My professional journey began a little over 2 years ago, and it was not until the recent past, I was introduced to the domain of professional coaching services. An internal training session focusing on presentation skills organized by the organization – a renowned MNC in logistics that I am currently working for gave me an opportunity to meet a qualified industrial professional coach. His charm in encouraging me and my colleagues and positive spirit he created amongst us made me want to know more about his profession. It was he who guided me to understand more about professional coaching services, which inspired me to join with Coach Transformation Academy for the Diploma in Coaching training.
Coming from an academic background with obsolete relevance to psychological sciences and related matters, I got an opportunity to experience something very different and interesting. I was opened to a completely new dimension of thinking and understanding. The few hours I spent at the training session played a crucial role at the beginning of self-discovery that I was continually searching for. Through the course, I learned how important it is to keep asking questions to find the root causes and proper solutions.
The session began with a very simple and yet so difficult question – who are you? Like every other common man, every time I posed such a question, I would naturally end up talking about my academic status or job profile. This was the first time when I stopped to think who I really am, and what kind of a person I am. This helped me understand myself a little more, I started paying attention to the little things that mattered to me – the things that make me- ME. The activities that followed encouraged me to speak and know more about the fellow partners attending the session. We were asked to exchange conversations about intense and personal topics, which made us feel instantly connected and close with each other! Another interesting observation I made during the session was that every time someone shared something about themselves, I realized that I could relate to them the same way most of the time. These were probably things that I never gave much attention to. Hearing from others suddenly started giving me a lot more clarity on who I really am! It made me feel confident about myself and brought a new light of realization.
The session that focused on what was NOT coaching transformed my vision and understanding of coaching. Before attending the session, I was under the impression that any kind of information that a person receives that is positively useful to him will be a kind of coaching. I stand corrected now. Coaching is the practice of partnering with a client in a thought-provoking and creative process to enhance the professional and personal potential to its maximum capability.
The definition of coaching helped me understand what was not coaching. Coaching is precisely opposite to the concept of counseling. Here, it is more important to ask the coachee questions to make the coachee self-capable to deal with the situation. It does not involve giving bits of advice or personal statements. We expect the coachee to understand and come with clarity on his own with progression in the conversation. Further looking deeply into what is not coaching, it can be stated that
• Training is often misinterpreted as coaching is a telling concept when the trainer transfers his skill in what driven process.
• Mentoring is the concept of skill enhancement that uses coaching to some extent.
• Consulting is when the consultant acts on behalf of the client to resolve problems faced by the client even by involving third parties.
• Therapy and Counseling are why driven concepts focus on past experiences allowing the client to open up about the events and feel relieved. This is understood much better when we realize that learning is an experience that changes our behavior, and knowledge is what happens in learning when the behavior doesn’t change. Wisdom is the ability to make decisions on applications of learning.
I am confident that I can apply my learnings from this lesson to get into a thought-provoking process by asking leading and powerful questions when I partner with a client. The session helped me change my thought process, and I believe that I reflect on my thoughts in an entirely new dimension. I am sure that the course has prepared me and will help me to start the journey in Coaching. I am very much excited to understand and deep dive into the world of coaching and be more competent and acquire knowledge in the same.
