What is executive coaching?
In its broadest meaning coaching covers a wide range of communication styles from a directive style of giving instructions and telling people what to do, to a more non-directive style based on active listening and asking questions. It is the non-directive approach to coaching which most professional coaches adopt as the foundation stone to their own coaching practice.
Non-directive coaching is a process of supporting and challenging the ‘client’ to think through their own ideas, issues, or problems. As such this form of coaching is neither teaching nor advising. At the heart of non-directive coaching is the coach’s skill of asking questions which serve to raise the client’s own awareness of the topic under discussion. For example questions which encourage the client to consider and analyse all options, or questions which challenge the client to question their own opinions or views.