There are some questions that seem like
we don't have an answer to.
These questions keep lingering in the dark,
creeping out at us.
I don't like these types of questions.
Which is why, today,
I'm walking the dangerous territory
to answer a question everybody is scared to ask.
Too overdramatized?
Hi, this is Ajit Nawalkha and today
I'm answering the question
what is coaching?
The question is so often asked,
Harvard Business Review did a survey on it.
Which brought me to this point.
As the co-founder of one of the
leading platforms for coach training,
I wanted to clear the air.
Coaching is a new profession
which is why there is a slight confusion
about what it really is,
what are the rules,
what is right,
what is wrong.
Firstly, if you ever have to explain
coaching to a friend, a family member
or a random person on the street,
here is how you can explain it.
A coach is someone who helps you
imagine a greater possibility for yourself
and then supports you in achieving it.
In summary, that is what coaches do.
That is what coaching does.
As coaches, our job is to help our clients
dream a greater possibility for themselves
and then help them in whatever way
possible to achieve it.
Coaching often gets mixed up with
the more established professions like
therapy or consulting.
So to make coaching really clear,
let's understand what consulting is
and what therapy is.
Consulting for one is the art
of looking at analytical data
and being able to make recommendations
to your clients to be able to get to a particular result
or to solve a particular problem.
Or as Don Cheadle explains it...
Consulting is like dissing a really pretty girl
so that she'll want you more.
We need them to think they're almost perfect
so we can put that after work.
It's not that bad.
Consulting is a multi-billion dollar industry
and has helped companies for decades now.
Therapists, on the other hand,
deal with past life trauma.
They aim to create behavioral change
by working with the past life events of their clients.
Let's just say it can get a little intense.
That guy is a total loon.
I cannot talk about my clients,
cannot talk about my clients.
Therapy has been long recommended
to deal with phobias or any dysfunctional behaviors,
addictions and such.
So that's consulting and therapy.
Coaching is neither of them
but borrows from both of them.
Coaching doesn't require you
to be a therapist
or a psychological expert.
It also doesn't require you to be
some analytical genius
or outrageously successful.
Coaching focuses on the future.
Individual's future.
It opens a conversation about the possibilities
that lie in the future.
It works with the client
in being able to see this possibility,
it then uses the talent of the client
to create a path to get to this possibility,
further helping the client
to make this possibility a reality.
This is done through various techniques
that are borrowed from therapeutic practices,
consulting practices,
training practices,
and philosophy.
A coach is sometimes a teacher
who would share philosophical insight
through metaphors, stories, and case studies
to inspire insight in the clients' mind.
A coach sometimes is a consultant
who would ask questions and
ask the clients to go deeper
to be able to find that path
that will take them from their current reality
to the possibility that lies ahead of them.
A coach sometimes the therapist
who inspires behavioural change,
so the client can keep making progress
to create a better future for themselves.
To explain this further,
I want to show you a short clip from a movie
that explains coaching a little bit more.
It's a mess.
You must feel horrible.
You've lost everything.
Your father, your tribe, your best friend.
Thank you for summing that up.
Why couldn't I have killed that dragon
when I found him in the woods?
Would have been better for everyone.
Yep, the rest of us would have done it,
so why didn't you?
Why didn't you?
I don't know
I couldn't
That's not an answer.
Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?
Because I want to remember what you say right now.
Oh, for the love of...
I was a coward.
I was weak.
I wouldn't kill a dragon.
You said wouldn't that time.
Okay, whatever, I wouldn't!
300 years and I'm the first Viking
who wouldn't kill a dragon
First to ride one though.
So...
I wouldn't kill him because
he looked as frightened as I was.
I looked at him and I saw myself.
I bet he's really frightened now.
What are you gonna do about it?
Probably something stupid.
Good but you've already done that.
Then something crazy!
That's more like it.
In this clip you might have noticed
that the protagonist comes to a conclusion
by answering a few questions.
It's a simplistic view,
but it explains the idea of coaching.
That is what we do as coaches.
That's what coaching is.
We show up for our clients,
we open up the space
to create possibilities
or show them the possibilities
that lie ahead of them,
Then we support them
in approaching those possibilities
and creating those possibilities,
and live a life that they always desired.
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Thank you for watching
and have phenomenal day.