Whether you are training to be a coach, or a professional coach in your practice, you’ve got to get and give coaching + training.  So whether you are evaluating coaching training programs, or formulating your own coaching practice, it takes both. Here is what I mean.

To Learn Coaching, You Must Get and Give Coaching

I admit there is a lot of “book learning” that goes into becoming an expert coach, but there is also personal and skills development that require getting coaching and giving coaching. It’s a little like thinking you can become a surgeon by reading books. Besides coaching also involves a lot of personal development that can only come from being coached. So you see that coaching + training are both necessary. As a guideline, a coaches training program should involve weekly strategy and accountability coaching from master coaches. Also students should coach and be coached by other the students. The students should be divided into groups of, say, 6 and each day you should coach and be coached by a fellow student. Without this level of master coaching and student coaching, you are only getting book learning, and that is just not good enough.

Coaching + Teaching Are Both Integral to Your Success as a Coach

You simply cannot be an effective coach without teaching your clients about themselves, others and areas of expertise. A great deal of coaching is drawing out your client using questions and intense listening. Besides getting and their true feelings, you also get them to hear the message from themselves and in their own voice. This makes the message more credible. But if that is all there is to your coaching, all learning must be done using a purely Socratic method, which can be very time consuming. So reserve that approach for insights and self-realization, and teach external facts, like the steps in writing a business plan, using more of a presentation style, that is more of a regular teaching style.

So here is the Lesson to Act On

Coaching + teaching go hand in hand whether you are preparing to be a professional coach, or designing your own practice. Look for a large amount of coaching and being coached in the program that you select. When designing your own methods, rely heavily on questioned-based coaching. But when you have to convey objective facts or techniques, use a teaching approach. It’s the balance that will bring you and your clients the best results.

Hope you took some great value out of this post today! I’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts or questions. And also, you can click on the Twitter button below to retweet this article…Thank you!

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach