Why Hire a Coach
1. You will set far better goals that motivate you in a healthy way.
Did you have Goal Setting 101 in high school? Probably not. Enter the coach, an expert in helping you to identify and set the goals that you really want, not the ones that are “shoulds,” pipe-dreams that you’ve been recycling or that mirror the goals of your parents, society or advertisers.
Choosing the right goals for you is an art and the coach takes the necessary time to help you clarify your personal values, so that you have something really solid on which to develop your goals. Value-based goals are naturally motivating, but it takes good coaching to help you illuminate them.
2. You’ll accomplish goals, tasks and projects more quickly.
One of the reasons that people hire a coach is to save themselves time. Working with a coach, they learn how to be far more effective, efficient and productive in everything that they do, including their job/business or personal projects. We humans just aren’t that naturally effective even if we think that we are because we are only using a fraction of our potential. The coach has the tools and techniques to share with their clients so that things get done in less time.
3. You’ll make fewer mistakes in your professional life or in your personal life.
The old model of learning from your mistakes (which is good) has deteriorated to be stated more like: How else can you learn if you don’t make mistakes?
With a coach, you have a third eye, someone who’s been there and who has coached others in your situation, and an expert in getting the job done with the minimum of fuss. The costs (emotional, financial, time) of making mistakes has become very expensive in the past decade. A single mistake can ruin you in today’s hyper-paced business environment. Some clients use their coach as an inexpensive insurance policy.
4. You’ll move up to the next level of your professional and personal life.
Almost everybody is moving up the ladder of business success, personal development, awareness and emotional balance. The coach can help you see where you are right now and help you discover more ways to grow and get where you want to be. Or, if you’re not even on the ladder, the coach can guide you to it and help you get started on your path.
5. You’ll reduce the number of problems you have
The first step in solving a problem is to ask yourself what is the ‘real’ problem. The second step is to ask yourself what you want instead, your outcome. You cannot afford to let a problem keep you stuck, period. Life’s too short and chasing after the wrong problems can be too expensive.
6. You’ll likely make more money in your career, profession or business.
Clients don’t keep paying their coaches just for the fun of it. Coaching, like every other professional service, needs to improve the financial bottom line and it does. Coaches are trained to help clients to leverage their ability to make money, i.e., getting a raise, a promotion, choosing a better career, starting a business, improving profitability, adding more value to their customers, increased productivity and others. Sure, coaching is personal, but it almost always includes a strong financial aspect.
7. You’ll be a lot happier and this happiness will last.
Coaches know how to help you to reduce stress, integrate aspects of your life, simplify or downshift, and reorient around what makes you the happiest. What good is increased productivity and profitability if you’re not happy?
8. You’ll be much more effective and influential with others.
A coach is an expert communicator and trains clients on how to come across better, relate well with others, listen aggressively, influence, coach, motivate and support others. There are many communication and listening skills that clients can learn from a coach.
9. You’ll become much more attractive to others—on the inside and on the outside.
Selling, as a profession and as a proven technique/process, is on its way out. Humans will respond less to advertising and selling techniques and instead be drawn to a product or service—and they will be more likely drawn because of who is offering the product or service. This process is called attraction and it will replace much of the promotion, marketing, selling, seducing and other very expensive budget items. Remember, the world (aka consumers) is rapidly eliminating virtually all waste and inefficiencies in how business is conducted, products are sold and how services are delivered. Selling and mass marketing, while certainly still very effective right now, is on the hit list. Attraction is the next generation of selling and the well-trained coach can help you and your business get on this track immediately.
10. You’ll have a better life, not just a better lifestyle.
The term ‘Quality of Life’ has become overused in the past few years, but the trend of seeking to create a much better life is accelerating. In fact, people are re-examining what they had assumed that a good life was (married, 2.3 kids, nice car, secure job, 4 weeks of vacation a year) and are now creating their own life, often breaking the rules and flying in the face of conventional wisdom in the process. A coach has been trained in the Life Design process and has already made the kind of design changes in their life that their clients are just now beginning to make.
submitted by Thomas J. Leonard
How to get 10 times the value from sessions with your coach
1. Create the ‘Coaching Experience’: Think carefully about what you want to cover before the session begins. Most coaching sessions are 50 minutes, so make every minute count. Ask yourself the question; “If I could cover just one thing in the session, what would it be?”
2. Start with a Full Plate: Make a list, not just one thing, but of 3 – 5 things that would be that valuable. Have more on your plate than you think you can possibly go over, you just might be surprised! Of course, you don’t want to rush past something important. Some matters take time; you may only cover 1-2 items, just make sure they are important ones.
3. First Things First: One way to see to it that your session is well worth the time is to prioritize what you want to go over. Coaching sessions are not the place to save the best for last. Put the most important item at the top of your list. That way, even if that’s the only item that gets handled, the session will have been worthwhile.
4. Make Clear Requests: Once you have your list and the priority, write down what requests for coaching you have in one or two short, clear statements. For example, let’s say your number one topic is, “How to make my business more profitable or help my team become more engaged and productive in the next 60 days?” Ask yourself, “How do I want my coach to support me in this?” Do you want to brainstorm some new ideas, develop the ideas you already have by talking them through, explore some resource information with your coach, etc?
5. Cut the Chat: Keep the ‘chit-chat’ to a minimum. I enjoy chatting with my own coach, but not if it takes up half the session. That’s not really what I’m paying for. Now, if that’s what you are paying your coach for, that’s fine, just realize it may be a costlier friendship than it needs to be. Chat with friends who aren’t charging you to talk to them. Get down to business with your coach.
6. Back-Story: If you have not made FIRO-B, MBTI, ESCI or other assessments available to the coach, write up a Back-story, handle as much of the background information as necessary before the session. One of the greatest value-leveraging tools is the Prep Form that you can request from your coach. If you fill out the prep form prior to your session and fax or email it to your coach, they will have the necessary background information before you ever say a word to each other. In this way you can start the session already running rather than warming up.
7- Be100% Responsible: Take full responsibility for the coaching. Don’t hire a coach to do your work for you. Don’t expect him or her to ‘do coaching’ on you. A healthy approach to coaching is to consider yourself 100% responsible for how the relationship goes and what value you get out of each session. This is not to say that you keep working with a coach if the alliance does not work for you. Taking 100% responsibility might include completing with your coach and finding another, or taking a break from coaching.
8- Train Your Coach: Give regular feedback to your coach so he or she knows what works or what is most valuable to you so they can do more of it. Also, let your coach know what’s not working or has less value so it can be eliminated. At first you might not know what’s of most value but it won’t take long before you realize that some sessions are very powerful and other sessions are so-so. Evaluate what was different about the two sessions, and train your coach.
9- Debrief: Take a moment after the session to make a note about discoveries, insights or themes that were explored during the session. Write down action items if you did not write them down during the session. I write these notes on the back of my preparation form. I evaluate what I got out of the session, and notice what I didn’t cover that I want to address in the next session.
10- Take Action: Plan how you will be best able to put what you learned and/or agreed to during the session, and work the plan. Schedule the when/where/how/who steps to implement the progress or changes you desire.
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