Choosing the right coach, a good strategy, and the best types of coaching for your situation will yield the maximum benefit for years to come. There are many different coaching types; the following is an abbreviated list. You can find some other types and definitions here.

Mixed Coaching Types

A good coach will orchestrate a sophisticated mix of coaching types, drawing upon many tools, disciplines, styles, and approaches. Each coaching situation is profoundly unique. Often, the coach and client will “shift gears” during the coaching process as they make discoveries surrounding the client’s unique talents, challenges, desires, etc. For example, the relationship might begin with the executive coaching type, but as discoveries are made, a shift to the life coaching type might occur.

This essential need for a mix of coaching types is why we created the identity intelligence™ coaching type. The following chart shows the types that are combined through our identity intelligence coaching.

 

ii (identity intelligence®) Coaching Types

Partial List of Coaching Types

• Academic Coaching - This type helps school and college students excel by discovering unique learning styles and implementing strategies contextual to them. It focuses on partnerships (mentors, friends, tutors, advisors, counselors, family, etc) and systems / structures (times to study, environment, eating habits, speed reading skills, etc).
• Business Owner Coaching - This type of coaching is specific to those owning and/or running institutions. It is generally heavily goal-oriented and also skill-based (finances, development, sales, conflict, etc) but may also incorporate life coaching.
• Career Coaching - The focus with career coaching is to 1)Understand the client’s natural energies so they can have passion and flow in the industry and career they choose 2)Creating a strategy to get them into their ideal career situation.
• Conflict Coaching - This coaching type is uniquely tailored to the individual coachee’s infrastructure (style, personality, giftedness, blind spots, etc). The end goal is to build confidence, skills, and self-awareness so the client can manage critical confrontations and crucial conversations that end with the desired result. This coaching is generally requested when a tough challenge arises, but end result is a permanent change which helps in all types of relationships (family, friends, spouse, business, strangers, etc) for the rest of their life.
• Executive Coaching - This type is generally heavily results and skills oriented (public speaking, running effective meetings, delegating, managing conflict, creative problem solving, project management, etc). However, executives will often desire to mix this with the life coaching type. Even if an executive doesn’t request life coaching up front, the coaching relationships will almost always shift, at least in part, to a life coaching engagement.
• Family Coaching - While this type of coaching may include some skills coaching (managing finances, etc) — it is almost always relationship based (spousal, children, relatives, neighbors, etc). Generally speaking, a coach should engage this type of coaching only when they are experienced and educated in the following areas: group coaching, experiential coaching, family systems, counseling, etc.
• Financial Coaching - The best financial planners / coaches are those who are able to mix in life coaching with the financial coaching type. Money is always about self, as much as it is about strategy, tactics, and tools.
• Fitness Coaching - Fitness coaching is all about getting physically healthy and usually is heavily skills based. However, good nutrition is essential to great fitness so fitness coaches will almost always draw upon the nutrition type and the life coaching type.
• Leadership Coaching - Leadership coaching is about leading others and is heavily skills based (communication skills, public speaking, running effective meetings, delegating, managing conflict, creative problem solving, project management, etc).
• Life Coaching - This type encompasses all areas of life. Good life coaching is very sophisticated and good life coaches can draw upon many disciplines and have many certifications. We focus on a six-fold approach: Faith, Family, Fitness, Finances, Firm, Fun. This type is about recognizing and crashing through ceilings to live a happy, healthy, productive life. It’s about CHANGE, pure and simple; inner shifts at the affective (heart) level rather than the cognitive skills area (head) area.
• Management Coaching - Very similar to leadership coaching save one caveat, it may be more task/systems/structures oriented (leadership coaching is heavily people oriented).
• Marriage Coaching - See family coaching; very similar but with a focus on the married couple.
• Nutrition Coaching - This type of coaching is about diet, vitamins, life style, etc. The best nutrition coaches are those who are good life coaches but with a heavy knowledge of brain chemistry, diet, anatomy, etc.
• Parent Coaching - This type of coaching is focused on the parental styles, relationships, skills, strategies, and tactics. This type is all about improved relationships with their children.
• Personal Leadership Coaching - This type of coaching is about self management and self motivation. It is heavily based in skills and tools acquisition but also heavily based in life coaching and personal development.
• Personality Coaching - Personality coaching is heavily based in working with assessments to help get a strong understanding of self and others. It is almost always used in conjunction with other coaching types.
• Premarital Coaching - This type of coaching involves assessments and conversations which empower the couple to avoid future pitfalls, recognize their own blind spots, and come to a much deeper understanding of their values, beliefs, attitudes, and worldview from their previous family system(s). This type of coaching is heavily integrated with the life coaching type.
• Relationship Coaching - See premarital coaching.
• Sales Coaching - Utilizes many other types: leadership coaching, life coaching, and personality coaching; the focus is on understanding people, including self, to be able to better motivate, influence, and persuade. This coaching type is heavily skills based and heavily based on emotional intelligence (self awareness & self management | other awareness and relationship management).
• Self Esteem Coaching - Discovering and believing in one’s unique giftedness, talent, and natural energies and coming to an affective understanding of their intrinsic value.
• Spiritual Coaching - Generally life coaching combined with spiritual strategies to draw closer to God and to mature in faith.
• Sports Coaching - The focus of this type is to help athletes excel.
• Teenager Coaching - Coaching for teens; generally a mixture of these other types: academic, career, relationship, life, and self esteem coaching types.
• Young Adult Coaching - Generally refers to 12-22 yo but sometimes refers to 18-22yo.