Coaching and professional/personal service: performance improvement and scientific method

The term “coaching” is being increasingly used in different fields in order to develop, increase, and improve the sport- ing, working, or strategic potential. For a coach a careful assessment of the skills of an individual is therefore essential to define with realism the goals to be achieved, and it is essential to take into account the factors that can affect the final result, such as ability, motivation, etc. The supervision and the dispersion of the harmful effects of stress, the control of the feeling of isolation due to a lack of rules are parts of the activities of coaching; in view of this it is important that the individual is not subjected to an overload of work: overtraining in sport, or excessive stress in the workplace. Therefore, a coach — be it an adviser, a sociologist, an expert in human sciences — must help achieve personal or professional goals. The only restriction is that the coach cannot apply techniques and methods that are recognized as exclusive prerogative of professional people such as psychologists.