Your Personal Trainer
Just as a personal trainer helps you improve your physical health and performance, a personal performance coach helps you improve your overall performance in the workplace... and beyond.
Awareness and appreciation of coaches in business is on the rise, but there is still fairly widespread misunderstanding about exactly what a business coach (such as an Executive or a Leadership Coach) actually does.
At a pure coaching level, we think that the best analogy is that of a fitness coach or personal trainer. Just as this analogy is true for how the everyday person trying to keep in shape or the amateur athlete benefits from a personal trainer, it is also true for the elite athlete. Executives and senior leaders benefit from coaches. Sometimes they're referred to as Executive Sparring Partners or by different names, they are still analogous to a personal trainer.
A personal fitness trainer compared to a personal performance coach:
At the very core of what a Personal Trainer does is a Fitness Workout.
The foundation of performance coaching is the Coaching Session.They both provide a positive environment that enables you and encourages you to improve yourself.
Just as a good personal trainer will influence your lifestyle to be physically healthier, a good coach will help you to be mentally stronger and achieve a greater sense of contentment.
They both help you tap in to what motivates you.
They devise fitness programs to target your goals.
A fitness program will consist of a set of workouts and routines to target specific muscle groups & cardio-vascular exercises.
A coaching program will consist of a set of focus topics and associated exercises to develop particular abilities or target specific opportunities & challenges.
They both teach you exercises and hone your technique through explanation, execution and repetition.
They both structure each session, tailored to your needs, and guide you through it.
This isn't to be taken too seriously, but to further make the point:
Couch
to 5K
This could be compared to a 'Return to Work' programme.
Beginners
Pilates
We could be exploring core skills such as 'Leadership Essentials'.
Advanced
Pilates
Maybe we are doubling down on how to 'Set Strategic Direction and Execute it'.
Absolute
Abs
And we all need to focus on a particular attribute such as 'High Impact Communication'.