What is a personal/professional coach?
A personal/professional coach is trained to provide you with the structure to identify what you want and the support to help create it.
A coach will help you gather the courage to work thru the roadblocks that have been holding you back.
A coach helps individuals or groups work out answers to critical issues or problems.
A coach helps clients assess values, seek balance, and develop strategies that lead to success.
A coach listens and provides fundamental training in conflict management, both internal and external.
A coach unlocks an individual's potential so they can achieve their goals.
A coach becomes a personal resource person who helps individuals grow both personally and professionally.
A coach helps bridge the gap between where an individual is today and where they would like to be.
A coach will help an individual to raise their performance levels, enhance their strengths, acquire missing essential elements necessary for success, and correct or compensate for their weaknesses.
A coach will help an individual to build new approaches to relationships and new patterns of behavior that will have a positive effect on their value and on the people around them.
A coach will help individuals orient their capabilities, talents, and motivations to the goals of the organization.
A coach helps an individual explore and resolve difficult issues objectively and with reduced stress.
Why would I want to hire a personal/professional coach?
Think of what would be possible for you if you had someone in your corner who always believed in you and your capabilities? Who was patient with you, yet courageous enough to push you when you needed it. Who helped you tap into the special skills and talents that most people never have the good fortune of discovering?
The best investment made is the investment in yourself.
What is an executive coach?
An executive coach is someone a business executive can have honest open discussions with as they work out problems and develop strategies that couldn't be done with the executive team, given the biases, politics and power differences involved.
How is coaching different than therapy, a consultant, or confiding in a confidant or significant other?
Therapy
Coaching is not therapy. Past issues and how an individual got to be the way they are now are not dealt with. Coaching focuses on who an individual is at the moment and how that individual can use their talents, capabilities and assets to become more valuable and productive in their life and to their organization.
Therapy focuses on the "Why?" and coaching focuses on the "Why Not?"
Consulting
Coaching not only looks at business issues and methods, it takes into consideration the personal desires, needs and goals of the individual. Rather than telling someone what he/she should do, coaching leads to professional growth and development that allows the individual to make better, more informed decisions for himself/herself.
A coach does all the things a consultant does but then remains with the client to guide them thru the changes and help them thru issues that arise and generally support them in their endeavors on the long-term journey to their success.
All coaches are consultants, but few consultants are coaches.
Advice from Confidant or Significant Other
A coach is a professional trained in helping bring individuals to new levels of success.
A coach has most likely worked with others in situations similar to, or the same as, the present issues the individual being coached has or is facing. That professional experience a coach possesses can be very valuable.
A coach will hold you accountable for your actions, if a close friend or family member attempts to do that an individual may find it threatening or uncomfortable.
A coach will tell an individual the truth, not just what they want to hear, which is much more difficult for a friend or spouse to do. Hearing what an individual wants to hear, and not the truth, can sometimes result in adverse consequences.
A coach is removed personally from the situation and therefore is much more objective and unbiased in their guidance.
Why does coaching work?
By hiring a coach you invest in yourself and make positive changes in your life
You "put your money where your mouth is" and begin to live your life in a more thoughtful, deliberate manner.
Taking action in your life creates momentum that leads to BIG changes.
Having a partner who supports you makes any job easier.
You redefine your goals into manageable units---so that you can see progress quickly as you move closer to where you want to be.
Coaching is customized to the individual's goals, desires, specific issues and needs.
Your coach provides you an accountability mechanism so you take more action, think big and get the job done.
How do I know if I need a coach?
If you answer yes to any of the following questions then you would benefit from coaching:
Do you feel like you are in a rut?
Do you feel the need to change some of your habits?
Would you like your life to become better balanced?
Would you like to find solutions to issues more quickly and easier?
Do you feel the need to create a new vision of your future?
Do you want to achieve more?
Do you sometimes feel you are juggling the impossible?
Would you like to learn to be more creative and to turn your ideas into action?
Do you feel overwhelmed as an employer, manager, supervisor or team leader?
Would you like to strengthen your leadership, communication, and decision making skills?
Would you like to build more productive professional and personal relationships?
Would you like to have less worry, stress, apprehension and tension in your life?
Would you like to identify your strengths and learn how to use them more effectively to become a bigger asset to your organization?
Would you like to have more confidence in how you present yourself?
Do you have talents you are not sure how to uncover and make profitable use of?
Do you feel there are obstacles in your way of achieving higher success?
Do you know you have the "stuff" it takes to get to a goal and are ready to take action to achieve it but need help getting started?
Are you facing or contemplating a career change and are unsure about how and/or where to start?
What happens during a coaching session?
First I get to know the person's goals and objectives, and then I systematically work toward facilitating their environment to achieve short, intermediate, and long range goals. The key to this is how big is the individual's own vision.
You report on the action plans designed at the prior session, successes and wins you have had during the week, and any problems you faced and how you handled them.
Having a coach is like having a personal trainer for your life!
How often does a coach and client meet?
Weekly is optimum for accountability. The sessions are usually two hours in duration.
Do you do any coaching by telephone?
Yes. Usually one hour at a time on a weekly basis.
What is the average cost of a personal/professional/executive coach?
$150 per hour
As a business owner or leader, how do I know my organization needs the use of a coach or training seminars?
If you can answer yes to any of the following questions then there is a definite need for coaching and training on both an individual and an organizational level:
Are rivalries straining relations between key individuals or departments and hurting productivity?
Are responsibilities overwhelming otherwise competent managers?
Is progress getting mired in day-to-day matters?
Are breakdowns in communication hindering progress in your business or organization?
Do the leadership people in your business or organization need new skills in order to interact with sensitive issues such as gender, culture, age, and disability?
Do you see a need to develop more productive collaboration between team members in order to achieve assigned goals?
Would you like your employees and teams to be more creative and innovative?
Are your profits down? Is productivity waning? Is competition passing you by?
Are your employees, including your leaders, unfocused about personal and professional goals resulting in wasted energy and ineffectiveness?
How is the quality of your customer service? Does it need to improve leading to higher profits?
Is employee turnover high?
Would you like to see communication and listening skills improve within your business or organization's members?
