are determined by the strength of the bond between coach and client.
The coach does not seek to explore past events or issues in the way that a therapist or counsellor would.; coaching is not therapeutic. Neither do coaches have all the answers or provide expertise and solve problems, as would a consultant. Many life coaches for example will coach a person towards their fitness goals with little or no knowledge of the work we do.
They achieve this by helping the client set goals, by keeping them focussed on that goal, keeping them on track and, when the going gets tough, reminding the client why the goal was important to them in the first place ! The coach will help the client look at what can realistically happen in the short term, while not losing sight of the longer term aim. Most importantly, much attention is paid to how the plan will fit with the client’s other commitments. The client is in the driving seat and takes responsibility for what they do and don’t do – the coach will hold them accountable however, for the actions they have said they will take.
The fact that life coaches are highly successful in helping people achieve their fitness goals in this way illustrates the point that it is not the knowledge that we have, but rather the process we use that facilitates change in an individual. You have the knowledge and expertise of a consultant, now consider how much more effective you could be with the facilitative skills of a coach?
essentially
coaching
· helps individuals develop more rapidly and produce more satisfying results
· focuses on the goals the client chooses
· is tailored to the individual needs of the client
· is interactive
coaches
· elicit solutions and strategies from the client
· provide a fresh perspective
· help their clients build on their natural strengths
· believe that the client is creative and resourceful
· believe that the client is responsible for doing the work to achieve the results he or she wants
· look at how all the parts of a person’s life work together
So how does Coaching apply to the work we do ?
It is most useful in the realm of Lifestyle change. People have busy lives; they find it difficult to make time to get to the gym or to meet with a trainer, and coaching is an invaluable tool when it comes to addressing these time management issues. Typically, most coaching relationships start with an intake session during which the coach will use the ‘Wheel of Life’ exercise which reveals how all the parts of a person’s life work together. Currently Fitness Professionals consider only the client’s health and fitness, but it is useful to look at the bigger picture in this way; any fitness regime designed without consideration for how the rest of the client’s life works will be short lived.
After all do people really need hand holding; generally speaking they know what they need to do only too well (as well as what they shouldn’t do), and after a couple of sessions with a trainer, and that is as many sessions as some budgets will stretch to, they know how to do it. What many people need is just to check in, to review progress, take stock, and check that things are working for them as well as they thought - all of which can be dealt with as effectively over the phone as it can in the gym. Coaching is also perceived to be less intimidating as there are no recriminations involved – which, let’s face it, are not always well received and actually do little for most people’s self esteem. It’s far more effective to be less prescriptive and allow someone the space to figure out what they need to do in order to move forward. And yet only a handful of innovative Personal Training companies offer coaching by phone.
Basically being able to coach, as a coach!, will help you to help clients get the most from their gym membership and create long, lasting change in their lives.
References
(1) The NLP Coach, Ian McDermott and Wendy Jago
Piatkus 2001
(2) The Inner Game of Tennis, W.Timothy Gallwey
Random House, New York 1974
The Inner Game of Work, W.Timothy Gallwey
Random House, New York 1974
(3) International Coach Federation
www.CoachFederation.org
|
Contributor's Note
Website owners and editors - please credit the author and use the URL
|
