Definitions of Coaching

A selection of definitions:

“Unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them”

(Whitmore 2003)

‘In general, coaching is the process of helping people and teams to perform at the peak of their abilities. It involves drawing out people’s strengths, helping them to bypass personal barriers and limits in order to achieve their personal best, and facilitating them to function more effectively as members of a team.

Thus, effective coaching requires an emphasis on both task and relationship. Coaching emphasises generative change, concentrating on defining and achieving specific goals. Coaching methodologies are outcome-oriented rather than problem-oriented. They tend to be highly solution focused, promoting the development of new strategies for thinking and acting, as opposed to trying to resolve problems and past conflicts’.

(Robert Dilts)

“A collaborative, solution focused, result-orientated and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performance, life experience, self-directed learning and person growth of the coachee”

(Grant 1999).

“A professional partnership between a qualified coach and an individual or team that support the achievement of extra-ordinary results, based on goals set by the individual or team “(ICF, 2005)

‘Coaching is a process limited to a specific period of time that supports individuals, teams or groups in acting purposefully and appropriately in the context they find themselves in. The coach supports clients in achieving greater self-awareness, improved self-management skills and increased self-efficacy, so that they develop their own goals and solutions appropriate to their context.’

(EMCC)

“Coaching is about developing a persons' skills and knowledge so that their job performance improves, hopefully leading to the achievement of organisational objectives.

It targets high performance and improvement at work, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s private life. It usually lasts for a short period and focuses on specific skills and goals.”

(CIPD 2009)

"A collaborative solution-focused, results-orientated and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performance, life experience, self-directed learning and personal growth of the coachee."

(Anthony Grant, University of Sydney, 2000)