Coaching is now a buzz word attached to just about every form of professional development. There are executive coaches, life coaches, marketing coaches, wellness coaches, family coaches, team coaches, group coaches, career coaches, speaking coaches, writing coaches, productivity coaches, and many more. So how do you know if you are buying master level “coaching” or just another training or consulting activity that is labeled as coaching?

The International Coach Federation (ICF) has done a phenomenal job of legitimizing the coaching profession. However, the ICF’s definition of coaching is very broad and leaves open many possible interpretations. The ICF defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” Applying this definition may not clarify the distinction between coaching and other offerings labeled as coaching.

A few additional distinctions may be helpful. Coaching is often compared with the practices of counseling, mentoring and consulting. Given that most people understand the traditional application of counseling, here are a few differences between mentoring, consulting and coaching to help distinguish the three approaches.

In a mentoring relationship, the focus of the work is primarily on succession preparation and training. An experienced executive serving as mentor helps a more junior staff member to learn the ropes and shares their learning and experience. The mentor has the answers and provides guidance and wisdom to help their colleague advance successfully in an organization.

In consulting, the consultant is hired to solve a problem and to provide their unique expertise. They have all the answers and provide advice.

In contrast, a coaching approach stays focused on the present situation with an executive or a team. The coach helps the client find the answers through careful listening, questioning, and challenging. The coach and client work together and most importantly, the coach holds the client or team responsible for their commitments.

Depending on the circumstances, companies may be better served by hiring a consultant or engaging an executive in a mentoring relationship. Just be aware that the approach taken is different than if “coaching” was employed as an option. And this leads to the final question…how do you know if you are truly hiring a “coach?”

With so many professionals labeling themselves as coaches, it can be difficult to wade through the promotional material flooding the marketplace. Here are some tips for hiring coaches and coaching companies:

Look for coaches with ICF credentials. If a coach has ICF credentials, you will know that they have completed coach-specific training and recognize coaching as a distinct profession. A PCC – professional certified coach – - has logged 750 hours of coaching experience and has completed a rigorous application process, including a certificate from coach specific training. The MCC – master certified coach – has completed 2,500 hours of professional coaching and has demonstrated leadership contributions to advancing coaching as a profession.

Look for companies who offer choices among their coaching team. Coaching is a very personal activity and clients need to have the option of choosing the coach with whom they are most comfortable. Simply randomly assigning a coach to an executive or team can be very counterproductive, and not achieve desired results.

Ask for an outline of the coaching process to be followed. Are there processes that provide for feedback and company alignment while also maintaining confidentiality in the coach/client relationship? How will the sponsors stay in the loop on progress, while the coaching contract remains confidential between the coach and leader?

Coaching has come a long way since its humble origins in the early 90’s. Studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of coaching with documented return on investment studies being published regularly. We will touch on some of those ROI studies in a future blog entry. For more about recent research findings, visit CoachFederation.org.

Enjoy all the resources on the TrainingIndustry.com website.

Keeping Your Top Talent

We practice service in various ways, in part because of how we are wired, and in part as demonstration to our children that life requires more of us than work and recreation. Leadership requires self-awareness and reflection, just as life requires a level of service that allows us to share the gifts of experiences, our blessings and our prosperity.

Barry serves on several community boards , while DJ serves on one board at any given time, currently on the board of Dress for Success, Triangle Chapter, where she is responsible for generating visibility and new sources of revenue.

Working with committees to find interesting fundraising ideas, Pat Nathan, the Chair of the Board and founder of DFS Chapter hosted the movie premier party of Eat, Pray, Love at North Hills Cineplex in Raleigh. The movie was a smashing success! The 160 women (and two good men) celebrated the best selling book’s journey to the big screen. Both DJ and our daughter Jessica thought the movie was better than the book, bringing to life the characters, especially Richard in the ashram, who made an impact in the author’s life.

For more information about how to get involved in Dress for Success, contact trianglenc@dressforsuccess.org or look for a chapter of the organization near you, www.dressforsuccess.org.

In the critical days after the BP oil spill, I saw a picture of a large group of people who showed up on a beach to help with the cleanup. They were turned away because they didn’t have the training to help. They felt frustrated and helpless standing on the sidelines. They went home feeling a loss of hope that the crisis would be resolved well.

Many people feel the same way in their organizations. They feel frustrated standing by while their leaders struggle making decisions and implementing urgent initiatives to help with the continuing problems in the current economy. Why won’t they accept help?

I learned from visiting a Maasai village in Kenya that when people have each other, that’s really enough. The natives–many of them had earned college degrees in Nairobi or abroad but returned home to live in huts with their tribe–taught me the best way to live through difficult times is to face problems together calling on everyone to chip in with hands, minds and hearts.

Our leaders think they need resources. They think they need the proper training and experiences to consider input on a decision. They think they need a broader perspective than the teams of people doing the work.

When people are asked to be creative, when they are asked to contribute ideas, when they are asked to chip in to help with the survival of something that affects their livelihood, they feel trusted and respected. Their brains open up with good ideas.

When they are told to stand by until their leaders can figure out what to do, they feel disrespected and helpless. Over time, they lose interest and disengage. Productivity falls off. Innovation dries up. Then they are “reorganized” as if this will solve the problems. No wonder most people don’t like change.

The same is true for our communities and families. When people are asked for their ideas and contribution to something that is meaningful to them, they rise to the call. If they are left out, they sit back and complain.

In reality, most people look for better ways to do things all the time. No one writes these small changes down. No one gets thanked for these contributions.

 I’m not talking just about people at the lower levels of an organization. In my leadership classes, the middle managers feel used, abused and exhausted. They get to be imaginative and brilliant in class but have little hope they will be able to make any significant changes back on the job. They are like the volunteers on the beach wanting to help but told to go back to where they came from.

So what can you do?

As a leader, acknowledge that most of the people in your organization or community have similar goals and desires. Quit trying to control everything. Ask for ideas and help moving into a better future together. Cultivate collegial instead of competitive atmospheres where people enjoy being creative and productive with each other.

As a participant, continue to offer to help. Work to deepen your relationships with your colleagues. Help the people around you manage their anxiety and helplessness by focusing on what is in their control to achieve. Don’t give up.

For everyone, push away from your computers and have real conversations with people you can touch. Sara Konrath of the University of Michigan found that college students today are about 40 percent lower in empathy scores than their counterparts 20 years ago. Konrath says, “Empathy is best activated when you can see another person’s signal for help.” The Internet isn’t just affecting our brains. It’s affecting our hearts as well.

We can bring back hope for ourselves and the people around us by creating the sense that we are all in this together.

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