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’?
Permalink
February 12, 2007 at 3:54 pm
· Filed under Career Coaching, Coach Training
I am a recruitment consultant who has effectively been coaching my candidates for years and years and now I want to add a new string to my bow… so career coaching seems to be the obvious next step?
Most of the courses I seem to find cost such a lot of money and I dont earn that much so I need to make sure that whatever I choose is the best I can do. I cant afford to make a mistake. This dilemma has kept me stuck on the fence for the past 12 months. I have spoken to lots of people and been to lots of taster sessions but still can’t work out what would be the best course.
Has anyone else faced the same dilemma? How did you decide? Did you make the right choice? What should I do to stop provaricating?
I would really be so grateful for any thoughts you have.
Annie
Permalink
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.
Permalink