Coaching is a high-performance tool that has been traditionally used to support sportspeople.
It now has become available to support anyone to achieve extraordinary performance in any facet of their lives.
Is coaching a gimmick?
Even if you have been a “casual” follower of sports, you would have probably heard of coaching in one way or another.
Although you may not be aware on what exactly coaching does, it is likely that you have a vague idea that it is deployed to help sportspeople win a game.
Thus, coaching is not something new. It is neither a hype, a fad nor a ‘passing cloud’.
Historically, it has been around for more than a century since the first Olympic in 1896 when winning gold medals was the yardstick used to measure the superiority of a certain race and nation.
Over the years, coaches and coaching have become increasingly entrenched in the lives of sportspeople.
Without their support, most sportspeople would become lost and aimless – almost like how a sailing ship would behave without its sail in the open sea!
How coaching become more accessible now
The ‘tidal wave’ of coaching broke into the non-sports world in the turn of the 21st century.
Its well-kept secrets and powers finally become available to support anyone in every facet of their lives – be it for personal growth, relationships, business, leadership or spirituality.
The non-sports world realised that the key principles of coaching – close partnering, goal setting, challenging, co-creating, game planning, tracking and monitoring – are most relevant in this competitive world.
People begin to see the value of having external partners to challenge, help and work ‘outside the box’ for innovative ways to manage their lives more powerfully to attain higher success and fulfilment.
Behind the scene today, more forward-thinking organisations and people are increasingly working with coaches to accelerate their performance in many areas.
It is a known fact that even famous and successful people like Bill Gates and Donald Trump work with coaches so that they can maintain their dominance in the field they are in.
Coaching has now become highly recognised for its influence and significance. Its growth is expected to continue for a long time to come.
Why is coaching so powerful?
Primarily, the powers of coaching lie in its ability to help people remove their self-limiting beliefs, strengthen their self-belief and put a powerful game plan in place to drive the right behaviours that will result in them making bigger wins in any area of their lives.
The uniqueness of coaching lies in its encompassing ability to support anyone; not only for poor performers to overcome their issues but also for high performers who want to achieve more in their lives.
Coaches, who guide others to achieve more in their lives, are simply leaders in their own rights.
Why people take up coaching?
More people are entering the coaching profession either to become self-coaches to help themselves, casual coaches to support their families and friends, workplace coaches to contribute to their organisational growth or professional coaches for the larger community.
Whatever the type of coaches they may want to be, they have these in common: a love for people and a great passion to help people grow to their fullest potentials.
Michael Heah is an ICF master certified coach with Corporate Coach Academy and a faculty trainer with Leaderonomics. To engage Heah for your organisational coaching support needs, email us at training@leaderonomics.com.
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