Q: How does coaching work?

A: Asking how coaching works is like asking a chef how boiling water works.

OK, Mr. Chef, you put the water in a pot on the stove and turn on the fire… but then what? What exactly will the water do to the pasta to make the pasta soft? Please describe to me in detail how you will stir the pasta, and how each one of those moves helps in the overall cooking process. It is very important that we understand all this in detail, because your competitor was just in here and he says he will be using the Beyers-Miggs method of stirring, and we need to know how your method compares.

Coaching is incredibly similar. There are plenty of people out there who will sell their branded methodology as the be-all-end-all of coaching—if you are brand conscious, then you know there is a place for brands in coaching just as there is in every other market—but really, that brand methodology is limited by the abilities of the coach using them… because those methodologies, like “stirring” or “boiling,” are not relevant differentiators of great coaching.

For instance:

Many of the better known “coaching brands” out there will laud their professional credentials. Very nice. Now ask yourself: Did you learn anything about leadership when you saw the movie Hoosiers? You did? Imagine that… and that movie has never been validated as a teaching aid.

Many “coaching brands” come with big stacks of supporting materials, including workbooks. Fantastic. Now ask yourself: If your team found big stacks of reading material—including workbooks—dry and boring when they were in school; aren’t they are going to find them dry and boring today?

Many “coaching brands” focus on how they integrate leadership competencies into organizational processes. Excellent. Now ask yourself: How will your organization react to a process written by HR for HR, that requires specialized knowledge of human capital esoterica and mastery of the industry’s jargon to understand?

Bottom line: coaching works because coaches understand how to get through to others and put processes in place that work. Some coaches can explain their methodologies, some can’t. At their heart, all these processes follow some form of the “Assess / Brainstorm / Explore / Decide / Act / Reflect” model… but it’s the way in which these processes are implemented, and not the steps themselves, that makes the difference.

Coaching methodologies are a lot like recipes in this way: they are most valuable in the hands of a capable chef.

And since when people ask me how coaching works, the underlying question is usually, “How can we roll coaching out to our entire team,” the “capable chef” analogy would suggest that the real answer to the question is:

You can’t. Not unless you hire people for empathy and teaching ability, swap out your leadership team for one committed to the ongoing development of its staff, and make development a corporate priority.

Then, nearly any coaching methodology will work.

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.