Professional Coaching

Professional Coaching is one of the core competencies of the Agile Coach, distinct from teaching or mentoring.

It is defined as a collaborative and creative process that focuses on inspiring the client (coachee) to maximize their personal and professional potential.

As opposed to giving direct advice based on one's own experience (as a mentor would do), the professional coach helps the client determine his or her own direction and find his or her own answers.

It is a structured process with a beginning, middle and end, where the coachee receives constant support to achieve significant results.

It involves helping the client to learn and become aware, primarily through powerful questions and active listening, rather than simply teaching.

Focused on the Coachee and his or her Potential

Professional coaching is fundamentally focused on the client or coachee. The coach acts based on the coachee's interests, helping him/her to clarify his/her goals and discover the path to achieve them.

The objective is not to impose solutions, but to unleash the person's inherent potential so that he/she can maximize his/her performance.

The coach trusts that the coachee has the answers within him/herself and facilitates a process of self-discovery.

It is an accompaniment that inspires the coachee to explore his or her own capabilities and to design his or her own actions, encouraging autonomy and personal responsibility.

Pillars, Levels and Ethics of Coaching

Professional coaching is based on fundamental pillars: the human being (connection and empathy), the method (following fundamentals, techniques and structured models) and the coach's competencies.

It operates at different levels of change, from behavioral and environmental adjustments (remediation), through the development of skills and beliefs (generative), to deeper transformations at the level of identity or spirituality (evolutionary).

Crucially, coaching is governed by strict ethical norms and professional standards, including confidentiality, establishing clear agreements with the client, maintaining trust and respect.

Integrity and ethics are indispensable in the practice of coaching.

Key Differences: Coaching vs. Agile Coaching

Although they share fundamental principles, there are important nuances between general professional coaching and Agile Coaching:

Professional (General) Coaching: Its approach is broad and can be applied to any aspect of the coachee's personal or professional life (life coaching, executive, sports, etc.).

The objective is the integral development of the individual according to his or her own goals.

Agile Coaching: While using professional coaching techniques, its context is specifically focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations to adopt and adapt to the agile mindset and practices.

The primary objective is aligned with improving agility and delivering value in an organizational environment, but also seeks to develop people within that framework.

The Agile Coach combines coaching with other competencies such as mentoring, teaching and facilitation in the agile domain.

Summary

Professional Coaching is a core competency, distinct from teaching or mentoring. It is a collaborative and creative process to maximize the potential of the client (coachee).

The coach does not give direct advice, but helps the client find his or her own answers. It focuses on the coachee's interests, unleashing his or her potential.

Although Agile Coaching uses professional coaching techniques, its context is specific. It focuses on helping to adopt the agile mindset and practices in the organization.