Coaching with someone in a very private, confidential place, that makes you feel safe and secure, is so powerful. Sometimes there is no one, and I mean no one that you want to share a problem with whether it is personal or professional.  I am always amazed at the reluctance of human beings in that we don't want to share what is going on for them. Once space is created in a coaching session for the coachee to share, they will, but the coach must build the rapport and safe space for the outcomes to occur.

In training, trainers give solutions, when people have coaching sometimes they expect the same, a solution. That is not great coaching; professional coaching is more about what is not being said. Coaching creates such different thinking in coachees. It is all about what you would like to be different, how you can look at things differently, creativity is the key.

I have a great experience at watching and listening and once the coachees feel comfortable to share what is going on for them, they will. They can create the miracle solution on their own. However, the coach will create the space and ask the right questions to create this situation.

So many managers don’t understand coaching, we have put together a fantastic ‘coaching skills for managers’ plus it is now a fundamental part of our management programmes. Furthermore, you can attend a two day PTT with the third day dedicated to coaching skills. This keeps the boundaries clear, and everyone who attends walks away saying “everything is so much clearer now”. I have learnt great training skills and excellent coaching skills. This is our aim to highlight the apparent differences and we at target love to train both.

Claire Moody is our head coach at Target Training and you can read more about her here.  She delivers training on coaching for managers courses, and you can read more about these courses here and see dates here.