What is the goal of coaching?, part 1

Reza Hossein Borr, London,6.10.08

After years of studying almost all books on coaching and writing a book about coaching and giving many lectures and presentations and writing dozens of articles on the subject of coaching I have always thought about finding a definition that can be short and up to the point and at the same time manifests a concise and comprehensive definition. This is my definition:

The goal of coaching is to trigger thinking creatively to generate alternatives. This definition has four key words and I would like to devote a short article on defining each key word which is related to coaching. The definitions may be sometimes general; however, they are inclusive of the meaning of coaching. The first word is trigger. This word has a mechanical meaning and it is a device that is pulled in a gun to release a shot. In coaching, it means to begin an action. The action may be a reaction to another invent or initiating a new action. The coach is the person who prepares the ground to initiate this process.

In this case I intend to use the word, trigger, to initiate the process of thinking, generating thoughts, various thoughts and sometimes contrasting thoughts. In coaching, the coach acts as a leverage that pushes and pulls a mental string that creates purposeful thinking. The coach has to create a culture of thinking in the client. We know, the people mostly react in most cases. Reaction is instinctive and is designed to protect a person and therefore it relates more to survival. Thinking in coaching is intended to create better and more purposeful response to get better results.

People can learn to naturally and unconsciously initiate the process of thinking or they can decide to deliberately wait for a moment, reflect, pull the leverage of a mental activity and target it to a very specific outcome. There are some people who can do all these in matter of seconds unconsciously and naturally and there are those who need another mechanism to initiate the process of thinking through pulling a trigger. Once the trigger is pulled, thinking begins to generate its purpose.

The whole purpose of this article is to create a situation in which the trigger for thinking happens automatically, unconditionally and naturally; specifically when there is no time for thinking. There are urgent situations that need urgent actions. Thinking fast is a skill that can be mastered. This is called trigger forming. This is also a skill that can be learnt initially deliberately with a planned mechanism that will end up in automatisation. The skill of the coach depends on how he can automates the process of thinking purposefully to start from the beginning and finish at the point where an alternative is found for the present state or behaviour.

To trigger thinking instead of reacting instinctively is the way forward for calculated responses and answers. We know this is not an easy task but we also know that this task is within our resources and abilities if you are a coach, working as a life coach, executive coach or a mentor. If you can stop instinctive reaction you have began the greatest reorganisation of your life. If you respond after a short reflection with five senses active in silence, your response will be more promising and your profession as a coach will be more prosperous and at the same time, you will enrich another person with the skills of initiating thinking for intended results.

Reza Hossein Borr is an NLP Master Trainer and a leadership consultant and the creator of 150 CDs and 14 Change management models. He is also the author of Manual Success, Manual of Coaching and Mentoring, Motivational Stories that Can Change Your Life, and a New Vision for the Islamic World. He can be contacted by email: sarawani@aol.com www.rezaaa.com