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Coaching – the modern day art of GROWING!
Author: Paul Stretton-Stephens
‘Life is like a jigsaw puzzle; occasionally you need someone else to help you place some of the pieces in the right place.’
Paul Stretton-Stephens
Okay, so you’ve made a fantastic new goal and your going to be a roaring success. All you need is a little help with developing a framework, and the creation of achievable actions to get you there. What better way to get fired up and enthused about your future than to use the dynamic services of a great coach. Ten years ago the everyday person wouldn’t dream of using a personal fitness trainer, but now they are commonplace and this is what’s happening in the coaching arena.
Now coaches come in all sorts of guises and provide a range of coaching services that can include:
• Life or Personal Coaching – Acting as a catalyst for growth in people’s lives, coaches help them to be the best they can be in personal life situations.
• Performance Coaching – Coaches assist all types of performers, for example, writers, actors, sportspersons, presenters and alike, in reaching their full potential.
• Business & Executive Coaching – Coaches address issues surrounding personal, professional and business matters. Ideally coaches in this area are required to have knowledge of business, business terms and management development.
• Team Coaching – Coaches facilitate the creation of cohesive, high performance teams (i.e. sports, business, fundraisers etc.) whilst influencing the team’s overall effectiveness through various coaching development techniques.
So the question begs, how do you choose the right coach for you; how can you be sure that the coach you are thinking of choosing is reputable, ethical and effective? Can they deliver rapid effective results that will help you get what you want without your having to run around in circles?
Here are some guidelines to help you get the best coach for you:
Are they professional?
Ask if the coach belongs to a recognised professional body in their industry, for example the ‘Association for Coaching’. This association is a non-for profit organisation that thoroughly vets their members. Moreover, their members must abide by a code of conduct. This top tip will help you sift out many purported coaches who have jumped on the industry bandwagon. Indeed, why not look for a coach via the professional organisations themselves?
If you are in a business you may require your coach to have professional indemnity insurance. If so, the above point may be of considerable help because members of certain professional bodies are required to have this cover.
Are they suitable for you?
What can you glean from the coach’s profile? Don’t just ask them. View their web site or the literature that they provide. If they have neither of these, check them out a little more and ask questions, reminiscent of, is this your main business and how long have you been coaching? Go with your gut feeling, after all its your future that you are looking out for.
When speaking with your prospective coach, what feeling do you get? Do you feel that you could communicate with them; do you feel comfortable with them, or could you? Are they the sort of coach that will challenge and stretch you so that you reach your full potential?
Ask about the coach’s experience and style. What have been their most successful assignments? What areas of coaching do they offer and enjoy? And more importantly, have they any references that they could provide you with?
Types of Coaching
Ensure that you get the right service for you.
In the Association of Coaching’s 2003 survey of coaching, a massive 97% of respondents stated that they prefer face-to-face coaching. Telephone coaching and email coaching are also available in the marketplace, however there is a caveat here. The less face-to-face contact there is, the longer it can take for some issues to be worked through.
In face-to-face coaching both the coach and client are able to consciously and unconsciously read and respond to each other’s body language; they are able to watch, listen, speak and make eye contact. Whereas, during telephone coaching both have to depend upon each other’s ability to hear variations in tone, pitch, and the ability to identify language patterns. This method can be effective for those who live or work a great distance away from their coach, or for those with busy schedules.
Then there is the low cost – no frills - email coaching, which presents us with a paradox. Electronic communication is fast. However, coaching communication via this means can be painfully slow and ineffective. It depends on too many variables, the level of the language utilised, email connection, time to work on the tasks set, and the interpretation of communications by both parties. Email communication is an excellent add on service to face-to-face or telephone coaching. It can enable support to be provided throughout the coaching period, but only as a complimentary tool.
Frequency of Coaching
A word of caution, if you have an issue and that issue can be addressed within 3 months of coaching, then why pay for 6 or 12 months? A coach stated just the other day that they had been constantly coaching one of their clients for two years! The point is that clients should not be dependent upon their coach or vice versa. The whole ethos of coaching is for the client to be able to take flight and live life to their full potential after only a short while. Great coaches seek to provide clients with rapid, elegant and effective results.
Coaching Rates
Finally, check out coaching rates. Most coaches offer a free taster session of 30 – 45 minutes so that the client, and the coach, can decide whether to continue with future coaching session(s). Bear in mind that the more experienced professional coaches, that meet most of the guidelines above, will have invested time, money and effort into their chosen career. Professional memberships, insurance and ongoing professional training are just a few of the overheads that coaches sustain. For the more astute potential client, pricing can provide a clue as to the validity and professionalism of the coach.
As you embark on your search for a coach, we offer one last piece of advice and that is, to be prepared to invest a little time and money in your future success, it will be worth it!
As you think of devising your next fantastic life changing goal, or any other desires for success that you may have for that matter. Bear these offerings in mind. Pursue your dreams and pull in the resources that will enable you to get wherever you want, whenever you want, rapidly and elegantly. Success is there for all to achieve, even you!
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ăCopyright 2004, Paul Stretton-Stephens, all rights reserved.
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The author of this article is Paul Stretton-Stephens BA (Hon’s) who is a member of the Association for Coaching. Paul is a Coach at Purely Success Coaching based in Cheltenham Spa, Gloucestershire, UK and can be contacted by Telephone +44 (0) 1242 701280 ~ Email info@purelysuccess.com ~ Web www.purelysuccess.com
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