What is Coaching? What are the Responsibilities of the Coach?

What is coaching? And what does it mean to be a good coach? How can you be a coach?



If you are wondering about this, then you are reading the right article, and today you will learn:

  • What is coaching?
  • Why do people hire coaches?
  • How can you be a coach?
  • and much more.

What is the purpose of the coaching?

What is coaching? Here we will explain the traditional school of thought in the field of coaching, and we will talk about the importance of the so-called coach offering advice, which helps clients get better, faster, and more sustainable results.

How to define coaching?

The traditional form of coaching is when the coach directs the student to learn by themselves. It is a very Socratic form of teaching, as the coach asks probing questions, such as “How do you feel about that?”.

The idea is easy. The coachees will find their own answers, without the coach directing them in any direction. It does not focus on the results the coachees get, but rather, it focuses on coaching itself. Coaching today is much more concerned with a mixture of coaching and consultation, or coaching that provides counseling, So, what does that mean?

As a coach, you guide someone to get the result they want, and instead of clients finding all the answers for themselves, you give them some answers so that they can get results faster. Also, you certainly train them to keep getting those results after they stop working with you.

When necessary, you can share your own experience to explain the types of results your client can get and how. For example, a weight coach might say: “I went through this myself, so if you want to lose weight at this point, this is what I recommend to you”.

While the old method at coaching has its benefits, the idea of coaching offering counseling is related to clients getting results much faster; This is why people want to work with a coach at the end of the day to help them get where they want to go.

Why do people choose to work with the Coaches?

There is 1.5 million search per month by people and companies searching for life coaches, business coaches, and executive coaches, and the number of search is clearly much higher for:

  • Helping them improve their health.
  • Enhancing their careers.
  • Developing their business.
  • Improving their way of thinking.
  • Reducing their stress.
  • Looking for a good relationship.
  • Making good financial decisions.
  • and much more.

So, the main reason people use coaches is because they want personalized support to achieve their goals, and as someone who has achieved that goal, you can help others reach it. If you have a website, feel free to use it and refer your clients to it whenever they question the value of coaching.

Coaching and Mentoring:

What is the difference between mentoring and coaching? After all, if both are related to the idea of supporting someone, what is the point of coaching?

You as a coach act as a mentor, but you are not just a mentor, you support, guide, and keep your students accountable, which is wider than what the mentor does, and in return, the mentor is the person who provides free support without any guarantee of how much help the recipients will receive, and it may take years to build a mentor relationship, which makes it less accessible to most people.

On the other hand, the coaches offer their services to everyone, and because it is a paid service, the students know how much support they can expect. Therefore, this is what coaching means, but what do the coaches do? And how do you become a coach and sell your coaching offerings?

What do the coaches do?

Being a good coach does not mean being more experienced in your field or in providing support. Instead, good coaching is to provide a journey from A-Z to your ideal clients; in other words, how you help people start from the starting point and get to the end point and how the final result looks like

For example, the relationship coach may provide a guide for men to find the right partner, or the professional coach helps clients stuck in jobs where there is no room to apply for their dream job. This is the basis for good coaching work, and the next step is learning how to coach; That is, how to guide your clients to the end point.

How do Coaches help clients succeed?

In order for the coach to help the client to succeed, it is necessary to follow the basics of coaching. There are 3 ways to help your clients as a coach to succeed, which are:

1. Providing actionable advices:

In this step, you make a monthly plan to map your journey from start to finish. Let's say you're a health coach, here's what your monthly plan might look like:

  • The first month: Helping clients to focus on food habits.
  • The second month: Maintaining those habits.
  • The third month: Adding an additional strategy that helps clients get better results.

This plan is particularly useful for new coaches who are developing their training skills, and who haven't helped hundreds of students yet.

2. Belief:

If you're thinking about something that you want to achieve in your life, you know it's very helpful to have someone by your side who has achieved the same thing. As a coach, your job is helping your clients believe that what they want to achieve is possible even if you can't guarantee their results; That's why clients hire you, as you're someone with experience to help them build trust in their own abilities.

3. Frankness:

As a Coach, you will have difficult discussions, and you need to be frank about what clients need to move forward; You basically help your clients discover what they have in mind to reformulate their ideas and get results.

For example, a relationship coach whose  client doesn't notice the results might say, “You've come to me to find the love of your life. We've outlined the steps, and the first step is to work on your self-love, and right now, you choose not to feel worthy of love or to find someone who respects and loves you”.

Is it something that most people want to hear? Absolutely not, but your job as a coach is to tell clients things even if they don't like them if that's what they need, and these are the basics of coaching, which will help you deliver great service to your clients. However, coaching also comes with some responsibilities for you as a coach, and that's what we're going to look at now.

Read also: 8 Skills that Make a Great Coach

The five responsibilities of Coach:

If you take these coaching responsibilities seriously and master each one of them, you will be a good coach, and remember, the better the results you can help your clients get, the better the testimonies and recommendations they will give you. This means getting more clients.

1. First Responsibility: Leadership

You show your clients what the plan looks like from the beginning, and with this plan, clients achieve the desired results.

2. Second Responsibility: Presenting the vision

You tell clients what's possible.

3. Third Responsibility: Directing

As a coach, that is a little bit like Google Maps for your clients. You help them plan the exact steps they need to take to get to what they want to get to.

4. Fourth Responsibility: Problem Solving 

If your client comes to you and says, “This isn't working for me, so what do I do?”Even though they have done the work that you two have planned together, it's time to show your problem-solving role. Here you use your expertise as a coach to come up with alternative ways to get results.

5. Fifth Responsibility: client liability

Your job as a coach is to hold your client’s liability. If they are frustrated by their lack of progress, you need to remind them of the results they want, and that they need to work to get what they want.

This is how you help your clients get the best results. Then how do you start your own coaching project?

Read also: 14 Efficient Coaching Techniques and Tools

How can you be a Coach?

Now, you have an answer to the question "What is coaching?", but how do you become a coach after that?

1. Step One: Find an offer

The first step is to find an offer to sell; what do you have experience with? What skills do you have?

It's about the results that you help people get, and the results that go beyond the expected result. Let's get this clearer: Have a look at Toyota and BMW. Toyota is a practical car that gives people the exact results they need to go from point A to point B with a powerful car. BMW, on the other hand, costs much more without likely providing a better result.

The thing is, the BMW goes beyond delivering a result; It delivers a result that exceeds the expected result; for example, for people who buy BMWs, it can be to show their status and show off by driving a luxury car, and the same applies to coaching, if you are only delivering results, the expected value of your offers will not exceed a certain level. So, ask yourself:

  • What will your customers get after they finish your program?
  • Who will your customers be when they achieve results?
  • Why do people want to buy your offer?

For example, health coaching clients want to be healthy, and definitely lose weight; however, most of them want to be attractive, not just healthy, and this is the result they may want.

Your client may have ideas or a picture of what they want to be, like an elegant and successful Chief Executive manager CEO who is always incredibly confident, a smart and wealthy person who knows exactly how to invest in their money, and as a coach, that's what you build your offer on.

2. Second step: Get your first paying client

After you get an offer, the next step is to get clients, and here's one of the most effective strategies for getting your first paying client:

Podcast Interview:

The strategy is clear: You're introducing the podcast and facing your audience, and if you're wondering why a podcast host wants to interview you when you start your show, the reason is clear; they're continually looking for new people to interview and get new and valuable information to share with their audience.

It doesn't matter if you're new to your business. As long as you're not new at what you do at work, this is how you can reach some of the clients who pay you.

In conclusion:

Now you know what coaching means, and as a coach, you help your clients get great results based on your skills and experience, and you can have a great impact while building a business that allows you to leave your current business.