Professional Coaching: What It Is, How I Practice It
Many people wonder what professional coaching really is. This article clarifies this type of support, how I practice it, and in which situations it can be useful to you.
1. Professional Coaching Demystified
What It Is
Professional coaching is structured support to clarify your objectives, unblock your professional situations, and develop your capacity to handle them autonomously. The coach helps you gain clarity through questioning and structured reflection.
Professional coaching is not therapy. If your situation requires psychological or medical support, the coach will direct you to the appropriate professionals. Coaching focuses on your professional development, although personal dimensions may be addressed.
The Coaching Framework
Coaching relies on a clear contract between you and the coach, and on a code of ethics that frames professional practice. This code guarantees notably the confidentiality of your exchanges and the limits of the support.
Two main configurations exist:
Direct individual coaching: You contact the coach and define your objectives together.
Organization-sponsored coaching: Your employer finances the coaching (often to develop leaders or support transitions). A tripartite contract then defines:
- Your development objectives
- What remains confidential (the session content)
- What is shared with the organization (generally just the overall progress)
In all cases, the confidentiality of your exchanges is guaranteed by the coach’s code of ethics.
What Actually Happens in a Session
A coaching session typically lasts between 1h and 1.5h. You arrive with a question, a difficulty, or an objective to work on. The coach structures the conversation to help you clarify your situation, explore your options, and identify your next actions.
Between sessions, you experiment, observe, adjust. Coaching isn’t a theoretical conversation: it’s support anchored in your concrete actions.
2. My Coaching Practice
A Systemic Approach
I practice coaching with a systemic approach. Concretely, this means I look at your situation as a whole: your role, your team, your organization, the dynamics at play. A problem that seems individual often reveals broader issues.
For example, if you tell me “I can’t delegate”, we won’t only work on your delegation skills. We’ll explore: what in your context makes delegation difficult? Lack of clarity on roles? Control culture in the organization? Excessive time pressure?
This approach allows working on what will create lasting change, not just on symptoms.
Leadership Coaching and Individual Coaching
I offer two types of support depending on your situation:
Leadership coaching: You exercise (or want to exercise) a leadership role, with or without formal hierarchical position. We work on your influence, decision-making, team dynamics management, developing your leadership style.
Individual professional coaching: You’re going through professional questioning like an ongoing transition, a relational blockage, a stuck situation, a need to find meaning or energy again. We work on your career choices, your positioning, your professional balance.
In some cases, coaching can also be done with teams, particularly when a conflict or blockage concerns several people. The coach then works with the group to unblock the situation collectively.
What Characterizes My Approach
Anchored in reality: I start from your real situation and we work together taking into account the overall context: your constraints, your relationships, your values.
Pragmatism: I look for what works in your specific context. A solution that works elsewhere might not work for you.
Co-construction: You’re the expert of your situation, I’m the expert of the method. We build your solutions together.
Autonomy as the goal: My success is measured by your capacity to handle similar situations alone after coaching. The goal is that you no longer need me.
3. When and Why to Call on a Coach
Typical Situations Where Coaching Is Relevant
Professional coaching is particularly useful when:
You’re in transition: New position, organizational change, promotion, return after a break, career change. You need to adapt quickly to a new context.
You encounter a blockage: Recurring conflict, difficulty being heard, uncomfortable dynamics with your hierarchy or colleagues, resistance you don’t understand, decisions you can’t make.
You seek more clarity: You no longer know which direction to take, your work has lost its meaning, you hesitate between several options, you want to develop your influence but don’t know how.
You aim for specific development: You want to develop your leadership, improve your impact, better manage your energy, align your work with your values.
What Coaching Can (and Cannot) Solve
Coaching can help you:
- Clarify your objectives and priorities
- Develop your leadership and influence skills
- Navigate complex or conflictual situations
- Make important decisions with more confidence
- Find meaning and energy in your work again
- Effectively manage professional transitions
Coaching doesn’t replace:
- Medical or psychological treatment (for mental health issues)
- Technical training (to acquire specific skills)
- An immediate miracle solution (development takes time)
- Your responsibility to decide and act (the coach supports you, doesn’t decide for you)
How to Start
If you’re questioning your professional situation, the simplest is to talk about it. A first exchange with a coach allows you to clarifywhether coaching is suited to your situation.
Conclusion
Professional coaching is structured support to clarify your objectives, unblock your professional situations, and develop your capacity to handle them autonomously. It relies on trust, a clear ethical framework, and your engagement in the process. My systemic approach aims to create lasting changes.
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