I just celebrated my tenth year of Coaching. When I was asked by an executive over ten years ago the following question, “Are you a Coach?” My first response was “in what sport”? I coached almost every sport known to man since I had three very active children so I immediately told him that baseball was my favorite and softball was a close second. He then said that Coaching was now one of the growing professions in business and I should look into it.
I researched the profession and found that there was formal training for Coaching. I ended up choosing an online program called Coach U because the focus of the program was on business application, rather than a life coach, which complimented my business consulting firm. I spent the next 18 months learning the competencies, skill-sets, and practices that would make me a great executive coach and officially became a Certified Business Coach. Later on in my career, I took certification programs in Performance and Small Business Owner Coaching since I was dealing with small business owners and top producers in industries that required immediate results.
I find that Coaching is much more well known today than it was ten years ago, but the term continues to be applied more frequently as a verb and not a noun. Coaching is not the same as mentoring, counseling, or managing. Business Coaching appears to have replaced the term business consulting but I still find the two totally separate. Business Consultation focuses on the effectiveness of the organization and Business Coaching focuses on the individual, whether it be an executive, manager or future leader.
Read: How to Make Choices as a Team
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