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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What Is Coaching?
Professional Coaching is a professional
partnership between a qualified coach and an individual or team
that supports the achievement of extraordinary results, based on
goals set by the individual or team. Through the process of
coaching, individuals focus on the skills and actions needed to
successfully produce their personally relevant results.
The individual or team chooses the focus of conversation, while
the coach listens and contributes observations and questions as
well as concepts and principles which can assist in generating
possibilities and identifying actions. Through the coaching
process the clarity that is needed to support the most effective
actions is achieved. Coaching accelerates the individual's or
team’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of
possibilities leading to more effective choices. Coaching
concentrates on where individuals are now and what they are
willing to do to get where they want to be in the future
2. What are the benefits of coaching?
Individuals who engage in a coaching
relationship can expect to experience fresh perspectives on
challenges and opportunities, enhanced thinking and decision
making skills, enhanced interpersonal effectiveness, and
increased confidence in carrying out their chosen work and life
roles. Consistent with a commitment to enhancing their personal
effectiveness, they can also expect to see appreciable results
in the areas of productivity, personal satisfaction with life
and work, and the achievement of personally relevant goals.
3. What are some typical reasons someone
might work with a coach?
There are many reasons that an individual or
team might choose to work with a coach, including but not
limited to the following:
·
There is something at stake (a challenge, stretch
goal or opportunity), and it is urgent, compelling or exciting
or all of the above
·
There is a gap in knowledge, skills, confidence,
or resources
·
A big stretch is being asked or required, and it
is time sensitive
·
There is a desire to accelerate results
·
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 one’s
personally relevant goals
·
There is a lack of clarity, and there are 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
·
One 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
4. Why does coaching work?
Coaching works because:
·
A coach listens deeply and helps you develop
clarity pertaining to your coaching issues.
·
A coach will help you develop S.M.A.R.T. goals.
(Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-sensitive)
·
A coach will help you develop a plan of action and
a laser-like focus.
·
A coach holds your feet to the fire. There is a
built-in system of accountability.
·
A coach is an objective professional who can offer
you a unique perspective of your professional and personal
situation.
·
A coach is 100% for you!
5. How is coaching delivered? What does the process look
like?
The Coaching Process -- Coaching
typically begins with an initial interview (usually by
telephone, although sometimes face-to-face) to assess the
individual’s current opportunities and challenges, define the
scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action, and
establish specific desired outcomes. Subsequent coaching
sessions are usually conducted over the telephone, with each
session lasting a previously established length of time. Between
scheduled coaching sessions, the individual will be asked to
complete specific actions that support the achievement of one’s
personally prioritized goals. The coach may provide additional
resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists,
assessments, or models, to support the individual’s thinking and
actions. The duration of the coaching relationship varies
depending on the individual’s personal needs and preferences.
We highly recommend an initial commitment of three to six
months. This provides ample time for the coaching process
to be most effective.
Concepts, models and principles -- A variety of concepts,
models and principles drawn from the behavioral sciences,
management literature, spiritual traditions and/or the arts and
humanities, may be incorporated into the coaching conversation
in order to increase the individual’s self-awareness and
awareness of others, foster shifts in perspective, promote fresh
insights, provide new frameworks for looking at opportunities
and challenges, and energize and inspire the individual’s
forward actions.
Appreciative approach -- Coaching incorporates an
appreciative approach. The appreciative approach is grounded in
what’s right, what’s working, what’s wanted, and what’s needed
to get there. Using an appreciative approach, the coach models
constructive communication skills and methods the individual or
team can utilize to enhance personal communication
effectiveness. The appreciative approach incorporates
discovery-based inquiry, proactive (as opposed to reactive) ways
of managing personal opportunities and challenges, constructive
framing of observations and feedback in order to elicit the most
positive responses from others, and envisioning success as
contrasted with focusing on problems. The appreciative approach
is simple to understand and employ, but its effects in
harnessing possibility thinking and goal-oriented action can be
profound.
6. What should someone look for when
selecting a coach?
The most important thing to look for in
selecting a coach is someone with whom you feel you can easily
relate to in order to create powerful partnership. Here are some
questions you may want to ask prospective coaches:
·
What is your coaching experience? (number of
individuals coaches, years of experience, types of situations)
·
What is your coach specific training? Do you hold
an ICF Credential, or are you enrolled in an ICF Accredited
Training Program?
·
What is your coaching specialty or client areas
you most often work in?
·
What specialized skills or experience do you bring
to your coaching?
·
What is your philosophy about coaching?
·
What is your specific process for coaching? (how
sessions are conducted, frequency, etc.)
·
What are some coaching success stories? (specific
examples of individuals who have done well and examples of how
you have added value)
7. How long does a coach work with an individual?
The length of a coaching partnership varies
depending on the individual's or team’s needs and preferences.
For certain types of focused coaching, 3 to 6 months of working
with a coach may be sufficient. For other types of coaching,
people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer
period. Factors that may impact the length of time include: the
types of goals, the ways individuals or teams like to work, the
frequency of coaching meetings, and financial resources
available to support coaching.
8. Within the partnership, what does the coach do? The
individual?
The role of the coach is to provide
objective assessment and observations that foster the
individual’s or team members’ enhanced self-awareness and
awareness of others, practice astute listening in order to
garner a full understanding of the individual’s or team’s
circumstances, be a sounding board in support of possibility
thinking and thoughtful planning and decision making, champion
opportunities and potential, encourage stretch and challenge
commensurate with personal strengths and aspirations, foster the
shifts in thinking that reveal fresh perspectives, challenge
blind spots in order to illuminate new possibilities, and
support the creation of alternative scenarios. Finally, the
coach maintains professional boundaries in the coaching
relationship, including confidentiality, and adheres to the
coaching profession’s code of ethics.
The role of the individual or team is to create the
coaching agenda based on personally meaningful coaching goals,
utilize assessment and observations to enhance self-awareness
and awareness of others, envision personal and/or organizational
success, assume full responsibility for personal decisions and
actions, utilize the coaching process to promote possibility
thinking and fresh perspectives, take courageous action in
alignment with personal goals and aspirations, engage big
picture thinking and problem solving skills, and utilize the
tools, concepts, models and principles provided by the coach to
engage effective forward actions.
9. What does coaching ask of an individual?
To be successful, coaching asks certain things
of the individual, all of which begin with intention….
·
Focus--on one’s self, the tough questions,
the hard truths--and one’s success
·
Observation--the behaviors and
communications of others
·
Listening--to one’s intuition, assumptions,
judgments, and to the way one sounds when one speaks
·
Self discipline--to challenge existing
attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and to develop new ones which
serve one’s goals in a superior way
·
Style--leveraging personal strengths and
overcoming limitations in order to develop a winning style
·
Decisive actions--however uncomfortable,
and in spite of personal insecurities, in order to reach for the
extraordinary
·
Compassion--for one’s self as he or she
experiments with new behaviors, experiences setbacks--and for
others as they do the same
·
Humor--committing to not take one’s self so
seriously, using humor to lighten and brighten any situation
·
Personal control--maintaining composure in
the face of disappointment and unmet expectations, avoiding
emotional reactivity
·
Courage--to reach for more than before, to
shift out of being fear based in to being in abundance as a core
strategy for success, to engage in continual self examination,
to overcome internal and external obstacles
10. How can the success of the coaching
process be measured?
Measurement may be thought of in two distinct
ways. First, there are the external indicators of
performance: measures which can be seen and measured in the
individual’s or team’s environment. Second, there are
internal indicators of success: measures which are inherent
within the individual or team members being coached and can be
measured by the individual or team being coached with the
support of the coach. Ideally, both external and internal
metrics are incorporated.
Examples of external measures include achievement of
coaching goals established at the outset of the coaching
relationship, increased income/revenue, obtaining a promotion,
performance feedback which is obtained from a sample of the
individual’s constituents (e.g., direct reports, colleagues,
customers, boss, the manager him/herself), personal and/or
business performance data (e.g., productivity, efficiency
measures). The external measures selected should ideally be
things the individual is already measuring and are things the
individual has some ability to directly influence.
Examples of internal measures include
self-scoring/self-validating assessments that can be
administered initially and at regular intervals in the coaching
process, changes in the individual’s self-awareness and
awareness of others, shifts in thinking which inform more
effective actions, and shifts in one’s emotional state which
inspire confidence.
11. What are the factors that should be
considered when looking at the financial investment in coaching?
Working with a coach requires both a personal
commitment of time and energy as well as a financial commitment.
Fees charged vary by specialty and by the level of experience of
the coach. Individuals should consider both the desired benefits
as well as the anticipated length of time to be spent in
coaching. Since the coaching relationship is predicated on clear
communication, any financial concerns or questions should be
voiced in initial conversations before the agreement is made.
12. How is coaching distinct from other
service professions?
Professional coaching is a distinct service
which focuses on an individual’s life as it relates to goal
setting, outcome creation and personal change management. In an
effort to understand what a coach is, it can be helpful to
distinguish coaching from other professions that provide
personal or organizational support.
Therapy. Coaching can be distinguished
from therapy in a number of ways. First, coaching is a
profession that supports personal and professional growth and
development based on individual-initiated change in pursuit of
specific actionable outcomes. These outcomes are linked to
personal or professional success. Coaching is forward moving and
future focused. Therapy, on the other hand, deals with healing
pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or a
relationship between two or more individuals. The focus is often
on resolving difficulties arising from the past which hamper an
individual's emotional functioning in the present, improving
overall psychological functioning, and dealing with present life
and work circumstances in more emotionally healthy ways. Therapy
outcomes often include improved emotional/feeling states. While
positive feelings/emotions may be a natural outcome of coaching,
the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies for
achieving specific goals in one's work or personal life. The
emphasis in a coaching relationship is on action, accountability
and follow through.
Consulting. Consultants may be retained by individuals or
organizations for the purpose of accessing specialized
expertise. While consulting approaches vary widely, there is
often an assumption that the consultant diagnoses problems and
prescribes and sometimes implements solutions. In general, the
assumption with coaching is that individuals or teams are
capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach
supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks.
Mentoring. Mentoring, which can be thought of as guiding
from one’s own experience or sharing of experience in a specific
area of industry or career development, is sometimes confused
with coaching. Although some coaches provide mentoring as part
of their coaching, such as in mentor coaching new coaches,
coaches are not typically mentors to those they coach.
Training. Training programs are based on the acquisition of
certain learning objectives as set out by the trainer or
instructor. Though objectives are clarified in the coaching
process, they are set by the individual or team being coached
with guidance provided by the coach. Training also assumes a
linear learning path which coincides with an established
curriculum. Coaching is less linear without a set curriculum
plan.
Athletic Development. Though sports metaphors are often
used, professional coaching is different from the traditional
sports coach. The athletic coach is often seen as an expert who
guides and directs the behavior of individuals or teams based on
his or her greater experience and knowledge. Professional
coaches possess these qualities, but it is the experience and
knowledge of the individual or team that determines the
direction. Additionally, professional coaching, unlike athletic
development, does not focus on behaviors that are being executed
poorly or incorrectly. Instead, the focus is on identifying
opportunity for development based on individual strengths and
capabilities.
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