J.R. Briggs

Coaching: what it is – and what it isn’t

July 22, 2011

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When I first heard someone say they were “coaching someone” I immediately thought they were referring to sports.

But life coaching intends to help people who are stuck get “unstuck.” Leaders need help navigating the bigger, significant steps regarding vision and decision-making. Sometimes the issues at hand can be complex enough. What is needed is a caring ‘outsider’ who is given purposeful permission to probe and poke and encourage and cheerlead and challenge leaders who desire to grow.

What was most helpful for me in understanding what a coach is and what a coach does was when I someone explained how coaches differ from other people helpers.

• A mentor is someone who tells you what he/she did.
• A teacher is someone who tells you what to do.
• A coach helps you do what you want and need to do.
• A spiritual director helps you do what God wants you to do.

Here’s a visual that helped me grasp the differences:

All are important and all play a very unique role in helping people navigate life. Leaders like to tell, but coaches ask. For a very clear distinction between a mentor and a coach see Dr. Bob Logan’s post here.

Christian coaching helps you do what you want to do, with the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, most often in situations where the person is leading others. Clients who use a coach are more hungry than needy. Christian coaching involves a deep dependence upon the Holy Spirit asking “What is God saying here in this situation? Can we trust the Holy Spirit to ‘teach and remind’ us through this opportunity?”

I also found that there is a significant difference between coaching and counseling.

• Counseling helps one look back in the past to help navigate the present.
• Coaching helps one to be ‘in the moment’ by looking at the present situation to help navigate the future.

Here’s a simple equation I’ve learned with coaching:

HS  x [ D + A + R ] = T

The Holy Spirit  x [ Discovery + Action + Reinforcement ] = Transformation

More to come in the next few days…

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