What exactly does a writing coach do?
Before going into the intricacies of the coaching process, let’s take a look at the emergence of coaching itself.
Coaching
grew from the world of sports. Coaches assist athletes to develop their
overall skills, broaden their outlook on techniques, discipline, mind
set and looking after their body to enhance performance.
Over
the years, coaching slowly seeped into corporate organizations and has
expanded rapidly. As such, coaching has become an effective tool in
many areas. The two main types of coaching within organizations are:
Personal coaching: The focus here is on personal development and short
and long term goals, and Executive coaching: The focus is geared toward
organizational and professional coaching.
Outside
of the corporate world, coaching is an important element not only in
sports and corporate, public organizations, but also in areas such as
writing and along the scale of one-on-one personal coaching for the
woman on the street who needs a little guidance to deal with everyday
life.
So, let’s get back to the question of exactly what is done during the coaching process.
Like
therapy, coaching is confidential in nature, whether as a group or
individual. Generally a set time is arranged over a period, sometimes
as long as a year, if not more, depending on the level of coaching
required. The main objective is the outcome or goal.
In
this instance, the goal is to have an end product i.e. a book
resume or perhaps a poem or whatever the client is working on. He may
need help with one, some or all of the following:
- Achieving a goal ? identifying and gaining clarity
- Working on a specific skill ? grammar and punctuation
- How to write an outline ? building structure and plot outline
- Motivation ? pumping yourself into writing mode
- Strategic planning ? cultivating and redefining thought process, discipline, openness
These
are merely a few areas that coaching can have significant bearing in
progression. A Coach must guide you to focus on your goals by showing
you how to develop or enhance your skills with cognitive preparation as
people’s frames of references differ. A good Coach will show you where
you went or are going wrong and help you to work it out yourself and
follow up with explicit feedback. It is not the Coach’s remit to do the
work for you, but to guide you in accelerated movements toward your
goal for self empowerment.
Reverting to sports, Sir Alex Ferguson of Britain’s
Manchester United FC is a prime example of what coaching can do to
stimulate players to play their best. He has nurtured and coached the
likes of David Beckham to become a world class player. For his coaching
efforts, Sir Alex has a string of awards gained for his coaching
abilities over the years.
© 2008 Cherry-Ann Carew
Want to use or quote one of my articles in your E-zine, newsletter, and magazine or want me to write an article for your publication? No problem , simply contact me at: cherry@writercacarew.com
About the author
Cherry-Ann Carew is the former sports editor of Blaqsport
Journal and former freelance sports journalist for The Voice Newspaper in England.
She currently lives in the USA
and works as copyeditor and writing coach. See http://writercacarew.com for
more info
Tags: bearing, clarity, corporate organizations, emergence, everyday life, executive coaching, grammar and punctuation, how to write an outline, intricacies, main objective, openness, personal coaching, personal development, plot outline, public organizations, set time, strategic planning, term goals, thought process, world of sports