1. APPLICATIONS OF COACHING:
Before we dwell into the realm ofcoaching applications, it is important to understand
“what is coaching” and who can be qualified as a coach broadly speaking.
Coaching is a widely-used term with various meanings, depending on the situation.
The term coaching typically refers to methods ofhelping others to improve, develop,
learn new skills, find personal success, and achieve aims and to manage life change
and personal challenges. Coaching commonly addresses attitudes, behaviors, and
knowledge, as well as skills, and can also focus on physical and spiritual
development too.
Coaching is a form of training or teaching, normally involving one-to-one support
(a coach and a learner or 'coachee'), aimed at helping a person improve, often in a
very practical sense. In this respect it could be said that coaching differs from the
training and teaching of groups focused on knowledge transfer and theoretical
application.
A coach may be a person in any of these situations:
A manager or supervisor
A workmate or 'buddy'
A trainer or teacher
A friend or relative
An external trainer or consultant working for a small or large company
A self-employed trainer or consultant
or a self-employed 'coach' -specifically operating as a 'coach' ofone type or another
Coaching can be used (Applied) for various purposes.
Performance coaching. Coaching activities here are aimed at enhancing an
individual’s performance in their current role at work, to increase their
effectiveness and productivity at work. Generally, performance coaching
derives its theoretical underpinnings and models from business and sports
psychology as well as general psychological theory.

2. Skills coaching. This form of coaching focuses on the core skills an employee
needs to perform in their role. Skills coaching provides a flexible, adaptive,
‘just-in-time’ approach to skills development. Coaching programmes are
tailored specifically to the individual and are generally focused on achieving a
number of skill development objectives that are linked to the needs of the
organization.
CareerCoaching. Coaching activities focus onthe individual’s careerconcerns,
with the coach eliciting and using feedback on the individual’s capabilities as
part of a discussion of career options. The process should lead to increased
clarity, personal change and forward action.
Personalorlife coaching. This formofcoaching provides supportto individuals
wishing to make some form of significant changes happen within their lives.
Coacheshelp individuals to explore what they want in life and how they might
achieve their aspirations and fulfil their needs. Personal/life coaching generally
takes the individual’s agenda as its start point.
Business coaching. Business coaching is always conducted within the
constraints placed on the individual or group by the organizational context.
Executive coaching: One to one performance coaching is increasingly being
recognized as the way for organizations and individuals to improve
performance. By improving the performance of the most influential people
within the organization, the theory goes that business results should improve.
Executive coaching is often delivered by coaches operating from outside the
organizationwhose servicesare requestedforan agreedduration or number of
coaching sessions.
Team facilitation: Coaching in its role as facilitator is particularly valuable
during the budget and strategy planning season. And coaching a team before

3. a presentation can dramatically improve performance – as well as self-
confidence.
Work shadowing: As well as being a means of identifying an individual's
behavior and performance, work shadowing is an excellent method of getting
immediate feedback on behavior, with a discussion of alternative ways of
handling future such situations.
The Applications of Coaching across Cultures Cultural differences can cause
immense frustrations and represent a real mystery to many of us. When understood
and used constructively, however, these differences provide a remarkable source of
richness forinteractions, learning and growth. Integrating the cultural dimension into
coaching is not only necessary to increase coaching’s validity and applicability in
today’s intercultural environment. It is also an opportunity to learn from alternative
cultural perspectives about crucial areas such as communication, thinking, time,
power, identity, purpose, organization, or territory. Bridging coaching and
interculturalism leads to a more creative and global form of coaching.
The above are broadly some areas where coaching can be applied, and in fact be
extremely effective. Coaching is an extremely strong and solid tool to bring about
change, improvement, awareness and effectiveness in any situation and condition.
We must remember that coaching is distinctively different from being a “consultant”
“Trainer” “Mentor” or “Counselor”.
Consultants give you advice about what you should do and how you should do it.
Coaches support, challenge and encourage you, while you work out the bestthing to
do and the most effective way for you to do it.
Trainers teach you to attain a degree of proficiency in an activity or skill, in a short
time frame. Coaches are entrusted to supportyour development consistently over a
period of time.
Mentors invite you to learn from their own experiences, knowledge, and skills.
Mentors can also be coaches, working with you as a trustworthy sounding board but
unlike coaches they may also offer opinions or personal insights to support your
development.
Counselors look at the ‘why’ of a problem or issue from the past and present and
want to solve it and may give advice along the way. Counseling provides the client

4. with the opportunity to discuss what the client thinks about their problem. At times
there is a fine line between coaching and counseling as there are several skills that
are similar, however the role of the coach is different. The coach will focus on
creating measurable outcomes, and is action based.