What is Coaching?

Coaching is a form of learning, where Coach supports a Coachee in order to support and create learning and self-development in a way that benefits them.

Coaching is a confidential conversation, or series of conversations between the Coach and Coachee. The Coaches role is to facilitate a conversation, using their Coaching skills in a way that will benefit the Coachee in order to support their learning and progress.

Coaching helps the individual to set goals and develop strategies in which the Coachee can take action and achieve their goals.

Why do people have Coaching?

People enlist the services of a Coach because they want to improve their situation and achieve goals. They want to learn new ways of thinking and ways of approaching situations, in order to get better results. Common goals might be becoming more organised and effective at work, gaining confidence in certain situations or simply relating to people more effectively.

Coaching starts from a positive premise that you are building on ability, not ‘fixing’ something that is wrong. In this sense it is a success model, not a deficit model!

A skilled Coach uses a combination of observation, questioning, listening and feedback to create a conversation rich in insight and learning. For the Coachee they will experience focus and attention that will enable them to develop a greater awareness and appreciation of their own circumstances.

In addition they’ll also create new ways to resolve issues, produce better results and generally achieve their goals more easily.

Common benefits people experience from Coaching include:

Improved sense of direction and focus

Increased knowledge of self/self awareness

Improved ability to relate to and influence others

Increased motivation

Improved personal effectiveness and confidence

Increased resourcefulness/resilience e.g., ability to handle change.

Coaching is not any of the following:

- structured training classroom learning

- therapy

- a way of someone else solving problems for you

What you can expect from your Coach?

The role of Coach provides a kind of support distinct from any other. Your Coach will focus solely on your situations with the kind of attention and commitment that one rarely experiences elsewhere.

Your Coach will listen to you with a genuine curiosity to understand who you are, what you think and generally how you experience the world. Your Coach will reflect back to you with the kind of objective assessment that creates real clarity. During conversations, your Coach will encourage you to rise to challenges, overcome obstacles and get into action.

A Coaching relationship is like no other, simply because of its combination of objective detachment and commitment to the goals of the individual.

Because the relationship is based on trust and openness, the contents of your discussions will be confidential. Where a third party had requested the Coaching for you, we will agree with you the best way to keep them involved or updated. Your coach will not feedback any details of the coaching to anyone else.

What your Coach will expect from you

In return the Coach will encourage you to stay committed to the Coaching process. That means showing up for sessions, taking your own notes, where appropriate, and keeping any agreement you make during sessions.

In addition your Coach needs you to be open to the potential of Coaching. That means contributing to conversations honestly and openly. For example, if something isn’t working, your Coach needs to know. If you have concerns or problems, voice them. If you know why a problem is occurring, say so. The strength and power of Coaching relates strongly to the level of openness and trust between the Coach and the Coachee

The coaching process usually takes consists of 6 x 1 hour to 1 hour sessions. The gap between sessions will be agreed together and it will relate to the actions the Coachee will be taking in between sessions.

What you need to do next

If you would like to sign up for coaching please email coaching@essex.ac.uk. Whilst it is not compulsory for your line manager to refer you for coaching it would be preferable if your line manager knows of your request in order for them to support you. Once we receive your email we will respond with a list of available coaches so that you can let us know who your preferred coach is. We will then put you in touch with your coach so that you can make the necessary arrangements for your first coaching session.