Getting the most out of yourself or your employees is not easy. That is why more and more companies around the world invest in professional coaching, the idea of which is to develop the potential of a person trained with the assistance of a specialist.

By definition, coaching is accompanying a person in a process that makes them think and inspires them to maximize their professional and personal potential. It is a kind of interactive development process aimed at discovering and shaping the talents and skills of a person or group of people. Coaching very often supports companies and teams in the implementation of business strategy through employee development. The coach listens carefully and observes the client, sharing observations and asking questions. In this way, it helps him to broaden his consciousness and see opportunities for development. Each coaching session is a work on achieving previously set goals, for example, on developing a useful skill or on learning to communicate correctly.

Coaching is often combined with psychology, because it is strongly based on building a relationship between the coach and the coached person. Thanks to the partner relationship, the trainer helps to discover the coachee’s potential, taking into account their individual needs and expectations. The participant independently, although supported by the trainer, achieves the set goals, while improving the competences already possessed.

Coaching sessions can be conducted with a single person or an entire team. However, the overall goal is always employee self-development and company development (business coaching). Companies often decide to support a professional trainer in building such competences in the team as:

• ability to work in a team
• sensitivity to feedback
• assertiveness and setting boundaries
• setting and achieving individual and group goals.

Coaching is an extremely capacious concept that includes many ways and areas in which it can be conducted. The most common types of coaching are, m.in.:

• business coaching – addressed to companies and organizations
• career coaching aimed at supporting career planning and development
• life coaching aimed at the personal development of the coached person
• managerial coaching addressed to middle managers
• executive coaching for top management.

The type of coaching may also depend on the number of people trained. We distinguish individual coaching, couples coaching, group coaching and team coaching.

Most of us at some point in our lives begin to reflect on our goals and life aspirations. Motivational coaching is a type of coaching created just for people who want to think more deeply about the answers, get to know themselves better and find motivation for further action.

Motivational coaching is a process that allows the coachee to think about what is important to them, what their strengths are and what they want to achieve. Motivational coaching sessions help you assess your own abilities and strengths, as well as identify solutions that can awaken energy to achieve goals.

Motivational coaching helps to direct the effort towards a specific goal, stimulates emotionally, and also helps to act instead of focusing on thinking about the action. This type of coaching is especially recommended for people who have problems with both setting and achieving goals and who find it difficult to find energy and motivation to act.

A coach is a person who helps his client unleash his potential. This profession derives from the culture of sports, where coaches motivate athletes and help them become the best version of themselves. The task of the coach is to support the client in discovering goals and achieving them. The coach not only motivates to act, but also suggests the most necessary tools that help the client open up and develop hidden potential. After finishing the work with the coach, if it was effective, the client is aware of his advantages and knows how to use it in every area of his life.

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all set of coaching tools. Each coach chooses how he will work with his clients. He selects appropriate working methods on the basis of his own experience and individual case. The coach’s tools are an addition to the session, not their essence – the most important thing is the relationship with the client and his needs. Themost popular tools of the coach’s work:

• Brand archetype, i.e. a set of cards describing the characteristics of a given archetype and drawings depicting them. The tool is useful when, for example, it is necessary to specify the idea for marketing activities.
• Mileage cards, which are a great tool to activate the right hemisphere of the brain and support development. They are used by coaches, but also by teachers, psychologists, pedagogues or speech therapists.
• Metaphorical games in which the client talks about himself, his goals, plans and fears using metaphors. These types of games help you better understand your needs and limitations.

Coaching is increasingly becoming an integral part of an organization’s culture. It brings measurable benefits both to employees who use this form of development, as well as to leaders and managers who use a coaching approach in communication with their teams. The most important benefits of coaching in business are, m.in.:

• development of new competences in the field of setting goals and priorities at work,
• developing leadership skills
• effective use of working time for constructive problem solving
• developing motivation and the ability to overcome their own limitations in employees
• strengthening the structure of the entire organization and facilitating the implementation of the assumed goals, with increased work efficiency (from the point of view of the entire company).

Source: https://www.ey.com/pl_pl/workforce/coaching-co-to-jest

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.