M-CIDA

Markku

Coaching &

Individual

Development Academy

Are you ready to progress together?

Arto

Kimmo

Heidi

Petri

Tomy

Risto

Diana

Anne

What is coaching?

Put simply, coaching is a process that aims to improve performance and focuses on the ‘here and now’ rather than on the distant past or future.

While there are many different models of coaching, here we are not considering the ‘coach as expert’ but, instead, the coach as a facilitator of learning.

There is a huge difference between teaching someone and helping them to learn. In coaching, fundamentally, the coach is helping the individual to improve their own performance: in other words, helping them to learn.

Good Coach

Good coaches believe that the individual always has the answer to their own problems but understands that they may need help to find the answer.

John Whitmore, in Coaching for Performance:

Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.

The ‘Inner Game’

The essential part of coaching, then, is to help people to learn to silence that inner voice and allow their instincts, or their subconscious, to take over. Sometimes that means distracting it, and sometimes it’s about exploring the ‘worst case scenario’ and removing the fear.

The term ‘coaching’ means many different things to different people, but is generally about helping individuals to solve their own problems and improve their own performance.

It doesn’t matter whether coaching is used in sport, life or business, the good coach believes that individuals always have the answer to their own problems. They just need help to unlock them.

Coaching vs. Therapy

A common misconception is that coaching is the same as therapy, when in fact they are quite different. Therapy is intended to help people recover from emotional or other psychological disorders such as depression or anxiety. Coaching, on the other hand, is intended to help normal, healthy individuals achieve personal goals such as increased happiness, weight loss, improved work-life balance. etc.

The table below shows a quick side-by-side comparison of coaching vs. therapy

Coaching

Client is emotionally and psychologically healthy
Focuses on the present and future
Driven by goals and taking action
Works toward a higher level of functioning
Results-based and focuses on exploring solutions
Asks, “Where would you like to be and how can you get there?”
Acts on information
Done over the phone, internet or in person
Coach and client collaborate on solutions
Contact between sessions expected (accountability and wins)

Therapy

Client is emotionally unwell and in needs healing
Focuses on dealing with the past
Driven by unresolved issues and feelings
Works to achieve understanding and emotional healing
Explores the root of problems and offers explanation
Asks, “How did that make you feel?”
Absorbs information
Done in an office setting
Therapist is the ‘expert’
Contact between sessions for crisis and difficulties only

We are happy that our content is also used in books, journals, teaching materials, training resources, web sites, blogs and student assignments globally.

About M-Cida

Founded in July 2010, M-Cida is a new and expanding web-service. We are based in the heart of Kuopio, a part of the Finland. With years of experience in education, both face-to-face and through distance learning, we believe we know the skills needed to help improve people’s lives, both professionally and personally. We are a independent business, researching and writing our own materials.

Our Aims and Objectives:

To offer a service accessible to all.
To produce and publish high-quality, well researched and easy-to-read information about essential life skills.
To stay up-to-date with current affairs, trends and research, and to reflect this in our content.
To develop links with education providers and other relevant bodies.