What is Coaching?
- Coaching is where individuals and teams focus on the skills and actions needed to produce successful results that are personally relevant.
- Coaching concentrates on where individuals or teams are now and what they are willing to do, to get where they want to be in the future.
- Coaching provides clarity and support so that the most effective action is achieved by the individual or team concerned.
- Coaching accelerates the individual or team's progress by providing greater focus and awareness of possibilities, leading to more effective choices.
- Coaching is movement oriented and action based.
- Coaching includes exceeding potential in order to be one's best. Coaches focus on strengthening their clients' skills from the first session forward. Any amount of coaching will benefit a client from this perspective.
How is coaching different from consulting, therapy, mentoring, training and having a supportive friend?
- Consulting often provides temporary or intermittent solutions. Coaching is designed to provide a more permanent change. It is a consistent, ongoing relationship where the coach stays with the client to help implement new skills, changes and goals. Consulting usually involves dispensing advice or telling people what they ought to do. Coaching differs because it focuses on assisting you to discover a solution on your own.
- Coaching is not therapy. Where therapy brings understanding and awareness of the past to a client; coaching provides the support and strategy to make changes based on the awareness a client holds.
- Mentoring is guiding from one's own experience or sharing of experience in a specific area of industry or career development, rather than coaching.
- Training programmes are based on the acquisition of certain learning objectives as set out by the trainer or instructor. Objectives within the coaching process are set by the individual or team with guidance from the coach.
- A supportive friend is wonderful to have in life, yet does not hold the objectivity and distance that a coach does. A coach offers a different perspective of the truth because of the emotional distance the professional relationship offers.
What is the focus of coaching?
Coaches focus where their clients need them most. Part of their discussions often include:
- Where are you now in relation to where you want to be? What are your goals? Are they based in your values? ø- In order to get what you want from any situation, what are the areas of strength? What are the areas for improvement and focus?
Why does coaching work
Coaching works for several reasons:
Coaches focus where their clients need them most. Part of their discussions often include:
- Where are you now in relation to where you want to be?
- What are your goals?
- Are they based in your values?
- In order to get what you want from any situation, what are the areas of strength? What are the areas for improvement and focus?
What should you look for when selecting a coach?
The most important thing to look for in selecting a coach is someone with whom you feel you can easily relate to and create the most powerful partnership. Here are some sample questions to help make your decision.
- What is your coaching experience? (how many individuals coached, years of experience, types of situations)
- What is your coach-specific training?
- What is your coaching speciality or client areas you most often work in?
- What specialised skills or experience do you bring to your coaching?
- What is your philosophy about coaching?
- What is your specific process for coaching? (how sessions are conducted, frequency, etc.)
- What are your coaching success stories? (specific examples of individuals who have done well and examples of how you have added value)
How do you ensure a compatible partnership?
Think of a strong partnership that you currently have in your work or life. Look at how you built that relationship and what is important to you about partnership. You will want to build those same things into a coaching relationship. Here are a few other tips:
- Have a personal interview with one or more coaches to determine 'what feels right' in terms of the chemistry. Coaches are accustomed to being interviewed, and there is generally no charge for an introductory conversation of this type.
- Look for stylistic similarities and differences between the coach and you and how these might support your growth as an individual or the growth of your team.
- Discuss your goals for coaching within the context of the coach's specialty or the coach's preferred way of working with a individual or team.
- Talk with the coach about what to do if you ever feel things are not going well; make some agreements up front on how to handle questions or problems.
- Remember that coaching is a partnership, so be assertive about talking with the coach about anything that is of concern at any time.
How long does coaching take?
This depends on the individual's or team's needs and preferences. For some types of focused coaching, 3 to 6 months may work. For other types of coaching, people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period of time.
Factors that may impact the length of time include:
- the types of goals, the ways individuals or teams like to work, the frequency of coaching meetings, and financial resources available to support coaching.
How can the success of the coaching process be measured?
- By external indicators of performance: aspects that can be seen and measured in the individual's or team's environment.
- By internal indicators of success: aspects that are inherent within the individual or team members being coached and can be measured by the individual or team being coached with the support of the coach.
- Ideally, both external and internal metrics are incorporated into the measurements.
- External measures: achievement of coaching goals established at the outset of the coaching relationship
- Increased income/revenue
- Obtaining a promotion
- Performance feedback obtained from a sample of the individual's constituents
- Personal and/or business performance data (e.g. productivity, efficiency measures, KPIs)
- Internal measures: include self-scoring/self-validating assessments that can be administered initially
- Changes in self-awareness and awareness of others
- Shifts in thinking which inform more effective actions
- Shifts in emotional state which inspire self-confidence
Contact Peter to discuss your requirements. Contact him on +44 (0) 20 8668 2000 or via e-mail and find out how we can help you to open new avenues in your business and personal life that create extraordinary and long lasting results.
REMEMBER:
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE*
The first coaching session is FREE and if you don't see results from our coaching within three months, you can claim all your money back.
(*Terms & Conditions apply)
Take Action NOW and call Peter on +44(0) 20 8668 2000
|