There are a number of questions that I get asked a lot. Here are a selection of them and the answers that are given.
General Questions
The section contains answers to general questions related to Life Coaching.
Personal life coaching is the process of facilitating positive change in order to maximize personal potential. We focus on where you are now, where you want to be and what you will do to get there, rather than on analyzing the past. By setting goals and developing strategies, coaching will help you to define solutions and to take the committed action required to reach your goals.
Clarity, fulfillment and results. Coaching is about improving the results an individual is creating. And about providing an important counterbalance to the many pressures we put upon ourselves: whatever our level.
With the support of a coach, we make clearer judgements, learn more from experiences, make better choices, act more decisively and take more effective and purposeful action. We begin to focus on what’s really of importance to us; and to shape what we do to align with those values.
Coaching is about forward momentum and helping people to achieve their goals. The focus of coaching is on creating and maintaining motivation for change; exploring and overcoming obstacles; and taking action to reach goals.
| COACHING | THERAPY | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Action | Understanding and action |
| Depth | Looks at patterns and behaviour in the here and now, looking to future behaviour to change these patterns. | Looks at patterns and behaviour in the here and now, looking to future behaviour to change these patterns. Plus looks at greater depth into cause of behaviour to allow the root of stubborn patterns to be understood and changed. |
| Location/time | Can vary, including phone, internet and in-person sessions. | Same place and time. |
Counselling is about the present and the past, with a focus on helping people to address and resolve deeper emotional issues.
In your first coaching session I will talk you through the coaching process and will give you the opportunity to raise any questions that you may have.
We then spend the majority of the session working towards the definition of your primary goals. By putting time and focus into your goals upfront, we ensure that the coaching process is solution focused and that you have a motivating force to work towards.
Yes, coaching does work; but like everything, it has its limits. Coaching is not a panacea: powerful, yes; but the answer to everything, no.
So, what are those limits? Well, perhaps I can ask: when you’re at your most energized, motivated, liberated and inspired, what’re the limits to what you might achieve?
A final caveat: the client has to want this. The essence of coaching is drawing-out solutions from a high-performing mind. If that mind doesn’t want to cooperate, coaching won’t work.
Yes, coaching is worth the investment — assuming you and your coach have set the right goals and that you’re prepared to work hard at them.
Although we may not often think or feel it, we’re constantly spending time, money and effort to progress and advance, often adopting ad hoc and unchanging strategies along the way — and with minimal care or thought.
Coaching will marshal those investments, aligning them and you with your highest values, getting you to your goals faster and achieving a bigger version of the result.
No. On the contrary, coaching gets results fast. And one of my great (and, I’m pleased to say, regular) delights in coaching is clients seeing results sooner than expected.
My longer coaching programs can run for anything up to 12 weeks in order to progress big goals. But clients see results every step of the way: from the outset; throughout; and long after we have finished working together.
Career Coaching
In this section multiple panels can be opened at a time — toggle mode.
Career coaching is the process through which you are helped to achieve measurable improvements in both your professional and personal performance. The coaching experience offers the rare opportunity to stand back and to take a fresh look at the experiences and assumptions of a lifetime. It facilitates enhanced self-awareness that is required for increased clarity and sustaining positive change.
One of the key ways that career coaching helps people is through heightened clarity, resulting in well-defined priorities and goals. Coaching will also help in a number of other ways, including:
- Greater awareness — a coach can see things that you may not be able to see, such as patterns, behaviours or habits, and can reflect these back to you to help you achieve what you want to achieve.
- New ways of thinking and doing things — if your current approach hasn’t enabled you to reach your goal, a coach can help you find new ways of thinking and doing things that will result in different outcomes, in line with your goals.
- The confidence to think big — a coach is a facilitator, a resource and an ongoing support for you throughout the coaching engagement. They encourage you to go for the big goals, help you define how you will achieve them and are your support along the way.
- Sustaining change — change can often be difficult. Through coaching you become accountable to the actions you commit to in each session, supporting you in not only making, but sustaining change.
- Identifying gaps — want to take that next step in your career, or even make a career transition? The coaching process can help you to identify what you need to develop to reach the next stage of your career.
Coaching can help you achieve a broad range of goals across a number of areas. These areas can include:
- Leadership development
- Building confidence & assertiveness
- Performance enhancement
- Executive presence development
- Positive communication skills
- Career transition & planning
- Planning your career after redundancy
- Managing uncertainty & change
- Wellbeing to support performance
As your coach, it will be my role to help you realize your potential and improve your performance. Through a structured program I will work with you to achieve insights, define your goals and map out the journey that will get you to your desired outcome. With no internal links to your company, I can be your supporter, co-creator and confidant — the resource you need to get where you want to go.
I use the Results Coaching methodology, which has contemporary neuroscience at its heart, using insights into how the brain works to get the best results from coaching. My coaching structure is as follows:
- Setting goals; we explore your needs and define clear and measurable goals based on your vision of success.
- Creating the strategy; together we work to define the strategy that will get you to your goal in the most effective and efficient way.
- Taking action; throughout the coaching program we will be implementing the action plan, monitoring results, identifying opportunities for improvement and embedding changes.
- Evaluation; the outcomes are evaluated against the goals set in phase 1.
- Maintenance; plans are put into place to sure new behaviours and learning are embedded.
Leadership Development
Below are some frequently asked questions that should give you some insight into how working with me will help you achieve your business goals.
My executive coaching programs are a partnership with the sponsor organization, the coachee and myself. The structure that my programs follow is as follows:
- Setting goals; I work with your business and the individual being coached, to define the goals that will meet the business objectives and the individual’s needs.
- Creating the strategy; the proposed coaching plan, timeline and schedule is agreed by all stakeholders.
- Taking action; throughout the coaching program we will be implementing the action plan, monitoring results, identifying opportunities for improvement and embedding changes. This phase also includes regular review meetings between the key stakeholders and the coachee to review and feedback on progress.
- Evaluation; the outcomes are evaluated with the stakeholders against the goals set in phase 1. Further development opportunities are also identified.
- Maintenance; plans are put into place to ensure new behaviours and learning are embedded.
My executive coaching expertise is in performance enhancement, leadership development, building resilience, communication skills, conflict resolution, executive presence and career transition. I also work with executives to help them identify and connect with their strengths, to have greater clarity of purpose and goals and to increase their own self awareness and understanding in order to deliver success at work.
By investing in your people, you not only create a high performing business culture, you significantly add to your bottom line. The benefits for businesses that provide executive coaching and mentoring to their senior executives are far reaching; some common benefits include:
- Enhanced individual and business performance
- Retention of high potential and top performing staff
- Improved employee morale; more committed and motivated staff
My leadership training programs are customized to meet your individual business needs. Whether it’s a program for one, or for an entire management team, I can tailor a program that will deliver on your business needs. The process I undertake can include:
- Needs analysis — what are the needs of the individual or team and their alignment with the business.
- Program scope — define and agree the leadership program (including success metrics) with the business sponsor.
- Program delivery — training and workshops delivered to participants.
- Follow up coaching — one-on-one coaching sessions with participants to ensure transfer of learning into the work environment.