How to choose the right coaching course

Coaching courses are aimed at those who intend to enter the coaching profession. However, in order to choose the right one, it is necessary to get to know them closely: only in this way will it be possible to understand which, among all of them, is the coaching course most akin to one’s goals and skills.

What is coaching

Coaching is a path to develop a person’s potential.

The coach helps the coachee develop his or her potential, increase self-confidence, and identify a goal to achieve (personal or professional). By focusing on the “here and now,” rather than the past or distant future, coaching aims to improve personal performance. The coach does not teach, therefore, but helps to learn. Regardless of the type of coaching, the focus is always on the individual and the path is always personalized.

How to choose the right coaching course: the main types

There are mainly four types of coaching:

• Executive Coaching;
• Career Coaching;
• Organizational coaching;
• Life Coaching.

Executive Coaching

Executive Coaching is designed for those in leadership positions (directors, executives, managers). Highly specialized training methodology, helps managers improve their leadership style, manage conflicts with the team, and cope with new roles. It proves especially useful when the leader:

• struggles to achieve business goals;
• Must plan new strategies;
• Is called upon to deal with change;
• wants to improve his communication style and relationships with the team.

During one-on-one sessions, the coach offers the coachee an opportunity to reflect and develop a personal awareness of his or her strengths, helps him or her work on weaknesses, and helps him or her resolve issues he or she is experiencing in his or her role.

Career Coaching

Career Coaching is aimed at those who are at the beginning of their working careers, or those who want to change their professional goals. The purpose of Career Coaching is to help the coachee become aware of his or her skills so as to identify market opportunities most akin to the skills he or she possesses.

Through Career Coaching, the worker can learn to:

• Cope with role changes and grow professionally;
• working as a team;
• Improving one’s performance;
• Achieving challenging goals;
• Making important career decisions.

Organizational Coaching

Organizational coaching is a type of collective coaching: it does not target the individual, therefore, but the entire organization. His purpose? To help the company initiate a process of change and development toward defined goals by working on its potential.

Through organizational coaching, the company can:

• Overcoming problems;
• Initiate a process of change and/or development;
• Improving the performance of managers and executives;
• Develop the skills of its employees;
• To enhance the potential of individual workers;
• Improve internal relations.

Life Coaching

Life coaching supports people who wish to achieve some form of significant change in their lives. Life coaches therefore help the coachee to:

• To understand what he wants from life;
• Defining attainable aspirations;
• find answers and ways to achieve his goals;
• Understanding and enhancing its potential.

Who can be a coach

In Italy, the coaching profession is not regulated. Therefore, it is not necessary to have a specific educational qualification, nor specific requirements, to perform it.

Once you have identified the type of coaching you want to study in depth, you need to attend one of the many active coaching courses nationwide, such as those in collaboration with Phyd’s experts, in order to train properly. In fact, they teach the personal development methodology with which to support the client in achieving a given goal.

Choosing a training program recognized by the most important reference associations (ICF – International Coaching Federation or AICP – Italian Association of Professional Coaches) is therefore the first step to effectively, successfully and professionally carry out the coaching profession.