The 9 skills to be a good coach

A summary of the basic skills to develop professionally in coaching.

There is a lot of talk these days about coaching, a discipline that is applied both in the personal sphere and in the world of business and sports. This methodology, which facilitates learning and promotes cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes, helps individuals and groups of individuals to enhance their development and transform themselves, generating changes in perspective, generating commitment and responsibility and increasing motivation.

Skills needed to be a good coach

Although there are many people who are dedicated to coaching, there are differences in the quality of the service they offer. The difference between being a good coach and a bad coach lies in a series of competencies that you can find summarized in the following lines. These competencies can be knowledge, personality traits, motives, attitudes or skills..

What skills should a good coach possess?

1. Empathy

The coach is a professional who, in order to do his job well, must understand the client's needs. For this reason, it is necessary to be empathetic with him/her and understand his/her situation in order to be able to direct the work sessions. The coachee (the coach's client) is the one who reflects on his situation in order to empower himself to change. The coach is a facilitator and a gentle discomforter who accompanies the client in a coach-coachee relationship generating understanding and trust.

2. Constant training

It is essential for coaching professionals to have an exhaustive training, which starts with self-knowledge and is never-ending, not only to know how to treat the coachee, but also to know the methodologies available to them to do their job well. In Spain there are excellent qualifications related to this discipline that provide both theoretical and practical knowledge.

One of the most outstanding training programs is the Executive Coaching Certification Program of the Escuela Europea de Coaching, which allows you to obtain the title of Executive Coach from the same academic institution and the accreditation as Accredited Coach Training Program by the International Coach Federation.

Participants acquire fundamental skills and tools for the work of a professional coach, and this program emphasizes everything related to individual coaching, leadership training and team management. It is suitable for all types of leaders and team managers, as well as for people in general who wish toas well as people in general who wish to acquire the necessary skills and abilities to work as professional coaches.

For more information, you can contact the EEC through the contact details available at this link.

3. Active listening

There is a difference between listening and hearing, because listening refers to being attentive to what the interlocutor transmits to us. The coach must not only listen to the coachee's verbal language, but must also be able to interpret his or her non-verbal language in order not only to keep the words but also to know what emotions the client is transmitting. To listen is to be open so that the other person's words can change you.To listen is to generate that space for transformation.

4. Communication skills

Trust between coach and coachee and good results are achieved through efficient communication between the coach and the coachee. Powerful questions, paraphrasing, summarizing the coachee's words, cross-checking and making sure that what the coachee says is true.and cross-checking and ensuring that what is understood is what is meant is an essential part of the coach's job.

5. Motivation for client reflection

When a coach makes the client reflect, when he inquires about his motivation, the client can broaden his view of himself, his actions, his beliefs and his possibilities for action. Distinguishing between commitment and obligation is crucial to know where the motivation lies.

5. Ethical responsibility

A coach must understand the ethics and professional standards of coaching, as well as put into practice the code of ethics of the profession. In this sense, it is not only valid to know these standards, but they must be applied in the day to day of their professional practice.

6. Consistency

To build trust, the coach must be consistent in everything he/she says and communicates to the client.. At Escuela Europea de Coaching (EEC), they talk about living the coaching distinctions, for example, how the coach must not only know what they are (responsibility, love or learning) but actually "be" those distinctions and live them.

7. Patience

One of the keys when conducting coaching sessions is patience, as there may be deep questioning from the coachee and the coachee may get in touch with his or her deepest emotions that require time. The coach's patience is in respecting the silences and also the depth of the work the client wants to do and how far he/she wants to take what he/she is seeing. The coaching process is alive and co-created between coach-coachee but the absolute protagonist is the client.

8. Refer when necessary

Coaches are personal development professionals and not psychologists offering psychological therapy (with the exception of some who are also clinical psychologists). Therefore, their objective is not to treat their clients when they suffer from emotional or relational problems or disorders, and their responsibility is to refer them to other experts if necessary.

9. Establish trust and intimacy with the client

Building trust with the coachee is a necessary first step for the coaching process to be successful, and in fact it is almost an art, which begins with is almost an art, which starts with vulnerability and balance in the relationship.. "The coach is not a mentor, is not above in any way, the coach is an equal who cannot know what are the right decisions for each person. The coach only accompanies to discover new looks, new options and new actions to achieve the challenge declared by the client", they say in EEC.