What is Coaching? How does it actually work?
A Coaching conversation starts with the Coach helping you get clear and be specific about what you want from the conversation, an outcome that will help you improve your performance or advance your project or support your personal development. Once that outcome is clear, the Coach will ask probing questions and observe your language, energy, voice, and nonverbal behavior and share those observations with you. The questions and observations are not analysis to “explain” you to yourself. They come from the Coach’s attuned listening, paying close attention to you with a focus on what you’re trying to accomplish and what matters to you as an individual.
The questions and observations are offered as a way of helping you notice more about your own internal processes. The more you develop self-awareness, the more your goals will align with your values and principles. The more you know your strengths and talents, the easier it will be to plan a successful path forward.
Will Coaching work for me?
Since Coaching works by supporting the development of self-awareness, a Coaching client has to be open to learning about herself or himself. While most of the focus is on your values, guiding principles, talents, and strengths, there can be times that what you learn is about an area of struggle or some quality you haven’t developed well. To benefit from Coaching, you need to be open to recognizing your shortcomings sometimes.
Also, to benefit from Coaching you have to have some initiative and self-leadership and be willing to develop those qualities. Coaches don’t do the work for you, and they don’t show you how to do what you’re trying to do. They help you think things through by talking them out and having the Coach ask questions and make observations to help you see more about yourself and the situation. You have to be willing and able to be the leader of your project plan or development plan, understanding you are the one deciding and taking action and the Coach is in a support role to you as leader.
Can you guarantee it?
First, I offer a free consultation that serves as a preview of Coaching, an opportunity for you to experience Coaching and get your questions answered. During that preview conversation, we decide together if we are a good fit as Coach and client. If not, you have only spent 30 minutes or so of your time and none of your money.
When we begin a Coaching engagement, we will have an idea of the length of time we are planning to work together, how often we will talk, and how long the conversations will be. We design the Coaching plan together to fit you and your goals. However, if we get started and you decide after a session or two that it’s not what you expected, we will stop. You will not be responsible to pay for the full Coaching engagement. In fact, if you decide after a Coaching conversation that it’s not working for you, I will not even bill you for that conversation.
This means every time we talk you get to decide if you are receiving the kind of benefit you want. If so, we continue and you pay for the service. If not, we stop, and you don’t pay for that conversation and are not responsible to pay for the rest of the Coaching conversations planned out in the Coaching engagement.
My Guarantee: You will only pay for the Coaching conversations you find beneficial.
What qualifies someone to be a Coach?
There are many types of training available for people wanting to learn how to Coach. And there are certifications available through various organizations for people who meet education, experience, and performance standards.
However, just as anyone can call herself or himself a Coach, anyone can offer a Coaching certification. In order to know if someone’s Coaching certification is meaningful, you have to know the standards of the organization that offers the certification.
Fortunately, there is a leading organization setting standards globally for Coach training and the Coaching profession. It’s ICF, the International Coach Federation. As of 2017, ICF had 30,000 members in 138 countries, and that number is growing quickly. 24,000 hold a credential, the beginning level ACC (Associate Certified Coach), the international gold standard PCC (Professional Certified Coach), and the elite MCC (Master Certified Coach). Achieving an ICF credential requires extensive training in well-defined Core Competencies of coaching, several hours of supervision, and hours and hours of experience Coaching people. The ACC requires a minimum of 100 hours of direct Coaching experience, the PCC requires a minimum of 500 hours, and the MCC requires a minimum of 2,500 hours.
How do I choose a good Coach for me?
Beyond having quality training, it’s a good idea to choose a Coach who is credentialed by a well-respected organization. Since ICF is the best-regarded organization of professional Coaches with the broadest global reach and respected standards for training and credentialing, your best bet is to find an ICF credentialed coach. You can use the ICF Credentialed Coach Finder and input your location, area of Coaching you want help with, and so on. Many Coaches specialize in working with certain kinds of goals or populations of people, so consider finding someone with specialized training. There are focus areas for career, personal life, family, relationships, health and wellness, ADHD support, leadership development, small business ownership, and executive leadership.
Once you have a short list of qualified, experienced Coaches to consider, you can reach out and ask for a preview call or free consultation from each of the Coaches. Most Coaches offer this as a way for you to have your questions answered, try out being Coached by that professional, and decide together if you think you will be a good fit. Come to that conversation with your questions written out to be sure you get them answered. And expect to have the Coach ask you questions as she or he decides if they think they can be a good Coach for you.
How long does Coaching take?
If you are getting Coaching to support you through a particular project, like completing your dissertation to achieve your doctorate or completing training requirements to be eligible for the new position or new career you want, it’s easier to establish a time frame. Coaching will last until the goal is achieved, and you can estimate how long that will take, although the timeline might get adjusted as you go.
If you are seeking professional development such as improving your “people skills” or other areas of leadership, it’s typical to plan a 6-month or 1-year coaching engagement with specific goals outlined in your Coaching plan. The hope is that you will make significant progress on your development goals and possibly hit all your targets by the end of the Coaching engagement. That will be most accurate if you and your Coach have an open, honest conversation about your commitment and time availability to work on your goals, along with the kinds of challenges or struggles you already know you’re going to have. The more realistic the plan is, the more likely it is to have an accurate time estimate. It’s also true that growth goals may not have specific targets that mean “I’m done.” It’s possible you will improve in an area through the Coaching engagement and realize you want to raise the bar and continue the work for another 6 months or year.
If your goals are around career change, you can usually plan out a timeline for when you hope to be able to make or at least begin the transition. That will help you and your Coach estimate how long the Coaching engagement needs to be. If your goals are around business ownership, the length of the engagement depends on how specific your goals are and what it’s going to take for you to reach them. Goals around developing leadership skills may take a while, and being Coached long-term while in a significant leadership role, like owning a business, can be a great idea.
If your goals are around family life or personal development, the length of time to achieve them will depend on how specific the goals are and how far you (or your family) are from reaching those goals at the beginning. A family that is struggling to find time together and seeks better connection and communication because of hectic schedules can reach meaningful change in just a few sessions, if all are committed to acting on what is decided in the Coaching sessions. However, if there are established patterns of high conflict communication, it could take longer. And if the circumstances leading to the hectic nature of family life can’t be changed quickly, Coaching may need to take longer and support the family in managing the hectic stress over time.
The bottom line: It is boring to Coach someone who is no longer working on meaningful goals, so once you achieve what you want and no longer need Coaching, we will definitely wrap things up!
How much does Coaching cost?
Coaches are cautioned about quoting hourly rates or per-session rates because that can turn the highly personalized, professional relationship into a commodity. When you’re buying milk or eggs you want the lowest price you can find, as long as you are sure they are good quality. Shopping for a Coach by price alone can be a mistake, especially since looking at the cost of one session is not a good indicator of the overall cost of Coaching.
A Coaching engagement is going to be designed by the Coach and client together, for a set period of time with a chosen number of conversations per month of a certain length. For example, Leadership Development Coaching may be a single one-hour conversation per month for a year, with the client working a lot on implementing what they plan in the conversation over the next month. Career Coaching may be weekly half-hour calls, focusing on one specific area for the client to be working on at a time, until the career goal is reached. Business Ownership Coaching may be a couple of one-hour conversations a month, usually every other week, while the owner develops time management skills, difficult-people skills, and responsibility-juggling skills. This means the cost of a Coaching engagement can vary greatly, based on the focus, the number of conversations per month, and the length of those conversations.
A typical example of a Coaching engagement for personal goals, such as career development or family leadership or relationship improvement, is $250 per month. The time is going to be divided up as two longer conversations per month or shorter weekly conversations. This includes some follow-up communication by email or occasional brief phone calls between conversations.
A typical example of a Coaching engagement for a couple or family is $250 per month. That includes two longer conversations per month and some follow-up communication by email or occasional brief phone calls between conversations.
A typical example of a Coaching engagement for Business Ownership is $400 per month. Since business owners have busy schedules, that usually winds up being two longer conversations per month. This includes some follow-up communication by email or occasional brief phone calls between conversations.
Coaching for employees in organizations has a different pricing structure and is often negotiated through a larger contract with multiple Coaches providing the service.
Does insurance pay for Coaching?
Coaching for personal development, family connection, or relationship building can be somewhat similar to individual, family, or relationship counseling. However, counseling is only covered by insurance if it is psychotherapy, meaning at least one person involved has a diagnosable mental or emotional disorder. If an individual, family, or couple needs professional service to help them due to a diagnosable mental or emotional disorder and the accompanying challenges, psychotherapy is the appropriate service, not Coaching. A therapist trained in Coaching may include skills and techniques of Coaching as part of their therapeutic intervention, but the service would still be therapy.
An individual, family, or couple who are seeking growth and development and are not struggling with a mental or emotional disorder may benefit greatly from Coaching to support those goals. However, insurance will not pay for the service.