Introduction: To the little book of coaching

 
Photo by Dustin Lee

Photo by Dustin Lee

 

Coaching is one of the most valuable developments of the last century. It has grown in popularity the last twenty-five years. Coaching provides an exceptional tool to raise our levels of awareness, attunement, improves our relationships, and assists us in discovering our personal potential. It helps us cultivate a hospitable environment for growth in our professional lives to achieve greater results.

Psychology, and it’s focus on an individual’s potential for growth and maturity lays the groundwork for coaching. Because coaching borrows heavily from psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, and other related fields, questions inevitably arise: What is the difference between coaching and therapy? What is coaching really?

Coaching has distinct boundaries with psychotherapy practices. Because of this it is  deeply misunderstood, mischaracterized, and practiced by a very wide spectrum of talent, creating doubt in the marketplace. Coaching is rarely described well, and its voice seldom heard with enough clarity.

This little book attempts to explain how I interpret and practice coaching and how it leverages basic principles from psychology, in particular, the difference between dipping and dwelling in the past; what the needs are in all of us to which it serves; the methods by which it addresses these needs; and what outcome of a coaching intervention could ideally be. It is meant to help people who have never had a coach, understand what coaching is and what is not, and how they might utilize coaching toward their own performance goals.

This is NOT a book teaching how to do coaching. It is not meant to be substituted for advanced learning.

The book suggests my central belief that coaching, with someone well-trained, is one of the single greatest steps any of us can take towards greater awareness and fulfillment. Investing in coaching can reduce anger and frustration, defeatism, poor confidence, and general feelings of being lost or stuck while helping you achieve results.

This is a guide to the purpose and meaning of coaching.

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This blog post is part of a series related to Driving Your Self-Discovery pending publication.