Who Needs A Coach?
July 6, 2008
The Seminar organised by the Lai Chee Women’s Association sees 120 parents, teachers and the public turned up for the event. It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning were we gathered to learn about cardio care for the women as well how we can live colourful and meaningful lives with its inevitable challenges; including graceful aging in the sunset years.
Dr Yap brings with him years of experience from the UK and specialised expertise and showed us practical ways of what can be done on our part to reduce the chance of contracting the various cardio diseases. Contrary to common beliefs, the onset of any problem can start as early as in our 20s. We were advised to look into lifestyle and go for for mandatory annual medical check up.
Women today has longer life span and the sun set years can be substantially longer yet more enjoyable if we know how to appreciate ourselves and administer self care. Ms Linda rightly pointed out that many women live “sacrificially” and may feel “guilty” when they “spend” on medical check ups and more healthy lifestyle. Ms Linda too went into very down to earth ways where women can live happy, healthy and meaningful sunset years, pointing out what signs to look out for and what we can do in each case.
It was a beautiful morning and the participants were so involved and engaged that many stayed back to ask additional questions to the panel. Throughout the seminar Q&A and during the networking time the questions put across to me circle around “Who can benefit from having a coach?” Will students and teenagers benefit from having a coach? What about the parents? And the stay-at-home mum too? What about the career mum?
Today, executives, managers, entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, sales professionals and people in transition are some of the those seeking to have their own professional coaches. Make no mistakes, these are not people in “trouble” but are all successful, resourceful, and intelligent individuals who want to get even more out of their lives.
In today’s world staying the same is not an option, if you are not improving you are getting left behind. Or in Harv Eker’s word, if you are not growing than you are dying. I want to do better every day, I want to achieve more and perform better, reach further and wider, be more effective and that’s why I hire my own coach.
I know I can’t see my own mistakes, I know I have my blind spots and my tunnel vision needs expanding. I know I am not content to remain the same year after year. Technology advances has made it possible for me to connect with my own coach across the miles over the phone every week for strategies, collaboration, energy, focused work that capitalise on the most important areas that will bring in the most results, accountability, aligning values to my goals and challenging me to go beyond what I think I possibly can. Coaching is leading tool that successful people use to live extraordinary lives.
Perhaps that is why we are not surprise to know that Tiger Woods has his own personal coach and so does Donald Trump and Oprah and Brad Pitt. Jack Canfield’s advise for us is to go hire a personal coach in his “Success Principle” book.
So who needs a coach? I do and I think you too will beneift greatly from hiring your own personal coach.
Till next time,
From your Life/Executive Coach
The Coaching Model Used
July 4, 2008
I received some questions regarding what happens in a session. Well, very often we would ask the client for an objective or an agenda that they want to address for the session. Because each session is an opportunity to move an issue or project forward. Coaching is about making choices and about taking actions.
When the objective for the session is clear, we then move onto getting the client to describe the issue. Periodically, the coach will reflect the dialogue back to the client so he gets to see it in a slightly different light. Coaches ask for clarification so both client and coach get clarity as possible. In the session, the coach will concentrate on listening and observing the client and asking powerful questions so the client get more self awareness and different perspectives of looing at the issue.
When the client is clear about what he really really wants and what might some of the barriers and blockages be with their options and impacts, we move onto co-creating a strategy with action plans and steps. We also discuss structures that will help support the client move towards the goal. Fieldwork is set so the client can implement his actions plans.
Before the session ends, coach and client will both check to see that objective for the session has been met. The entire session can take anything from 30 minutes to not more than 55 minutes. Laser sessions of 15 minutes are also very powerful and effective.
This is one very common coaching model used. However there are many many models that we have access to and many many tools that we can use. We will not enter into discussion of solution-focused, behavioural coaching, cognitive behavioural coaching or the use of NLP here. In order not to make it sound confusing and complicated, I have chosen to draw the simplest and most common picture of a model here. Both Life and Executive Coaching can follow similar models.
Another thing to mention is that as each client is unique. I use different models for different clients at different points in their coaching process. The entire process can be anything from 3 months to 9 months. And during th few months, clients will go through different phases that will need careful attention so motivation and focus is maintained.
Suffice to say that coaching sessions are structured to ensure that objectives are met. There are many ways of reaching the ojectives and experienced coaches work with client’s unique situation and personality type so she can design the most appropriate model and structure to achieve that goal in each case.
I was also asked if face-to-face coaching is more effecctive than phone-to-phone coaching. Well, the answer is it depends. If you have the time and resources, face-to-face can be very powerful as some feel more engaged and present in the person. However, some prefer phone-to-phone as they can be more free to share and can concentrate more without the visual distractions, not to mention the time saved on not needing to travel and fight the traffic jam. For cross country coaching, we do use a lot of phone-to-phone coaching or group coaching using tele-seminars. I will be working on launching tele-seminars soon so watch this space!
So, if you have any more questions, send them in or leave us your details and I will be glad to get back to you. Till next time, have an abundant weekend and a great Independence Day celebration for those in the US!
So, What Do You Coach In Again?
July 4, 2008
“So, you are an Executive/Life Coach?”, “What do you coach in again?”
I was asked these two questions the past few days as I mingle and network with participants of the Guerrilla Business Intensive Seminar held in Singapore. Everyone is a coach of sort these days, it’s the buzz word. We don’t see as many “Consultants” these days as we do “Coaches”. It is no wonder that we are sometimes not quite sure what that word entails and “What is a Coach really?”
Very often, we draw our conclusion from the context of how the word is used. I offer here the International Coach Federation’s (ICF) definition of “What a Coach is”. For those who are interested to find out what a coach is and how what benefits Coaches can bring about, you can click here to find out more.
11 core competencies (you can click on the link) are basic to all professionally trained coaches who help us achieve the results that we want. In the ICF world of Coaching, it is our belief that all human has the potential and creativity within, though untapped. Coaches, instead of giving direct advice, listen for understandings, observe and ask powerful questions to draw the client’s awareness to the creativity and potential within for the solution that he is seeking.
We believe that perspectives are widened through active questioning, blind spots are exposed and options and possibilities are opened up with the “bigger vision” and the bigger picture. Coaches empower their clients in coming up with their own solutions which they then own. We work with clients to come up with strategies and action steps and support structures to t help clients move forward. Coaches also clients accountable to themselves for the actions that they have committed to doing.
This is slightly different from consulting or training or the more “technical” or sports like coaching that we are more accustomed to.
We were very fortunate to have Joel Roberts, the world renowned media coach and marketing strategist and the internet marketing wizard and tele-seminar guru Alex Mandossian to be with us in the recent seminar.
Both were just brilliant and worked with us in the area of their own expertise. All 1,800 participants were captivated by their knowledge, experience, messages, energies and sharing. They were drilling us in the workshops and demonstrating to us what works and what doesn’t in the real world. It was simply fantastic to see these gurus at work.
Both Joel and Alex offer as a follow-up programs to the workshops tele-coaching sessions which many have signed up for. These are great and amazin coaches that working with them real time in a group coaching environment will greatly enhance business performance and bring us to the next level.
When Joel and Alex were on stage, they were putting on both the Trainer’s Hat as well as the Coach’s Hat, thus we see the more directive approach. Pure coaching can be just as powerful as it leads us into a journey of exploration of different possibilities.
So what do I coach in? Well, for now as a Life and Executive Coach, my clients set the agenda for each session. I seek to provide the space and environment and partner my client as we draw out options and possibilities to move towards the set goal. Someimtes the client requests for input, I can be a sounding board, I can also share my perspectives and opinions, we brainstorm together, we co-create strategies and I will also provide further resource for references.
Coaching is a partnership. I think it is easier to understand what coaching is through an actual experience of being coached than to indulge in an academic discusion. After all we are more interested in the results then the definition!
I invite you to click on the “Contact Us” tab and sign up for a complimentary 20 minutes of one-on-one coaching. I am spending my precious time through free trial sessions so you can have a real life experience of one-on-one coaching and see if that is helpful. You come with an agenda and a desired outcome and we can embark on your journey of discovery together.
Coaches guards and protects confidentiality of all sharing.
So go ahead and click on the “Contact Us” Tab and let the journey begin!
Warmly,
From you Life/Executive Coach
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