Life Coach London

Since coaching is a new profession and unregulated – there are many individuals who are calling themselves coaches today.

Therefore, there can be variability in the quality and results of coaching. The best advice is – do your research, shop around, don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions, find out a little about coach credentials and speak to more than one coach.

It is worth asking the following questions of any coach your are considering working with:

• Have they been specifically trained in coaching skills?

• Are they a member of a professional coaching body?

• What level of membership or credential do they hold with their professional body?

• What Code of Ethics do they work to?

• How much coaching have they done and what type of clients do they work with?

• How do they ensure confidentiality?

• What is coaching?

• What are the differences between training, consulting, mentoring, therapy, counseling and coaching?

• What are the no-go areas or boundaries in the coaching relationship?

• Can you see some testimonials, references or speak to past clients?

• Do they have work with a coach, mentor or supervisor themselves?

Other things to explore:

• The experience this person brings to coaching or their specialism 

• The values and approach of the coach – these need to fit with yours, in order that you work positively together.

• Define your goal and ask what the coaching will do for you – be specific about what you need and ask about the practicalities of how the coach will work with you (methods, how the coaching will be delivered, evaluated, and what will happen if things are not working in the coaching relationship). Focus on the substance of the coaching rather than the feel-good factor.

• The exact costs – make sure you know what you are paying for (e.g. are email and other forms of contact included in the price?) and the start and end date of the coaching.

Types of Coaching

Coaches can be directly employed by an organisation to coach or have coaching embedded in their role as a manager or Human Resources professional. (Internal Coaches).

Alternatively, they can be contracted by organisations or individuals to deliver coaching (External Coaches).

Coaches can also specialise in particular types of coaching  – some examples include:

Business Coaching

Provided to employees as a professional or personal development tool, or to small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Career Coaching

Provided to employees or individuals who are looking to make a career change, or those who are facing redeployment or are experiencing redundancy.

Executive or Leadership Coaching

Often provided to high flyers or those with the potential to be a high flyer – at CEO or board level.

Performance Coaching

Often provided to managers in order to improver performance and productivity.

Skills Coaching

Tailored to the individual and focused on the individual being able to perform specific well-defined functions effectively. Examples include public speaking, team working, interpersonal skills, and decision making.

Personal or Life Coaching

Working with individuals who want to make some form of significant change happen in their lives, Personal or Life Coaches assist their clients by offering support and challenge based on their individual context. Here a key role of the coach is assisting the client to maintain the motivation and commitment needed to achieve their goals.

Coaches can also specialise in working with particular clients –some examples include:

Relationship Coaching

Parent Coaching

Youth Coaching

Group or Team Coaching

Retirement Coaching

There are many definitions of coaching but some of the descriptions used by some of the major coaching bodies and authors on coaching include:

International Coach Federation

“Coaching is an interactive process that helps individuals and organisations to develop more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. Coaches work with clients in all areas including business, career, finances, health and relationships. As a result of coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths.”

Sir John Whitmore, author of “Coaching for Performance”

 “..unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”

Anthony Grant, University of Sydney, 2000

“….a collaborative solution-focused, results-orientated and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performance, life experience, self-directed learning and personal growth of the coachee.”

CoachU

“Coaches:

Assist people to identify specific goals and then reach those goals faster and with ease.
Provide clients with the tools, perspective and structure to accomplish more through a process of accountability.

Reframe beliefs and create a point of focus for clients to reflect upon”

Coaching is a partnership between a you and your coach.  It aims to supports the achievement of your results, and the goals set by you.

You choose the focus of the ‘conversation’, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions as well as concepts and principles which can help in generating possibilities, potential and actions.

Coaching can be seen as a collaborative process in which you discover answers for yourself through the coach’s use of questions. Through the coaching process the clarity you need to support the most effective actions is achieved.

A coach is trained to listen, to observe and to customize his or her approach to your individual needs. The coach looks for solutions and strategies from you because you are naturally creative and resourceful.

Coaching presupposes that it is not the coach’s responsibility to ‘fix’ the you.   You are an expert on yourself and the skill of a coach, and his or her role, is in allowing you to come up with your own solutions.

This doesn’t mean that a coach brings nothing to the relationship – a coach brings knowledge, methods, exercises and questions that help you move forwards. Nevertheless, a coach’s skills are based around processes, not solutions.

Coaching is both performance focused and person-centred.

Coaching is:

• an equal partnership of trust between the coach and the person being coached

• involves ‘conversation’ rather than advice giving, discipline, or therapy

• built on client accountability

• results orientated

• a fairly short-term activity and time-bound

• consists of one-to-one developmental discussions

• focuses on improving performance, developing skills, developing awareness or confidence

• works on the belief that clients do not require a clinical intervention

• focuses on current and future performance/behaviour rather than the past

• a skilled activity