COACHING: CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES, BENEFITS - ARTE - 2025

The coaching is an ongoing professional relationship between coach and coachee that helps to achieve extraordinary results in life, profession, business or business people. The term coach comes from the name of a 15th century carriage that was used in Hungary for long trips. It was characterized because it was very comfortable for travelers.

In that same century, the term was adapted to English as a coach and to Spanish as a coach. In England, in addition to using it to name this type of vehicle, it began to be applied to name the teacher who, during the time that the trip lasted, carried out the tasks with the children.

In the 19th century, it began to be used in English universities to refer first to academic professors and later to sports professors. Already in the twentieth century the term began to be used for certain educational programs, and it is since 1980 when it began to be considered as a profession with specific training and applications.

We can consider coaching as an advisory process to help a person or group of people in the decision and improvement processes. It is intended to achieve the maximum of your possibilities in different areas of your life, such as work or personal.

It is a training process that seeks to enhance the skills of people at all levels and empower them in their lives. It facilitates learning and promotes cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes that expand the capacity for action depending on the achievement of the proposed goals.

Coaching characteristics

Through the coaching process, the client deepens their knowledge, increases their performance and improves their quality of life ”. We can see how it is especially related to sports activity, especially in its facet of constant search to improve performance and obtain significant achievements.

From the sports field it will also be used in business and commercial activities, clearly oriented towards those ends.

Starting from its definition, we can name a series of characteristics that define the process and can help us to better understand this term and the objectives it pursues:

Is personal

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It is a person-centered process and therefore a diagnosis and an individualized action plan are necessary. It must be adjusted to the needs and possibilities of each situation or individual.

Focus on results

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Coaching helps you focus on goals and solutions, not problems. Look to the future and find a way to move forward instead of focusing on issues that have appeared in the past.

Explicit

It is essential that the communication between coach and coachee is clear, specific and explicit.

Implication

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It requires the active involvement and involvement of all parties but always from the will to achieve the motivation for change.

It is more than a directed process

A fundamental aspect is the bond of trust and empathy that is generated between the parties that will be the basis throughout the process.

Confidentiality

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It is important to ensure throughout the process and especially what is discussed in each of the sessions.

Guarantee

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It is necessary that there are stable guarantees (financial, personal, etc.) that allow the coaching process an efficiency and functional independence within a certain period of time.

Differences between coaching and psychology

Sometimes coaching is confused with Psychology, however, they are two completely different terms, although the two can be used in an integrative way, adapting it to the specific needs of each client.

A first relevant and decisive differentiating aspect is that Psychology is a science. For its part, coaching is basically a methodology or approach for personal development in different areas that is based on the knowledge and strategies developed mainly by the field of Psychology.

Although coaching uses thoughts, emotions, attitude and motivation in its application, just as psychology does, it does not treat in any case the possible mental pathologies that the person may suffer.

Psychology for its part is dedicated to the study, diagnosis and treatment of these pathologies although it does not do so exclusively and there are different fields of application.

Finally, we can point out another aspect that can help clarify the difference between coaching and psychology. The latter aims to solve self-limiting problems, generally generated in the past, while coaching focuses on positive achievements and a vision of the future.

The coaching process

In the coaching process there are different phases that, although they respond generically to the same stages, there are variations depending on the schools or orientations. There are also differences depending on whether the context is individual, team or organizational.

But the ICF (International Coach Federation) indicates a series of common guidelines. The process begins with the establishment of the objective to be achieved and ends when said objective has been materialized.

A series of phases are established taking into account that it is not necessary to follow this order in all cases:

Phase 1: Generation of context

It is considered the initial phase. In it the coach explains what the process consists of and its general frameworks, it includes a part of training in the process and the methodology that is used.

On the other hand, the coachee sets out their goals and expectations. The objective of this phase is to create an environment of mutual trust. This first phase can be specified in:

• Making contact.
• Creation of a relationship and first agreement on the objectives.

Phase 2: Observation and inquiry

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It is about obtaining information about the current situation of the coachee in order to understand it, detect beliefs, clarify the objectives, etc. It is specified in:

• Appraisal of the individual initial situation.

Phase 3: Feedback

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On the one hand, it is about summarizing and understanding the current situation of the coachee to contrast it with what the coach has understood and on the other hand, with this return of information, it increases their level of awareness about their situation, which can lead them to assess new possibilities. This phase is specified in:

• Feedback with the information obtained.
• Second agreement of the objectives (a first agreement was already made in the first phase).

Phase 4: Action plans

Design, evaluation and implementation of different alternatives to achieve the objectives set. It is specified in:

• Carry out the intervention itself.
• Process evaluation. In the event that the evaluation is negative, it is returned to the previous steps to carry out the process again.

Phase 5: Follow-up feedback

An assessment is made on what has worked correctly, on possible improvements or modifications and the general level of satisfaction with the process. Some bases or guidelines are also established to be put into practice in the future.

• It is the formal end of the Coaching process.

Coach characteristics

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In addition to the necessary knowledge in this matter and the methodology to be used, it is important that the person who is going to perform the coach's functions thinks and acts in a positive way.

A series of attitudes are also taken into account that will contribute to achieving the effectiveness of the process:

1. Balanced personality. It involves qualities such as emotional and psychological maturity as well as personal security and common sense.
2. This attitude allows us to understand the needs and particularities of each coachee. It refers both to the variety of tools that you must have available to use in the process, and to the different angles from which to perceive a problem and its possible solutions.
3. Necessary to spread enthusiasm and motivation in the coachee to promote personal improvement processes.
4. Understood both as the availability of time and resources and respect and fulfillment of the commitments made
5. Personal and professional safety. You must work confidently and firmly, acting to lessen the appearance of any potential harm.
6. Permissive or non-directive attitude. This attitude is what differentiates a coaching process from leadership. It allows delegating responsibility to the coachee so that he is the one who makes the decisions and decides where he wants to go.

Types of coaching depending on the scope of application

There are various areas in which a coaching process can be applied and depending on the objectives to be achieved. Below we list the most common contexts:

Personal coaching

It is a process for personal and / or professional development whose main objective is to improve the quality of life of the coachee. It allows developing the potential of people to achieve consistent goals and in-depth changes.

Business coaching

It focuses on achieving efficiency in the results and at the same time motivating and achieving the satisfaction of the workers of the company or organization.

Executive coaching

Executive coaching focuses on optimizing the executive's performance in their different leadership phases. It is a process framed in the workplace, structured and with indicators of the work environment that combines the expectations of the executive with those of the company.

Coaching benefits

Numerous studies demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of coaching at different levels.

An academic research paper by Suzy Wales in 2010 explored the experiences of a group of managers participating in a coaching program.

On the one hand, the research concludes that coaching substantially increases the effectiveness of the links between personal development, management development and the effectiveness of the organization on which the process is applied.

On the other hand, it is shown that personal qualities such as self-awareness and self-confidence contribute to increasing assertiveness, understanding and stress management. Finally, it concludes that good communication is essential throughout the process for it to be effective.

Other research carried out in 2006 in the United States in an educational center indicates that the coaching process can be a means to raise the level of education because it contributes to improving professional development and encourages the transmission of greater learning by the teacher to the student.

On the other hand, Marshall J. Cook, professor and coach at the University of Wisconsin, lists a series of characteristics that are specified in the following benefits of coaching:

• Helps develop employee skills: It is important to understand that one success breeds another and instills the self-confidence that leads to high levels of motivation and performance in many tasks.
• Helps to diagnose performance problems: If the person does not perform with optimal efficiency, it is necessary to find out the reason for reaching the solution.
• Helps to correct unsatisfactory performance. Look for alternatives and solutions.
• Helps diagnose a behavior problem.
• Encourage productive labor relationships
• Focus your attention on providing advice: The coach can and should be a guide for the person through the obstacles that may arise.
• Provides Opportunities to Show Appreciation: Provides natural opportunities to praise good work and effort.
• Stimulates self-coaching behaviors: When counseling is given to face a challenge, the person is taught to understand how to deal with similar problems in the future.
• Improves performance and attitude: By allowing the coachee to take responsibility and take initiative in their life, their work, their relationships, etc.

Bibliography

1. KILBURG, R. DIEDRICH, R. (2007) The Wisdom of Coaching: Essential Papers in Consulting Psychology for a World of Change. U.S.
2. COUTU, D. KAUFFMAN, C. (2009) What Can Coaches Do for You? Harvard Business review.
3. WALES, S. (2010) Why coaching? Journal of Change Management.
4. RODHES, C. BENEICKE, S. (2006) Coaching, mentoring and peer-networking: challenges for the management of teacher professional development in schools. Journal of In-Service Education
5. CLUTTERBUCK, D. (2003) Creating a Coaching Climate. The Coaching and Mentoring Network.
6. BRITNOR, A. (1999) A Coach, a Mentor… a What? The Coaching and Mentoring Network.
7. BRITNOR, A. (1999) Coaching and Mentoring - A Strategy for Success. The Coaching and Mentoring Network.