{"id":1054,"date":"2016-12-07T21:43:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T21:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rachel.we-are-low-profile.com\/blog\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2017-12-07T11:58:24","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T11:58:24","slug":"learning-about-coaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rachel.we-are-low-profile.com\/blog\/learning-about-coaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning about coaching: reflections of a trainee coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few months, I have been training with Deb Barnard<\/a> &\u00a0Rivca Rubin<\/a> on the RD1st Relational Dynamics Coaching & Leadership course. As trainers, Deb & Rivca\u00a0often work with clients like\u00a0<\/span>Arts Council England and the Clore Leadership Programme and I was selected (alongside 3 other artists from across the UK) to receive a bursary\u00a0from a-n The Artist Information Company<\/a> to support my attendance and accreditation.<\/p>\n

I’ve found the course really stimulating and challenging – a process of un-learning and re-learning many things that I had previously taken for granted. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be posting some of my reflections on what I have been learning about coaching.<\/p>\n

Image credit:<\/strong> Coaching<\/a> by NY<\/a> –\u00a0CC BY-SA 3.0<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

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For a quick definition of the different types of coaching, take a look here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is a coach?<\/h2>\n

As an arts professional and educator, the position of coach as a facilitator of learning is a useful and interesting starting point. Through the practice of listening and careful questioning, my role as a coach is to help coachees to identify and elicit their own solutions to the challenges they face.<\/span><\/p>\n

Training in RD1st techniques has confirmed my belief that individuals always have the answers to their own problems, but can often benefit from working with someone else to help them to more quickly and effectively identify answers and work out ways to act on these insights. In this sense, personal empowerment comes from within the individual, and the coach is there simply to speed up and concentrate this process – the focus of our sessions is on unlocking this potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image Credit – CC0 – Public Domain via wikimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What is the difference between a coach & a mentor?<\/h2>\n

The key skill of the coach is not as \u2018subject expert\u2019 (drawing on specialist knowledge in a specific field), as \u2018mentor\u2019 (reflecting on own professional or life experience) or as \u2018trainer\u2019 (instructing in specific procedures or techniques) but instead rests in asking the right questions<\/strong> to help the coachee work through their own challenges, behaviours, thoughts, ideas and potential solutions. In this way, the coach uses their communication and questioning skills to provide a much needed space for the development of the coachee\u2019s own self-awareness, critical and strategic thinking, and devising their own individual, sustainable practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coaching is a process that is rooted in the present<\/strong> – the here and now – rather than focussing on the future (mentoring \/ career development) or past (counselling \/ therapeutic interventions). It is about moving to the next stage by identifying and solving immediate problems or issues. The 200% relationship between coach and coachee, where both minds and attention are focussed on the coachee\u2019s situation (2 x 100%), allows the coachee to:<\/span><\/p>\n