Coaching is a conversation with a purpose, focused on the present and the future, and mainly thinking about behavioural development or performance improvement.
It is different to mentoring, which involves role modelling and advice and guidance. This can complement coaching and may be offered if appropriate.
And it is different again to counselling and therapy, which largely look at past events and are trying to repair past harm rather than being developmental and focused on the future.
The GROW model's origins are in behavioural pyschology, with a strong goal focus and desire to set, achieve and measure outcomes. It promotes self-motivation to increase productivity and satisfaction.
T-GROW is a related technique that starts from a broader view of the topic within which the opportunity for development exists.
Co-active is a whole-person coaching approach to increase self-awareness and establish the client's own goals.
At the heart of it is a consideration of fulfilment, balance, and process.
The Time to Think model is a person-centred approach developed by Nancy Kline. Its central idea is that each person is creative, resourceful and whole. The role of the coach is to help the client create a safe space in which to think so they can access their own inner resources to achieve their goals.
Solutions-focused coaching can help clients focus on what they can do to achieve future solutions rather than dwelling on a problem.
One form of this approach is the OSKAR model, which is used to help the client identify what is needed to make incremental steps towards their goal.
Cognitive behavioural coaching is based on the belief that learning, development and change occurs through the interaction of behaviours, understanding, emotion and an external trigger. It is sometimes known as the ABCDEF model.
Systems coaching, sometimes known as the force field model, helps the client consider and work towards their coaching goals in the context of the system in which they operate.
It was based originally on Soft Systems Modelling, but I use a related approach arising from the work of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, looking at the the inter-relation between the individual client's attitudes and dispositions, the resources they have available to them, and the power structures in the environment in which they are working. This often complements a cognitive-behavioural approach and also a Gestalt approach, which seeks to deepen awareness in the client.