Life Coaching Value in Plain English

“My mom is a life coach,” I heard my ten-year-old telling his friend, as they were chatting in the backseat on the way to the swimming pool.

“What’s that?” The boy asked.

“She talks with people about life,” my son explained and I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

Is it really what he thinks I do? Should I try to set the record straight? But the boys were ten. My son’s definition of my profession was likely all they needed to know at that age. The real question was not how to explain coaching to my kids’ friends, but rather to my kids’ friends’ parents. I didn’t want other adults to think I was some kind of fraud or charlatan.

So what is life coaching? Of course, there is the official wording, which defines coaching as a professional partnership between a coach and a client, where the coach helps the client to reach their goals and maximize their potential through a creative and thought-provoking process. Even though the above definition might be clear to any coach or someone who has already experienced coaching, what does it really mean for someone who has never thought about working with a coach to maximize their potential and reach their goals? The truth is, it is likely nothing more than some eye-roll-triggering mumbo-jumbo.

So as the boys were splashing in the pool, I was lounging on the pool chair and brainstorming how to explain the value of coaching in plain English.

In the end, I decided to leave it to my clients. What did they think the essence of coaching was? What was the value of life coaching to them?

It turned out that for some coaching was related with accountability. Having an accountability partner in the coach, or working with the coach to identify other accountability sources was key to their success.

According to others, the coach served them best as a sounding board. Talking to the coach who really listened without judgment, and hearing the coach repeat or paraphrase things back to them helped them find clarity and pinpoint inconsistencies or limitations in their thinking.

There were also those who valued coaching because everyone who wanted to succeed had a coach. Look at the top athletes, celebrities, or CEOs. The coach was always on their team, ready to support them and champion them.

As much as I appreciated all the insights, I still wasn’t sure if they fully clarified coaching to a coaching novice. How should someone know that they would benefit from hiring a coach?

And here I got stuck. Was coaching one of those experiences that remained enigmatic until experienced? If I led with that, I am sure people would start rolling their eyes immediately.

So I thought about it more. All my clients, including myself, were skeptical about coaching at the beginning. But we were also curious about it and gave it a try.

So if you are curious how coaching works and if coaching is something for you at this time, come talk to me. Let’s have a coaching session. The first one is on me. No question or dilemma are too trivial for coaching. We all feel stuck, anxious, frustrated, conflicted, and overwhelmed sometimes. Why deal with it alone? Sometimes we just feel like we don't know what to do. And that's when coaching comes. It helps to know what to do NEXT.