How do you buy coaching?
Once you decide coaching is for you, your first step is to select a program. With coaching, you get out what you put in so while you’re perusing our list of services, remember to consider 3 things – time, energy and budget.
Time – Sessions run 30, 45 or 60 minutes in length and are held every week, every other week or every month. Do you prefer quick, concentrated hits of insight or longer, more in-depth exploration. Does your fast-paced nature need greater frequency or are you the kind of person who needs to chew on things for awhile? Note: We can tweak duration and frequency in all of our programs.
Energy – Coaching sessions require a particular kind of reflective energy to create the deeper learning necessary for sustainable change. If you are a ‘doer’ by nature, you may find that the slower pace of introspection leaves you feeling a little more fatigued. While a balance between doing and reflecting is important for a fulfilling life, remember to choose a program that invites you to stretch, but not so far you come to dread the effort your sessions require.
Budget – Coaching requires a sizeable investment. You’re basically hiring me to be as interested in your life and your goals are you are. You are hiring me to hold you accountable with regular and consistent check-ins, to provide supportive and inspiring feedback, to challenge you when I think you’re letting yourself off the hook and to continually string the whole picture together for you so that at any given time, you know where you’re at on the map. Coaching is highly customized and about as supportive and encouraging as it gets. True transformation requires a big commitment and short cuts don’t work. For its comprehensiveness, coaching is unparalleled in the helping profession. Your budget is important, but don’t start by asking yourself what you can afford. Start by asking what personal fulfillment is worth to you.
Once you’ve chosen a program, here are the next 2 steps:
- Receive Client Binder*
- Book first session
*All of our programs come with a comprehensive and complimentary ‘client binder’ designed to strengthen and support the work you do in your sessions. This will be mailed to you within the first couple of weeks and contains orientation information, payment and administrative details, coaching education, session forms and resources.
The four corner stones of the coaching relationship . . .
Cornerstone One:
The ‘Client binder’ also includes a Self Awareness section made up of several pre-work exercises. Self-Awareness is the first cornerstone of coaching because the more we understand ourselves, the more resourceful we are when it comes to understanding others and navigating the world around us. Greater self-awareness leads to greater clarity around wants and goals, the 3rd cornerstone of coaching.
Cornerstone Two:
Coaching kicks off with the second cornerstone of coaching, designing our coaching partnership. In order for you to get the most out of this process, coaching needs to be as customized as possible. What is effective for one client might bomb with another. During this phase, I ask a lot of questions. I need to understand how you are best motivated, where you are likely to get stuck and what to do when/if that occurs. The design work happens during our first few coaching sessions (or more comprehensively and efficiently in an optional Discovery Session*) and taking the time to build this foundation results in more powerful outcomes.
*See program details for more information on the Discovery Session.
Cornerstone Three:
A strategic game plan and the specifics of what you want to achieve during our time together make up the third cornerstone of coaching. During our first few sessions, we’ll review your life map (your current circumstances – relationship, career, health, etc.). We’ll also be assessing your level of satisfaction and identifying specific things you want to change. This creates the agenda for our time together and is something we refer back to throughout our work together.
Note: it is important to mention that throughout the coaching process, new goals will emerge while old goals fall away. This is because you are becoming more and more clear about who you are and what you want out of life. Coaching is not an ‘A to Z’ journey and what we aim for in the beginning might be eclipsed by something even better that you couldn’t have envisioned when we first set out.
Cornerstone Four:
Practical application is the fourth cornerstone of coaching. During our coaching sessions, I will assign homework that gets you going out and beginning to do things differently – whether that’s practicing different behaviours or coming at problems with new tools. The coaching sessions on their own are not enough to create sustainable change. They provide you with the opportunity to dig deep, explore and gain valuable and powerful insights. They also provide a shot of motivation and an inoculation from the gremlins. But the homework gives you the structure to put your learning into practice where the rubber meets the road.
Learning without practical application = nothing changes
Action without learning = burnout
When coaching comes to an end . . .
There is a natural arc to the coaching process and regular check-ins inform the coach and the client when the optimal amount of ground has been gained and the client feels ready to set sail on their own. This may or may not occur at the end of the agreed upon contract period and some clients elect to go longer based on their individual situations.
The last coaching session, called the completion session, is an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on all of the client’s learning, accomplishments, insights, shifts, etc. It is also an opportunity to strategize structures for the client to continue forward momentum on their own.
Why telephone coaching?
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.