The primary focus of a Coach is to assist you in developing the skills required to maximize your performance. The coach does this by pushing you to reflect on the key ingredients for growth & learning. Once you are engaged with a coach, he strives to walk with you through your entire journey.
The primary focus of a Coach is to assist you in developing the skills required to maximize your performance. The coach does this by pushing you to reflect on the key ingredients for growth & learning. Once you are engaged with a coach, he strives to walk with you through your entire journey.
A journey which we believe is basically about being happy – and comes from making the required changes in your life to fulfill your potential and find a balance in all spheres of life.
Eight Effective Coaching Attributes
Coaches are your partners in a transitional, growth-oriented journey and in that capacity, they work by certain principles that are vital to a Coach’s working:
Patience
This is a core trait that every Coach must possess. All coaches are inherently trained to exercise immense patience towards all clients. The process begins with the patience to wait for the client to grow into trusting and opening up to the coach. It extends to be able to wait positively for an individual to share his anxiety, fear, hope and then to stay with him/her throughout the journey to success.
Persistence
Simply stated, persistence means “holding on.” It does not matter how long an individual takes to focus or understand his aspirations or reach his goals – a coach never gives up. A good coach believes that it isn’t just strength or intelligence that pulls a person through any situation; it is a continuous effort that unlocks all potential of any individual.
Empathy
The whole emphasis here is to actually ‘understand’ so that appropriate action can be suggested. Empathy doesn’t just mean listening to somebody to advise, counsel, reply, fix up, judge, agree, disagree or to analyze the person. It means that the listener can correctly reflect upon what the person is feeling or experiencing.
Personal Communication
Consistent accessibility of a Coach is the biggest anxiety/concern that people have when they think of seeking advice or guidance. A good coach realizes the value of direct, one-to-one communication. Therefore, he tries to be always available for an interaction that the client would like to have. He ensures that the communication is done directly, not through any other channels. Transparent and personal conversations help in building the trust that is so required for any individual to communicate freely.
Focus
As your coaching guides, the coach assists you in concentrating on what your aspirations are or how you intend carrying forward your life. The idea is to gently assist in shifting focus, building new ones so that there is greater awareness about goals. Subsequently, a new way of ‘thinking’ gets activated, and a coach motivates each to act on that thought. The aim is to help fuel and support your imagination so that you can visualize new goals for yourself – and then work towards the same.
Non-Judgmental
Being nonjudgmental is a vital component of a coach-coachee relationship. A coach tends to act as a catalyst and a friend, not to pass judgments on either your past or present. He attempts to assist you in reflecting and then reframing your experiences such that you can cross over the fixed paradigms that could be holding back your potential growth.
Listening
Listening is the first essential trait that a Coach is expected to possess – listening both to the spoken and unspoken words. By listening well, the Coaches can act as your mirrors so that you can see yourself more clearly and work to create new possibilities for yourself.
Questioning & Feedback
Asking the right kind of questions is the forte of a Coach. His nonjudgmental attitude leads him to put aside his views and probe the coachee towards a clear vision of his goals. Questioning helps the coachee to focus towards new ideas and then formulate a plan of action for life. Along with Questioning, Feedback is a vital attribute too.
Giving feedback on crucial points and attitudes helps the individual to evaluate his performance for himself. Blaming or stressing too much on the past doesn’t help – Coaches simply need to give a gentle, positive push towards redefining of the coachee personality.
While there is no perfect guide to be an excellent coach but possessing these traits makes one capable of trying to be one. A coach needs to be prepared for all contingencies, and it is possible only when he is committed to helping the seeker with all his might and attention.