There has been a lot of talk about coaching recently, as if the word ‘coaching; could replace any verb. “I screwed up with the project. But my boss will coach me!” Modern fortune-tellers and tarot readers have changed their business cards to “life coachers.” A pay rise, promotion, love. How to get friends? How to fall in love? How to choose new glasses? Coaching is the answer to everything. It’s hard to believe that coaching also has a professional face …

At Coacherto, we don’t choose glasses. We know that coaching is a profession that requires specific know-how, and has its own quality standards and self-monitoring mechanisms. Moreover, this professional sector is growing extremely fast. According to an International Coaching Federation study, the professional coaching industry in 2019 numbered 71,000. practitioners, an increase of 33% compared to 2015 (Source: https://coachingfederation.org/blog/international-coaching-federation-releases-2020-global-coaching-study).

So what is professional coaching?

According to ICF, the largest global organization that sets the standards for the coaching profession, coaching is “a development method in which the coach supports the client in a creative process that inspires to maximize personal and professional potential.” Coaching allows one to broaden one’s knowledge, increase efficiency and improve one’s quality of life. Some of the areas that can be worked on through coaching include time management, stress management and changing habits. Coaching is therefore a method of development. What makes it different from other methods?

First of all – goal orientation and specific change. Coaching not only starts the learning process, but helps to translate it into actions that can be taken in a given situation. First of all – goal orientation and specific change.

Second, coaching respects the client’s autonomy. A professional coach supports the coachee in solving problems on his or her own, does not advise him or her and creates activities for him or her. As a result, the changes developed in the coaching process are authentic and lasting.

In practice, coaching is independent, change-oriented development work under the guidance of a coach.

What is coaching not?

First, coaching is not therapy. Deeper problems, such as depression or trauma, require intervention by a psychologist or psychiatrist. The coach does not have the appropriate preparation to help overcome deep psychological problems. Therefore, in accordance with the ICF Code of Ethics, he or she should refer the person in need of therapy to an appropriate specialist. If you have a psychological problem, therapy should be the first step and you may consider coaching at a later stage.

Second – it is not a training. The content and program of each training is prepared by the trainer. The training process involves the transfer of knowledge from the trainer to the learner. Coaching is based on the co-creation process under the guidance of the coach, but the coach does not impose the process agenda, should not issue recommendations or advise the client what he or she should do.

Third – coaching is not mentoring. In the mentoring process, the mentor guides the mentee’s steps, because they themselves have been in a similar situation and have the appropriate knowledge and experience. Mentoring is a worthwhile relationship, but it is different from coaching, which helps the client find their own answers so that they can take responsibility for their decisions. In practice, coaching is often combined with elements of mentoring.

Finally – coaching is not image consulting or any other type of consulting. Nor is it a set of ‘psychotricks’ or ‘psychopatents’ developed by mad scientists’.

Coaching is real, wise, difficult, but effective work. For magic one can go elsewhere.