What is LIFE coaching?

Life coaching is defined as a partnership which produces a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires clients to maximize their personal and professional potential, which is particularly important in today’s uncertain and complex environment. Coaches respect the client as the expert in his or her life and work and believe every client is creative, resourceful and whole. It is the coach's responsibility to:

• Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve

• Encourage client self-discovery

• Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies

• Hold the client responsible and accountable

This process helps clients dramatically improve their outlook on work and life, while improving their leadership skills and unlocking their potential.

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How can You determine if coaching is right for you?

To determine whether you or your company could benefit from coaching, start by summarizing what you would expect to accomplish. If you aren't sure exactly where you want to end up, askyourself whether collaboration, other opinions, and new perspectives are something you will value. Also, ask yourself whether you are ready to devote the time and the energy to making real changes. If the answer is yes, then coaching may be the perfect way to grow and develop.

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How long does a coach work with an individual?

The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on your needs and preferences. For certain types of focused coaching, three to six months of working may work. 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 you prefer to work, the frequency of coaching sessions and financial resources available to support coaching.

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Within the partnership, what does the coach do? What do i do?

The coach:

• Provides objective assessments and observations that foster awareness.

• Listens closely to fully understand the circumstances or scenarios. 

• Acts as a sounding board in exploring possibilities and implementing thoughtful planning and decision making.

• Introduces opportunities and potential, encouraging actions that support personal strengths and aspirations.

• Fosters shifts in thinking that reveal fresh perspectives.

• Illuminates new possibilities and supports the creation of alternative scenarios.

• Maintains professional boundaries in the coaching relationship, including confidentiality, and adheres to the coaching profession's code of ethics.

The individual:

• Creates a coaching agenda based on personally meaningful coaching goals. 

• Uses assessments and observations to enhance self-awareness and awareness of others.

• Envisions personal and/or professional success. 

• Assumes full responsibility for personal decisions and actions. 

• Utilizes the coaching process to promote possibility thinking and fresh perspectives. 

• Takes courageous action in achieving  personal goals and aspirations. 

• Engages big-picture thinking and problem-solving skills. 

• Takes the tools, concepts, models and principles provided by the coach and engages in effective forward actions.

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What does coaching ask of an individual?

To be successful, coaching asks certain things, all of which begin with having good intentions and the desire to see personal and professional progress. Additionally, clients should:

• Focus on one's self, the tough questions, the hard truths and one's success.

• Observe the behaviors and communications of others.

• Listen to one's intuition, assumptions, judgments, and to the way one sounds when one speaks.

• Challenge existing attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and develop new ones that serve one's goals in a superior way.

• Leverage personal strengths and overcome limitations to develop a winning style.

• Take decisive actions, however uncomfortable and in spite of personal insecurities, to reach for the extraordinary.

• Show compassion for one's self while learning new behaviors and experiencing setbacks, and to show that compassion for others as they do the same.

• Have the courage to reach for more than before while engaging in continual self examination without fear.

 

How can the success of the coaching process be measured?

Measurement may be thought of in two distinct ways: external indicators of performance and internal indicators of success. Ideally, both are incorporated.

 

External measures includes achievement of coaching goals established at the outset of the coaching relationship. 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 that create more effective actions, and shifts in one's emotional state that inspire confidence.

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