Coaching is a broad church that incorporates the search from personal fulfillment through life coaching to tackling specific professional issues. Having addressed How to Choose a Coach, in the second of this two-part series, Noel Clerkin of Inspiring Potential looks at the different forms of coaching and identifies when they are appropriate.

People talk about the benefits of coaching but there are several different styles available that all fit beneath the coaching umbrella. These include life coaching, business coaching, executive coaching and transformational coaching. If you are considering hiring the services of a coach (or coaches) for yourself or for your organisation, you need to understand the differences.

Life coaching
Life coaching tends to be offered by individuals for individuals. Usually the client will pay from their own pocket in order to get help with personal issues. These issues could be related to a number of areas in their life such as health, finances, career direction, relationships, spiritual and personal growth. Clients may come to life coaching when they feel stuck in a rut or where they feel their life is drifting. The coach will then begin to explore more fully what the client wants, in order for them to feel more fulfilled, before progressively helping them to get there.

Business coaching
Business coaching and executive coaching are frequently confused but the distinction is fairly straightforward. Business coaching tends to focus on the goals and directions of a business. Usually a business owner or manager will use this type of coaching as a way of having an external sounding board to talk about plans and ideas for the business. It is possible that the personal issues of the owner/manager will get addressed if they are seen to be getting in the way of the progress of the business. For example, an entrepreneur might have issues about stepping back from the running of the business but he or she may be causing more harm than good by not doing so. Here, a business coach would seek to demonstrate the impact of this on the business and would deal with ways in which the entrepreneur could loosen his or her grip. Another example of business coaching is where the vision, mission and purpose of the business are explored so that they become crystal clear to those in charge.

Executive coaching
In executive coaching the focus is purely on the needs of an individual in their work context. Unlike life coaching, the coaching programme is usually paid for by the employer for the benefit of the employee. It is possible that coaching is offered to several employees at once as part of an overall leadership development programme. In some cases the sponsor of the coaching (the HR department, CEO or senior director) will seek to have some input into the goals of the coaching for the executive. The types of needs which executive coaching can respond to can vary greatly. We have worked with employees to help them with anger management issues, organisational skills, self-confidence and presentation skills. We have also worked with managers who have been promoted into a new role and need support for the first few months as well as working with ‘high potential’ employees at a more junior level.

Conventional coaching approach
The conventional approach in the types of coaching mentioned above is typically as follows. The client identifies the areas of their life that they would like to improve in order to be more successful in a particular context. The coach will ask questions which help them to identify what sort of outcomes they are really motivated by, before exploring options that the client can take to reach their destination. The focus is therefore on the actions that the person can take to move themselves forward.

Transformational coaching
Transformational coaching looks at the beliefs that form the basis of the client’s reality. Some of these beliefs can be useful or empowering but many of them can be limiting. It is common to hear executives say “I’m really not that good and one day my company will realise that I am only faking it!” or “I’m not as smart as my colleagues.” These beliefs then form an invisible boundary which the client is comfortable operating within.

However, the person may be capable of achieving much more which could bring them a greater sense of satisfaction and at the same time help the organisation that they serve. The job of the coach is to identify the boundaries and the underlying beliefs that make them up before helpng to transform them. Also with this type of coaching there are conversations around values and how these influence the client’s outlook and behaviours. For example, if you have a strong value around independence then you will always find it unnatural to be managed closely. As a manager you may therefore have a very hands-off approach which will work well for some of your employees although others may view you as being disinterested in them! It is therefore hugely informative and ultimately transformative to have these types of conversations.

The ‘transformational’ approach to coaching can lend itself to life coaching, executive coaching, business coaching or any other type of niche coaching. Usually when a person develops a new perception of who they are, their behaviours and actions transform automatically to reflect this new perception.

The author: Noel Clerkin is co-founder of coaching and leadership development firm Inspiring Potential.