He helps us to clearly set goals and successfully achieve them. It is not surprising that over a few years that have passed since the appearance of coaching in Russia, this method has managed to win many supporters and cause many hot disputes.
There are moments in life when we are looking for a person who can help cope with a difficult situation, determine the goal and suggest the right way to achieve it. As a rule, we count on the support of loved ones and friends, but today we have at our disposal the skills and experience of professional coach. They help people equip their lives, resolve conflicts in the family and at work, achieve professional success – in a word, live a full life.
Interest in coaching in Russia is growing rapidly: this type of service is offered by training and consulting companies, psychological centers almost in all major cities. “He wanted – set a goal – achieved” – such a formula not only bribes his directness, but also raises a logical question: is it really so simple?
The English word Coach is translated literally as “coach”, “mentor” – the one who leads to the result, to victory. For many years, the ideas of coaching have developed in the world of sports achievements. It was here that its principles were formulated: concentration on their capabilities, and not on past mistakes, disclosing the potential of a person to achieve the best results.
They turn to the coach when subjectively experiencing the feeling of a “ceiling”, stops, loss of life fuse
At the end of the last century, coaching as a practical method came to business. “The main area of coach work was the development of leadership qualities that allow you to give birth to ideas and inspire other people in business,” says Leonid Krole, director and leading coach of the class training center,. And now Cuching has come to the sphere of individual assistance, the development of “life”, “personal” direction began – lifecoaching.
“They turn to the coach when subjectively experiencing the feeling of“ ceiling ”, stops, loss of life,” continues Leonid Rabbit. – Those who are important to develop further are addressed “. And “life” coaching promises them help. “This method is suitable for very different people,” says Svetlana Chumakova, Russian representative of the International Coaching Federation (ICF). – It is from here that its paradoxical definition arises – “therapy for healthy”.
The method of life coaching helps those who solve a specific life problem, seek to take a certain bar: pass exams, resolve the conflict. The coach is not an expert in life, but an attentive and qualified interlocutor who helps to clarify the goal, to make the right decision for these circumstances, to develop an effective and flexible behavior strategy for such situations in the future.
From the client’s point of view, the strongest side of coaching is to orientation to a quick and tangible result. However, the main reason for the vulnerability of this approach is the same: it is well known that even local difficulties – for example, the inability to change housing or work – often hide the deep problems under them, roots that go into the past of a person.
“Life coaching does not work with the past (as psychotherapy does), it is focused on modeling the future,” continues Svetlana Chumakova. – The main task is formulated as follows: “What to do to achieve the goal?”, Not” why I can’t achieve what I want?”.
Coachs do not offer to ignore the past, for them it is a kind of starting position: how I – the way my nature and my unique life experience have made me, can live and act further in these circumstances?
“Psychotherapy allows you to get to know yourself better, but deep changes do not always suggest external changes in the behavior or lifestyle of a person,” said the psychotherapist Margarita Zhamkochyan. – Life coaching, on the contrary, is aimed at quick correction of behavior, but does not specifically affect the deep injuries that interfere with moving forward. These are two different ones, complementary approaches “.
Sometimes the new method is compared with short-term types of psychotherapy: transactive analysis, gestalt therapy, psychological counseling. However, they are fundamentally different. “Instead of a psychotherapeutic task,“ help you understand ”, instead of studying the problem, its causes and mechanisms, life coaching solves the problem“ help to achieve ”, allows a person to take into account his difficulties to achieve the desired result,” says Svetlana Chumakova.
“Coaching exists at the junction of training, psychological and business consulting,” explains Leonid Krol. – And this is not just “three in one”, but an alloy of special value, which allows you to simultaneously achieve spirituality and practicality, in the right proportion, affecting the corresponding strings of the human psyche ”.
Despite the growing demand for coach services, their work is criticized from various sides. The main claim is that life coaching is not a clear definition and not controlled discipline. “Passion for this method led to the emergence of hastily trained“ specialists ”who do not live up to customer expectations,” said the British business consultant, one of the creators of the business in business, John Whiter.
“The term“ coach ”itself leaves uncertainly the level of education and training of a specialist, to whom we trust our life, work, career, relations with others,” Andrei Rossokhin, psychoanalyst and the coach of the French Business School Insead support him. “There is a high risk that, working with a coach, we will hear a person’s advice made only on the basis of his own life experience.”.
To get the right to be called a coach, a person must undergo serious training and receive appropriate diplomas
“Life coaching really
recruits specialists from those who“ made himself ”, managed to achieve his life goals, understood how he did it, and is now ready to help others find his own way of changing life,” says Margarita Zhamkochyan. But, in order to get the right to be called a coach, a person must undergo serious training and receive appropriate diplomas, certificates, certificates confirming his education. As a rule, the basic formation of life coach – psychology, pedagogy, medicine. Among them are many practicing psychotherapists.
“In the West, the professional community is more developed, and customers have the opportunity to check the reputation of a specialist,” continues Svetlana Chumakova. – Our community only develops, and among consultants there are unprofessional people. The International Coaching Federation has adopted the Ethics Code, where it is clearly said what can and what the coach cannot do. But in each case, everything remains on the conscience of a particular person “.
How not to be mistaken? “Watch, ask, be interested in the recommendations of others,” Leonid Krol advises. – listen to yourself, your intuition, subjective first reactions. Be prepared to change the coach and leave, even with a small, but positive experience. “.
Coaching takes place in several stages. At the first meeting, the client talks about what he wants to achieve. The coach helps to clarify the goal (sometimes it turns out that the true goal is completely different). The rules of interaction and duration of the course are established. At the following meetings, obstacles to the goal, resources are analyzed, the achievement strategy and specific steps are formulated.
The client independently implements the intended and from time to time turns to the coach for support. The duration of the work depends on the client’s request: on one meeting to several months, when communicating once a week or once every three months. The first meeting is always full -time, and then communication can go by phone, Internet.
For many in Russia, psychotherapy remains not understandable enough, and therefore does not cause confidence. Moreover, the idea that a mentally healthy person does not need the services of a psychotherapist, often does not allow us to resort to the help of a professional even when we feel the need for this. Perhaps it is these features of national mentality that stimulate interest in life coaching – a method whose main properties are an energetic pragmatic approach and lack of medical associations. However, the possibilities of coaching should not be overestimated – he cannot replace psychotherapy.
“Coaching does not work out psychological problems as such,” warns Margarita Zhamkochyan. – The psychotherapist is subtly adjusted to the client, capturing the slightest movements of his soul, and the coach will provide an emphasis on the implementation of the plan and does not go into details that in many cases non -animal ”.
According to Andrei Rossokhin, the coaching method is useful mainly in the professional sphere: it helps top managers to better understand themselves, motivate and support their subordinates. He is also useful to those who are at the beginning of the career path and want to develop qualities in themselves, which will allow to prove themselves as efficiently as possible.
And, of course, coaching should not replace existing professional directions of assistance to a person, in particular psychological counseling. The main thing is to make sure that you have an experienced professional who has special knowledge and is able to help you.
The method developed by American coach Robert Dilts helps to realize and clearly formulate the goal. If the final formulation of the goal is positive (“be a good speaker” instead of “not to be a bore”), if it develops abilities and is combined with other life guidelines, then this is the goal that you can safely start moving.
