According to the International Coaching Federation (ICF), coaching is a partnership with clients ( individuals and teams ) in a thought-provoking, creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

To accompany through coaching, the coach uses his/her skills and tools : he/she focuses on what the client says and does not say, to support self-expression and exploration; he/she facilitates the client's insights and learning using questions, silence, metaphors, analogies ...

But why should we undertake a coaching path?

Coaching leads first of all to an increase in our self-awareness .

Thanks to it, you can become more aware of everything, potentially! Of your emotions , your thoughts and your behaviors , and how they combine with each other to create recurring patterns; of your needs, priorities, values and goals ; of your strengths and the skills to be nurtured .

Thanks to coaching, each of us can discover new worlds and new ways (of exploring, thinking, doing ...).

But coaching does not only increase self-awareness: it can also be a valid support in increasing awareness of others . Coaching can help us to fully understand their language , emotions, patterns... to evaluate the impact that our behaviors can have and to choose , consequently, what to do (and how to do it), to get closer to the impact we desire.

How many times have we behaved in a way that was not aligned with the needs of others (listening little; giving little recognition; taking all the limelight...) and then felt frustrated because we did not receive their collaboration when we needed it? How many times have we remained still, waiting for others to do it, because "it was right this way", because "they had to think about it"..., ending up with nothing?

Coaching offers us the opportunity to reflect before acting , to reflect on why we are not acting; to define constructive strategies; it supports us in recognizing and training ourselves to manage our emotions, to develop our communication skills, to create healthy and satisfying personal and professional relationships (and opportunities).

This is how the coach, through questions, feedback and other tools, accompanies the client (individual and team) to transform awareness, learning and intuition into actions.

Coaching releases power . Coaching releases potential. Coaching sets us free, … by emphasizing the present (the oft-cited “here and now”), accompanying us to find and keep the focus.

Coaching uses the past as a life lesson : it does not pretend to resolve what has already happened, which is, in fact, past, gone, closed, on which we can no longer act .... Instead, it allows us to look at the past to draw useful learnings for our today, at the service of a conscious construction of our future .

It helps us understand how to proceed one step at a time , verifying the effectiveness of our actions and the adequacy of our resources with respect to our objectives, thus allowing us, gradually, to reach our goal, or, to discover, one progress after another, new perspectives, new goals more relevant to us.

Try to imagine being on board a high-speed train: sure, you will arrive at your destination quickly , but what will you notice along the way? Will you enjoy sightseeing? Will you discover any intermediate destinations that might be worth visiting? Will you have enough time to enjoy the journey?

No.

On a regional train , however, you may feel impatient . But you will have the opportunity to observe the many panoramas that follow one another; you will be able to see how they change, enjoying the inspiration of the multiplicity of scenarios and perspectives. You will be able to decide that, perhaps, an extra stop to explore, might be pleasant and be useful. You will be able to choose with greater clarity.

But there is a catch.

Before starting a coaching journey , it is necessary to agree on mutual responsibilities (a key theme in the coach's skills).

As a coach I remember it every time: I can accompany you or your team to see that there is a door, to discover how to open it with the tools available, to check for obstacles and identify how to overcome them... but the final choice to open the door and cross the threshold is up to you alone. This, for me, is the beauty of coaching: promoting the autonomy of the client, creating Independence, because each of us has our own tools , we just need to want to discover them and put them into action!