What is Coaching?
In its simplest definition – coaching is an on-going dialogue style relationship designed to help you achieve specific results and make positive and sustainable changes in your career and life.
But here’s the true juice – you’ll be partnering with someone who has ceaseless curiosity for discovering who you are and what you really want out of life. They won’t rest until you have a crystal clear vision and a realistic gameplan for getting there. And your coach won’t let you off the hook! They’ll hold you accountable even when life gets complicated (as it always does). Your coach will help you to reframe adversities along the road into opportunities, pressing you to find the best solutions – your own. Your coach is not going to “fix” you. But they will help you replace your “shoulds” with a lot more “wants.”
“Coaching requires readiness and commitment and a little bit of courage.”
What’s the difference between Coaching & Counseling?
There is definitely some overlap between coaching and counseling, however, there are some distinctions as well. Where counseling may spend more time focusing on past healing and old emotional wounds, coaching tends to look at your current life and plans for the future. Counseling may spend a fair amount of time on issue resolution, whereas coaching focuses on the bigger picture of life design. Counseling is more discussion oriented. Coaching adds a significant action piece. Counseling often aims to build more functionality. Coaching works from a certain level of functional foundation and builds on that.
What are the benefits?
- Improved Health & Sustainable energy
- More money & Greater job satisfaction
- Smarter decisions
- Better balance
- Peace
- Motivation
- Greater life fulfillment
Where did Coaching come from?
Coaching got it’s start twenty plus years ago when a San Francisco accountant by the name of Thomas Leonard was asked by two clients to join a discussion, not about taxes or estate planning, but about their lives. Among the questions on the table: should they have children and what colour BMW to buy. Leonard called himself a life planner until 1988 when another client said he was like a coach. Leonard read straight through the dictionary looking for a better term for what he did and could not find one. In an article by Nancy Koehn, a business historian at Harvard Business School, she says “every entrepreneur I’ve ever studied has had something like a life coach. They just weren’t called that.”
What does the coaching relationship look like?
70 – 80% of coaches work with their clients over the phone. While some people may be skeptical about the effectiveness of a phone relationship, a quick test-drive generally dispels concerns and reveals the benefits. The physical separation between coach and client creates a more thoughtful and reflective space for the client to stretch a little farther and take bigger risks – fuel for change. Sometimes when someone is sitting directly across from us, our consciousness of that fact obscures our ability to think clearly. Another plus of telephone coaching is that it negates the need for travel time. Everybody has overloaded schedules and a half-hour phone session can be much more easily woven into a busy schedule. Phone coaching also allows coaches to work with clients anywhere in the world. More coaching process can be found here.
Is coaching right for you?
- My life is full, but not fulfilling.
- I’ve got too many projects floating around but nothing’s getting done.
- I’ve had success in my life, but lately I’m feeling a little stuck.
- I’m working so hard, but I get the feeling my employees just don’t respect my leadership. Something is getting in the way.
- I know if I improved my communication skills and/or work habits, I could take my career to the next level.
- I’m spinning my wheels in my job and I have this really great business idea, but taking the leap into self-employment seems like a huge risk in this economy.
- Right now I’m tolerating behaviour from myself or others which has a really negative effect on my motivation.
If you recognize yourself in any of these scenarios, you’ve already demonstrated good self-awareness. If you can combine that awareness with a desire for change, you are an excellent candidate for coaching.