Coaching

Make a change in your life

There are times in everyone’s life when doing the same thing, in the same way just don’t work any more. At those moments, it’s time to make a change, to switch things up.

If you feel stuck in your career and don’t know how to get out of the life you’ve been sucked into, coaching can help you with clearly identifying who you are, what your goals are and how you make long-lasting changes in order to live the life you really want to live.

Or, if you are running a small business and want to organize yourself better to achieve more with less stress, coaching can help clarify your goals and set better priorities.

So what is coaching, exactly?
Coaching is a process designed to help you achieve your career or business vision and goals, frequently more quickly and effectively than you would on your own. Coaching helps you break through limitations and obstacles that hold you back, and develop the strategies, actions, mindsets and discipline you need to attain the results you’re after.

Coaching Structure

In coaching, we work together one-on-one for 1-hour sessions spread out over several months. We do an assessment of your current strengths, identify clearly where you want to be in the future, and define a workable path to get you there. Sessions are highly creative, interactive, and motivational, with the aim of challenging you to fully explore, and be accountable to, making real the ideas and vision you have for yourself or your business.

Some examples of the people I’ve coached

• An IT contractor who transitioned into consulting and increased his income by 20% and his confidence by 100%.
• A leader of a successful, 15-person expanding company who is now taking on more clients after working on his leadership vision.
• A senior administrator at government agency who realized after 15 years that he needed to transition out of his current career.
• An entrepreneur who had trouble focusing on an unlimited amount of projects to select only a few, and kept him accountable.
• A single-person business owner, role playing doing sales pitches, and creating structure around her business objectives.

Coaching Structure
In order for coaching to be effective, clients must be willing to have a series of sessions. Usually, this means at least 3 sessions in about six weeks, but more often it’s 9 sessions in about 4 months. Coaching sessions are held 2 weeks apart, and I offer unlimited email support (and the occasional phone calls) in between our sessions.

Qualifications
Although skills and abilities, as well as direct experience in a specific field can be very helpful in coaching, this alone does not make someone a good coach.
Many coaches receive specific coach training. I am a graduate of the Coaches’ Training Institute, one of the oldest, most-established programs in the world.

In addition, I have a Master’s degree in Organizational Behavior from Alliant International University. My academic background has given me both access to a vast network of expertise, and a healthy dose of skepticism of “proven” solutions. Before I became a coach, I considered the validity and effectiveness of the coaching approach versus other options like therapy or counseling. Coaching has been scientifically proven as a valid tool for positive outcomes.

Try it before committing
I automatically give each client a sample session before we work together, no matter if it is asked of me or not. It is important that we have a good connection, not only for you, but for me as well. A good coach for you must fit the three “R” requirement:

Relationship (your gut-feeling tells you it’s “right”)

Resume (the right experience and proper training)

Results (past clients have achieved success)

Money-back guarantee
If, at the end of the initial 3-month coaching period, you feel that no value has been provided to you as a result of our coaching, I will return your investment – no questions asked.

How is coaching different from therapy?
In very simple terms, therapy looks at your past to determine how it can help you in your future. As its name implies, therapy treats a condition that requires healing. Coaching is always looking at the future. Though a coach can recognize the influence of the past, it assumes you are a whole person, capable of moving on and taking responsibility for your current and future actions.

How is coaching different from consulting?
Consultants give advice. As a coach I do not tell you what to do, or perform work on your behalf; instead, I help you work smarter and focus on doing what you do best, in order for you to achieve more.

How is coaching different from talking to a friend?
I am trained as a coach specifically in how to work with you in clarifying and achieving your goals and brings objectivity and neutrality to the conversation. I am a non-stakeholder, off the playing field of your business and life, and that’s an important advantage. My only agenda is to see you succeed at the goals you set. Finally, unlike some friends, most coaches are success-oriented, positive, and know how to recognize and harness human potential.