Athletic Coaching: Not the Best Analogy, from ChristianCoachingMag.com

by Jerome Daley, ACC, DPM

New professional coaches don’t get very far into the industry before they learn one important fact: They are not only in the coaching business; they are also in the education business! At least half of our marketing efforts (and perhaps 10% of their cumulative business hours) involve educating people on what coaching is and what it isn’t. Which is vitally important.

Think about it… Even fields as established as therapy and consulting can be difficult for a non-practitioner to describe accurately beyond a sentence or two. But as a relatively new profession (roughly twenty years old), coaching is more often than not misunderstood and misconstrued. And unfortunately, the most public perceptions of coaching (via television and the news) are often skewed by personalities more into marketing themselves than accurately reflecting the guidelines of the International Coaching Federation.

Industry Standards

Yes, there actually is an industry watchdog (www.www.coachfederation.org) that establishes competencies and certifications for the industry. We are not regulated by the government (as counseling is), so any person who considers themselves a coach can print up business cards and hang a shingle. They may be a quack, or they may be quite gifted…but even if their services are valuable, they may still skew and misrepresent what coaching actually is!

Any time we hear about a new product or service, we instinctively run a quick mental search for anything comparable to use as a base for understanding. And generally, the first image to pop up in people’s internal search on the term “life coaching” is…athletic coaching! It’s understandable. Many people have had a sports coach in school, and practically everyone has watched a football or basketball coach on TV, yelling passionately from the sidelines. We know what that kind of coach is…and easily project that image onto life coaching.

But this analogy is not particularly helpful, and here’s why…

1. Athletic coaches control the agenda. When an athlete elects to work with a coach, he or she signs up for the coach’s agenda. There is no question that the coach is in charge, and the coach is going to run their program whether you like it or not. You can participate, or you can leave…but your personal agenda typically carries no weight in this context.

In contrast, life coaching places the agenda for the relationship and for each coaching conversation 100% in the client’s hands. The coach’s mandate is to carry no agenda and to draw out and facilitate the agenda of the person they are coaching. This takes a lot of discipline for coaches! It’s easy to begin wanting things for the client that he or she may not want for themselves. The skilled life coach will constantly monitor themselves to refrain from subtle agenda projection and will instead keep putting the initiative back in the hands of the client.

2. Athletic coaches are directive. It’s part and parcel of coaching a sport. The coach tells the athlete what to do, and the athlete does it. Rarely, if ever, does a sports coach ask the team what drills they want to run or what measures to use in evaluating success. Both action and evaluation belong to the sports coach alone!

In contrast, life coaches will not generally direct any of the activity of their clients. Instead, they will ask the client to define the goal, to generate options, to evaluate those options, and to ultimately make a decision on their course of action. Then, and only then, will the coach hold the client accountable. And the reason this accountability is so powerful is that it is the client’s own decision that’s driving the process.

There are occasions where the life coach will make a specific request in order to challenge and stretch the client; this is initiated by the coach—who is an active participant in the relationship—but the client remains in the driver’s seat. Once the client decides, they take ownership of that decision and are much, much more likely to follow through than if the coach had generated the decision for them.

3. Athletic coaches rarely utilize the fundamental skills of a life coach. The most essential skills of a life coach include active listening, powerful questioning, and movement facilitating. Dozens, and often hundreds, of training hours go into refining these simple but powerful skills so that a top-notch coach can unlock a client’s vision and propel them forward in life!

In contrast, athletic coaches rarely tap into this particular skill set. Instead, they must have their own compelling vision and be able to inspire, motivate, and direct their athletes toward their own vision. They may listen, they may ask a question, and they will certainly require movement…but it’s a different ballgame entirely. A good game (if they are a good coach), but a different game.

Congruencies and Distinctions

There are some genuine overlaps, of course, between athletic coaching and life coaching. A sports coach may be deeply vested in the success of his or her athlete; a sports coach may help their “client” uncover latent potential and excel beyond their past performance; a sports coach may be intuitive and “co-create” disciplines and strategies together…but this last one is less common. Another point in common is that, in both cases, it is the person being coached who has to do the work; the coach can’t and shouldn’t do the work for them. The gain only comes when the “client” fully engages, owns the process, and does the hard work necessary for personal progress.

In the field of personal development, the athletic coaching analogy correlates much more closely with consulting or mentoring than with life coaching. Even there, the analogy breaks down, but in the case of life coaching, the analogy doesn’t even really get started. And this is a fundamental “aha” moment that we can reinforce in our own spheres of influence by representing the profession well.

For organizational leaders, this calls for some disciplined vocabulary so that we don’t mix metaphors and confuse those in our charge. When we mean to describe the dynamic of bringing more experienced leaders alongside younger to guide them toward organizational objectives, let’s use the word “mentoring.” When we mean to describe teaching Christ-followers Biblical principles and applications, let’s talk about “discipleship.” When we’re looking for an expert in a particular field to impart their specialized knowledge and experience, then we’re talking about “consulting.” But for clarity of thought and perception, let’s not use the word “coaching” to describe these other valuable services.

Jerome Daley is a Leadership Coach and consultant, author of five books, and publisher of Christian Coaching Magazine. www.purposecoach.net

©2009 ChristianCoachingMag.com, Used by permission.