The power of coaching

“Varied experiences and deep insights from years of coaching certainly enriched my learnings and have caused me to pause and reflect.

The International Coaching Summit 2019 held on 8 November in Conrad Manila, the biggest event held so far not only in Southeast Asia but in the entire Asia Pacific region, has been glowingly and unabashedly described by 500 plus local and foreign attendees as “phenomenal, world class, classy, very well organized, inspiring, a cut above the rest, excellent, one of a kind.”

Indeed, for a coaching newbie like me, the summit was almost like an spiritual event of sorts that turbo-charged my desire to be fully engaged, empowered and excel in coaching, the theme of the day-long event top-billed by renowned international coaching gurus and executive panelists who testified to the wonders of coaching.

Coaching is a topic that I have previously written about a number of times in the past fueled largely by an “AHA!” moment that I personally experienced about a year and a half ago when I first attended a condensed version of a coaching program organized by the Financial Executives of the Philippines.

That event whetted my appetite and led me eventually to undergo a full-blown training program with Benchmark Consulting under the tutelage of Julius Ordonez, the man I call the Jedi Master and who I consider is largely responsible for spreading the good news about coaching in our country.

But attending this coaching conference and listening to the international gurus who intimately shared with us their vast knowledge, varied experiences and deep insights from years of coaching certainly enriched my learnings and have caused me to pause and reflect.

With apologies to the coaching experts, I would like to offer my own thoughts of what the good news of coaching is all about.

The good news, which is the “aha” moment of a person being coached, can be summarized simply as follows: all of us, without exception, with the appropriate guidance from a coach who is fully attuned and connected to us and whom we can fully trust and be open to, have the transformative ability within ourselves to effect change in the way we think and act on our perceived issues or concerns that grip us in our everyday lives and professional careers. That is the power of coaching.

And how can a coach harness this power to effect change? Surprisingly, I have realized that there is really no particular magic potion that a coach needs to brew to be effective. It is simply a matter of having the patience to listen, to be emotionally sensitive, to have empathy, to connect and to be gently inquisitive enough to be able to ask a “powerful” question. In coaching parlance, a “powerful” question is what could bring about an “aha” moment, the discovery by the coachee on his own terms of what might be the answer to his gnawing concerns.

It is the complete opposite of what we are naturally inclined to do, whether as a boss or as a parent, which is to tell, or direct or, worse, to nag our subordinates or loved ones on what we think they should do.

This power is premised on the belief that all of us have the potential to effect change in ourselves, in how we think and how we behave. The role of the coach is merely to facilitate and to be a partner in the journey to change.

You would think that such a simple approach should be widespread. However, in the Philippines, according to a research conducted by leading international consultancy firm Kanter which was commissioned by Benchmark Consulting in 2018, the practice of coaching is still very much in its infancy stage.

To wit, only 3 percent of the estimated seven million middle- and upper-class Filipinos between the ages of 21 to 64 have received some form of coaching. That’s a little over 210,000 people out of a population of 108 million, which is a shame given the tremendous impact coaching can have on the lives of Filipinos.

It is in this spirit and the desire to ignite a new awareness of coaching that the International Coaching Federation Philippines (ICFP) organized the International Summit 2019 under the guidance of ICFP Founding President Julius Ordonez and the overall leadership of incumbent ICFP President Alma Horn.

Julius, in his introductory message to the delegates, pointed out that… “we, Filipinos, have yet to fully discover how the different facets of coaching can benefit the many aspects of our lives… and have yet to integrate coaching in our country into our ways of doing and being, so it becomes a way of life.”

And in his closing remarks at the end of the summit, Julius further noted that “… the challenge now is how to have a better self, leader, coach, person… to make a difference in our homes, workplace, communities, our country, and in the world.”

I must say, well said, Julius and kudos to all the volunteers and fellow coaches who made the summit a resounding success! I pulled aside Julius after his closing speech and I half-kiddingly told him that maybe we should begin to form a party-list for Coaches for the Philippines and have him elected to Congress! Hmmm… the power of coaching… why not?