Coaching

T.S. Elliot "Everybody has experience, but not everybody can learn from it."

Coaching: approach frames

The basis is the assumption that regardless of the business role behind the coachee there is a human being. A person who has certain beliefs, system of values, prefers one working style over another, communicates with the outside world in his/her own specific way, etc. Of course, on a given post one has certain tasks and goals to realise and there are the expectations of the organisation that should be met. In order to do it, one must combine the "hard" with the "soft".

If you encounter just "the role of a person"  during a coaching, the effect might be a short-term rise in effectiveness. In order for the changes to be long lasting you must engage in an encounter with a human being.


Coaching: work indicators

Partnership
Coach is not a mentor or a master. He is not subject to his coachee either. He asks questions meant to support the coachee in the process of learning and expanding awareness. He does not expect "correct" answers and shows respect for the results achieved so far. He constantly gives feedback and expects the coachee to do the same.

Being open to another person
The coach is aware of the coachee's position in an organisation, but he has no preconceived assumptions resulting from this knowledge. He has  no ready answers or fixed ideas how to solve coachee's problems. When encouraging the coachee to learn the coach must be ready for changes himself.

Creating relationships
Being "here and now" is a popular piece of advice, but years of practice in business (coaching, consulting) and outside business (counselling) have taught us maximum  focus on the person we're trying to  create a relationship with.

Knowledge of the coachee's business environment
We strive to create such cooperation with our customer that does not finish after a one-off event. Therefore coach's knowledge about business processes, conditioning of particular posts, opportunities and difficulties in a given company is larger than this of the subjects who do not work with the customers on a long term basis. Such common knowledge makes coaching goals easier to achieve.

Development
Our mission is the development of people and organisations. In order to fully follow the mission we try to develop constantly as human beings and as business consultants. This is why we have  undergone group and individual coaching periodically for the last 3 years. Our coachees can use the Pathways library, where they can find some literature on coaching, e.g. "Coaching for Performance" by John Whitmore or "Inspire!What Great Leaders Do" by Lance Secretan.