Coaching is a key part of Potentia’s wider service offering. Our dedicated coaches offer a range of coaching services to clients, all of which are flexible and adaptable to meet individual needs.


What is Coaching?

Coaching is designed to help the recipient develop both personally and professionally. The principal is for the coachee to form an understanding as to where they are at today, create what is possible in the future and then bridge the gap that exists between the two in order to gain a greater sense of purpose. It is an experience rich in rewards like no other program - beyond phenomenal personal growth, recipients of coaching gain powerful insights into themselves and their lives, the whole time being encouraged and supported by a coach committed to positive outcomes.

Coaching is a concept that is often misunderstood or misused with most coaching references in the workplace actually one-to-one training. The key difference is coaching is ‘ask, don’t tell’; it’s not instructional and is rarely conducted in a classroom situation.

Our coaching offering is a synthesis of mentoring, management and sports coaching:

Mentoring
A mentor is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a wise and trusted counsellor or teacher”. Particularly in the early stages of coaching where we look at all areas of life, effective mentoring from an impartial advisor is an essential ingredient of successful coaching. At the inception of the coaching program, the coachee will go through a powerful goal setting exercise which allows a consistent focus to be created for the duration of the coaching experience. Creativity forms an integral part of what we do at Potentia, and a real consulting flavour enhances this rewarding and occasionally challenging goal setting exercise.

Management
An essential ingredient of an effective manager is the ability to set strategies, or take the big picture and break it down into feasible pieces. Transferring those strategies into day-to-day tactics is how amazing feats are accomplished. (Would the Egyptians have even begun work on the pyramids had a project manager not broken it down into an exercise of moving stone?) Additionally, a manager will take a monitoring viewpoint and ensure that regular progress is made towards the goals.

Sports Psychology
Any world-class sports coach takes people who are already the best at what they do and encourages them to achieve even more. Utilising the benefits realisable from an effective sports coach allows you to:
* Experience the stretch factor in having someone encourage you beyond the point where you may normally stop.
* Have an external viewpoint and feedback mechanism, allowing you to raise your game beyond what only you can see.
* Have someone 100% committed to your success and acting constantly as your personal cheerleader.

What Coaching isn’t

Coaching is not counselling or therapy. Whilst some value is derived from understanding why you are the way you are, 'rear view looking' will only ever be a supporting tool for us. We believe real power is attained by creating your future and becoming the type of person who attains that future.

• Coaching is not consulting. Consultants tell you what the solution actually is. Coaches work with you to find the path and then ensure you follow through!
• Coaching is not training. Trainers tell you how to do it, coaches work with you to discover what is missing and then help you with the acquisition of those skills.
• Coaching is not about generating a win at all costs mentality. It's about achieving a win/win state of mind.

How does coaching work?

Potentia has two dedicated performance coaches on staff. Both originate from different backgrounds but apply the same principals outlined above: mentoring, management and sports coaching.

The structure is flexible but our recommended offering incorporates a minimum of three one-on-one sessions with one of our coaches. Sessions generally last an hour and are conducted over the telephone and are tailored to the candidate’s needs depending on what they would like to focus on – be it personal achievement, goal setting or addressing job satisfaction and/or issues. Coaching is permission based, meaning if there is an area the coachee doesn’t want to explore then we respect their wishes absolutely.

As a coachee, the focus throughout is based around what you believe is possible for your life, not what we think is best, there will of course be some stretching!

• The first meeting focuses on what is possible for you, attaching powerful reasons to these desired outcomes ensuring ongoing focus through the series. 
• Session two breaks the goals into manageable parts, being strategies. This provides a map of how you will achieve the goal. 
• Subsequent sessions are where the fun really begins, as you start to live into the life you are creating, getting into action and growing exponentially along the way.
   

How coaching can help your team

As mentioned, Potentia’s coaching offering is flexible and able to be adapted the coachee’s needs. From a business perspective there may be a key area that you wish the sessions to focus on or you may prefer that the candidate drives the direction of the sessions, safe in the knowledge that your organisation will benefit from having an employee (or employees if the whole team undergoes coaching) with a greater sense of purpose and consequently a greater ability to perform in their role.

To discover how coaching can work for you, or the circumstances where coaching is highly effective, please Contact Us.