Teaching, Coaching, Wisdom & Power
10 April 2007The difference between Teaching and Coaching
Teaching comes from where the teacher is at or wherever he feels is important for the students. Teaching can be considered like a broadcast. The message may be fully applicable to your situations and wants/needs; it may only be partially applicable; or it may be completely irrelevant to your life at present.
Coaching, on the other hand, is by it’s very nature specific to your needs and wants at that time. It can be driven by the coach if they’ve worked with you for a while and know your ultimate outcome, because then they’ll understand the steps necessary to achieve your aim and what stage you’re at. Mainly, however, it’s driven by you the client, by your particular area of interest in any one given time.
Teaching is a means of imparting information, coaching is the process of developing that raw information into useful skills and abilities.
Teaching imparts techniques or concepts. A technique is any single action or phrase that can be broken down into either constituent movements/sections and has a relatively clear start and end point. A handshake or an answer to a question would be a technique. Skill, on the other hand, is being able to read a situation, select the appropriate technique, and then execute the technique appropriately. To put it in terms of social skills, a cheeky answer to the question “what do you do?†might be appropriate at the start of a conversation with a new acquaintance to add humour and ease the tension, but in a more intimate or rapport building situation, it wouldn’t be.
Any written article would be considered teaching, since I (in this context a teacher) can only write about what I feel is important right now and what I can explore. I usually try and answer questions that could be raised from previous entries in this blog, but more often than not I’ll have some thought which I feel compelled to get out to you so that takes precedence.
(The fact that I’ve usually 10 plus half written articles at any one time serves more to illustrate my disorganized thinking/working style more than anything else though!)
In any article or broadcast piece of information, you may find some parts particularly relevant and important to you, while others are little more than fluff or unnecessary detail/background. For another reader, these might be the most important sections.
That would be the main limitation of teaching, in that the teacher doesn’t know what’s important to the listener and attempts to cover all bases and answer any possible questions. It’s interesting that the message, or at least the core of it, can be identical between the two processes: teaching and coaching, only the coach’s message will be tailored and explored to suit the client.
Both a coach and a teacher need to have an analytical mind in order to see “behind the scenesâ€. With a coach it’s not necessary that they’ve experienced the exact situation you are dealing with, but rather they’ve an understanding of the end goal and the general principles behind the broader activity. A good teacher should be in part a coach and a good coach part teacher.
Understanding versus Applying
You can understand all the concepts I write down, you could even be able to explain them to someone more aptly than I can and fully pass on the message. But if you don’t apply and internalise them then the real value is lost on you.
Think about this physical analogy: Imagine reading up on the benefits of a regular exercise program. You know that reducing your unhealthy dietary intake and increasing your exercise schedule is a good thing. You know all the reasons and understand at a deep level the improvements to your health it can bring. But if you don’t actually go out and run, swim, lift weights or do pilates you’re not getting any healthier, are you? (Thanks Shane ☺ )
In terms of personal development, while there is some benefit in reading self help sites or listening to audios, the true profit is in applying the actions. Instead of saying “Yeah, I see how writing out the answer to ‘who am I?’ would be good,†actually write out the answer to ‘who am I?’ !!!
Wisdom and Power
It’s a spin on the old adage: those who can, do, those who can’t, teach. Is there any truth to this? In order to do, you must be able to apply the concepts, whether or not you understand them. To teach or coach, you need to be able to analyse the skill or activity, find out the key components, and then explain them on to someone. To coach those skills, you need to create situations/exercises that will reenforce that knowledge and takes a technique and turns it into a skill.
What’s the difference between great doers and great teachers? Great teachers/coaches deeply understand the underlying principles behind any tasks or skill and can develop those abilities in others. This is what I’d equate to having wisdom of a particular skill set.
There are people in any field that can just do it, whatever it is. Yet they can’t explain this to anyone. This is what I’d term power.
Wisdom is the ability to understand and relate concepts, power is the ability to perform, regardless of whether you understand the concepts.
In between the two extremes is where most people lie. They understand the concepts and can apply them to a degree. A good instructor (coach or teacher) helps those who have some ability maximise it.
Of course, a good student (and a great doer) is someone who listens to their coach and instructor, whatever form they take!
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