Coaching: Lessons Learned, Practical Lessons, and Areas of Improvement

This article discusses coaching and its practical applications in different areas of life. It covers lessons learned, practical lessons, and areas of improvement in coaching. The article also includes personal experiences and challenges faced during coaching sessions.

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Coaching
Student name
Course
Tutor
University affiliation
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COACHING
Introduction
In our skills for management class, I have been able to learn a lot about coaching.
Coaching is a practical skill that everyone needs in life. It is practiced in workplaces, sports, and
other life experiences. Aimed at improving one’s performance and maintain their focus, coaching
entails collaborating with the concerned audience through a creative process, which inspires
them and exploits their potentials. I have always assumed that coaching and mentoring are
similar. However, coaching has always been confused with mentoring to mean the same thing
(Vikaraman, Mansor, and Hamzah, 2017). These two have distant meanings in that mentoring
will involve having the same person for a more extended period with no keen focus to be put in.
In most cases, coaches are always experienced people who also have undergone the same
process from fellow qualified people (Media Coaching Benefits Employees and Organization,
2017).
In my current class, together with my colleagues, I have been able to learn and apply my
coaching skills through various experiences. Through coaching, our group has been able to get
assistance on how to achieve a mutually identified set of goals (Breckman, 2006). The personal
satisfaction and professional performance of my colleagues have also improved. Lastly, with an
appropriately aligned group and coach organization, the process has efficient and helpful in
different areas of our life.
Lessons Learned in Coaching
Through coaching, I have been able to improve my leadership skills. In my current class, I
have been able to coach some of my colleagues on drawing, cooking and the Arabic language. I
have always been a bit shy in terms of speaking in front of people but I have gained confidence

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and can now lead a group of people to achieve a task. Some of the tasks, like cooking, required
group effort hence my group mates have also been able to gain leadership skills.
Secondly, coaching has enabled me and my group mates have a better relationship. Spending
hours together has led to the building of a bond that has enabled us to work together as a team
especially when tackling any group tasks (Nanduri, 2017). There is now respect between us. Our
friendships and relationships have also been reinforced. A good relationship is essential when
one is coaching. Due to this, we have been able to coach one another as group mates. We have
done this by identifying each other’s strengths and weaknesses so that whoever has a strength in
one area coaches the person with a weakness in the same area. Through this, people have been
able to learn skills that they previously thought they would never be able to do.
Coaching has been fundamental, as it has enabled us to learn new skills. It was very interesting
for me to be able to coach someone on drawing. Drawing has always been my strength and I was
amazed that one can actually learn the basics and later become good in drawing. The classmate
that I coached has really improved and it is his newfound pastime (Day, 2013).
Coaching has enabled me to greatly improve my time management skills. As a coach, I
have had to schedule my activities so that I ensure to get time for those I have promised to coach.
It has led to the trust and bond between the group mates growing stronger. Communication has
also been enhanced, as I am now able to express myself in a better manner. I express myself for
who I am (McDowall and O'Broin, 2013).
Practical Lessons Learned
First, being a good coach requires one to be a good listener. For instance, I had to be
ready to listen and understand questions and pleas from fellow group mates. This will improve
the coaching process, as there will be a good understanding between the people I deal with and

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me. With excellent listening skills, I will be able to efficiently communicate too (Kormanik,
2009). A good coaching lesson should end with positive remarks from the group mates.
Members gave me positive comments and they were able to gain a number of skills from the
experience. At one time, we visited a group mate’s house and cooked together and it helped each
of us to learn a lot. Each person got a chance to chip in through cooking or making salads and
smoothies and we discovered that everyone has a different way of doing things. This enabled us
also to learn some cooking and kitchen hacks from one another and we were able to listen to
each other and come up with a great five-course meal.
Secondly, I came to learn that a good plan is essential for any coaching session. I had to
have a proper arrangement of work and lessons for the entire process and this enabled me to
make the task easier. Due to this, my group mates were motivated into following what I was
doing. Furthermore, it gave everyone motivation to teach each other various skills and we ended
up having a whole semester of teaching one another different skills. Thus, a positive attitude will
be created towards the coach from their group mates, and the coach will be positively motivated
to work with the group members. I was also able to learn that different people have different
learning styles and this enabled me to plan according to each group member’s needs.
Lastly, as a coach, I had to instill patience in myself. I discovered that teaching different
topics requires different levels of patience. Teaching Arabic for example, required patience since
grasping a language is not an easy thing. I had to listen to the needs of my group mates and adapt
to their learning speeds since most of them needed time to grasp the language (Solstad et al.,
2018). I was able to come up with a lesson plan that made it easier for the group mates to grasp
Arabic. I ensured that we were all on the same page. Frequent practice through doing fun
activities like some word contests enabled the lessons to be fun, and group mates were able to

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learn a lot this way (Jepson, 2016). They achieved great milestones, and have greatly improved
in their Arabic language skills.
Problems Faced During Coaching
One of the major challenges that we faced as a group was time management because of
everyone having different schedules in their lives. Sometimes it was quite difficult to meet,
especially when there were exams involved. Due to this, we came up with a group WhatsApp
and this led to better communication and planning. It also created a strong bond between us. The
WhatsApp group was of great help when it came to reminding each other about certain things
and planning all our meetings.
The second issue was lack of concentration. Sometimes during meetings, group mates
had had long and tiring days because of class work and this led to very low concentration. To
deal with this, I had to break the monotony and had different activities each time. Sometimes I
would suggest a change of environment like going to a park or having the session over a shared
meal, hence making it fun and bringing back concentration (Wenson, 2010).
Thirdly, sometimes I would give tasks and they were not completed on time. Some
members shifted their goals or wanted to rush into learning other things. Due to this, I came up
with a list that detailed everything that would be learned and we discussed this beforehand. I also
emphasized the importance of completing tasks on time if one was serious about learning certain
skills. I also allowed the team members to suggest anything that we had not laid out on the list
and they felt that they wanted to learn (Vestal, 2007). I discouraged my group members from
setting goals that were too high as if they failed to achieve they would blame me. I, therefore,
made it clear on what would be achieved by the end of each lesson.

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Skills Learned
We learned a lot from one another due to coaching. Just as I taught my group mates
cooking, Arabic and drawing, I was also able to gain a number of skills. One of my group mates
taught me interior decorating while another taught me crocheting. As a group, we also learned
the art of negotiation and selling from one of our members who has been a salesperson for a
while.
Apart from the above skills, we learned vital lessons when it came to communication. We
were able to enhance our communication skills and this has helped each of us in different areas.
Secondly, the building of good relationships has enabled us to empathize with one another and
with other people in our day-to-day lives. Empathy has enabled us to understand one another and
work together as a team in various areas especially when it comes to schoolwork (Yang, 2016).
We have also learned to listen to one another and never to jump to conclusions, as they
may be wrong. This has given each of the group members patience especially when it comes to
interacting and dealing with people.
Areas of improvement
As a coach, I was able to give feedback forms to those I coached and this has
enabled to identify areas that need improvement. The areas that I feel need improvement are
listening and communicating. There has been a significant improvement but there is still an issue
of some members not being keen when something is said or not communicating clearly. As it
was the first time for most of us to coach anyone, this is understandable. The group will keep on
improving as more coaching sessions are done.

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Conclusion
Coaching is one of the exciting careers one can take up. This is because it does not entail
much energy but is very interesting and what one needs is to have a good understanding of the
team one is dealing with. In addition, it helps in building relationships, which can be long term.
Additionally, as one gets more experience in coaching, the more they get used to it while also
acquiring vast skills in life and general knowledge. In a personal experience, I enjoyed the whole
coaching process and I am looking forward to more sessions in future.

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Appendix
Table 1.
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Table 3.

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Table 4.

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Table 5.

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Table 6.

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