What a sports coach does for the physical, a professional coach does for your spirit. Coaching is a powerful, supportive relationship, a partnership designed to assist you in discovering what's most important to you, as well as producing fulfilling results, both personally and professionally.
A coach provides tools, structure and accountability, creating the space and increasing the confidence needed to breakthrough the comfort of "business as usual".
Coaching works because the focus is on what YOU want; your dreams, your goals, your passions. Your individual needs brought to the surface in every coaching session.
A coach is trained to listen, and to support you in discovering your own answers, tapping into the resources and creativity that each of us has within ourselves.
All of this creates an environment where you, the client, produce extraordinary results - moving towards what you choose to have in your life.
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How is coaching different from consulting, teaching, or therapy?
Coaching differs from consulting because the coach's primary role is not to give advice or design solutions. Coaches ask questions and suggest alternatives that guide clients to discover their own unique answers and choose their own path. A coach may provide ideas, expertise, and skill-building techniques, but doesn't solve clients' problems for them, nor tell them what to do.
Coaching differs from teaching in that the coach doesn't determine what the client will learn, nor provide a curriculum to be followed. The client decides what he or she needs to know, and the coach facilitates learning by providing accountability, feedback, helpful resources, or useful models.
Coaching differs from therapy because coaching sessions are primarily focused on learning and achievement, rather than healing or resolution. Coaches help clients to make changes in their lives by observing present conditions, visualizing future goals, and determining action steps. Analyzing past events, understanding emotional reactions, or determining the cause of a client's behavior is typically not addressed in coaching.
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What do people get out of working with a coach?
Coaching clients experience a sense of partnership and support in achieving their personal goals that is often not available elsewhere in their lives. Regular coaching sessions provide clients with dedicated time to focus on what they truly want and what must happen to create it.
Coaches help their clients design action steps to meet their goals, then hold them accountable to their own stated desires, providing perspective, feedback, and smart questions along the way. As a result, clients stay motivated, make significant changes, and achieve more than they may have thought possible.
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What kinds of people work with coaches?
A typical coaching client is someone who wants to make changes in his or her life, and is ready to take action. You might hire a coach for yourself when you are looking for a new job, needing to improve your management skills, wanting to increase profits in your business, launching an ambitious new project, planning your retirement, or dissatisfied with some of the conditions in your life and seeking a new direction. You might hire a coach for your organization when you want to improve productivity, increase teamwork, implement new ways of working, or adjust to changing conditions.
Coaching clients are men, women, people of all ages, professions, and income brackets - people like YOU. What they have in common is a desire for partnership, support, and strategic guidance in solving problems and achieving goals that are personally important to them.
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How does someone choose the right coach for his or her needs?
First, determine what you want to accomplish. Most coaches specialize in a particular kind of coaching, for example: Business building, career transition, executive/management, team facilitation, life planning or relationship coaching.
To locate a coach with the specialty you are seeking, begin by asking friends or colleagues if they can recommend a coach they have worked with to accomplish similar goals. Interview two or three possible coaches for comparison. Ask about their background and the type of results they typically help clients achieve.
The personal fit between client and coach is an important factor. In your initial conversation, assess not only the coach's ability to assist you in reaching your goals but how comfortable you feel interacting with him or her. Some coaches also offer complimentary coaching sessions for prospective clients so you can experience what it would be like to work with them.
How does someone know they are ready to work with a coach?
To get the most from a coaching relationship, clients need to be willing to learn new ways of doing things and make changes in their attitudes and behavior. Anyone who is open to hearing new perspectives, willing to question how they are currently acting, and ready to take on new challenges in their life or career can benefit from a working with a coach.
