2. How is coaching conducted?
The coaching process begins with an initial free, no-obligation consult, usually by telephone, to: assess your current opportunities and challenges; begin to identify priorities for action; establish specific desired outcomes; and determine if our coaching relationship will be a good fit. Subsequent coaching sessions are typically conducted over the telephone, with each session lasting approximately 45 minutes. Between scheduled coaching sessions, you may be asked to complete specific actions that support the achievement of your personally prioritized goals. I may provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments, or models, to support your thinking and actions.

My coaching approach is one that is appreciative of you and is grounded in what’s right, what’s working, what’s wanted, and what’s needed to get there. By using direct, meaningful questions, deep listening, and my own intuitive skills, I help you discover proactive ways of managing personal opportunities and challenges, offer constructive communication tools to help you get the most positive responses from others while staying true to your values and integrity, and help you to envision success as opposed to focusing on problems.

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3. What are some typical reasons why someone might partner with a coach?
There are many reasons that an individual or company might choose to work with a coach, and here are just a few:

• A big stretch is being asked or required, and it is time sensitive
• There is a gap in knowledge, skills, confidence, or resources
• There is a desire to accelerate results
• An individual has a need for someone who will hold him/her accountable
• There is a need for a course correction in work or life due to a setback
• An individual has a style of relating that is ineffective or is not supporting the achievement of his/her personally relevant goals
• There is a lack of clarity in the face of important choices to be made
• The individual is extremely successful, and success has started to become problematic
• Work and life are out of balance, and this is creating unwanted consequences
• The individual has not identified his or her core strengths and how best to leverage them
• The individual desires work and life to be simpler, less complicated
• There is a need and a desire to better organized and more self-managing
• An individual has a need for someone who will communicate honestly and objectively about his/her situation

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4. Within the coaching partnership, what does the coach do? What does the client do?
As your coach, it is my responsibility to:

• Practice deep listening in order to gain a fuller understanding of your situation
• Provide objective observations and feedback that foster your enhanced self-awareness and awareness of others
• Be a sounding board in support of possibility thinking and thoughtful planning and decision making
• Be an enthusiastic champion of your opportunities and potential
• Encourage you to stretch beyond your safe space to reach new heights in your personal strengths and aspirations
• Foster the shifts in thinking that reveal fresh perspectives
• Challenge blind spots in order to illuminate new possibilities
• Support the creation of alternative scenarios
• Maintain professional boundaries in the coaching relationship, including confidentiality
• Adhere to the coaching profession’s code of ethics.

To be successful, you as the client must enter the coaching partnership with the sincere intention to:

• Create the coaching agenda based on personally meaningful goals and take courageous action in alignment with your goals
• Focus on yourself – the tough questions, the hard truths – and on your success
• Observe more closely and objectively the behaviors and communications of others
• Listen to your intuition, assumptions, judgments, and to the way you sound when you speak
• Challenge existing attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and develop new ones which serve your goals in a more meaningful and productive way
• Leverage your personal strengths and overcome limitations in order to develop a winning style
• Take decisive action, which at times may feel uncomfortable. as you step beyond your personal insecurities in order to reach for the extraordinary
• Show compassion for yourself as you experiment with new behaviors and experience minor setbacks, and then continue to move forward
• Commit to not taking yourself so seriously, using humor to put situations in perspective
• Assume responsibility for personal decisions and actions
• Engage in big picture thinking and problem solving skills

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5. How long does the coaching partnership last?
The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on your needs and preferences. For certain types of focused goalsetting, 3 to 6 months of working with a coach may prove effective. For other long-term goals, you may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period. Depending on the goal, the coaching sessions may occur more frequently initially, i.e., three sessions per month, and then after a few months they may taper to once or twice a month as needed. The length of the partnership is determined by your needs in terms of what it is you’re trying to accomplish and the time frame in which you need to achieve your goals.

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6. How is coaching different from counseling or therapy?
Therapy or counseling typically deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within you or within a relationship between you and another person or people. The focus of therapy or counseling is often on resolving difficulties arising from the past which hamper your emotional functioning in the present. Coaching is forward moving and future focused with an emphasis on taking action based on goals and objectives. Coaches work with emotionally healthy people and help them to move forward through action, accountability and follow through. Coaching is not about trying to uncover or solve issues in the past, although insights about the past often occur as a result of coaching. Coaching is not intended for, or effective with, individuals who have severe mental or emotional problems or who have untreated addictions.

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7. How is coaching different from business consulting?
An individual or a company may hire me as a consultant for the purpose of accessing my specific expertise in Human Resources and/or strategic planning. As a consultant, there is an assumption that I will diagnose problems or challenges and prescribe and implement specific solutions. As a coach I can and do address business issues and processes, but I also take into account your personal desires, needs, and goals. Instead of just telling you what to do, as a coach I supply supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks so that you can make better, more informed, decisions for yourself.

Sometimes a consulting arrangement may include coaching services. For example, I may be engaged as a consultant to assess an executive team in terms of their roles within the organization and to identify top talent as part of a succession planning strategy. Based on the outcome of my assessment, I may then be engaged to work as a coach with individuals, helping them to achieve personal goals that would enable them to make the move to a higher level within the organization.

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8. How do I begin?
Contact me for a gift of a free, no obligation, 30-minute initial consult. It is the most powerful gift you can give yourself. Click here to arrange your free consult now!

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