Coaching - Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Life/Business and Debt coaching?

A. Coaching is a new profession. Coaches:

Help people set better goals and then reach those goals.
Ask their clients to do more than they would have done on their own.
Focus their clients better to more quickly produce results.
Provide the tools, support, and structure to accomplish more.
Q. How is coaching different than consulting? Therapy? Sports coaching? A best friend?

A. Consulting
In consulting, the consultant is the expert. In coaching, the client is the expert. In addition, the coach stays with the client to help implement the new skills, changes, and goals to make sure they really happen.
Therapy
Therapy comes in many forms, but its primary purpose is to address issues stemming from the psychological development and health of the individual. A coach focuses on the present circumstances of the client and helps them clarify what is and is not working in their life and what they want to accomplish in the future. For example, a coach helps a client to spot personal and professional goals and supports them in fulfilling them. Some people use both a coach and therapist.
Sports
Coaching includes several principles from sports coaching, like teamwork, going for the goal, and being one’s best. But unlike sports coaching, most professional coaching is not concerned with competition. A coach is more concerned with strengthening the client’s skills than helping them to, so to speak, beat another team.
Friend
A friend is wonderful to have but not always an objective, nonjudgmental sounding board. A coach is a professional trained to create a safe, accepting forum in which the client can consider important and sometimes intimate life choices. Have a best friend and a coach.

Q. What is the basic philosophy of coaching?

A. Simply put, the basis of coaching the belief that humans contain unlimited potential, that every person is in the process of discovering that potential, and that everyone can do so faster and easier with support and guidance. A coach is someone who is actively a part of that process and by virtue of training and experience can lend a helping hand.

Q. Who has a coach, and why?

A. People hire a coach because:

They want balance.
They want their life to be easier and smoother.
They want a deeper sense of wellbeing.
They want to be more effective in the workplace.
They want to be more creative.
They want to communicate better.
They want to achieve a particular goal, e.g. a project or personal change.
They want more satisfaction from work and life in general.
Q. What happens when you hire a coach?

A. You take yourself more seriously.
You take more effective and focused actions immediately.
You stop putting up with what is dragging you down.
You create momentum so it’s easier to get results.
You set better goals than you might have without the coach.

Q. Why does coaching work?

A. Coaching works for several reasons:

Synergy between the coach and client creates momentum.
Better goals are set — ones that naturally pull the client toward the goal, rather than goals that require the client to push themselves to the goal.
The client develops new skills, and these skills translate into more success.
Q. Why is coaching becoming so popular?

A. Many people are tired of doing what they’re doing, and are ready to do something with greater meaning and fulfillment. They may be unable to find a new direction or, if they can, they can’t see a way to reorient their life around it. Others are doing exactly what they want to, but need to re-energize, and reinvent how they do it. A coach can help either type of individual.

With coaching, people are realizing how simple it can be to accomplish something that might once have felt out of their reach. A coach is not a miracle worker, but a coach does have a large tool kit to help ideas become reality. Fortunately, people now have time and resources to invest in themselves in this kind of growth.

Q. What about people who are already doing well? Why would they need a coach?

A. They might not need a coach. But it is helpful to ask:

Are they doing what they most enjoy?
Are they tolerating anything in their lives that is not serving them?
Are they achieving success in some areas of their life at the expense of others?
Are they satisfied with the depth of communication at home and at work?
Do they have what they most want?
Q. Can I hire a coach just for a short-term, special project?

A. Yes. Some clients hire a coach to help them accomplish specific goals or projects

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