Purpose of Coaching
Traditionally, the term “"coaching”” primarily evoked the image of the sports coach, aiming to guide and drive an athlete or team to successful performance and winning. Nowadays, Coaching has become such a ubiquitous concept that it can connote any professional practice empowering people to unlock their potential, maximising their performance and achieving their goals. This can be accomplished through establishing collaborative relationships between the coach and coachee (the person being coached), based on the effective communication and professional skills of the former, which include the ability to create a safe environment, ask effective questions, pay attention, listen actively, keep an open mind, stay non-judgmental, paraphrase, challenge, give and accept constructive feedback, and respect boundaries while doing so (Deans et al. 2007; Nelson, 2011). Coaching has been defined by many authors and it seems that each definition emerged as a reflection of the particular area of Coaching being considered. The following, taken together, give a comprehensive overview of various purposes:
“Coaching is unlocking 'people's potential to maximise their performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them. After all, how did you learn to walk? Did your mother instruct you? We all have a built-in, natural learning capability that is disrupted by instruction” (Whitmore, 2011, p. 10).
“Coaching is the art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of another”
Downey (2002, p.15).
“It is a relationship between the coach and coachee, where the coach becomes aware of the 'coachee's potential and empowering/facilitating for helping to reach their goals via active/empathetic listening” (Foote, 2015).