The different types of coaching: what you need to know?

This is the first of three central questions to ask yourself when you are thinking about coaching. 

1. What is coaching?

What are the different kinds of coaching?

2. Is coaching for me?

3. How do I choose the right coach?            

What is coaching?

It’s often described as “The most fascinating conversation about you, you are ever going to have”, which I love, because it’s so true, so often we don’t make the time for this type of self-discovery - coaching offers this space. 

A client recently described me in the context of being their coach, “You’re like a thought facilitator, a guide that helps me explore my thoughts, hopes, dreams, and my stubborn dark side – the bit that holds me back that I don’t always want to acknowledge or see…  Sometimes I hardly know you are there, doing anything, other times you’re right there, challenging, provoking me…”.  That kind of sums up my style of one-to-one coaching. 

So many coaches, so many kinds of coaching:

I’ve borrowed this diagram from Hawkins & Smith (2018) sharing the Coaching Continuum that broadly explains the different types of coaching which you can directly relate to the level of commitment, depth of learning and personal exploration, time required and type of questions, goals and dilemmas that might bring you to coaching.  It’s a decent starting point to get a feel for what you might need.

 (Tschannen-Morren, 2018; Jackson & Cox, 2018; Smith & Hawkins, 2018 In Bachkirova et al., 2018) 

I coach (and I continue to be coached – coaches have coaches too!) at the developmental and transformational end of this continuum.  I’ve coached and been coached at the skills and performance end too, they serve a purpose, for the right people at the right time in their career.  I’m comfortable and at my best as a coach at the other end, probably because that’s the space I’ve experienced the most significant aha moments, shifts, realisations, and ultimately sustainable change.  One-to-one developmental and transformational coaching has been the most accessible, proactive, accelerative, and bold work I’ve done for me to build my self-awareness, esteem, confidence and really get to know myself, so I guess that’s what brought me here.  It’s true that we get to a stage in life where it becomes more important to be able share ‘your thing’ with others, than keep it to yourself.  I’m comfortable and at my best as a coach in this space.  To be able to work through ‘stuff’ with people, I believe you need to have worked through it yourself and know what that can feel like.  I haven’t walked in your shoes though; I don’t claim to walk in your shoes but I can guide you on your path and you can decide which shoes are for you.

Perhaps you feel a bit stuck, overwhelmed, rudderless or a bit lost.  Perhaps you’ve had some feedback which you don’t agree with but ‘know’ you need to explore a bit more.  Perhaps you’re on a fast track and need to harness your amazingness and keep moving up.  Perhaps you’re a bit disenchanted with what on the face of it is a great life and that’s stirring up some unhelpful and unwanted behaviour patterns.  Perhaps you’re a bit like me and on your journey have become ready to accept ‘It’ (whatever it is for you), discover the lessons, let go and move on with a new perspective; get out of your story and feel alive.  A tell-tale sign is being a wee bit sick of your own shizzle, same old patterns.  You might feel like many of my clients, somehow bored and overwhelmed at the same time, but still ploughing through, still delivering, making bonus, no-one’s really caught on to it yet, you just ‘know’ something needs to change, but don’t have the headspace to figure it out.  This can play out literally anywhere and everywhere, in relationships at work and home, lower energy levels and loss of joie de vivre, trigger-happy reactivity, mixed-up self-perceptions.  Words often used here are heading for burnout, disengaged, stressed, work-life-balance, imposter syndrome – I’m cautious of any labels and encourage you to avoid labelling yourself, it’s rarely helpful.  Let’s work with what you’re directly experiencing and shift it.

The types of stuff that we’d be likely to discuss would be more about you and how you interact within your wider world.  Your beliefs, frames of reference, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and assumptions that make up you and got you here today.  We’ll talk about what’s working and what you’d like to change.  Let’s be clear, you’ve come to coaching because you want something to change!  

Working with you in the developmental and if you’re up for it, the transformational space you will dig deep.  You will have to really explore your beliefs about yourself and others, your emotions, thoughts, and feelings – this is not as simple as finding a goal, upskilling, and making an action plan.  I can help you reconnect with yourself, what you want and how you want to achieve it, find the authentic you and how you translate that into your work and your relationships.  I’m not a ‘life coach’ but we do go beyond the workplace; it’s about you - your whole self.  This is where you develop, this is tailored personal growth and it can be transformational.  This type of one-to-one coaching over the past few years has been the best investment I’ve made in myself, and I see it working for others progressively compounding self-awareness and building change, improving wellbeing, self-perception, and valuable contribution.

This is not magic.  It is not black-art and voodoo.  It’s you.  I’m helping you to help yourself.  I create a space, we create trust and I facilitate your thoughts, carefully and thoughtfully guide your exploration, and support you in making steps towards the changes you want to make.  I don’t have a set of things you need to do; I work with you as you are in each session and flex my skills to be in your service.  Obviously, you’re not daft, there’s a lot more to it than that, but this is my craft that I’ve worked hard to develop and somethings I don’t need to share with the wider world; it’s between you and me.  It works, read my reviews….

Back to the different kinds of coaching:

There are so many, and I keep finding new versions: life coaching, career coaching, cognitive behavioural coaching, NLP coaching, Gestalt coaching, business coaching, resilience coaching, ontological coaching, executive and leadership coaching, psychodynamic coaching, somatic coaching, yoga coaching and the list goes on.  I’m no expert in all of these, some I have studied as part of my Masters in Coaching, some I know little about.  There is a wealth of information on the internet that will help you decipher the pros and cons of each (please consider the source of your information).  Just remember every coach brings something different to even the most established genres of coaching.  So much of coaching comes down to the relationship of coach and client. 

The actual coaching:

Within the continuum there are so many ways to deliver coaching.  One-to-one, small group, large group, teams and a hybrid or combination of the above.  Corporate, that is sponsored by your organisation and private, commissioned by you personally.  Groups can be an already formed group or a collection of different people who don’t know each other at all, seeking similar things.  Coaching can be tailored programmes for the individual, specific groups and teams or it can be a pre-set ‘step through’ programme that you are taken through.  Sometimes programmes are offered in live time sometimes it’s offered virtually, more in the ‘skills/training’ realm at your own pace, sometimes it’s a hybrid.  Coaching can be one-to-one and completely eclectic, going where the client goes and working with their unique self.  All are valid, but not all may be right for you.

What is a coaching programme?

Good question.  It’s a term that seems to be used in a couple of ways.  One, to describe several sessions you might invest in with no predetermined, pre-set agenda or outcomes; could also be called a ‘block’ of coaching sessions, which can be one-to-one, group or team, but more often one-to-one.  I use ‘programme’ in this way.

Programme could also be more literal, an actual programme of pre-designed, pre-set sessions and objectives that you are taken through; in session 1 you cover part A, session 2 part B, and so on.  These are often 7 to 12 sessions, themed around a particular area, e.g., improving self-confidence, leadership skills or banishing imposter syndrome and the likes.  They often offer a solution or method to help you and are normally varying sizes of groups of people who don’t know each other and so they may also be marketed with an adjoining support group.  I often see these programmes, attached to ‘upgradable’ options of one-to-one packages and programmes and additional ‘in programme purchases’ of courses, events, masterclasses with the coach(s) too.  In my experience of ‘programmes’ (I’ve done a few) I found myself a sales funnel, lots of calls to action with time limited pricing offers, one-off events and upselling.  Again, in my experience, I’ve never found the solution to anything in any ‘step through’ programme.  I have learned some valuable stuff, met some great people, and felt good, but for me, they didn’t get to the nitty gritty and I was looking for the nitty gritty – horses for courses.  I’ve been through the continuum of coaching, and I’ve been in the step-through programme marketing funnels too, not just in coaching per se, but other industries and interests.  So, if it’s really horses for courses.  How do you know what’s best for you?

Ask yourself 3 questions:

What are you searching for?

What do you expect from your coach?

What’s bringing you to coaching - what do you know that by the end of our coaching time together you will have changed?

Review your answers to these questions along the coaching continuum:

Do I need additional technical skills?

Is this about my performance, defining goals and working harder and smarter?

Am I seeking a quick fix solution?  (Does that exist?)

Am I in the personal growth, deeper development realm? 

Am I in the transformational space; do I want to understand me, am I asking some more existential questions of myself?  Do I need to make some significant changes?

Then ask yourself what type of experience feels right:

A one-to-one uniquely tailored coaching experience?

A group ‘step through’ set programme?

Your probably saying, ‘Right, got all that - I think I know what I’m looking for, how do I find the right coach for me?”  Lucky for you, I have already fallen down some deep rabbit warrens and had some ‘rather interesting’ experiences by not asking myself that very question.  In a “How do I choose a coach?” journal I’ve suggested a few things you might want to consider when choosing a coach - you’re welcome!  Discernment is a gift you can give yourself. 

Why am I sharing all this.  3 reasons, firstly I totally believe that coaching is powerful, so much of what we want to achieve and ability to achieve it is in our heads and I think it’s virtually impossible to access that on our own.  Secondly, I’ve spent a fortune on ALL the coaching, fallen down so many rabbit warrens and wish I’d had more knowledge, so I naturally want to share that.  It’s not black art and voodoo, but there are choices, and the more transparent we professional coaches are about coaching the more accessible it becomes.  Thirdly, I hope you like the cut of my jib, and want to get in touch to experience coaching with me; I always insist on a complimentary Chemistry Session with no obligation on either part.  If you fancy a chat: gill@gillcalearycoaching.co.uk, 07702719003 and lots more on www.gillcalearycoaching.co.uk

Bachkirova, T., Cox, E., & Clutterbuck, D. A. (2018). The complete handbook of coaching. Sage.