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Coach to Change - Are you ready to make a major commitment to your own personal learning, growth and fulfilment?

By Paul McCarthy - Business Consultant & Professional Change Coach

Do you want to:

• Solve problems
• Attain goals
• Devise a plan of action
• Make decisions

…. then read on to see how coaching can support you!

Living in the 21^st Century presents many challenges for us. Change is a constant factor in all of our daily lives. We are told that we are expected to keep up with the pace of change if we are to excel, realise our ambitions and stay ahead of the competition. We have more choices to make in our lives than our parents or grandparents before us ever did.

Who can support us in all of this? What can we do to not feel overwhelmed by the demands of modern living? How can we achieve our personal and/or business ambitions without burning ourselves out or losing what’s important to us in the process?

Coaching is a relatively young profession in the UK, yet an incredible amount of literature already exists out there that tends to confuse and contradict. So without adding to the plethora of information, I want to provide an overview of:

• What Coaching is and is not
• Types of Coaching
• The Coaching Process

What is Coaching?

There are many definitions of what coaching is yet they are all characterised by one thing; Change. With coaching, people are given the ability to look at their lives in the here and now, and work on how to get to where they ultimately want to be.

~ Tom Landry, Chief Coach: Dallas Cowboys Football Team

Coaching is a supportive partnership between two individuals; the coach (the person providing the coaching) and the client (the person receiving the coaching) and is based on mutual trust and respect. In order for personal development and performance improvement to occur, a coaching relationship must be underpinned by this trust and collaboration. A coach can equip the pupil with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to fully develop and be effective in their commitment to themselves, their business and their work. The coach has no agenda to fulfil, other than what the client brings to the session. All coaches will apply their professional discipline and skill-set to enhance a client’s performance, action, creativity, momentum and transformation. This creates what we call ‘coachable moments’ in which the coach can be the catalyst for the client in promoting shifts in their thinking and behaviour. This ultimately enables a pupil to realise their potential, achieve fulfilment and grow.

People often want to make significant changes in their lives but are unsure how to go about it. This prevents them from doing anything further about it. When two people are focussing in the moment on one person's issues, progress is much faster and achieving sustained performance more likely.

What Coaching is Not

~ John Whitmore, ‘Coaching for Performance’

A wide range of books, people and debates will distinguish between coaching and other professions such as: teaching, consulting, therapy, training or mentoring. Rather than re-address old ground and possibly confuse, it is important to be aware that coaching is not:

• About providing a client with answers
• Solving problems, without a client's input
• Directing, controlling or manipulating others according to the coach’s agenda
• Being judgmental in advice sharing

In the context of business and corporate coaching, it is not:

• A way to re-package management skills and provide supervision, evaluation or performance management (although it can be used to support)
• Mentoring or consulting, although coaches will use their experience, diagnose situations and give opinions or advice at times

Types of Coaching

Personal Coaching

Personal or ‘life coaching’ has become popular within the UK over the past few years. Personal coaches can work face-to-face but email and telephone based coaching are commonplace. Coaches work as advocates to people who aspire to make important changes happen within their lives.

Coaches offer their client a supportive and motivating environment to explore what they want in life and how they might achieve their aspirations and meet their needs. The coach encourages his or her client to fully engage in the coaching process and commit to a plan of action. It is through acting as the clients champion and endorsing them, that the client is given all the support they require to thrive and flourish.

Business Coaching

Business coaching mainly focuses on providing support to small and medium business owners, as well as to entrepreneurs.

Organisational development, changes brought about by mergers and acquisitions as well as the need to provide key employees with personal development and support through a change of role or career are often catalysts, which inspire companies to seek coaching. Coaches might work with individuals within businesses to support them in business planning, goal setting, to increase sales, productivity and profitability.

Coaching can strengthen morale, motivation and productivity and minimise staff turnover as individuals feel appreciated and aligned with both small and large organisational changes. Individuals may be looking for a career change, but many are also seeking to fulfil their potential with an existing employer or achieve greater a work/life balance.

Corporate Coaching

The focus of corporate coaching tends to be large scale organisations where management require assistance with creating vision, strategic direction, goal setting, performance, leadership, communications and handling change management, plus personal and professional development.

Corporate coaches will often be contracted by organisations because of their previous corporate experience (many have worked as management consultants) and tend to be preferred as they hold an objective view of the organisation.

Executive Coaching

The focus within executive coaching is on a senior manager or leader within the organisation. Coaches will work with an executive 1-on-1 in order to develop action orientated plans to enhance their personal effectiveness, leadership skills and styles as well as support executives with career aspirations and job requirements.

Due to the short-term nature of executive coaching, executives often feel that the confidential environment provides a safe place for discussing organisational politics and interpersonal challenges in an objective manner.

The Coaching Process

Listed below are some of the main benefits of coaching – I have not attempted to distinguish these benefits by type of coaching provided.

• Set better goals and reach them
• Do more than you would on your own
• Focus yourself to produce results more quickly
• Have insight and a fresh perspective when you are stuck or doubt yourself
• Deal with all aspects of your life - personal, family, relationships, fun and career
• Develop your strengths and confidence so you continue to do even better after coaching (rather than becoming dependent)
• It forms a basis for planning career advancement
• It provides a model for personal leadership development
• Results are measurable and sustainable

What happens when you work with a Coach

Coaching is proven to work when these three factors are present:

1. You are willing to grow
2. There is a gap between where you are now and where you want to be
3. You are ready and willing to take action to achieve the results you want

That is all that is necessary for you and your coach to solve problems, create and implement a plan of action, have a better work/life balance, become more profitable or whatever is called for to ensure that you have what you need to get more of what you want.

What can be worked on with a Coach

Coaching can be applied to many different areas (personal or business) and coaches can focus on the following:

Personal Coaching

• Career development and transition
• Work/Life balance
• Goal setting
• Growing a business
• Time management
• Organisation
• Communications
• Stress management
• Confidence
• Motivation
• Personal finance planning

Business or Corporate Coaching - For public, private and voluntary sector organisations

• Business planning and development
• Business budgeting, goal and strategy development
• Prioritising actions and goal setting
• Improving business performance
• Employee engagement and motivation
• Managing change and transformation effectively
• Project and programme management
• Improved communications
• Development of high performance teams
• Leadership development
• Skills and competencies development

Business coaching can be used for someone starting a new venture, expanding an existing one or getting past a challenging growth stage. It works especially well where ‘people’ issues are present.

• Are you interested in learning how to improve communications in your company?
• Would you like your managers to know how to lead people effectively?
• Do you want your teams to work together more harmoniously for greater productivity?
• Would you like to attract and keep high quality people in your company?

What is the role of the Coach

• To support you in designing a plan of action
• To motivate you in making and sustaining progress towards realising your vision
• To encourage you to really believe that you can achieve anything
• To acknowledge your progress, strengths and achievements
• To challenge your assumptions and encourage you in making the right choices for you
• To be your sounding board when making choices and planning goals
• To help you clarify what is important to you
• To be your partner in achieving rapid results
• To offer an objective perspective
• To listen to what you truly need and remain focussed on achieving your goals
• To inspire you to achieve more than you would if you did not have your own coach
• To be your unconditional advocate

How Coaching works

An initial orientation session will typically be conducted in person, if possible. Because coaching is so flexible and is entirely focused on the client, follow up sessions are usually arranged over the telephone. The average client will speak with their coach once a week or 2 to 3 times per month. The length of each session is normally 30–45 minutes and email support can be provided in between sessions.

Clients bring an agenda of items to the call or meeting. The coach supports them to solve problems and make the most of opportunities. When they are contemplating a large goal, a coach will help them design the project and provide the support and structure needed to make sure it gets done. Coaches bring out each clients best by offering advice, expecting a lot, helping them strategise and celebrating their wins.

During a session, the coach and client may agree on assignments, to build on what was discussed in that session or to prepare for the next session. This could include actions to progress them forward in meeting the goals they have set for themselves. Assignments are then reviewed in the next session.

Why does Coaching work?

Working with a coach can help an individual or a business make consistent progress toward their goals by:

• Providing accountability
• Reducing procrastination
• Expanding perspective
• Supplying objective feedback
• Being totally supportive

It has been shown that coaching is highly effective because:

• Synergy between the coach and the client creates momentum
• Better goals are set. Ones that naturally pull client toward the goal rather than goals that require the client to push themselves towards the goal
• Client develops new skills, and these skills translate into more success

Summary and possible next steps for you

I hope this article has provided an introduction to what coaching is and dispelled some of the myths surrounding this young and growing profession. The purpose of this article was not to discuss everything about coaching; its purpose has been to give you enough information for you to be able to choose whether coaching is something you are interested to find out more about.

Whether coaching is used for individuals or businesses, it is an extremely effective method for achieving:

• Clarity – goals and objectives clearly defined
• Direction – establish your priorities
• Focus – establishing actions for you to implement
• Results – the right results which are sustainable

Whether you are an individual transforming values, beliefs and behaviours, seeking increased focus or motivation, or if you are from a corporate environment and need to improve performance adapt to change, or develop your own or your team’s potential, I may be able to support you through your transition.

If you would like to speak with me about any aspect of coaching or if you are interested in a free introductory session with no obligation to appoint me as your coach, please contact me through any of the following:

Telephone: 0207 266 1714 / 07967 700 730

Email: pauljmccarthy@gmail.com

Website: www.coachtochange.co.uk

ARE YOU READY?

Are you ready to move to the next exciting level in your life?