Coaching has come into prominence in the past two decades. It is appropriate when a person is seeking to achieve a desired goal, make a change in their life, or enhance performance in an activity or role. The expression 'life coach' is used when an individual seeks coaching to make changes in their own personal life. The expression ‘business and executive coach’ is used for coaches working in organisations. The latter charge significantly higher fees, something to bear in mind if you are seeking ‘life coaching’.
Coaches come from a variety of backgrounds particularly sport, counselling/ psychotherapy, and organisations/business (e.g. a former senior executive or consultant). It is likely that background will significantly influence how the coach understands their role and approach to coaching. For example, a coach with a therapy background may tend to focus on the psychological aspects of a coaching agenda (e.g. self-confidence) whilst a coach with a business background is more likely to have a strategic/problem solving focus. Coaches also identify with particular methodologies, such as Solution Focused, NLP, or Cognitive Behavioural. There is no evidence that one type of coach or one methodology is more effective than another. Indeed there is considerable agreement that it is the quality of the relationship between coach and client that is the most important factor for a successful outcome. You could check out what is involved in a particular methodology to see if it appeals to you but perhaps more important when deciding whether to work with a coach is the ‘chemistry’ between you.
Coaching is an emerging profession, with professional bodies such as the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and Association for Coaching accrediting courses and individual coaches. It is important to check with a prospective coach their training, experience and accreditation. Supervision has now become a professional requirement for coaches, so a good check on quality is to ask whether the coach has a supervisor, and the name of the supervisor. It is also crucial to contract properly with your coach: around confidentiality; fees, time, place and length of sessions; payment for missed sessions; contact, or not, between sessions. The quality and professionalism of a coach is indicated by how they manage this contracting.
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Become part of our online family. Connecting and empowering each other to succeed. We want to give supervision wider exposure and a larger 'share of voice' in the coaching community. Come and join us!