February 20, 2007 at 12:01 pm
· Filed under Coaching, Life Coaching
Writing in The Guardian (UK) this weekend, Lindsay Swan describes herself as a coaching convert. “I know enough successful people who can attest to its effectiveness, to convince me it is more than New Age flim-flam.” For her it was a question of finding the right coach, which she evidently achieved.
By contrast, Craig Harper writes about personal development fraud in an article on Coachglobe.com “Despite their philanthropic, selfless, all-about-you overtones, their primary (if not, sole) objective is …. to make money”, he says of coaches.
How can we be assured as smooth a journey as Swan with her coaching? And what made Harper quite so anti-coaching?
Where is the real proof that coaching interventions actually work? And what does Harper base his opinions on? Where’s the moderation in the discussion about whether coaching is ‘good’ or ‘bad’?
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February 12, 2007 at 3:52 pm
· Filed under Coaching, Life Coaching, Executive Coaching
As you enter the world of coaching, often one of the first question you get asked is what your niche is going to be or whether you are a life coach or an executive coach.
As someone who has been earning their living as a coach for the last three years, I did decide quite early on to develop a niche area of working with people going through transition because it is so much easier to talk about when describing what you do. I have come across several people recently though on a couple of courses who have a snobbery about what type of coaching you do. There seems to be a pecking order - the top of the tree appears to be the executive coach who works in large companies and looks very pale if you ask if they do life coaching. The middle of the pecking order is those who have an unusual niche and then lastly are those who call themselves life coaches.
My experience is that nearly all the coaching I do looks at the client’s whole life - you are never sure where the limiting beliefs are going to show up that affect all areas of their life. Is this so different in the world of executive coaches? Do they really only deal with professional issues and never venture into other areas of their clients life? Surely the only pecking order there should be is whether you are a good, professional coach who, whatever your niche, has the needs of their client as the core piece of the work.
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January 23, 2007 at 4:42 pm
· Filed under Coaching, Life Coaching, Accreditation
So – it’s decision time for me. A few close coaching colleagues have finally bitten the bullet and gone for accreditation but they have chosen different bodies and their experiences are all really different. From what I can see, it looks as though the good administrators (who keep an eye on every hour they work with and have done from moment one as a coach) find it easier to work their way through the system and those who focus on the coaching itself but are self-confessed admin-phobes struggle. OK, I admit it, I am an admin-phobe so I am still trying to work out where to start when I look at the hoops to go through.
If you’ve done it – was it worth it? How long did it take? Any advice you would pass on to someone who is still sitting on the fence? Does accreditation really matter to potential clients – I have never been asked about accreditation in 3 years as a coach?
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January 23, 2007 at 4:41 pm
· Filed under Coaching, Life Coaching, Coach Training
I am still quite new to coaching. I have finished my training which was great and met so many really helpful and supportive coaches who have been invaluable as I set up my practice. One thing that I am not really sure about that I would love to open up to other more experienced coaches. Is it ever acceptable to be directive? Some say absolutely yes when you have knowledge about a specific field and it helps move the client forward. Others say that it is never acceptable. My course said the latter. The coach I have worked with does occasionally move into being a bit more directive and I really appreciate that although I’m not sure I’d find it beneficial if she did it too often.
Thanks - I look forward to your feedback!
(Sarah)
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