WHAT IS
COACHING?
For many people, coaching is a life changing experience that dramatically improves their outlook on work and life while improving their leadership skills. Coaches believe their clients have their own best answer locked inside, so they don’t counsel or advise. Instead, coaches help people tap into their unknown potential, unlocking sources of creativity and productiveness to reach and sustain greater levels of success.Coaches are completely impartial, accepting and respectful of their clients, and their main objective is the success of the client.
ICF defines coaching as
“Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential even in the face of growing complexity and uncertainty”
We’d like to partner with you to help you reach your own potential.
WHAT IS COACHING ABOUT?
The idea behind coaching is that we each have a core of knowing within us, the answers to what makes us successful, how to overcome obstacles, and how to increase our well-being throughout our life. However, with the rigors of our lives and the chaos that surrounds us, we have trouble accessing that wisdom and tend to feel stuck, forget the meaning in our life or even worse, spiral into negativity.
A coach is an objective, caring person who partners with you to explore what will increase and sustain your well-being as you navigate through life. Together you will create your own unique recipe for success, leading to sustainable transformation. You will examine what holds you back, and establish new pathways that serve you better, creating habits that will sustain your learning.
Coaching is holistic, meaning it covers all areas of your life. It starts from where you are now, and moves you towards where you want to be. Not sure what that looks like? Coaching also helps you define what is ideal for you, in all your life areas.
All meetings are confidential, the coach’s main concern being for your well-being, learning and success.
A coach doesn’t advise or counsel. Instead, the coach helps you to formulate the answer that is unique to you. The idea is based upon the old adage ‘Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to fish, feed him for a lifetime”.
Coaches help clients learn how to fish.
WHAT MAKES COACHING WORK?
Coaching ‘grew’ from a variety of sources, starting with the Personal Motivation movement in the 1970’s. Its roots include Philosophy, Organizational Development, Psychology, Human Resources and Sports Coaching. Experts from all these areas were discovering that most people don’t need therapy, they simply need help to discover what works uniquely for them to navigate through obstacles and to learn new, more supportive ways of being. Coaching programs developed simultaneously in the U.S. and Europe, and blended together to create coaching as we know it today.
Neuroscientists are now validating why coaching is so effective: it supports the way our minds work, enabling people to build new neural pathways, creating habits of success. Neuroplasticity suggests that our minds continue to physically change as we learn, and when a person is determined to achieve a goal, they can create new beliefs and habits that enable them to attain that goal. Coaches help people to 1) clearly visualize the goal and 2) create the sustainable habits that enable them to reach that goal and others in the future.
Recent surveys show that 99% of coaching clients are satisfied with their results!
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR POTENTIAL COACH
Be sure you engage a fully trained coach! The International Coaching Federation (ICF) has established a credentialing and certification process to help consumers make wise decisions in hiring a coach. When you first engage, ask these questions:
• Are you certified through ICF?
• What credential do you have?
• What experience do you have?
• What is your coaching philosophy?
• What can I expect from your coaching program?
• What are some of your coaching success stories?