A definition (concept)Coaching likes and agrees with is provided by Leadership Connections:
"Timothy Gallwey in his series of books on “The Inner Game” is very clear: “Inner Game coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance; helping them to learn rather than teaching them”. And Sir John Whitmore in “Coaching for Performance”, probably the best single book available about coaching, says that “building awareness, responsibility and self-belief is the goal of a coach”."
Leadership Connections then goes on to define coaching at four levels:
- "First, coaching is a belief system; coaches start from a position of believing that people have the ability to address and resolve their own issues if they can approach them in the right mental state."
- "Second, coaching is a leadership style, which seeks to keep ownership of issues and problems with the individual responsible for their resolution."
- "Third, coaching is underpinned by a set of tools and models (for example the GROW problem solving model)."
- "Fourth, there exists a coaching skill-set which, skilfully deployed, can support coachees through the coaching experience."
(the above definition is courtesy of http://www.leadershipconnections.co.uk )