Beatha Coaching

When you are experiencing challenges in your working life, especially if those challenges involve or are impacting on your mental health, it can be tricky to know where to access support. In academia, mentoring programmes or referral to occupational health or counselling are fairly common; coaching remains less so, though perhaps with the caveat that many business schools have been using coaching for some time as a consequence of their connections to industry. However, each of these options is distinct and serves different purposes.

It is important to know what you can expect before you start looking to engage a coach or work with a therapist or mentor. In this post I am going to introduce coaching, its fundamental assumptions and aims, and what to look for when approaching a coach. In part two, I will look at the differences between coaching, counselling, and mentoring, so that you can choose the option that is right for you.

Part One – what is coaching?

Coaching is a fairly broad church that has been undergoing both an expansion and a period of professionalisation in recent decades, with organisations like the Association for Coaching developing robust codes of conduct and terms for professional membership. Roughly, though, coaches tend to fall into one of two camps: executive, or life coaches.

Loosely defined, executive, or ‘goal orientated’, coaching places an emphasis on performance, and on helping people to grow their potential within a workplace setting. Life coaching usually takes a more therapeutic approach, where personal development is broadly defined by the client’s own priorities more than external workplace metrics, and there may also be an emphasis on maintaining psychological or emotional wellness.

The differences between these models are in fact only surface deep. Coaching emerged from the person-centred psychology of Carl Rogers, and its underlying assumptions and approaches are the same across coaching types. No matter their background or methods, professional coaches will seek to provide a safe and supportive listening space within which clients can explore the challenges they are facing, and find appropriate and authentic strategies to move forward.

By its nature, therefore, coaching is about what is happening in a client’s life now, and also what could become possible for the future. Coaches are usually approached by people who are feeling ‘stuck’ in some way, or who are experiencing distress in the face of a challenge or conflict in their work or personal life which they would like to resolve. Unlike a relationship with a counsellor, therefore, coaching is often only short to medium term in its duration, and the intention is to support clients with resolving an issue or moving positively toward their goals, rather than exploring more deeply rooted emotional issues that may have their origins in early life experiences. Despite this, many clients come to coaching because they are experiencing mental and emotional unease as a result of their life circumstances, and working with a coach can help to promote feelings of greater wellbeing, and to develop personal strategies for resilience and self-management.

Choosing a coach –

When looking for a coach to work with, one of the most important considerations should be personal rapport and finding a good temperamental match. Coaching usually takes the form of a conversation, and may delve into some vulnerable areas of discussion, so it is vital that you work with a coach who makes you feel safe and supported, and not judged in any way. All professional coaches will offer a free initial consultation to check for chemistry, and it is perfectly acceptable for either party, coach or potential client, to suggest they might not be the best fit as a result of that conversation. A good coach will usually be able to recommend alternatives if it becomes clear that the match isn’t quite right.

Other things to look for when recruiting a coach are their professional memberships and qualifications. Can they point you toward a code of ethics they adhere to? Do they give details about their background and approaches? Again, it is perfectly acceptable to ask coaches these questions in an initial conversation. Coaches may specify a particular toolkit of approaches, and most will also have named specialisms such as writing coach, wellness coach, or leadership coach. This information can give you a steer toward identifying a coach whose background and approach might be the best fit for you. If you are not sure what their described methods and techniques mean in practice, its entirely appropriate to ask for more information. You can also look at testimonials from previous clients to get a sense of who the coach normally works with and the kinds of approach they use.

Finally, have a careful look at what the coach promises in terms of results. Coaching is predicated on supporting your personal development as a way to resolve conflicts and achieve goals. Any coach who offers a set of defined steps to follow or a guarantee of certain outcomes should be avoided. Remember, as ‘coach’ is not a protected term, anyone can apply it to themselves. But a professional executive or life coach will always emphasise the uniqueness of the client and the importance of personal growth and accountability, rather than their capacity to ‘fix’ or ‘solve’ anything for you.

Coaching is a fantastic tool to turn to when experiencing work or personal life challenges, but the distinctions between coaching, counselling, and mentoring, are not always clear. In my next post I will unpack the differences between these three helping models in more detail, and make some suggestions of how to know which might be right for you.