Life Coaching

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What Is Coaching?
2. What are the benefits of Coaching?
3. What are some typical reasons someone might work
    with a coach?
4. How is the Coaching Process delivered?
5. How long does a coach work with an individual?
6. Within the partnership, what does the coach do and the
    individual do?
7. What does coaching ask of an individual?
8. How can the success of the coaching process be
    measured?
9. How is coaching distinct from other service
    professions?
10. Where does the coach focus with an average client?
11. What about people who are already doing great in
      their lives. Why would they need a coach?
12. Can a dependency be created between coach and
      client?
13. How long must I commit if I start working with a
      coach?

What Is Coaching?
Coaching accelerates the individual's progress and concentrates on where individuals are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future. Coaching is a professional partnership where the individual chooses the focus of conversation, the coach listens, contributes observations and questions as well as concepts and principles which can assist in generating possibilities and more effective choices, thus identifying the most effective actions to adopt to achieve the goal.

What are the benefits of coaching?
Individuals who engage in a coaching relationship can expect to experience:

• New perspectives and insight to personal challenges
• Enhanced thinking
• Improved decision making skills
• Increased interpersonal effectiveness
• Increased confidence
• Enhancing personal effectiveness
• Raised productivity
• Personal satisfaction and achievement with life and work

What are some typical reasons someone might work with a coach?
There are many reasons that an individual might choose to work with a coach, including but not limited to the following:

• You have a challenge or opportunity that is urgent or compelling
• There are gaps in your knowledge, skills, confidence, or
   resources
• There is a desire to accelerate results
• A setback has forced the need for a course correction in work
  or life
• An individual's current strategies are ineffective
• There is a lack of clarity regarding goals, strengths and how to
   leverage them
• Success has started to become problem
• Work and life are out of balance
• There is a desire for work and life to be simpler
• There is a desire to better organised and more structured

How is the Coaching Process delivered?
Initial Interview
Coaching typically begins with a personal interview (either face-to-face or by teleconference call) to assess the individual’s current opportunities and challenges, define the scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action, and establish specific desired outcomes.
Followup Sessions
Subsequent coaching sessions may be conducted in person or over the telephone, with each session lasting a previously establishedlength of time. Between scheduled coaching sessions, the individual may be asked to complete specific actions that support the achievement of one’s personally prioritized goals.
Between Sessions
The coach may provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments, or models, to support the individual’s thinking and actions and provide objective information which can enhance the individual’s self-awareness. They also provide a benchmark for creating coaching goals and actionable strategies, and offer a method for evaluating progress as well as foster shifts in perspective, promote fresh insights, provide new frameworks for looking at opportunities and challenges, and energize and inspire the individual’s forward actions.

How long does a coach work with an individual?
The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on the individual's needs and preferences. For certain types of focused coaching, 3 to 6 months of working with a coach may work. For other types of coaching, people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period.

Within the partnership, what does the coach do and the individual do?
The role of the coach is to provide:

• Objective assessment and observations
• Challenge personal strengths and aspirations
• Foster shifts in thinking
• Challenge blind spots
• Support the creation of alternative scenarios
• Maintains professional boundaries, including confidentiality, and code of ethics.

The role of the individual is to:

• Create the coaching agenda
• Utilize assessment and observations to enhance self-awareness
• Envision personal success
• Assume full responsibility for personal decisions and actions
• Utilise possibility thinking and fresh perspectives
• Take courageous action in alignment with personal goals and aspirations
• Utilise the tools, concepts, models and principles provided to engage effective forward actions

What does coaching ask of an individual?
To be successful, coaching asks certain things of the individual, all of which begin with intention to...
Focus, Observation, Listening, Self discipline and control , Decisive actions, Self compassion, Humor, Trust and Courage.

How can the success of the coaching process be measured?
Measurement success is achieved in two ways.

External Indicators of performance: Increased income/revenue, obtaining a promotion, performance feedback e.g., direct reports, colleagues, customers, boss, the manager him/herself), personal and/or business performance data (e.g., productivity, efficiency measures). The external measures selected should ideally be things the individual is already measuring and are things the individual has some ability to directly influence.

Internal Indicators of performance: self-validating assessments, changes in the individual’s self- awareness, shifts in thinking which inform more effective actions, and shifts in emotional state which inspire confidence.

How is coaching distinct from other service professions?
Coaching is a profession that supports personal and professional growth and development based on individual-initiated change as it relates to goal setting, outcome creation and personal change management. Coaching is forward moving and future focused.
In an effort to understand what a coach is, it can be helpful to distinguish coaching from other professions.
Therapy deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or a relationship between two or more individuals. Most approaches focus on resolving difficulties arising from the past which hamper an individual's emotional functioning in the present.
Consulting is usually a service that may be retained by individuals or organisations for the purpose of accessing specialised expertise. There is often an assumption that the consultant diagnoses problems and prescribes and sometimes implements solutions.
Mentoring can be thought of as guiding from one’s own experience or sharing of experience in a specific area of industry or career development.
Training programs are based on the acquisition of certain learning objectives. Training also assumes a linear learning path which coincides with an established curriculum.
Athletic Development coaching is often seen as an expert who guides and directs the behavior of individuals or teams based on his or her greater experience and knowledge and ocuses on behaviors that are being executed poorly or incorrectly.

Where does the coach focus with an average client?
Focus is given where the client needs it most. Usually this tends to be in the following areas:

• Strengthening their foundation
• Helping the client use those resources to create more.
• Helping the client set goals based on their beliefs, criteria and
  values.

What about people who are already doing great in their lives. Why would they need a coach?
They might not need a coach. But it is helpful to find out: Are they doing what they most enjoy? Are they tolerating anything? Is life easy? Are they going to be financially independent within the next 10-15 years? Do they have what they most want? People need to expect more out of their lives. A coach can help in this process.

Can a dependency be created between coach and client?
No. The client may "need" the coach in order to maximize an opportunity or accelerate their growth, yet not be "dependent" on the coach, but an emotional, psychological dependency is not created. Remember, coaching is about helping the client to create a better future and to teach self-management and autonomy so that more success and a higher quality of life can be obtained.

How long must I commit if I start working with a coach?
Most coaches ask for a three to six month commitment but usually let you stop immediately if coaching is not working for you right now.

Other queries...
Please feel free to call or email me with any queries:

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