Business Coaching

A collaborative style
The words ‘coach’ and ‘coachee’ are slightly unfortunate in implying that the coach is a senior person who is there to dispense wisdom and advice. In fact, coaching can take place between peers and even ‘upwards’ with a more junior person coaching a senior, as well as in the classic manager-team member relationship.
Coaching is a collaborative process, in which people have clearly defined roles: the coach is responsible for keeping the conversation focused on a clearly defined goal, facilitating the other person’s thinking, keeping track of progress and delivering constructive feedback; the coachee is responsible for generating ideas and options, taking action to achieve the goal, and reporting progress.
One of the commonest ways for coaching to get stuck is when these responsibilities are confused for example, if the coach becomes attached to a particular way of doing things, and starts to tell the coachee what to do.
Focusing on goals rather than problems
One definition of coaching is that it is a ‘goal focused conversation’ - the goal is defined as quickly as possible, and the rest of the conversation is directed towards achieving it. Throughout the conversation, the coach will be keeping the following question in mind: ‘How is this discussion helping this person achieve their goal?’. If the goal is lost sight of, it is the coach’s responsibility to bring it back on track.
Even when the conversation begins with a problem, as quickly as possible the coach and coachee work to define what the solution will look like. Coaching then focuses on how to reach

that solution. This can take a bit of getting used to - our habitual tendency is to spend a lot of time analysing problems to work out what caused them and who was to blame. A coach does not assume this is necessary - often all you need to do is clearly define what you want to happen differently in future and work towards that.

Listening more than you talk
Good business coaches are not bigmouths. While sports coaches often need to shout at players and ‘fire them up’ for a game, business coaching is very different. Watch a business coach or manager during a session and you are likely to see her doing most of the listening and creating space and time for the other person to talk. It will be obvious that the coach is giving the other person their undivided attention.
For the person being coached, this can be a powerful experience - when was the last time someone in your workplace put everything aside and made it clear that they were 100% focused on listening to you and helping you reach your goals? Being the focus of attention in this way can make a refreshing change - it also makes it clear that you will be expected to deliver on the commitments you make during the conversation.