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What is Coaching

A coach is a person who supports people (clients) to achieve their goals, with goal setting, encouragement and questions.

Unlike a counsellor or mentor, a coach rarely offers advice. However, the term coaching is often misused in situations where the "coach" provides expert opinion and "how to" answers and advice. Coaching does not include the given solution for the problem but will energize the coachee to solve the problem.

Typically, an executive coach helps clients to find their own solutions, by asking questions that give them insight into their situations. A coach holds a client accountable, so if a client agrees to a plan to achieve a goal, a coach will help motivate them to complete their plan.

This use of the term "coaching" appears to have origins in English traditional university "cramming" in the mid-19th century. (The name allegedly recalls the multitasking skills associated with controlling the team of a horse-drawn stagecoach.) By the 1880s American college sports teams had - in addition to managers - coaches. Some time in the 20th century, non-sporting coaches emerged: non-experts in the specific technical skills of their clients, but who nevertheless ventured to offer generalised motivational or inspirational advice.

Current practices in performance coaching in non-sporting environments focus on non-directive questioning, provocation and helping clients to analyse and solve their own challenges, rather than offering advice or direction (see Tim Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis or Myles Downey's Effective Coaching).