What is the difference between a coach and a good friend?

Some people wonder how having a coach is different from having a friend and perhaps you are one of those people. You might think I have lots of good friends and a partner surely I can talk to them. Of course you can talk to people yoou know and there are some similarities between a coach and a friend. A coach needs to be someone with whom you have rapport. If the rapport is not there then you will not trust them and will consciously or unconsciously hold back what really needs to be said. There, however the similarity ends.

A coach's role is to work with a person's essence. So if you are the client then the coach uses tools to see who you can really be and to help that shine through as so often it is hidden. One of the ways of doing that is to really engage with you so that the underlying issues/ feelings are heard and brought out onto the table. Listening is a key skill in all this and what this means is focusing one's whole attention onto the client rather than thinking what shall I say next. In this way a coach is in service of their client. Also a degree of anonymity helps this process, as friends may see you as a particular kind of person and hold you in that space rather than seeing all of who you can be.

What can coaching do for you?

The purpose of this blog is to introduce you to coaching with me. Since starting my own company I have realised that despite the proliferation of coaches in the global marketplace, there are still many people that have very little idea what coaching can do for them. Perhaps because they are not clear on the benefits of a good coach, they also tend to see coaching as a non-essential extra that they may fit in when they have time.

From my perspective, coaching is an exceptionally valuable tool. Its purpose is to help individuals move forward from wherever they find themselves at that current moment. For example earlier today I was working with a very well known consultant and trained psychotherapist who has over 35 years experience coaching and consulting to consultants. His feedback at the end of the telephone session was that I had freed him up and taken him to a more creative space in which to prepare for a big event later this week. In other words coaching helps individuals reach their full potential and to live and work from that place by moving forward from the present.