| Q: Why do people get
a coach? |
A: Often the person is ready
to reach for the next level of performance or take the next step and needs
some support to make the leap. Others simply want someone in their corner.
Sometimes people feel held back by something or stuck. A coach can help
them get moving again. |
| Q: How can someone outside
of the organization be an effective coach for internal managers? |
A: Most people find that
a “safe ear” outside of the politics of the company serves as
a very valuable testing ground for ideas. In addition, each of our coaches
has over 10 years experience in management and executive positions. They
can provide clients with best-practice ideas from experience. |
| Q: Is business coaching
concerned with just what goes on “9 to 5” (or 8-8)? |
A: Our business coaches
work with on any aspect of life that the client wants – 24/7! In fact,
in the beginning of the relationship, the coach will ask for information
about the other parts of the client’s life. The coaches treat people
as whole entities; work is influenced by and affects every other part of
life. |
| Q: If the company is
paying the coach, how can that person help if the client is at odds with
the company? |
A: The allegiance of the
coach is to the client, his/her welfare and total confidentiality. Nothing
in the coaching session will reach anyone else unless the client tells them.
|
| Q: How is coaching different
from consulting? |
A: The consultant usually
gives advice. The coach aims at having the client come up with her/his own
advice. The best business coaches combine the two functions according to
client needs. (They also tell the client when they are performing each function.) |
| Q: How is coaching different
from therapy? |
A: Therapy usually deals
with helping people heal from problems and wounds in the past. Coaching
takes people where they are now and helps them move to their next desire
step. Sometimes people have both a therapist and a coach. Coaching is short-term
work to help people reach current goals they set. The ultimate goal of the
coach is to help the clients create their own internal coaches so that they
don’t need the actual coach any more. |
| Q: Why do I need a coach
if I have a best friend I can talk to about anything? |
A: It’s great to have
a best friend. And many friendships have been wrecked by resentments generated
if the advice doesn’t pan out. A trained coach offers things a best
friend can’t: objectivity, experience of others the coach has worked
with, training in tools that can help you. So have a coach and a best friend! |
| Q: Does coaching work
for everybody? |
A: No. People who are deeply
emotionally or psychologically troubled need to handle those things with
a therapist first. People who are committed to a negative outlook on life
or those who are intent upon blaming others for their situations are not
going to get as much out of coaching. If you have even a “glimmer”
of belief that something more is available to you, that you can “play
a bigger life game,” then coaching is for you. |
