By Kimberly Errigo, MA, MCC

“Everyone needs a coach.”  

–  Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

“Everybody needs a coach” 

– Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Alphabet and former CEO of Google, author of Trillion Dollar Coach

What is coaching? 

Coaching is a professional partnership between a qualified coach and an individual or team, either to develop or to achieve a specific goal. 

The process of coaching includes setting goals, creating success targets, and managing change. 

Coaching is distinct from other support professions. Therapy, for instance, deals with healing pain, dysfunction, and conflict. It often focuses on resolving difficulties arising from the past. 

In contrast, coaching focuses on resolving difficulties in the present and future. It supports personal and professional growth and requires action, accountability, and follow through from the client. Coaches do not diagnose. The goals in coaching are set by the client. 

Coaching is also distinct from consulting. Individuals or organizations retain consultants for their expertise. While consulting approaches vary widely, the assumption is the consultant will diagnose problems and prescribe and, sometimes, implement solutions.

With coaching, the assumption is that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks. Coaches will share their expertise when it’s appropriate to do so, but we don’t lead with it. 

Mentoring may include advising, counseling and coaching. A mentor is an expert who provides wisdom and guidance based on his or her own experience. But mentors also may do things that coaches don’t, such as making introductions or serving as a career development contact over a long period of time. 

Coaching also differs from training, primarily because training programs are based on objectives set out by the trainer or instructor. Training assumes a linear learning path that coincides with an established curriculum. Coaching is not set on a curriculum; rather it is customized for individual clients and not based on a linear course. While there are objectives in coaching, they are set by the coachee with guidance from the coach.

A significant amount of neuroscience research exploring the impact of coaching on the brain shows that coaching leverages neuroplasticity to create new positive neural pathways, which leads to sustainable change. Coaching builds capacity, not dependency, and reduces stress which leads to higher level thinking, empathy, and creativity. Coaching helps us integrate the rational and emotional parts of ourselves, which improves effectiveness in all areas of life.

What are the benefits of coaching? 

Data from 2014 ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study showed that 85% of adult clients who experienced a coaching relationship reported being satisfied with the experience. The top benefits for individuals included improvements in self-confidence, relationships, communication, and work/life balance.

In organizations, the top benefits identified included improvements in work performance, business management, time management, and team effectiveness. Organizations with strong coaching cultures report higher revenues and employee engagement. A growing number of organizations are discovering that professional coaching is a wise investment. Coaching has become a proven tool in leadership development because it delivers results by increasing effectiveness and empowering individuals and teams. There’s a strong new trend in leadership development today toward developing direct reports through coaching and less through command-style leadership. 

Who hires a coach? 

Coaches are hired by both individuals and companies. Major corporations such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Nike, Verizon and Coca-Cola Enterprises all use internal coaches as well as external coaches. Coaching is used to support and grow corporate culture, help new managers deal with complex job shifts, and fine tune leadership performance. Organizational and executive coaching topics include productivity and time management, team effectiveness and performance, leadership for high-potentials, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, succession planning, coaching competencies, mobility and transitions, company culture, and employee engagement.

Most coaches are hired by individual people just like you and me. They choose a coach because they want to make progress toward a personal or professional goal, feel stuck or unhappy with the progress they are making on their own, and understand that there is “nothing broken”--they just  need new skills or awareness in order to be successful. Life coaching topics include personal discovery, self-confidence, relationships, communication skills, work/life balance, goal-setting, and support for action, accountability and follow-through. 

Introducing California Coaches 

California Coaches is the only independent Chamber of Commerce for professional coaches in California. Starting with my dream of having a holiday party with colleagues in Santa Cruz, we incorporated as an official 501(c)6 in 2019. Our members offer every type of coaching, including corporate, nonprofit, life, leadership, parenting, and business coaching.  We host an online Coach Directory which you can view at WWW.CALICOACHES.ORG. 

AUTHOR: Kimberly Errigo, MA, MCC

Kimberly Errigo is an award-winning executive leadership coach and trusted adviser to entrepreneurs and C-level executives at top companies around the world. She is a subject matter expert in learning and development, coaching, transpersonal psychology, applied neuroscience, and conscious leadership. Kimberly has been a coach for more than 20 years, and volunteers her time as the Founder and Executive Director of California Coaches, the only independent Chamber of Commerce for professional coaches in California. www.calicoaches.org