How long is a coaching engagement?

I recommend that new clients to sign up for at least 8 sessions; most of my clients sign up for 12. The more time one gives themselves to focus on their goals, the more significant results they’ll see from coaching. I generally meet with clients every 2-3 weeks, and so a coaching engagement typically runs 4-9 months.

What is Coaching?

The International Coach Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.

Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach’s job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has.”

How is Coaching different from therapy?

Coaching does not focus on fixing emotional issues. Coaching focuses on moving forward toward your goals. However, emotion is often present in coaching when you set daunting targets, hit frustrating roadblocks, celebrate overcoming obstacles, learn inspiring things about yourself and accomplish incredible goals. (In other words, it’s okay to become emotional!) Likewise, while Executive Coaching is about career-related objectives, I remember that the client is human, and consider their whole life in coaching conversations. Speaking about relevant personal matters is also “normal”, and encouraged.

What’s the difference between Executive Coaching and Life Coaching?

The terms speak more to the clientele than to the craft of coaching. Executive Coaching is generally for corporate leaders and the primary focus is on work-related goals, where as Life Coaching focuses on any area of a client’s life, including work. I practice Executive Coaching because that is where I can provide the most value to my clients.

I have a background in leadership development, corporate communications and general management, so I understand well the business context in which my clients face challenges, and aspire to grow.

Is coaching is right for me (or my employee)?

Please e-mail me for a complimentary chat about where you are now and where you want to go (or to discuss the employee for whom you’re considering assigning a Coach). I’ll provide some options as to how a coaching engagement can be structured for your case. And then it comes down to using your instincts. You’ll know if it “clicks”. Regardless of the outcome, our meeting will be completely confidential.

What types of issues do clients bring to coaching?

Just as no two people are alike, no two coaching agendas are ever quite the same. Here are some broad examples – out of thousands! – that one might bring to the table:

As a leader in an organization:

Improving/changing your reputation in the organization
Improving your productivity/performance
Carving your own path with confidence and authenticity
Transitioning into a role with increased responsibility

As an individual:

Exploring a career change
Reaching for a promotion
Settling into a new role
Pursuing work/life balance
Confronting a negative workplace situation
Defining what retirement will look like

As an entrepreneur:

Starting, growing or evolving your business

What’s a typical coaching session like?

I always start by asking, “What do you want coaching on today?” Even though we may have established a larger goal, on that particular day you might have a more specific focus. For example, an obstacle that popped up, tackling the next mini-goal or re-prioritizing things based on new information.

Then we’ll chat. I’ll use my expertise to ask you powerful questions to help you to clarify the issue in the context of the broader picture and establish your next move.

I am completely unbiased, non-judgmental and supportive, but I will not let you away with selling yourself short. Like a star athlete’s Coach, I will both challenge you and cheer you on. I’ll hold you accountable to what you commit to doing.

Whatever takes place our sessions is completely confidential, and will remain so even after the coaching engagement has ended. I also keep my client list private unless I have explicit permission from a client to use their name.

What are your rates?

Please e-mail me, briefly describe to me your needs, and I will get back to you within 24 hours regarding my rates for a relevant program.

Will coaching lead my valued employee to quit?

A research study by the Career Innovation Group (CIPD, 2005) reports that “the amount of career support received by employees was positively correlated to their stated intention to remain with their current employer.” Coaching is a particularly effective form of career support because it is intensive, objective and completely customized.Beyond that, I’m going to let the Harvard Management Update take this one:

“If an experience—through coaching or anything else—reveals an interest that leads an executive away from the firm, everyone stands to gain. The executive finds a better fit and, ideally, a space in the firm becomes available to someone who is motivated by the challenges at hand. It’s much the same thinking that companies have gone through regarding leadership-development programs at large. The occasional departure of a manager in whom the firm has invested a great deal is offset many times over by the increased value of those who remain.”

Sources:
“Career Conversation Literature Review”; Canadian Research Working Group on Evidence Based Practice in Career Development: Butterfield, Lalande and Borgen, University of British Columbia, February 2008.
“Methodology: Do You Need an Executive Coach?”; Harvard Management Update: Vol. 9, No. 12, December 2004.

What are the benefits to hiring a Coach for an employee in a new role?

Organizations carefully hire, promote and transfer individuals into roles based on a belief that someone ultimately has what it takes to succeed in the new role. But first they have to succeed in making a successful transition into that new role.

There is a concept from Michael Watkins’ well-known book, “The First 90 Days”, called the Breakeven Point. Typically, when an individual takes on a new role in an organization, there is a period of time where they are net consumers of value. Only as they learn and begin to take action, do they start to create value, and the point at which they’ve made up for the value they’ve consumed is called the “Breakeven Point” – on average 6.2 months, according to a survey of CEO’s referenced in the book.
Coaching works to accelerate the transition so that the individual can a) transition successfully, and b) transition more quickly. Both of which are critical to the organization’s bottom line. The coaching touches on whatever topics the person in the new role needs to settle in; typical discussions involve:

Understanding what attributes from their last role will/won’t work in the new role
Creating individualized strategies for learning the ropes
Adapting as new things are learned about the team/culture/common practices.

What are your results?

Click here to read some testimonials from people I’ve worked with.